Maravillas de Zacatecas

The marvels of Zacatecas! Can't say enough about this great city. I spent six-plus days there, so will not be able to cover everything at one sitting. At the toll plaza close to the city there was a little delay of about two minutes, so naturally some guy jumped on the bus to peddle snacks. He had mixed bags of candy--peanut brittle, shredded coconut-brittle, and some other stuff (the same idea, but I'm not sure what the featured ingredient was), so I bought a ten-peso bag and it turned out to be a lot stickier than any kind of peanut brittle I'd ever had before. It was almost impossible to get the last few pieces out of the plastic bag because they stuck to the inside of it.

Bus station to downtown only three and a half pesos on the city bus--pretty cheap--even Tepic went from 3 to 4 a couple of years ago. Found a hotel and then visited the Coronel Mask Museum in the old Franciscan missionary training school. Just an incredible collection of what must be 3 or 4 thousand masks. Animal-type masks, devils, Spanish royalty, several masks that made me think they must have been watching the super bowl about 20 years ago and seen that "John 3:16" guy with the multi-colored fright wig, also a smaller collection of string puppets. Don't miss it! (On the way to the mask museum from downtown, you can stand on the metal plates next to the fountain at the fork in the road and get a relaxing foot massage, thanks to the shaky pipes underneath.)

Then Saturday night I hooked up with a couple of Australians, a German, a Chilango, a guy from France and a fellow from Cleveland and we all had a great time laughing and joking and telling stories.

All the Zacatecanos kept telling me how placid and peaceful and tranqil their city is, but while I was there the local bean farmers surrounded the state government building and blocked traffic and created a bunch of chaos because they had turned in their bean crop four months earlier and not been paid. This went on for two days until the state legislators relented and agreed to pay the princely sum of one and one-third american cents per pound of beans. These weren't soybeans or animal feed either, I am talking about beans for human consumption. John, a retired dairy farmer from Wisconsin whom I met later in the week, said that was a ridiculously low price and he should know a lot more than I do about things agricultural.

Anyway, the next day the schoolteachers started marching and chanting and tying up traffic because they are against a new law reforming the pension plan for government employees! (No more double-dipping is the way I understand it.)

But the demonstrations were peaceful and the loud booming noises one evening were not due to the demonstrators being shot like the ones in Mexico city during the Olympics in 1968. It was just fireworks welcoming the Bishop to town for some kind of special ceremony or something. And then they rang all the church-bells really loudly for about 15 or 20 minutes.

Well, more later, I guess. I really should get those stool samples back to the internist.

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<hr>Well, more later, I guess. I really should get those stool samples back to the internist.<hr></blockquote>

hmmm. not sure if this a joke, or a tag line to get us to tune in for the next part of the story.

If not a joke, I certainly hope all is well and that you are not very sick, and feel better soon.
and if a tag line to keep us reading, probably not necessary as your posts are interesting enough!

Well, I've only had this type of experience twice before. Once was intentional (preparing for a colonoscopy) and the other time it was due to intestinal parasites. Thanks for your concern, and I do feel a lot better today than I did yesterday--but mostly, I think, because I haven't had anything to eat for 48 hours.

Glad you are feeling better, do you have idea what it was that made you ill?
I have heard from family members that fresh coconut is good for the stomach discomfort, and yogurt of course if you can keep it down.