Day 19 – Saturday 8th October 2005

After another quality breakfast, Rob & I said goodbye to the Casa Margarita and the three cute German girls who had stayed the previous night and were taking the same trip we had taken the day before. Talk about bad timing. We bought tickets for the bus to Chihuahua & departed around half ten. The bus journey was pretty uneventful aside from the bands that kept boarding and playing a song then getting off at the next stop.

On arrival in Chihuahua we dropped off our stuff and went for a stroll around the place. After visiting the former home of the Mexican revolutionary Francisco ‘Pancho’ Villa, we walked around the streets for a while. First impressions of the place were that it was kind fof drab and industrialised, apart from a sighting of Herbie.

However it seemed I judged it too harshly. The city was in the middle of hosting its International Festival and when we went out for some evening chow we stumbled into the middle of the festival. The main plaza of the town had been transformed into a giant stage and a hell of a lot of people had congregated to see the main event, a Spanish flamenco act flown over especially for the occasion. I didnt catch the name, but they were pretty good and the crowd were very appreciative. To go along with the music there was of course, food – and lots of it. I sampled some sweet bread (Pan Dulce) and tomales, which are a kind of maize with peppers inside.

On a side note, the area of Chihuahua aside from the breed of dog is renowned for its cowboys. They are everywhere, and it seemed that fashion was paramount to these folk. The boots they wore were sold on every corner, in every colour you can imagine.

That really went for shoes in general. Walking down the main plaza of the town was like being in one big shoe shop. Chihuahua is definately a place for all those women out there who like their shoes!