San Luis Potosi

About 2 hours from San Miguel de Allende, is a city of about a million people called San Luis Potosi. Mark and Victor moved there approximately six months ago and are nearly finished remodeling their new house (which they bought for a song compared to San Miguel).

“The city is so clean you can eat off the streets . . .” Mark kept telling us. Intrigued by their stories and haunted by their invitations, Christine, Mario, Rodrigo and I set out for an overnight trip. (We also had Victor to guide us since he had taken the bus to San Miguel a few days prior.)

When we arrived, Mark gave us a tour of their modest five bedroom home, including hardwood floors (how I miss those), enormous walk-in closets, beveled glass sliding doors, a modern kitchen to kill for, a garage and a separate entrance where Victor intends to open a café/gallery; all this walking distance to the historic center.

I begrudgingly put down Griselda, their eight week old Chihuahua, and we set out for dinner. We had been told that San Luis has scored number three in the world as a “City of Lights” (behind Paris and Prague) because of the way they illuminate their historic district at night. In addition, it has to be the cleanest Mexican city that I have ever visited.

We had a delightful dinner at a restaurant called Apicus http://www.apikus.com/, overlooking the square. As we were leaving it began to rain. We darted into a local gay bar (unlike San Miguel, San Luis has several gay bars) where an extremely young crowd was gathered. So young, in fact, that I began to feel a bit like a chaperone. So after we consumed the free beverages that were included with our cover charge, we departed for our second venue. By this time we had to jump small rivers to get into taxis.

(Apparently, back in San Miguel, it was raining as well, because Christine received a call from one of her co-workers. He had borrowed his boss’s daughter’s car and the water level in town had risen so high that the car was beginning to float down Canal Street.)

Mark & Victor

Me & Strippers

Wherever we went, Christine, Mark and I were the only gringos. It was really endearing when I would order in Spanish and the waiters would respond in English, apparently eager to practice. “How’s my English?” one waiter asked me. “Better than my Spanish.”

It was still raining when we left at 4:00 AM. Declining Mark’s offer to take us to yet another venue, we couldn’t find taxis to take us home. “It’s only about five blocks,” Mark said. I didn’t count but those seemed an awfully long five blocks at 4:00 in the morning in the rain.

Mario & Griselda (after running in the rain)

The next day we walked to a breakfast place in an old mansion and later, while Christine was getting a pedicure, we briefly walked the neighborhood. We had a late lunch at a wonderful Sushi restaurant, where the floor was Plexiglas over a goldfish pond. (How traumatic that must be for the goldfish, constantly thinking, “I could be next.”)

Rodrigo and I at the park near Mark & Victor's home

Barely resisting the urge to pack Griselda in our overnight bag, we left for the Casino on our way out of town. Mark has won over $30,000 USD playing the slots since moving to San Luis. We were not so lucky and hit the road after sinking a few hundred pesos each.

The rains have continued daily, usually in the evenings. The grass is growing faster than the gardener can cut it. Two places on the road to our property are either covered by mud or a moving stream, and our poor maid walks to work. She told me that while we were gone, she had to wade through the stream to get to work, and her pants got wet to just below the knee. Since we were not home she removed her pants and worked the rest of the day with a towel around her waist. So off we went to the store where I bought her some rubber “botas”. She is sporting them with pride.