Train Museum in SLP

 The train museum in San Luis Potosí is located just across the street of the Alameda (on one of the long sides).  It´s very hard to miss, given the enormous black locomotive in front of the building.

There´s not much to the museum itself.  I can´t say I learned much about trains.  They had a charming little display about circuses and circus trains.

But it was well worth our while for the trains on display behind the museum.  Not only could we touch them, we could go IN them.  We could sit in the seats!  My son was able to push buttons!  And, let me tell you, if you´re toting a transportation-loving toddler all around a beautiful colonial city, San Luis Potosí´s Train Museum is a must-see.

The adults in the group might not get much out of the experience.
But it will be the highlight of any two-year-old´s year!

Conductor Joe.  

Grandpa and Joey in the little, orange train.

Hello, from the Revolutionary wagon!

Family with that big, ol´ engine at the museum´s entrance.

Destination: San Luis Potosí--with the parents!

My parents were visiting for two weeks in March.  One of the weekends they were here fell on a three-day weekend, so we decided to get out of town.  Being in this area of the country, our long-weekend options are a little limited (Monterrey, Parras, Texas, San Luis Potosí . . . that´s about all the options on our safe list).  However, we´ve only been to San Luis Potosí once, and LOVED it, so it was high time to try it again. 

The view of Plaza Fundadores from our hotel room.

Sitting on the  steps of the theater.  OK, I sat.  The kids could have climbed them all morning.

The National Mask Museum.  It may get its own post in a few days.

Eating candy and enjoying the grass at the Plaza San Francisco.

Plaza de Armas

Our tour trolley!

As the capital of a very important mining region, San Luis Potosí boasts ornateness EVERYWHERE!
At least, downtown.  

Grandma and Grandpa being good tourists while the kiddos got a good nap on the tour trolley.

Destination Monterrey and Planetario Alfa

In front of the planetarium

 This weekend, Clara had a three-day weekend, Mario had a one-day weekend, and I was itching to get out of town.  What better to do than to brave the wilds of Monterrey on my own? 

After five years of living an hour and a half from Monterrey, it´s about time I began to figure out this town! 

In my defense though, I´ve had babies for most of the time that we´ve lived here, which doesn´t make exploring easy.  Furthermore, two years ago, Monterrey was one big shooting range, so we erased that from our list of nearby places to visit.  Fortunately, things seem a bit more stable there, my kids are old enough (or at least sufficiently predictable and flexible) to make a day away enjoyable.   So we took the plunge on Saturday!

I had been curious about the Planetario Alfa for almost a year, when I heard that it´s Monterrey´s children´s museum.  I got on their website, found out that they offer transportation from Monterrey´s Alameda (which is very, very near a metro stop), so I decided that the Planetario was our plan for the day.    



Someday I may learn my way around Monterrey to be comfortable enough to drive there.  But that´s not the case at this point.  We took a bus from Saltillo to the central in Monterrey, walked a block to the metro, took the metro one stop to the Alameda, and then looked around for the museum shuttle.  (I know, we probably could have walked to the Alameda from the bus station, but it was super-hot at noon in Monterrey, and I have two small children who were super-excited about the thought of riding a train.  It was eight pesos well spent!)

The shuttle stop on the Alameda

Joey wanted to be closed into a wind chamber.  All the pieces of paper were supposed to be germs and he was the immune system trying to catch them!

The shuttle stop is on Washington Pte, near the corner with Trinidad Villagomez.  There´s an information kiosk just a few meters before the stop.  The museum's ¨bus¨ is actually a Mercedes Sprinter, with a capacity for 19, so it´s best to get there a few minutes before the bus´s scheduled arrival, every hour on the half-hour (12:30, 1:30, etc).

Picnic in the Alameda

While waiting for the shuttle, we had a fruit salad picnic in the Alameda, then we bought some hot dogs and water.  Unfortunately, after taking maybe one bite each, she shuttle came, and it was clear that we needed to get in line or we wouldn't get a seat. So we finished our picnic once we reached the museum.  Near the entrance to the parking lot, in the prehispanic sculpture garden, they have a number of picnic benches at the ready (in the sun, of course).  We chowed down next to a giant Olmec head.

Then, we entered the museum.  The basic entrance is $60 per person (ages 3 and up).  The Alfa does boast an IMAX, so if you want to see a movie, that will add an extra $30 to the ticket.  We didn't have a ton of time, so we skipped the IMAX this time around.

The second floor has a temporary exhibit about Tinkertoys (leaving at the end of May). The kids had a good time building things, turning cranks, etc, but it was geared for kids that were a little older. 

So we headed to the fourth floor, where they have a temporary exhibit on Clifford the Big Red Dog, on loan from the Minnesota Children's Museum.  I had a feeling that this was more of a toddler/preschool exhibit, and I was not wrong!

We spent most of our time with Clifford, but we did run down to the third floor, to check out their "Me" exhibit, describing the human body.  Then we had to book it out of there 1) before my kids lost all the skee balls for a game and 2) before the 5:00 shuttle left without us.

