No garbage cans... and yet no garbage!

Monday morning we drove up the hill from Mineral del Chico to Mineral del Monte. 

Mineral del Monte is a larger town, and at a higher elevation. Population about 14,000.

They even have a large, relatively level parking lot close to town where we can overnight for free.

First on the agenda was to get laundry done! We found a place about a half km walk. 118 pesos ($9 CAD, $6.40 USD) for everything washed, dried, and folded. Not bad. It won't be ready until this afternoon though.

Then we went wandering around town. Again, not many level streets... you are either going uphill or downhill!

We went to the central plaza and church. It was still early and there weren't many people around. I noticed in the plaza a statue on a park bench. These are quite common in Mexico. I though to myself that maybe it was one of those people who dress themselves up as a statue for tourists, because we see them quite often here as well. Then I thought it would be odd for one of them to be out so early when there aren't many people around.

We approached it cautiously, and the closer we got, the more we thought it was a statue. 

Ruth was about to sit down for a photo beside the statue, when it moved! Ha... it took us both by surprise because we were convinced it was a statue, even when we were only a few feet away.

Ruth, with the "statue".

She stood up and gave Ruth her pistol.

We gave her 20 pesos for the photos. I wonder how much she makes in a week to sit there absolutely still. Really well done. 

Inside the main church.

These colorful paper (or plastic) decorations are called papel picado.

Mineral del Monte is also known as Real del Monte.

Black Coffe and happy ice cream!

This smaller church was built in 1648.

Unfortunately it was all locked up.

Scenery along the way.

We decided to head up to a mirador (viewpoint).

Friendly donkey along the way.

Of course Ruth said hello to him.

Just out for a ride.

Nice view.

Typical tourist shops up at the viewpoint.

Old mine site.

More tourist shops.

Mineral del Monte.

Another view.

How the British brought soccer (football) to Mexico.

In the evening after Ruth made dinner, she asked me to go out and find somewhere to dump our full trash bag. You would think that this large parking lot would have a trash can or two, but there is nothing. So I went for a walk with full trash bag in hand. I was gone for 20 minutes and did 1.9 kms looking for a bin to dump the bag! I finally found a private car park where they had a drum where I could put the bag.

It's quite odd... there are no trash cans, and yet there is very little garbage lying around. 

We have to hang around until this afternoon when our laundry is ready, so we're off to do some more exploring!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***HOT DEAL*** Big price drop today on Men's Levis Jeans!

And in Canada...

Check out the deals at Amazon.ca.