01.-31.01.2007: Álamos The New Year started well. Helen broke off the inside door handle which meant she had to climb through the drivers cabin to get out and see whether we could open it from the outside. We thought we would have to go into town and see if we could find some sort of replacement. Fortunately, there are lots of other campers here and Mike (a regular here with his wife Joan, from Alaska) just drilled a hole and screwed it back on. It only took 20 minutes and will out live the motor home! Then Kirsten opened the freezer and the door came off! But we managed to fix it back on ourselves. We started playing Dominoes with Edi and Jochen and little Max pee'd up Helen's chair!! Helen took hold of his collar and stuck his nose in the pee and shouted "No!". Edi warned Helen that he might bite. Helen hosed down the stool and threatened Max with a shower!! Apparently he hates having a bath so he definitely got the message and didn't even growl! Moritz didn't like us playing dominoes because he wasn't getting any attention. So he came up to Kirsten with his big eyes and then tried to climb onto her lap. Edi was worried that he would knock the table and all the dominoes would fall over. To prevent that from happening, she grabbed his collar and tried to pull him away. But, as she pulled him away, he knocked his head on the table and all the dominoes went flying anyway!!! Jochen had about 30 stones lined up so he wasn't too happy but the rest of us killed ourselves laughing! By the way, Kirsten broke her own previous domino record of 998 points in one game by an never-to-be-beaten record of 1706 points!! Max and Moritz loved the campground so much that they ended up staying a lot longer than they had planned and only left because their Mexican visas were running out! Moritz loved to hang onto his ball for as long as possible and Max woke the whole campground up every morning by barking to tell us that he was going out for a poop!! The next problem was a 3 day stint of rain. Larry, one of the campers here, named the campground "The Blue Tarp Brigade" because almost everyone had some sort of leak and had to put up tarpaulins to try and prevent the rain from coming in. He was a bit miffed that he wasn't part of the group! Our alcove was still leaking because we haven't got enough silicon to repair it. But then the rain started coming through the air conditioning. So Winnie had a few buckets around! It was still raining when I was due to go for a violin lesson. There was no way to get in touch with Andrew to cancel. But Helen managed to get a lift up to their house (about 2 miles from the campground) to cancel! (She couldn't take her violin for fear of getting it wet.) That day also happened to be the first day of the music festival in Álamos. The festival takes place every year and is known internationally. It takes place over 9 days and there are various singers, dancers, folkdance groups, acrobats, and classical musicians from several countries who put on a wonderful musical feast that is mostly free. The music varies from classical opera to jazz, along with folk music from Mexico, South America and Cuba. There are two stages set up in different parts of the town centre where concerts take place during the day. The evening concerts took place at the main municipal building which were classical opera singers and cost between $6 to $12 per person. During the day there are also workshops for face painting, singing, mask making, printing and percussion. A lot of materials are provided for free and for some, there are also English translators as the workshops are in Spanish. We got a programme and wanted to see as many performances as possible. On Saturday there was a really good dance group, three men and three women, who danced to good music in their red and black costumes. It was contemporary dance incorporating acrobatics. They were very fit! There were so many people crowding around to watch that Helen and Edi stood on the back of a truck so they could see over everyone else's heads whilst Kirsten knelt down right next to the dance area to get photos. Then we walked down to another square where there was a temporary stage set up and every afternoon at 4pm a different singing or dancing group would perform. These 4pm concerts were our favourites. This is Mexico, however, so they never started at 4, but mostly at 4-30pm or later. These performances were always well attended and enjoyed. It started off with Mariachi music and a dancing group that represented Mexico at the opening ceremony for the World Cup football in Japan and South Korea in 2002. The ladies twirled around in very colourful dresses accompanied by the men in their traditional costumes and sombreros. On the next day we were treated to pan flute music from South America by Geovany Bedón from Ecuador and a Mexican band. Then came a Mayan dance group, Alia-Ca-Yeye, and an a cappella quartet - four good looking men who got the crowd singing and dancing. On the last day there was a Cuban who played Caribbean music and even the older Mexicans got up to swing their hips and have lots of fun. There was even a couple from the spectators dancing the Tango and Samba together who were applauded for their skills. Every concert was ended with loud shouts of "Encore" from the crowd. At 6pm most days there were Jazz concerts on a different temporary stage in the town and at 8pm there were the classical opera concerts with an entrance fee. There were also fire throwers/dancers, clowns, a school band and people on stilts wandering around the streets around the two main squares. We managed to get some photos of the people on stilts when they'd finished performing - there were too many people around whilst we were following them around the streets. Helen went and stood next to one man who leaned down on her shoulder for the photo. Unfortunately, Kirsten didn't see Helen at all because she was focusing on the man on stilts high above her. When Helen asked how the photo was, Kirsten didn't know what she meant - Helen wasn't in the photo at all!! So we had to get another with Helen in it this time! The festival lasted for 9 days and most of the time we ate from the many food stalls around town - including yummy hot dogs which unfortunately gave us a slight touch of the runs! But they tasted great! The only thing we didn't get to see were the cinema nights at the cemetery showing horror films from Midnight. It was far too cold to sit out in the open - the temperature dropped sometimes to below freezing. But we could hear most of the films because our campground is just around the corner! It was quite an exhausting week but the entertainment was fantastic. Saturday evening was the last night and unfortunately, a drug lord near the campground decided to throw a party all night with extremely loud Techno music. It was so loud that our motor home was vibrating as well as our chests and lungs. It went on all night and no one on the campground managed to get any sleep. At 6am the church bells started up. Kirsten thought it was an earthquake warning and started panicking!! It took a while for Helen to convince her that the bells rang every morning and that it wasn't anything unusual (except for the fact that they were accompanied by loud Techno music!) The "Techno Bells" were something that had to be heard to be believed! There had been several calls to the police during the night to complain about the music but they wouldn't go anywhere near the place. At 6-30 am Joan (one of the regular campers) went over and with hands on her hips demanded to know how long the loud music would continue. The answer was the wrong one.... till midday at least. She told them in no uncertain terms that that was unacceptable and that the music should stop "right NOW"!! Drug lord or not, Joan is not a woman to disagree with!! "Encore" Joan!!!