Guanajuato and the Mexican Spider Monkey

 Camping was good, we stayed up too late and slept in, broke camp and hit the road about noon. Theres alot of toll roads in mexico, we spent $50-70 american. The free roads are often in sad shape.

Just outsode of Guadalajara we pulled into a rest stop and I was assulted by a kid about 5 years old before I even got outof the vehicle. He climbed up the side of the Donkey like a mexican spider monkey and before I knew what was happening he had the door open and was practically in my lap. He was chatting away in something not english, the only thing I could make out was an occasional 'Senor'. I shoo'd him away so his mom could wave a washcloth at me, which she did after babbling at me in her language.
I thanked her and told her I already had my shower that morning, and she wandered of so that someone else, presumably her husband could repeatedly say 'One Dollar' while waving around some necklaces and braclets, which he did. I discovered that 'No, Gracias' in their strange language means 'Please repeat yourself, I'm not sure I understood'. Eventually he tired of repeating himself and asked if I wanted some water or juice. I again, in his native tounge, asked him to repeat himself until he gave up and left.

We made it into Guanajuato about 7pm, we would have been earlier except Google's scenic mode kicked in and we took the long way. We got to see a fair bit of this cool little town. The roads are small and narrow, you can tell this is a very old town. Cobblestone streets and really big cool old buildings. Lots of tunnels, I can hardley wait to see it in the daylight. I'll have some cool pictures tomorow for sure!We finally made it to the campsite, and met a bunch of the other rally participants. We also met a group of Guys from Brazil who we thought were also involved but later discovered they're just cruising around. They had been as far north as Alaska last september and were now working there way south. They were even on the ferry that we were supposed to be on friday.

We wandered into town, they were having a bit of a celebration very similar to the one the previous night. Native dancing and fireworks, lots of street vendors and people milling about. Stopped at a few taco stands for some yummy food, then wandered aimlessly until we managed to stumble upon the parking lot thats now our campsite.

I'm typing this in the Donkey while waiting for some of the other participants to return so we can figure each other out. Eddie and Kathryn went into Leon to pick up Eddies son Brandon. Brandon has never been out of the US, Guanajuato will put him into culture shock. Tomorrow will be fun. Tomorrow will be the first day since San Diego that we didn't have to get up and hit the road, should be nice.

I'm still not very good at organizing pictures on this blog thing.