Pirates in Paradise 2008 - Key West, Fl
Extra Page: he "New" Baby Lion Visits Mexico
This Easter Egg page is especially for Grace Thatcher.
If you came from the main PiP 2008 page photo, you should know all about the first Baby Lion. If not, you may be wondering who, or possibly what, is a Baby Lion? Let me 'splain... No, there is too much; let me sum up. I met a young lass by the name of Grace (below left) at Pirates in Paradise in 2008. I wound up regaling her with the tale of Baby Lion - a stuffed animal my sis' and I fought over when we were youngsters. Through said fighting, Baby Lion became so mangled and bedraggled that Pater consigned him to the local dump. Sis' and I searched for him for years afterward whenever we accompanied dad on his weekly trash run. It was a most pitiful (and humorous) sight, I'm sure. This tale inspired Grace (who was 8 at the time) to create a new Baby Lion, just for me (below right, with spoon.)
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About the time Baby Lion was shipped to me, I was preparing to to visit two Mexican cities and an ancient ruin with my family. It seemed logical to make my new flat pal a traveling companion on this voyage. So Baby Lion, fresh out of the shipping box, made his first international voyage in February of 2009.
We stayed in the town of San Miguel in the middle of the town. Baby Lion wanted to check out the sites before the first tour, so he had a look around.
Below left: Baby Lion hanging around with a pal. The doors in the city of San Miguel were very interesting and most had different kinds of curious door knockers like the one shown. Below center: Baby Lion talks with a San Miguel Street dog. Below right: BL is sitting on the railing of the balcony on the top floor of the house where we stayed, admiring the city skyline.
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On the first day, Baby Lion took a day-trip to the city of Guanajuanto. The name Guanajuanto means "Hill of Frogs" because there is a rock on one of the hills that looks like a frog. The people consider frogs lucky because of this. Most of the roads in Guanajuanto are in tunnels under the city. These tunnels were aqueducts originally constructed in the 16th and 17th centuries to stop the water coming from the surrounding mountains from flooding the city. The tunnels are fascinating to drive through, but they do not photograph well. Baby Lion visited the city, had lunch and climbed through the narrow, winding, twisting alleys built into the sides of the mountains.
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Above left: Baby Lion with Anjelica, our guide for the day tour and owner of a small, wonderful touring company we used all weekend. Above center: BL poses in front of the city in the valley before climbing through the alleys to the city central. Above right: BL posting on the arm of a life-sized Catrina in a Catrina and Candy store downtown. These Catrinas are made made of terra cotta, which is very fragile. They are made to show how dressing in fancy clothes is sort of silly since we are all going to die eventually.
At left: Baby Lion prepares to dig into something
Mission's sister ordered for him. My sister and I are vegetarians,
but most Mexicans are not. Since I cannot read Spanish, I let my sister
to order for me.
Baby Lion is probably not a vegetarian, but he thought the food looked good anyhow. I wish I could tell you what this dish is, but I don't recall. I thought the green sauce was much better than the brown.
On the second day, Baby Lion took a trip to the ruins of Teotihuacan. This is a very old city, the earliest buildings of which were built 200 years before the birth of Christ. It is the largest city discovered from this time period, having over 100,000 residents at one time. Archeologists are still uncovering buildings and artifacts at the site. Several temples and houses have been found here. Some of the houses were built on top of other houses, making it an interesting place to explore.
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Above left: Baby Lion at his favorite place, the Temple of the Jaguar. Here he is seen admiring an ancient picture of a jaguar. (The jaguar's face is hard to see because the wind and rain have damaged it over the thousands of years since he was painted. You can see part of his open mouth on the right in red.) Above right: BL looks up at the largest temple in this site - the Temple of the Sun. The temple was originally much larger, but a treasure hunter used dynamite to try and get inside the old temple. Unfortunately for him, the temple was built in layers and the dynamite only removed one layer. No valuable treasure was found inside, only colorful rocks. You can climb the Temple of the Sun - the little dots at the top are people standing on top of it.
Below left: Baby Lion looking down the long Avenue of the Dead. On both sides of the Avenue, you can see the remains of houses of the priests who lived in Teotihuacan. Most of these houses have been torn down by people who didn't understand their significance. Below right: me and my sister Suzanne with Baby Lion in front of the Temple of the Moon. That Temple is very large, but it is smaller than the Temple of the Sun, just like the moon is smaller than the sun. You can also see people walking on the Avenue of the Dead over my right shoulder toward the temple.
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Below left is the restaurant where we ate called El Gruta which means "The Cave." This restaurant is over 100 years old. The cave is much, much older. Because Teotihuacan is in the middle of Mexico and there is no shade, it gets very hot there. The temperature inside of a cave is always cooler, so this was a very good place to put a restaurant. The cloth napkins were folded into interesting shapes which Baby Lion thought were fun to play on.
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On the last full day, Baby Lion took a tour of the city of San Miguel de Allende, which is the town where we stayed. San Miguel was founded in 1542 by a Franciscan monk named Fray Juan de San Miguel. The town was renamed "San Miguel de Allende" in 1826 in honor of General Ignacio Allende, who was captured in the war for independence from Spain. The Mexican government declared San Miguel a national historic monument in 1926, prohibiting modern construction to preserve the charming old Mexican town atmosphere. Many artists call San Miguel home - Baby Lion saw several of them working on their art during our tour.
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Above left: Baby Lion really, really wanted to gaze into the telescope on the hill that overlooked the city of San Miguel, so I broke down and spent the 3 pesos so he could do it. San Miguel was built in several stages. Our guide Angelica told us that the more colorful sections of town were built earlier than the other sections. Above right: BL playing on the stuffed bull in a charming little restaurant called Olé Olé that you have to be told about or you'll never be able to find it. There was a lot of bull-fighting materials and posters on the walls.
Below left: Baby Lion looks with awe at the large spires of the main church, La Parroquia, the Church of St. Michael the Archangel. It was built in the late 17th century. The church was given a facelift in the 1800s, adding the Gothic pink-hued sandstone spires you see here. Below center: BL admires a shrine in the city. Below right is my family. Baby Lion took the photo, so he could not be in it.
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