Friday, May 8, 2009

Durango

March 1st to 4th

Durango is a little visited cowboy town in the Sierra Occidental range built on iron, gold, silver and later on it's cowboy film industry. We arrive back here by coach after the detour to Mazatlan for the Carnival - it's not breaking the rules as we already cycled the road between Durango and Mazatlan. Sue says so. 

The journey is a nightmare as the bus grinds up the 2500m incline, bucking and swaying as the road meanders along it's drunken course. An overheating engine turns the interior to a sweating sauna and passengers begin to wilt in the estimated 100 degrees. The bike ride was definitely more pleasant except it takes 4 days longer!

As usual we manage to arrive in a town just as the party is starting and Durango is no exception. It's a "family weekend" with live bands, carnival floats, marching military bands and odes to the life of Pancho Villa all staged throughout the day all round the city centre...



Sure, the place is packed with locals, but why does nobody visit here from elsewhere? it's noticeable people staring at the gringos, not in an offensive way, just with surprise and interest; white faces are rare here. No it's actually really friendly and the city is lovely. The central plaza has beautiful fountains, a well used band stand and a cathedral....



The Palacio de Gobierno (government palace, or town hall) has amazing murals depicting by gone days in the city and other images of industry and commerce....



The theatre has attracted an international Russian dance troop to perform. It's an amazing show....



There's a high quality archeological museum of local finds, complete with grisly idigenous indian skulls, their teeth filed to sharp castellations and deformed using head binding. That's fashion for you!!



The art museum is similarly excellent, with a range of fabulous murals, and dark gothic oil painting by Durango's own Guillermo Ceniceros for whom the museum is named. There are contemporary artist's studios with current work on display all set in a gorgeous old colonial style building with fountains in the courtyard.

On the bright side, the lack of tourism does keep prices down. We pay just $4 US for front row tickets at the theatre and the $22 for a king size air conditioned room with private balcony is a steal....



A short bike ride out of town you can visit the actual film sets used by Big John W himself amongst others like Dean Martin. On weekends there are gun-slinger and horse shows, but we arrive midweek and are the only patrons. We get the place to ourself and it really adds to the atmosphere as you walk creaking boards in to the old saloon, jail and hotel. Taking time to rehearse, some of the actors put on a private show for us....



OK - learning a foreign language.
You see the problem with Spanish is that just a small change to a word can really make a big difference to a sentence. As the place is deserted, I get to ride the horse for a bit. Now I don't like horses very much and am pretty glad to get down when the photo has been taken, whereupon I tell the man with the gun....



"I'd rather ride a bicycle than a horse - horses are just too big and strong".
 
Now the word for horse is "Caballo". 
And the word for cowboy is "Caballero". 
Quite similar, but very different.
If you use the word for Cowboy in the sentence above - you get a slightly different reaction -  especially if you happen to be wearing lycra shorts.

We leave town the next day.


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