Guanajauto= Part II

After the tasty- 4 star meal, we then did the tourist thing more. Stepped out of Restauarant made right turn and walked dow the stores and along jardin til it gave way to centro district. historical, and full of shops, sights & sounds of a very beautiful romantic old world city, witht the buzz of a vibrant one, teeming with visitors, tours, and students.

                                          Churches dominate the town.
                                          Literally on every corner.

Saw French shops, with French cusisine and beverages.
Gitls window shopped and bought some jewelry from 2 sisters who operate small jewelry shops.

                         Elaine- again looking for the         jewelry she left behind in St. Charles!






Then we walked to the mercado for seeing all the small shops under 1 roof.




Mesquite fired chicken

                                           Found book store- but alas- all spanish- what was I thinking- english!

 Distant horizon the town is surrounded by hills.
There are many tunnels under town, that cars travel on, and seemed to be much construction & improvement to citys walks & roads.

Manual labor is not lost to machines & technology here in Mexico. But for every machine added, there would be a loss of jobs, and they have figured that out. Almost nice to see men working, and doing a craftsman job. And I haven't seen a lazy one yet. They have professional beggars, but by far they want to work and won't turn something down because its beneath his dignity. Bro Reed has  study who teaches high school math, and is going to states next month, to try to get a job as a food prep cook, minimum wage. But that $6 an hour job in states is equivalent to $80 pesos an hour here, when he mails back his wages for family. No one here makes 80 pesos an hour. They maybe earn 200 pesos a week.
We finally reached the "mercado". Basically large flea market.
Stacey & Phil at corner
looking for something.

Here is University of Guanajauto, very impressive. Very old.
Also they have an engineering school, and many other higher education schools.



How would you like to go to class here?

This is interesting, a "Y" intersection, reminded me of 7th ave & Broadway except the drivers are more polite! But this scene could be out of Paris, London, Hamburg, etc. Very much of a European flavor to city. Charm, elegance, and great restaurants.

Can you find Elaine? She's there, somewhere.

Well I could have blown the pics up more, but wouldn't do the Mercado justice. Just "stuff". 1 of my favorite shots was 3-4 old time vaqueros, sitting down to some tortillas, and food. Tortillas are served with everything basically.

So we had a very wonderful day playing tourist. Was a nice break, and the ride over and back was breathtaking. When we stopped & dropped off Stacey & Phil at their rancho, Tom picked up Marcus, 13, their oldest, whom Tom studies with, so he could spend weekend with Lipperds. He's commenting at meetings and seems to enjoy it. He's a lot like his Dad, 1st thing out of mouth is sarcastic- to get a rise out of you. But he is ok.
Went in service today and met a man back from states for holiday. The factory he works in shuts down between thanksgiving & new Years, so men come back to Mexico for a few weeks, and these ones can speak english better than most here, so we see if we can start some interest with them.
Found a young muchacho, about 12, who spoke & reads english. raised in N. Carolina. read a scripture, had YP ask book and left it with him. That was a good day for me. placements here are rationed. You use tracts usually first to see if interest is there before leaving lit. But decided to trust him. Made sure to let him know I'll be seeing him next week to check on his reading. So if you want to even come down on vacation, we could use the help to canvass, so we can make our time more efficient. Once we have canvass. We can then call on only the english found in census and cover about 4 territories in 1 day. Then we canvass again, to check on any move-ins or outs to adjust records.  Pass on Blog to others and maybe we will find some wanting to extend themselves this way.

                                      Sugar cane next to my "sugar". I'll take mine, no cavities!

Love,
Tom & Elaine