El Fin de Semana

This weekend was action-packed:
Friday night Ingrid and I invited Rosaria, a fellow teacher, to our apartment to watch Amor En Costodia. We even let Talea stay up and watch the titilating program with us. Ingrid covered Talea`s eyes during the kissing scenes, which means Talea saw only half of the soap opera. The other half consists of men or women crying, or cursing, or crying and cursing. If we make this a routine, Talea is going to leave this republic melencholy, and with a vocabulary of a Mexican sailor.
Saturday we visited Anna, a fellow teacher, at her house on the other side of town. Ana is a great lady, full of wonderful stories of Durango past. She lives in a large, old house that she shares with her daughter and mother-in-law. After our visit, we walked a few blocks to Parque Guadiana. It is such a huge park that we only visited part of it. Still, it was so beautiful, with so many things to do, all three of us agreed to come back more often. The public park is full of trees, landscaped areas, ponds, playscapes, vendors, and families.
Saturday night we went to a professional basketball game. We received four v.i.p. tickets from some ballplayers that live in our building (one is from Mississippi, the other two from Texas. Nice, polite guys, they make a great impression of Americans on and off the court). We invited Juan Daniel, a friend of ours, and spent an exciting evening cheering Durango´s Lobos Grises as they challenged Chihuahua´s Lobos in the season´s last game. Although Durango lost by just two points, it was a fantastic match to watch. The most impressive part of the night, though, wasn´t so much the game, but Talea´s transformation from a mascot-phobic crybaby, to a mascot-bullying hyper-fan. By the second period, Talea was so caught up in the game, she shouted to the wolf mascot to get out of her way. He did.
I guess we´ll be going to more public events now.
On Sunday, Ingrid`s gringa belly returned, so she stayed home while Talea and I went to church. By the time we returned, Ingrid felt better, and we went to visit the rancho of friends of ours. The rancho, or weekend home, is located about 70 kilometers south of Durango, near a town called Nombre de Dios. Apparently Nombre de Dios was the first Spanish Settlement in the state of Durango, soon abandoned for the silver-rich mountains of what is now the town of Durango. The area is semi-arid, so a lot of cactus is combined with little other vegetation. We saw a turantula near the house, and we were told that wild cats roam the hills. The house is at the site of a natural spring. Cold, pure water runs through the property, and we spent the afternoon eating, drinking and playing with the family and friends of our good friend Clara.

Feliz lunes,

Pepino Suave Out