the day I met the world's cutest Mad Hatter

It was a sunny day in March, we had made it safely to our guest house room that we had booked for our 1 night stay in the city of Guanajuato. We were thrilled about our place and thrilled about the city the minute we got in.

It's a labyrinth of a city with a lot of personality and history to offer. I couldn't help to feel I was somewhere in Europe but very happy to be in Mexico. It's an old mine city. Lots and lots of silver has been dug out of the surrounding mountains. The city has a scary amount of tunnels. Scary if you have a tendency to feel trapped like me ... mysterious and intriguing for people like my husband. He wanted to go and explore the tunnels and I wanted to stay on street level and not be stabbed in the back. 

The guest house we stayed at, called Antigua Casa de Musica, couldn't have been more beautiful, nor romantically Mexican. It had 3 big rooms, white stone walls and a high dark wooden ceiling. This is basically how I picture my dream house/apartment. It felt just how I wanted it to feel. Calm, cool and inviting. 

I for some reason completely forgot to take pictures of the interior beauty. I forgot about wi-fi and any other modern things as well. Felt mesmerized by the place and grateful to get to enjoy my husband to the max. Here is however a few pictures stolen from booking.com web page. 

We decided to start with a stroll in the city, visit only a few of the touristy spots and leave out just as many. We left out the mummy museum, due to the fact that I'm a very sensitive soul and suffer from a lot of nightmares as is, no need to invite any more drama into the bedroom ... or my husband might feel like leaving. The other thing we happily left out was Callejón del Beso, alley of the kiss.

 There are a lot of narrow alleys and streets and the most famous one, the alley of the kiss, is supposed to be a romantic one. Except that it really isn't. Not in our opinion. The story goes that on this alley the balconies facing each other are so close that once upon a time a young boy and a girl fell in love and would meet out on the balcony. They would lean over and kiss each other. However, the father of the daughter caught them, got so angry that he stabbed his daughter to death. In some version I read the boy was holding the hand of the girl and as she fell down dead from the balcony he joined her in death. Nowadays you are supposed to go to this alley with your beloved one, kiss on the third step and it will give you 7 years of happiness. 
We decided to walk up and down on all the other streets and alleys and kiss on one step here and there. I'm sure that will bring us just as much happiness. 

If not, we just go to my parents house and kiss up on their balcony. They just celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary this same weekend, something I find far more romantic. The story when my parents met my husband was far less dramatical as well and way more friendly. No knives involved. I actually remember how it was at the Helsinki airport and I had told my dear Dominican that in Finland we normally shake hands, we neither kiss nor hug each other, when we first meet. Unlike in many other countries. At the airport both my parents walked up to him with a big smile on their face, arms wide open and squeezed him a big welcoming hug. I remember my poor husband telling me afterwards that he had been so surprised that he had forgotten to hug them back... 
...Back to Guanajuato...on one of the beautiful narrow streets where no cars were allowed, we got to meet a very familiar figure to me. One I would have wanted to hug, if I hadn't been so shy. However, my husband convinced me to at least get in a picture with him.

The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. I adored his outfit and make-up. Really right on spot and he looked very authentic and cute. The rest of the people we met ... well I will write about it next time around
  

a turn in the park in San Miguel de Allende

I have to say I’m amazed by how we have not yet found a place to eat great Mexican food, the way I had imagined it. I have lived 30 something years thinking I love Mexican food. But apparently I don’t. I like the international version of Mexican food that actually has very little to do with the real deal unless for some reason the state of Queretaro and Guanajuato have a completely different food culture than the rest of the country.

However, cold starters, like tartars and ceviches are great here, especially on top of a crispy tostada. Or not just great, splendid. The restaurants are mostly really inviting and different with nice and friendly staff. It’s starting to be very warm here so light food and fresh cold drinks are the way to go. Like what we had at this place in San Miguel de Allende. 

A lovely city not far from where we live.

We spent a lovely afternoon here, walking around, visiting a few roof terraces and sitting on a bench in a park listening to a lovely local lady tell us about the history of the city and what she remembered from her childhood and youth. She just sat down next to my social husband and we got ourselves a really nice chat. 

The lady with her son told us what building had been a movie theater, how they were showing movies separately for the rancheros (ranch people from outside the city) at 11 in the morning and then the rest of the people later in the afternoon. 

Rich people were called los fresas (the strawberries) and still are today, I guess. At the park we sat they would have what was called Vueltas al jardín ("turns at the park"). A gathering of young single people on Sundays. The rancheros were placed at the outskirt of the park, the common people from the village in the middle and "the strawberries" in the heart of the park. Then they would circle around and make eyes on the one they fancy. This was how either her grandparents or her parents had met ... or both. We did our turn around the park making eyes at each other ... just to keep up the tradition. A tradition that is no longer ongoing here in San Miguel de Allende but apparently still something done in Jalisco, another state here in Mexico.

So my advice to myself and people with same taste for food and people as me; Take a tostada with seafood as a starter and just enjoy the ambiance and the company. Accompany the starter with a fresh lemonade or margarita with or without alcohol or perhaps a nice glass of white. If still hungry, repeat the same thing at another place, change to a tartare or ceviche and repeat until you had enough. And if not hungry, sit around the park and enjoy the ambiance and the people. It's truly amazing.

mixing mariachi with flamenco

When we decided to accept the offer and come down to Mexico for my husband's work opportunity, my sweet Dominican husband asked me as a joke; you promise me  that you will not fall for some Mexican man and leave me? My answer was obviously; of course not ...  I mean of course I will NOT fall for some Mexican man and leave you and Yes I promise you...