It took the shuttle a mere 15 minutes to get back to the Alameda.  We had ice cream, watched the fountain and then finally headed to the metro to grab a bus back to Saltillo. 

It was a long day (the two hour bus ride back wore me out the most), but it was a good day.  I'm glad I finally tried out Monterrey on my own.  

We'll be back in a few weeks, to play in the fountains on the Paseo Sta. Lucia!     



Clara, Emily Elizabeth, and Clifford!

Dried Up

Every now and again, Patty takes a shower and jumps out halfway through to let me know that there´s no more water.  I don´t know how it always happens to her that she´s the one in the shower when we run out.  Glad it´s not me, though! 

Normally, it´s not a problem.  I just head out to the street, flip the switch by our water meter and the water flows again. 

Unfortunately, last Friday, things didn´t work so smoothly.

I flipped the switch and nothing happened. Oh, dear.   

 Our cistern below the garage was full, so I just turned on the pump, and that sent the water to the tinacos on top of the roof, which then sent water to the boiler and then to the shower.  In reality, it took a good deal less time for all that to happen that it did to write that sentence. 

However, we still haven´t gotten water from the city since sometime before last Friday. 

The cistern is now empty.  The smaller tinaco still has some water in it, but I´m guessing it´s going to give out sometime today. 

I´ve been calling the water company every day and every day they promise that someone will come. 

No dice on that front until today when I started to get clearly irritated with the woman fielding the complaint calls.  I let her know that I haven´t had a shower in three days.  They did send a group over this morning to change the valves on the meter, letting us know that the valves weren´t actually the problem, but that a different crew will have to dig up the sidewalk to see what´s blocking the pipes. 

We knew that already, as Mario cleaned the meter this weekend.

Second crew hasn´t shown up yet.

And it is now past my two o´clock deadline to let Mario know that they haven´t come, so he can call for a water truck to hopefully come today and fill our cistern. 

And the water company had the nerve to send us our February bill yesterday, after they had repeatedly ignored my calls, pleading for any kind of service. 

In return, if I can´t take a shower tonight or flush my poop, I might just have to stay in a hotel tonight and send Aguas de Saltillo the bill.  You bet it will be a nice hotel.  ;)

Oh, my inner drama queen!

Jill vs Typhoid--I think I Won!

Yep, I´m still here.  Things are finally starting to feel like normal. 

I´ve been sidetracked for a few months, thanks to a bout of typhoid. 

That sounds more dramatic than it was.  But now that I´m officially recovered, I am realizing that it really did knock me for a loop for quite awhile.  Kind of like my pregnancy with Joey. 

Actually, yeah, it was a lot like that.  And I described my symptoms to one of my friends who was CONVINCED that I was pregnant.  It would have made sense.  Fatigue, dizziness.

But nope, definetly NOT pregnant. 

Not long after my last post, I was attempting to get our Thanksgiving turkey in the oven, but I had to lay down every 10 minutes or so because I was so dizzy.  Finally, I gave up and let Mario do it, coaching him from the couch.

I spent the better part of those two weeks in bed, not feeling terrible, just very, very dizzy when I tried to do anything vertically.  Then the symptoms went away and I didn´t think about it anymore. 

However, as we were driving home from Indiana to Saltillo, the dizziness happened again (resulting in mild carsickness for two days straight).  Furthermore,  I added insomnia, a lack of appetite, and losing weight to my list of drama and I decided that it was high time that I found a doctor. 

It turns out that insomnia is not a symptom of typhoid, so I´m not sure what that was all about.  But when I listed all my other symptoms, my new doctor immediately diagnosed me with typhoid.  OK, she did wait for my bloodwork to come back to officially diagnose me with typhoid (and write me a prescription for antibiotics), but she knew immediately. 

Apparently, typhoid has a tendency to come back, so I had to get even more blood drawn this week to confirm that I really, really got rid of it. 

Yep, I´m good. 

And, if anyone in Saltillo needs bloodwork done, I highly recommend the lab, Centro Medico de Saltillo, located right across from the University Hospital/University Nursing School on Calzada Francisco I. Madero #1236-2.  I´ve gone there a number of times, I believe there is only the one doctor in the lab, and she has the magic touch for drawing blood.  Often I don´t even feel the needle prick. 

And that´s something--I am terrified of needles!  Seriously, go there.  She´s great.

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So I´m almost back to business (just as soon as I shake Monster Cold). 

It seems like we´re just about to shake winter, too!  Things are looking up! 

Take that, you suckers up north with record snow this winter!  Come visit me! 

And just to add one more exclamation mark, I think I´ll go to bed!!!!  (OK, 4 more.)

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My apologies for turning into a crochety old lady and describing my every ache and pain, but that´s where I´ve been, and I had to start SOMEWHERE to get back on this blogging horse!  

The Best Tacos in Saltillo

Whenever we have a big day downtown (like the other day), we stop for tacos at Saltillo´s best taquería.  Actually, the other day I gave Clara a choice between pizza and tacos, thinking that pizza would win her vote.  To my surprise, she enthusiastically requested tacos. 



