We awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the mountains. It is a perfect temperature in Chihuahua city, dry and warm but not too hot or too cold. Our first outing today was to the local farmer's market. The vendors included the traditional vegetable and fruit vendors, as well as shoe stores, pinata stores and herbal stores. The herb stores also sell all kinds of soaps that are meant to "cure" various conditions or to perhaps make someone fall in love with you. Also available for sale was rattlesnake and ground up skunk. One of the cough medicines had a picture of a skunk on it, and it is said to be very good, although that particular product does not contain anything from the skunk. We then went to the place where Hidalgo was executed. The building is pictured below.
Another short trip on the bus took us to the cathedral. In front of the church were lots of pidgeons and a few vendors selling seeds to feed the pidgeons. Here are just a few of the birds:
Below is a picture of the cathedral.
We then split up for lunch, half going to one restaurant and the other half went to the top of an administration building, approximately 20 stories tall, and had a simple and cheap lunch, although it did take awhile. Cheap, good, fast, pick any two I think is the saying. After lunch a few of us went to one of the 5 fabric stores in two blocks to purchase some ribbon to give to the indians when we go to the Copper Canyon later on. 10 meters of satin ribbon cost 11 pesos, less than one dollar.
The evening meal was a special dinner with local families, six in all. I got to go to Blanka's house for a delicious meal of chile rellano, refried beans and rice, with a tasty lime custard for desert. Two of us, Pat Barrett and I, speak and/or understand enough Spanish to complement the hostesses knowledge of English. It was a very pleasant evening. Tomorrow we are off to the rugged mountains of the start of the canyon.
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