... I did fall or perhaps not fall but my knees got a bit weak.  It was however my husband who introduced me to  the man and the man being Alejandro Fernández. It was after our honeymoon in Costa Rica, we were back in cold Montreal and we were going some place or other in the car. In Costa Rica we had been to a few karaoke places. My sweet Dominican loves to sing and I want to be the supportive wife ... every now and then... until I can't handle it no more. It's not my husband the problem, it's all the drunk people who think they can sing. Now that my sweetheart knew we were off to Mexico he wanted to practice a more Mexican repertoire to his performance. So he put on some early years of Alejandro Fernández ... Sin tantita pena

I heard this song sang from a karaoke version by my husband and I thought to myself ... boy oh boy the original must be something. We all know the karaoke versions of anything is what it is, even sang by anybody's lovely husband. 
Ever since we came here to Mexico, I have listened to this song at least 3 times per day and 'I'm still not bored. I love the mix of flamenco and mariachi, makes it beautifully dramatical. I adore it and not just this song all of his early mariachi songs, mostly from the 90's are heaven. He turned pop a bit later on, something I like a bit less but if I get bored and need older songs... I just turn to the papa...Vicente Fernandez.
I didn't know much about Mexico before we came here. I wanted to live here, yes. But why? Some weird illusion mixed with Zorro and Frida Kahlo. Yes, pretty much that and then you add a few cactuses with some Mayan culture. 
Well I'm not at all disappointed. I have still to discover the mayan culture as I'm not quite in the right area for that but we are only 4.5 hours away from Guadalajara, where Alejandro Fernández was born and will be performing in only few days... two days exactly. I thought about it and then I remembered who is working his behind off and coming home smiling and happy to see his wife... so I thought ... Alejandro Fernández is really great on my iPod until he for some reason happens to throw a concert a bit closer to where we are. Or my husband would let me drive while he sleeps ... 
I read that Alejandro Fernández's first concert actually went a bit so so ... back in the days. He lost his words and started crying... poor thing. The good thing was that his papa was around to help and sing along to the song ... this was actually when he was 5 years old and performing at his father's concert. Too adorable. I love how Mexicans in general seem to be so family wise. I see papas all over the place taking care of their children. Lovely indeed. 

I could obviously end this post by putting a nice video of  Alejandro performing with his father Vicente Fernández, but why would I ? When I can bring two of my superheroes together. One, I actually stood up and held a presentation about at McGill university in Spanish ... so here we go Diego el Cigala (a great flamenco singer from Spain) and Alejandro Fernandez ... in my opinion it does Not get any more beautiful than this... well now that Leonard Cohen is not amongst us anymore... 

A sparkling afternoon

After we had hiked up Peña de Bernal, we continued our adventure to Freixenet Mexico. I used to be a champagne lover and got my husband hooked as well, until we one day woke up and realized we prefer Cava. Not only because of the price but the taste as well. So when my hubby came with the news that he will take me to Finca Sala Vivé, Freixenet here in Querétaro, I was as exited as a child in a toy store. 

We decided to go on a guided tour around the premises to hear about the history and the making of with a nice little tasting at the end. It was all in Spanish and I was happy to understand about 50% of what was said. I had done a similar tour at Veuve Clicquot, France with a tour in French and there I understood a good 70%, so I thought it gave me a nice average. I appreciate the product already on a high enough level that any more information would probably just increase the consumption to an unnecessary level. I told my husband however to stay sharp in case I needed some facts for later. 

Freixenet as known today, is a product of two wine families uniting in marriage in 1914 in the area of Barcelona, Spain. The wife's name being Dolores Sala Vivé. Her husband and older son died in the Civil War and so she and her three daughters took over the company. They made Cava a huge success internationally. Her younger son took over when she retired. He improved further the methods of production and started to expand the production in other countries like here in Mexico in 1978. Climate wise Querétaro made an ideal spot but it was a bit of a rough start due to an economical crisis in the country. Today Finca Sala Vivé, Freixenet is going strong and happy to celebrate their upcoming 40th anniversary this Fall. 

It's still winter here, extremely easy to forget it when the temperature goes up to 28°c but it's winter none the less. So that's why the tour outside wasn't very colorful. If we go back in May the grapevines will be full of small, small flowers and after that the fruit will start growing and in August the harvest begins. Mexicans are not big wine drinkers, they prefer tequila and beer, so 70% of the production is exported.

The cellar is 25 meters deep and here the different wines rest peacefully in different temperatures.  

 In the barrels their red and white wines are getting ready  and as for their sparkling wine, well it's all about turning the bottle until you have the right amount of alcohol and bubbles. They use the traditional method, meaning that the second fermentation goes on in the bottle. The bubbles and alcohol are in other words not added but patiently produced naturally while changing the position of the bottle.

This room is opened only for the special few, either family or people who have rented the space for a special occasion. The guide told us it has seen birthdays, marriage proposals and even divorces. I found the last one a bit surprising but I guess if you have to announce bad news, why not sparkle it up and make the bad news a bit bubbly??? 

For us their was no birthday, no marriage proposal or any talk of divorce for that matter. We were happily and calmly walking hand in hand, listening to the guide and getting excited about the upcoming tasting.

The tasting was splendid, as it confirmed that our taste fit our wallet size. All in all, we really enjoyed our sunny afternoon at the beautiful premises of Finca Sala Vivé.

And I walked to the car happily carrying a 3 pack like a kid after a successful visit to the toy store.