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One of the reasons that Gem was keen to come to San Luis Potosi was that it was fabled to be full of the most beautiful people in Mexico. I think whoever told her meant to say fat (can't be bothered being PC about it) instead. Sadly obesity is prolific here with a high percentage of the country suffering from type 2 diabetes. (bit like Scotland but with much more delicious treats to get chubby with!)
We arrived quite late and after checking into our, to be honest, rather grotty hotel, we ventured a whole 30m to have some dinner and then hit the hay.
Thankfully the city centre was a lot more attractive than it's inhabitants and on Sunday we ventured out to look around. Although as soon as we arrived it was noticeably a lot dirtier and more delapidated than world heritage site, Zacatecas (the more I say that the more it sounds like a character out of a kids tv show, "whatch ya doing to day Zacatecus?"!). It was definitely a gentle introduction to Mexico. Sunday was in fact a Mexican holiday, celebrating the anniversary of the beginning of the Mexican revolution. There were lots of people looking very smart and families out enjoying the festive atmosphere. We sat in a cafe on the main square for breakfast and people watched for a while only interrupted by Indian women selling shirts and honey, youths collecting for a drug rehabilitation centre and a man selling soles (of shoes not spiritual, although I'm sure he would of had a roaring trade if he was). We wandered around looking at the attractive colonial buildings. When you're used to a cold winter leading up to Christmas it's easy to forget you're somewhere warm (much warmer now than Zacatecus) that's it almost december and i am continuously surprised and amused when I see anything christmasy. Strung between many of the pretty long streets were tinsel decorations, not dissimilar to the ones seen on George street, sparkling in the bright, high afternoon sun. Later in Leon I saw people buying real Christmas trees from a car park filled with them and other places selling fake ones, white like snow. Thankfully they don't indulge in the UKs irritating habit of having Xmas tunes monotonously playing in every public area. Not that the Mexicans seem to dislike music, quite the contrary, they seem almost fearful of silence! Music blares out of passing cars and taxis oblivious to the time of day, vehicles advertising things drive round with huge speakers bungeed to the roof, bus drivers always have the music playing and shops, particularly pharmacies, have massive amps blasting out everything from reggaeton (mix of reggae and latin cha cha type music) to rock. Bars also play loud music making conversation difficult (OMG how OLD do I sound?!)
In one of the four pretty plazas was a market with lots of local produce and crafts. After tasting lots of cheese, cactus jam and fondling some wallets (gem later bought one) we headed back to our hotel, packed up, reclaimed our money as we had been overcharged for our room and headed to the bus station. Again a bit of dithering about destination. Lonely planet only listed one budget option for Leon, 3 hrs south and it was full so we decided to book somewhere in Guanajuato, an hour south, in case we didn't find anywhere Nd bus it there later that evening. However after dumping our bags at the left luggage at the bus station we bused it into city centre and after visiting a Internet cafe located another hostel which was lovely, central and had a nice ensuit twin room for us. (although they didn't actually tell us about what was behind the door but we used it anyway!) Perfect. We then headed back to the bus station and taxied back to the hostel with our bags.
