Scenes of Casa Carmen

Here's a peek at the lovely bed and breakfast where we stayed, Casa Carmen (you can read more about its history and amenities by clicking on the link to visit their website).

Arriving in Mexico

On the day I left for Mexico, I flew first to Houston.  The organizer of this workshop, Rebecca Brooks, had suggested that we arrange our connecting flights so that we all flew from Houston to Leon together.  As a result, most of us met first in the Houston airport.  I had lunch with Kathie Vezzani (at a restaurant called "Whataburger", which served the biggest burger I've ever seen - yes, everything is bigger in Texas!) and we quickly discovered we had a lot of artistic friends and interests in common.  We met up with everyone else at the gate and headed off to Leon, Mexico.  As it happened, four of us sat one in front of the other on the plane, which led to this fun photo:

Sherri, Ann, Bonnie and me

I took several photos from the plane, as the topography below was fascinating.

Once we arrived in Leon, we were met by our driver.  Suitcases were loaded onto the shuttle bus and off we went on the 1.5 hour drive to San Miguel de Allende.  Along the way, I took several of the worst photos I have ever taken in my life!  The bus windows were spotted, the road was rough, we were moving fast - it was a perfect storm of conditions not at all favourable to photography.  A lot of my photos turned out like this:

when what I really wanted was this!

Although sometimes the blurred effect turned out pretty well.

There were lots of interesting sights along the way, like this one, which appeared to be arrest in progress:

an unusual water tower

Mexican cowboys

and a town with straw reindeer lining the street.

There were also magnificent clouds in the sky along the route

and the sun was setting behind us as we drove.

When we arrived at Casa Carmen, we were greeted by Rebecca and her husband Billy and our two instructors, Judy Wise and Katie Kendrick.  We were shown to our rooms.  This is the one I shared with Ann Carter.  I had the ground floor room, she stayed in the loft above.

We were immediately served bottomless cup margaritas (no sooner did you notice your glass was empty, when it was magically filled again!) and sat down to a delicious meal prepared by the staff of Casa Carmen, including handmade tortilla shells.

The conversation and laughter continued as the musicians began to play (they were excellent!) and everyone began to dance.

The bonding between us all was immediately apparent!  All in all, a great beginning to what promised to be a special week.

Stung Again

I'm busy downloading all of my photos from Mexico.  It's taking a while, since there are so many of them, both on my camera and on my iPhone.  I'm also a little weary since arriving home, partly due to post-vacation tiredness as well as the end of daylight savings time and partly due to a bug that most of us seemed to pick up while we were there. I've been fighting a sore throat for the past few days and feeling the need to go to bed early tonight, which I didn't do last night.

So for now, let me just mention that I watched the movie "The Sting" on the flight back from Houston to Toronto.  Do you remember this one? Who could forget Paul Newman and Robert Redford in their second buddy movie together, hot on the heels of the success of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". It came out in 1973.  I was just 11 or 12 at the time but I still remember seeing it back then and enjoying both the plot and the classic Scott Joplin piano tunes. I've seen it a few times in the years since but didn't remember all the details, so there were still some surprises in the plot when I watched it the other day.

I enjoyed the 1930's Depression era set designs and the performances of the various supporting actors. Mostly, I just sat and admired Redford and Newman, enjoying their obvious camaraderie, and tried to keep the drool off my chin as I gloried in their handsomeness.

Saying Goodbye to New Friends

I have returned from Mexico.  Very reluctantly, I must say, having had such a great time and met such lovely new friends.  I am in the process of downloading the approximately 3,200 photos I took while I was there.  Mexico was no different from France, in that there was a new photo opportunity every three feet or so of interesting people and things. I'll be sharing those photos here over the next little while, but in the meantime, here are a few from our last day.

We gathered in the courtyard after breakfast for one last photo.  Janet stood up on the penthouse level to take a picture of all of us:

I snapped these photos as that was happening.  I like the energy of these shots, the way people are looking in different directions and making not-quite-ready-for-the-camera faces.

Then we started taking pictures of and with our beloved teachers, Judy and Katie:

And pictures with each other:

Mary and me

Jeanne, Bonnie, Alexis and Karen

Me, Billy and my roommate Ann

Sherri and me

Saying goodbye and thank you
to the wonderful staff of Casa Carmen

Cuarto amigos!

The paparazzi shot:

Sherry, Kathie, Karen, Alexis, Jeanne, Paula and Sally Jo

Then it was time to get on our little shuttle bus for the 1.5 hour ride to the airport.  Everything was going well until we realized Katie was crying as she stood with Rebecca and Judy and Billy, waving us off, which made most of us tear up too.  But leave we must and during the ride, we talked and laughed and made plans to meet again in the future.

Karen on the bus

What a fabulous group of people, what a wonderful time we had, what a beautiful town San Miguel de Allende was.  Saying goodbye is hard, saying goodbye to new friends who feel like family is even harder.  Until we meet again, adios, mis amigos! xo