The taco wheel!



Apparently, tacos can vary with regions, so our first year or two here, we were pretty disappointed in Saltillo´s taco selection.  Mario, being from Mexico City, prefers tacos de pastor, and whenever we´d actually find tacos de pastor here, we´d invariably be disappointed.  Not being a conniseur, I don´t know exactly what makes tacos de pastor tacos de pastor, but there was just something not quite right about those we tried. 






I don´t know why it took us so long, but on some jaunt downtown, we stumbled upon El Pastor, which, as the name would suggest, serves the best tacos de pastor in the city.  Why it took us so long to find this is a mystery to me, as it´s just not possible to be more centrally located (on Aldama, almost on the corner of Allende, on the same square as the market).  This original location is invariably crowded, and as I´m usually toting a double stroller, there simply is no space for a double stroller in there, even folded up--ever.  Fortunately for me, there are a number of franchises within the same block, which boast much larger dining areas (double strollers welcome), and have broader menus (some days I feel like skipping tacos and just drinking a liter or two of strawberry water--refreshing and sweet and not available at the original location).  This franchise is about two storefronts down from Aldama, walking towards the market.  There is a lot of orange in that restaurant.  

The day we were exploring downtown, much of the city decided that they also had a taco craving.   There was no room to sit, even at the massive orange franchise.  So we ordered our tacos to go from the original, and pulled up a bench on Calle Pedro Flores, the pedestrian street on the south side of Aldama.   

For being an afterthought, it turned out to be the best picnic ever!

This kid can now put away almost a full order of tacos!  A full order is 5, her current record is 4. 



All dressed up with onions, salsa, and lime juice.  Como Dios mandó.



One Festive Plaza de Armas





Catedral de Santiago

The last weekend of November, we were wandering around downtown, probably with a big to-do list, but we found ourselves at the Plaza de Armas while they were decorating for Christmas.  The Plaza de Armas is always a good place to stop and rest, particularly when it´s decorated for Christmas.  It dawned on me that I´ve never blogged about the Plaza de Armas.  For a blog that´s largely about Saltillo, that needed to be corrected.  Fortunately, I had my camera.  Plaza de Armas--documented!  



Elsewhere in the country (farther south) the main square of any city is referred to as the zocalo--an Aztec word.  Since Saltillo is in the far-removed north, where the Aztecs didn´t bother to venture, the main squares in towns in the north are referred to as Plazas de Armas.  I believe this linguistic phenomenon begins around San Luis Potosí, which seems to be the dividing point between central Mexico and northern Mexico. 





One of the nymphs that surround the fountain.







 Every Plaza de Armas (or zocalo) is bordered on one side by the municipal or state government building, and the town´s main church on another side.  Particularly charming Plazas de Armas (like Saltillo´s) have a row of stores on another side, and the sidewalk in front of these stores is roofed and walled with a series of arches.   So that side of the Plaza is commonly referred to as ¨los arcos¨ (the arches). 

The final side of Saltillo´s Plaza de Armas is occupied by the state university´s art school.  They host a great art sale every December (this year, from the 5th to the 15th).  Unique gifts for anyone on your list who might be interested in original art.

There´s a fountain in the center of the Plaza de Armas, but during December, it´s covered up by the enormous Christmas three.  So, this month, all the pigeons have to take their water breaks by the fountain on the backside of the government building.



Clara, in front of los arcos.



Despite that, there were still pigeons all over the place.  A girl very near us wanted to get her picture taken as she startled  a massive pile of pigeons.  It took a good 15 tries or more for her to get a passable picture (or give up).  The people who sell candy on the Plaza de Armas must also sell little bags of rice to feed the pigeons, because she kept coming back with more and more rice for the birds.  We enjoyed her antics, and it was the first time that my kids were willing to consider chasing the pigeons, too.     



As I mentioned earlier, they were setting up the Christmas tree, which is taller than the government building.  I don´t think it´s quite as tall as the cathedral, but it certainly competes with it for height awards.  We stood gawking for a good 15 minutes or more as the men who were attaching the star were lowered down by crane.  Fascinating, yet terrifing!  (At least, for me.  I´m afraid of heights.)  As I watched the second man manouver himself into the crane´s harness, it looked like he was properly attached to the tree with locked carabiners on his belt--and did not unlock them until he was securely in the crane´s harness.  I´m glad there are people willing to do that job, because I sure couldn´t! 


The tree trimmers, returning to earth.





The Christmas decorations are different every year.  They´ve always got a nativity scene and little cottages (presumably for Santa´s elves) and the trees are liberally decked with white garlands, pretending to be snow.  Last year, the Christmas decorations coincided with an exposition of Leona Carrington´s sculptures.  She was a surrealist artist, and I love her paintings, but her sculptures are big and black and bizarre--a distinct clash with happy Christmas decorations.  Fortunately this year, no big creepy black birds or ringwraiths of Leona Carrington´s imagination are putting a macabre edge to Saltillo´s Christmas!