Day 4 December 23-- Dolores Hidalgo

The original plan for today was to visit one of the local hot spring pools today, but the weather was barely into the 60’s and cloudy so we made a last minute change to go on a day trip to Dolores Hidalgo.  Dolores Hidalgo is about a 30-40 minute drive from SMA and famous for two things:  weird ice cream and pottery.

We took the minivan and drove there ourselves.  It was my first daytime experience on regular (non-highway) Mexican roads.  I learned very quickly that two lane roads in Mexico are actually used like 3 or 4 lane roads.  The expectation is that when somebody approaches you from behind you are supposed to drive on the shoulder while they pass straddling the center line (regardless of oncoming traffic).  It is a little frightening at first, but it actually seems to keep traffic flowing smoothly.  We took our time and made it just fine.

Today was also the first day we didn’t see a single American.  Allison and I have decided that we both know more Spanish than the average local Mexican knows English.  For whatever reason, that surprises us.  We also have realized that the kids school must not seriously be trying to teach our kids Spanish because our older two (I’ll give Carskie a break) don’t know any useful Spanish at all and they both have been getting A’s in Spanish the last 5 YEARS!

I digress…..  Anway, DH (Delores Hidalgo) really stretched us out of comfort zone.  It was SO crowded.  We constantly thought we were going to lose a kid fighting the crowds.  At one point Allison and I split up so I could take Mason and Carson to the bathroom.  That was a 30 minute adventure.  I know enough Spanish to say “Donde esta el bano?”.  I also know the words for “on the right” or  “on the left”.  Unfortunately, the response was: “Walk down the street ½ a block and enter the market on the left.  The restroom is in the back of the market in the back right corner”.  I highlighted the words I could catch as this was spoken to me a mile a minute.  One of the problems with asking a question is Spanish is that it communicates to person you are asking that you actually speak Spanish…..  We finally found the bathroom and then found Allison.

The first thing we did was buy some exotic ice cream from a street vendor.  I tried the whiskey flavored ice cream, but I needed to drive home so I settled for Lime.  Walker asked for “Camaron” thinking it was Carmel, he was wrong.  It was Shrimp (with actual chunks of shrimp in it).  They all settled for chocolate or Lime because we knew they were safe.

We then strolled down the streets looking at the shops.  It is very chaotic.  A shoe store might be next to a produce store, which might be next to a cell phone store, which might be beside a guy in a green hat hacking away at a pig…..  We didn't really see much pottery, but I think we were in the wrong place.  We finally found a great pottery store and purchased some plates and bowls for really cheap.