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    Friday Morning: We leave tomorrow for Aguascalientes. We were obsessing about getting our bus tickets. Monday is a holiday here, so we didn’t want to take a chance on not having tickets early, but we didn’t want to go out to the bus station, 20 minutes away, either. It turns out that there is a place in El Centro, but we learned that you can also get them at the local mini-mart. Here it’s called OXXO (OC-SO) and it’s like Stop & Shop or 7-11, only smaller. We could get them online, but I’m not crazy about using credit cards on wi-fi. We were going to if we had to, but…. When I heard that OXXO sold them, I imagined that they had a little computer set up, but I was wrong. We gave the man our list. It was “muy complicado” because you can’t get there from here – you have to go through Leon, which is a little out of the way. Same with the trip back to San Miguel de Allende – through Leon. So, we gave the man our list and he called the bus company. He had a book of tickets that he filled out by hand, with the code from the phone call. And during all of this, school let out and his store was flooded with school kids buying junk food. So we did it the Mexican way — we waited patiently. It was no problem. It took about 40 minutes, and I even got to use a little Spanish that I couldn’t have used anywhere else – “No estamos en formados” (we’re not in line). So we got our tickets. Perfecto.

After school we went back to El Centro, and we probably will again today. There’s a lot to see there. And our favorite restaurant here is there, too. El Midi. By the way, there’s a Starbucks in El Centro, for those of you who can’t do without. Anyway, El Midi was part of a sublime evening yesterday. We had a marvelous day.

 

Once in a while, you have an experience that is “just right”. You feel “at one”. With what, I don’t know, but it’s a real feeling. We haven’t traveled as much as some people, but we have traveled, both at home and abroad. And there are a few places that are favorites. There’s a particular cove in Hawaii where we abandoned all of our plans for the week and went back every single day to snorkle. Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany. Rue Cler in Paris. Cades Cove in Tennessee (in spring or fall when it isn’t completely packed with people). There’s a graveyard (yes a graveyard) overlooking Lago di Como in northern Italy. And now, sitting in front of El Midi restaurant, under an umbrella, eating wonderful food served by very friendly people, looking out onto a Plaza. It’s only a few blocks from the main plaza, Jardin Union, which is also gorgeous, but this is sublime. The Plaza is small but lovely, musicians play. It’s more family than tourist. Add it to my list of favorite places.

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