I wrote the following on Monday but only saved a draft. I'll post an update when I get more time.

Hi all. We're in Zacatecas today and will be heading to Guadalajara this afternoon. Since my last post we spent another day and a night in Creel, we headed south toward Zacatecas on Friday, spending that night in a city called Jimenez on the road from Chihuahua to Torreon. We got to Zacatecas Saturday night (one day ahead of schedule) and were able to spend two nights here.

Now for some details. The second day in Creel was spent exploring some of the nearby valleys in the mountains and a lake. That night was the main event of the festivities. As it turns outr there was a large meeting/cultural exchange/competition among high school students from all over the state of Chihuahua. There was the typical song and dance numbers, way too much talking by the MC, and somewhat of a power mishap that left the entire plaza without lights for about 30 minutes. After the lights came back on, the MC showed his wit by informing the students that if those that had not taken advantage of the outage where in effect now out of luck. The show went on with folk dancing by the students showing off the diversity of the state in their manner of dress, the music, and the dancing. What was remarkable about the whole thing is how enthusiastically the students embraced their culture and were eager to show it off. This is especially rare in teenagers. It seemed to us wathcing this that the richness of a country's culture can only be secured by the youth. From what we saw, it was clear that Mexico's culture was in very good hands. Impressive.

To leave Creel we decided instead of driving back to the city of Chihuahua and spend the night there once again, to drive south through the mountains and catch the main highway south of Chihuahua. The drive was a demanding one as it took about 7 hours for a 350km drive. The reason is that we basically drive through the canyons going from the tops of mountains all the way to the canyon floor several times. It was quite spectacular.

We were planning on spending the night in a city called Hidalgo del Parral which is where villa was shot. However, we made good enough time to press on to Jimenez. This put us within striking distance of Zacatecas and freed us from having to spend a night in Torreon. That's why we were able to arrive a day early in Zacatecas.

Jimenez is a desert town of about 70k people. It has a particularly charming quality that made me feel right at home. It reminded me of La Ceiba with the amount of activity there in the evening. The people were also quite charming and very warm. In particular, we met a lady whose house played a role during the Revolution. Edna was kind enough to tell us stories of her home, the town, the revolution, and mexico in general. We are indeed endebted to her. Muchas gracias.

From Today:
More on Zacatecas and Guadalajara to come. For know a few observations on our travels. There seems to be an inordinate fixation with speed control devices on the highways and roads here. They range from speed bumps, to speed buttons, to rumble strips all back to back (just in case). In general, driving here is prety easy because you are esxused for doing all kinds of unexpected maneuvers common to folks unfamiliar with the city. The flip side is you have to be prepared for people to do the unexpected in front of you as well. So far, its been a lot easier that we anticipated.

The customs and etiquete of performing the passing maneuver on a two-lane highway is also worth noting. The way it works is that the slower vehicle moves over to the shoulder or as far as possible. They then turn on their left turn signal to let you know you can pas now. The faster vehicle passes and any oncomming traffic moves over to the shoulder as well. It's all very gentleman-like.

One thing I will write about Zacatecas is that we woke up one morning to find that a passing car had knocked off the driver's side rearview mirror. As a general rule, when parking from now on it will be common practice to fold the mirrors in. Anyway, through our hotel we found out that there´s a market in Guadalajara where you can find all kinds of auto parts. I found the mirror I need and got it installed for less than USD70. Not bad!

I know I keep saying this, but I promise there´ll be more on Zacatecas and Guadalajara to come. We'll be leaving to Guanajuato this afternoon.

Later