In the evening we glammed up (a bit anyway) and headed out for food and a couple of beers. Due to the holiday the centre was heaving but overlooking the pretty square was what once might of been a government building now littered with fast food joints under the arches and a bar pumping music out above. It had lovely little iron balconies overlooking the square so decided to go up there. Inside was quite a good rock band and then after a mix of dance and reggaeton music with the video to match. We ate there ordered a ''bucket' of beer, I envisioned literally what it sounded like and was a bit sceptical about it getting too warm before you've drunk it all (yes even for me!) but thankfully it was a bucket, with ice, and 6 bottles of beer, plus lime. Due to said quantity of beer I had to break the seal and head off to the (utterly rank) loo a couple of times, in my absence Gem said some bloke on the table next to us kept gesturing for her to dance with him. Eventually he seemed to bite the bullet (or downed the tequila) and came over and asked her to dance in English, after a bit of cajoling,she went. Meanwhile his friend plucked up the courage and came and sat beside me. Unfortunately he could speak no english and I no Spanish apart from that I didn't understand. I offered him a crisp from our table in a friendly gesture but that's as far as our interaction really extended! The other guy was very chatty (and overly enthusiastic) with Gemma and I and crisp bloke could only really sit there listening out for our own language as they were speaking in both Spanish and English. Awkward! Chatty man was actually spanish and was in leon for the wine, apparently worked in security, although when asked about things said it was secret (hmmmm), he then said he as a lawyer working in national security (hmmmm) then the conversation turned to life drawing and he said he was a catwalk model (hmmmm) maybe they dropped the height here but at 5th 5 we weren't entirely sure that he was telling us the truth about himself! We eventually left, said goodbye to crisp and chatty man and headed along the street. Chatty man then ran after gem asked for a kiss on the cheek, he then said "Are you an angel or a cat?". Apparently bad chat up lines are a speciality here, gem has been complimented on her eyebrows and one man, in an attempt to impress told her he was a fishermen, even though he lived in a land locked desert state! I thought it sounded a bit like a line from shrek (no idea why, blame the beer) He wasn't best pleased when I told him so.
The centre of Leon is quite pretty with slightly run down colonial buildings and large fountain filled plazas, however, the rest is very industrial, graffiti covered and generally not particularly appealing. We were suppose to meet up with Gemma's friend Rosana who she actually met in Scotland but has moved back to mexico, in the morning for brunch but there were communication problems then her car broke down. Unfortunately this took most of the morning. We had also heard about a hot air ballon festival that was on just outside Leon. We navigated 2 buses there only to find the balloons had all left prematurely, although no one seemed particularly surprised. Slightly disappointing to say the least, 2 buses and a grumpy bus driver back and we fully felt we deserved a frozen yoghurt with all the trimmings which we devoured in the main plaza on a bench next to one of the prolific shoe shiners.
We then returned to our hostel where the owners 5 year old daughter was all dressed up in a mini version of the poofy dresses that we had seen before.
Back to the bus station where we once again dumped our bags, with the same dude, and headed out to the numerous shoe, bag and hat shops that surround the bus station. Ok, so I have to admit now that one of the primary reasons for visiting Leon was it reputation for selling leather goods, particularly in the form of shoes and cowboy boots. There're actually loads of Mexican cowboys roaming about in all the towns we have visited so far, not on horseback I might add (maybe they'e not allowed in town and it's like a park and ride system, but with horses) but they are kitted out in the obligatory Stetson hat, jeans and cowboy boots, the shirts vary but the most dedicated have wonderfully embroidered sections on the chest area. But the most amazing items are the boots. The men's array, by far, are the most beautiful, ornately detailed and flamboyant. The leather at the top is intricately embroidered and then often another animal is used for the foot part. In one shop there were the options of: deer, horse, cow hide, snake, crocodile, toad, ostrich, and the most bizarre of all, mantarays that was all bobbly feeling. The length of the toe is also important and one pair of boots had a ridiculously long toe that began to curl up, more suitable on a clown than a macho cowboy you'd think. It's definitely the peacocking effect.
Faced with the opportunity to buy a real pair of leather Mexican cowboy boots with stunning detailing, for peanuts (not actual, although nuts a quite expensive here, perhaps not the best phrase) I succumbed. They are soooooo nice, very pleased indeed. And no, I will not be carting them around South American, they will hopefully survive being posted home, or they may return with another of Gemma's (less prone to impractical souvenir buying) visitors.
The boot buying took at bit of time due to several factors; they seemed to store the majority of their boots in some other shop; my freakishly large feet (for Mexico); the utterly incompetent shop assistant who kept bringing boots I'd not asked for or ones too small even for Gemma, and he had measured my feet! A last minute purchase of a belt by gem and we hurried to collect our bags, still managing to catch the bus to Guanajuato, now with two very large boot bags in tow!
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