San Miguel day four: it has rained rained rained all day. We took our umbrella (from the hotel) and went on a little bus ride out to La Placita, an open air market that the locals all go to: a mix of Pike Market, a Thrift Store, Goodwill, and Farmer’s Market. Piles of clothes on tables, some new, some used, some just gathered together in bundles and tied together. All sorts of fruit and veggies for sale. Also tables and tables of bootleg DVDs, CDs, electronic devices, remotes, etc. And numerous little cocinas, with old ladies making torillas, and grilling pork or chicken, and steaming corn, and etc, with bowls of salsa and guacamole sitting out on the counters. The local families were all sitting together and eating like it was a day at the fair. Because of the rain there will little tarps put up everywhere, strung over the booths. And every now and then a build up of water would spill over and make a huge splash, which nobody seemed to notice or mind.

We came back and napped at our room, then went out for a Starbucks (yes there is a Starbucks here, and it is very nice and large, and full of gringos on their laptops or talking on their cellphones, or staring cross-eyed into their ipods, just like in Seattle! Or anywhere else). Then Dean bought a San Miguel tee-shirt, and I bought a scarf (a new men's fashion accessory?). And we scoped out a new place to have dinner tonight. Maybe El Ochenta?

If it were not raining so hard, we would probably have done a daytrip to the Botanical Gardens today. But alas, it has been pouring non-stop. We leave for Puerto Vallarta tomorrow. And we should get a good week of sunny weather and the beach before we have to go home. One can only hope.

Not getting a lot of new writing done, but I have done a lot of reading, and a fair amount of revisions. And also ordering of the new manuscript. It feels good. It feels good so far.

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