Wednesday, April 6

Wednesday was a day with the dignitaries. And we were in their ranks! Our “limousines” in the form of red firefighting vehicles escorted us from our hotel to the town hall in Soledad de Sanchez Graciano (this small town in the “official” sister city right next to SLP).

We were greeted by the mayor & director of tourism (both strikingly handsome gentlemen)and people with titles too much to keep up with; then escorted into a courtyard to be seated in chairs marked “special guests”. There we heard speeches about friendship between the cities and saw the most wonderful group of happy folk dancers who spun around the floor in yards upon yards of brightly colored materials.

 Then officials dressed us in rebozos – our gifts – the beautiful hand made scarfs which take some three months to make. We also toured the room where the rebozos are made and later visited the little restaurant serving the original enchilada potosina. Of course we had delicious samples and I volunteered to make one, but I didn't have the touch.

Special comment here: While waiting for the program to begin (that courtyard was filled with townspeople) I spoke to a gentleman behind me, who turned out to be a well known artist named Jose Cruz. He and his family live on a ranch about 30 km outside the city. Here is a picture of him which we took later, with his son (our guide) outside Soledad's church.

We had just seen two of his very large oil paintings inside the church. Hopefully the next Sister Cities group can visit there.

 

Later in the day we gathered in a wonderful Brazilian restaurant, as guests of the mayor, and that's when everyone shed the formality and had quite a good time! Grilled meats (about 20 different kinds) were brought out on long skewers and sliced with super sharp knives.

Ben referred to this event as a “tsunami of meat”, and when we translated this to our Mexican hosts they laughed since they too use this word.