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San Luis Potosi’ is the name of the state and the name of the capital, like New York, NY. The city has dubbed itself, the Capital of Yes, thus La Capital del Si'. Named for Louis IX of France because of the wealth of the rich silver mines, the city was only rivaled by the Potosi’ mines of Bolivia. In keeping with our search for temperate weather, the city's elevation is a lovely 6000 ft above sea level with a constant breeze. The historic Centro rivals any town for opulent examples of colonial architecture. You can tell, SLP was a rich, rich city at one time. Old Centro consists of “the seven neighborhoods” and the squares that separate them all.
This trip, we’re testing the autobus waters, as SLP is only about 2.5 hours away from SMA. H has booked a premium bus, which will make no stops (like the local will) is airconditioned and has the same amenities that one would expect in second class on the train from Paris to Avignon. (Ok, no drinks trolly) Our departure time is early and Ulysses comes early to make sure we get to the bus terminal on time. Everyone inside is gracious, no one knows English or understands ours. Mostly any tourist you see here are of the backpacking variety; young, with good strong backs and constitutions. The gift shop sells toilet paper. One can go to Nashville, Tn., from here! I enjoy the ride and seeing the countryside as dusk overtakes us. I though the seats were nice (better than standard airline seats) and for 2.5 hours see the sun set behind the mountain’s as we travel across the high desert thru farmland.  Arriving around 10:30pm, it’s dark and dang it, it’s the coldest night we’ve has thus far on our trip. I have brought nothing warm, as it’s been hot as hell here. Oh well. Our temp home is Boutique hotels meant to be funky and you don’t know the definition of the owners definition of funky, then anything can be expected. The hotel was originally colonial and reflected thus on the exterior. The interior however had renovated and renovated funkily. The large floor to ceiling windows had been covered over with 10 inch wide windows with wooden shutters (not quaint ones either). The only air circulation into the room was a small bathroom sided window that opened to the court yard where a small restaurant, Casa de Waffles, was run. But the icing on the cake, or waffle, was the Santosi’s close proximity to the heavy metal-punk rock night club across the street. We jammed nightly till the wee wee hours of the morning. Well, I wanted flavor and I got it!  Our first day out we took the double-decker, on-off bus around the 7 neighborhoods’. The buses were old, renovated and wooden on the inside and entirely in Spanish. If you sit downstairs, which we did due to the 25 school aged kids on the upper deck, the driver will point out everything else you might want to see and more. He pointed out some things we didn’t understand at all nor were on the “tourist information”  The
city has a very walkable and bikeable Centro. It features wide flat sidewalks
and streets with occasional tree intensive boulevards thrown in. Several of the
main streets are blocked for foot traffic only. Once I memorized the churches,
I was good to go with navigation. I cannot read a map, but once I’ve been there
and I can get there again, no problem. It’s one of my super powers. There is a
lot police presence, but they are not intrusive, whatsoever and they are
friendly. Everyone seems friendly and generally excited that we “foreign
tourists” are in their city. It is the Easter weekend and the Primavera
Festival had brought in Mexicans from throughout the country  (Apologies for the formatting, blogger is being a B*@$#.) | |
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