I have just returned from a wine judging trip to Mexico. The flight was gruelling but once landed in Guanajuato, some 34 hours after leaving Johannesburg, it was worth every hour of the journey. What a gorgeous place! The Mexicans are happy, colourful, content, musical, and seemingly incredibly proud of their Spanish heritage which seeps and taps its way out of every pavement stone, brightly coloured shack (abject poverty abounds), make-shift store, pub, and café. The architecture runs from Spanish hacienda through functional, through semi-post-modern, to just plain falling apart altogether and, as I say, the buildings are painted bright red and purple and yellow and green… There is a sort of sultry, sensuality that flows through the air and rises on the expressions of the beautiful coffee-coloured women. They wear a ‘don’t mess with me’ sort of look which is matched by a similar ‘stop me if you can’ glint in the eyes of the equally good looking men. Its fascinating, exciting, and fun. Everything actually works. If we think we have some impressive illegal electrical connections in SA – well you ain’t seen nothing yet. I am not sure if they are legal or not, but there are massive tangled webs of chord draped from one street pole to another that I’m certain nobody can really make sense of. There are hundreds of street dogs, and oftentimes you will see somebody filling up big buckets of water that they dot about the place to ensure their furry ferrals are kept hydrated – its hot! 40 degrees and upwards. |