TORTILLERIAS

We think we've noticed that different tortillerías (they're everywhere) produce slightly different tortillas in taste as well as thickness, so we've begun a pseudo-scientific comparison test.

This place is on Progreso, down the andador from the apartment we stayed in our first month here, and from which could hear the machinery working very early in the morning.  We have watched a truck park and unload huge bags of corn which are brought in on the wagon below; it is also use for nearby deliveries of large orders of freshly-made tortillas:

The tortillas are 12 pesos a kilo--the price is government-controlled.  If you don't bring your own containers there's a 50 centavo surcharge.  We brought a tea towel and a plastic bag:

This is 1/2 kilo, still warm:

After we consume this batch (some of which will be quartered, deep fried and then roasted to make tostadas), we'll sample a different batch and eventually post the results of our taste test. 

MUSICA ANTIGUA

There is always music happening here.  Right now there is an early music festival: 

 Last Friday we went to a nearby church to hear a performance by CORO MELOS GLORIAE.

A 17th-century church is the perfect place to hear this music.  The woman second from the left in the front row has a soprano voice 5 times her size:

DOMINGO CAMINANDO

Yes, we were drawn back again to the neighborhood across the river.  What progress has occurred?   The photo below is at the corner of Universidad and Invierno.  There are these bench frames popping up everywhere.   A big block of wood will go down the middle:

A long, narrow fountain will adorn the front of the train station:

The wall of the new sports field has been painted:

This is going to be a huge peatonal (pedestrian walkway), from the looks of things.  There are patterned cobblestones and fountains.  I'm hoping a new public gym will be built on the left, but who knows.

This is Cuauhtémoc, the street behind Invierno.  See the two big pink planters with an incomplete bench in between?

This is the walkway along the river.  The plantings are stunning.  Purple lavender on the right emits a lovely scent:

Don't know what these yellow flowers are.  Behind them is Russian sage.  I wish the city offered tours with plant IDs:

Trillium?

Pepper tree?  Enlarge the photo to see the red berries:

I love these fountains:

I asked the kid if he knew what this flowering tree was, but he didn't.  Only that the plantings were native:

On the way home, near the Jardín Zenea, el sr J spotted the tour bus for this band:

What caught his eye was the unusual configuration above the cab.  On closer inspection, it turned out to be a customized (and probably unique) pivoting window, which can be opened and closed by a roof-mounted piston:

This group of serenaders must enjoy the wind in their faces.

TRAUMA DE TRAMITE Y TAMALES

This morning we went to Immigration to renew our visas.  It doesn't seem like a year since we first did this, but it is.  It's not a long walk, which is a good thing, since people usually have to make several trips to accomplish anything.

The office opens at 9 am.  We were there at 8:45.  There was already a line of course, but we weren't worried since we're of the Tercer Edad status and can go to the front of the line once everyone is inside and waiting to access a clerk.

The woman who waited on us was rude and nasty.  She perused our documents.  She said our letters of petition (one of the several requirements) were incomplete because we need to say. . ., and then she uttered a long sentence starting with "manifiesto."  I asked her to please repeat and she looked disgusted, but she said it again, very fast.  I got "manifiesto bajo protesta...."  I asked her if she could write it down.  She refused.  We also needed yet another copy of our US bank statements from the last three months.  We also had to go to our local bank and pay the government fee, which we knew we would have to do, and then bring back the original receipt and two copies.  All this meant we had to come back another time and hope we had everything we needed.

So we came home.  I wanted to wait and go back tomorrow, but el sr J was infected with resolve to counter-attack at once.  Teh [sic] internets are wonderful.  I typed in "manifiesto bajo protesta" and got this:  MANIFIESTO BAJO PROTESTA DE DECIR VERDAD QUE LOS DOCUMENTOS QUE EXHIBO SON FIDEDIGNOS Y COPIA FIEL DE LOS ORIGINALES QUE EN ESTE MOMENTO PRESENTO.  No wonder I couldn't remember it.  It basically says I swear these documents and copies are true.  This statement was new to us:  we didn't have to swear about anything (except the process) last year.

So we went to the bank, went home to make more (true) copies of things, and then hiked to the office. I wanted to go to a new window for a different bureaucrat, but el sr J wanted to grapple with the same one.  Victory.  Kachunk, kachunk, she stamped many pages, kept our old visas (we can't travel without them), gave us passwords to access our account on their website.  We will be looking on line for the outcome, which, if things go as they should, would mean we will have new visas in a couple of days.  Then she added a last note of officiousness:  if nothing appears on line in 10 days, we have to go back to her and find out what the trouble is.

We treated ourselves with tamales for lunch and now we're exhausted.   

20 (Y 21) DE NOVIEMBRE

The 20th of November is a holiday here, commemorating the beginning of the Revolution in 1910.  There's a nearby street named in honor of it:  

It fell on a Sunday this year, which is the usual day of rest, so on our calendar Monday the 21st is a "descanso obligatorio:"  literally an obligatory rest day.  I like that phrase, even though it's not really enforced--the city construction guys were on the job, raising dust.

We celebrated our obligatory day of rest by going to our 3rd Tarkovski film, Stalker.  We left last night's, Solaris, in the middle.  Too slow, too talky, too pointless.  Today we felt obliged to sit through the whole 163 minutes.  I'm not sure if we'll go to the next two.  What kind of faux cineastes are we?

DOMINGO CAMINANDO EN LA CONSTRUCCION

You're probably tired of photos of construction.  We're tired of living with it.

Exit the casita, look left, and this is what we see:

A closer view:

If we can go left (sometimes it's completely blocked off and we have to go right), we come to the Plaza de Armas, still under construction.  There is dust everywhere.

Sunday is our day to walk to the place that shall not be named.  We noticed today that there are now various Qs (for Querétaro) imbedded in the newly paved streets.  In addition to indicating the neighborhood's new designation as a tourist destination, we think they also indicate the way traffic will flow in and out of the historic train station area.  The one-way direction of one of the streets is going to be reversed, otherwise you can get out but you can't get in.

On the way home we noticed what we consider typical disrespect for bike lanes:

El sr J is a biker, and scenes like this make him livid.

HOMENAJE A ANDREI TARKOVSKY

There's an homage to the Russian director going on here.

Last night we saw Mirror:

Tonight is Solaris:

2 1/2 hours of Russian with Spanish sub-titles.  Might need a drink afterwards.  VODKA.  NEAT.  DOUBLE.  DOS VEDANYA.