Leon State Fair - La Feria Estatal de León 2023

Our second day in Leon was the start of the 26-day Leon State Fair (La Feria Estatal de León 2023). From everything I read, I had expected it to be a big deal, and it was even bigger on the ground

• Huge indoor convention center that hosed vendors as well a performance venue
• Three concert venues (one requires additional ticket) and an ice skating show  
• A circus
• Multiple informal outdoor performance acts/artists
• Four ferris wheels, and two or three of every other type of ride
• Hundreds of food vendors from kiosks to outdoor dining with uniformed waiters and mariachi bands
• Not as many animals (a few hundreds at the most) as I expected: horses, cows, goats, chickens

Everything was super shiny, state-of-the-art. John: This place makes the NC State fair look like a village fair.

Later we learned that the Leon Fair is the third largest in Mexico. Aguascalientes is number one. This totally explained the vast venue we saw in Aguascalientes that much puzzled us.

Two of the four big wheels.


First a Rockin' band with wrestling masks. ;-) And second, a 15-second video of a cover of Come Together by the Beatles




Long line for pan de soya.


Games and rides galore.






Animal tent.






The Gorditas Michoacana were sooooo tasty.




The best fair photos are always after dark, no?


















Walking home along the pedestrian avenue that connects Centro with the fairgrounds.




We stop at El Templo Expiatorio for a few photos.






Bonus.

Leon: Walking North from San Juan de Otates

On the third day in Leon, we got on the city bus to the village of San Juan Otates at 6000 ft above sea level to have a little walk in nature. The walk went by a reservoir. We tried to reach a cascada (waterfall), but the scrambling was beyond our abilities. We saw our first roadrunner, first kapok (silver cotton tree) in bloom, and a possible desert ironwood tree. The open, arid, hilly landscape is a distinct departure from hikes back home in NC. I couldn't help wondering what the landscape was like 500 years ago, before climate change, before conquistadors, what about 5000 years ago....

On the bus to San Juan de Otates.


Corn stacks seen from the bus window.


Our plan is to walk NORTH from San Juan de Otates past the reservoir and hike up to the Casacada (Waterfall). It's 2 miles to the reservoir and soon we are out of the village and into the countryside with grazing cows, donkeys, and horses, and some farming in the valley, and rugged rock formations above.














The reservoir lake and dam.




Past the lake we make an attempt to climb up along/in the rocky streambed to the cascada but very soon stop for lunch near the pool below, then retreat to the road to continue up.


The road continued up, up to 7300 feet to a junction with pretty good views where we turned around and walked back to town the same way we came.


The kapok (silver cotton tree) in bloom.


A tree with no bark. Hmmm. A desert ironwood?


Turnaround spot.


Turnaround spot panorama taken by SL.


Another excellent SL pano.


The view back down to San Juan de Otates and beyond.








Almost back to town. Dusty boots. Whew.




The bus back to Leon.

Finally in Mexico: Día de los Inditos

We were right to think ourselves unlucky once again. Our travel to Mexico happened upon the fated FAA NOTAM system failure that grounded all US domestic flights, the first occurence of such failure in history. Instead of 9 hours door-to-door, it took us 21+ hours from RDU to Leon, Mexico - driving would have required only another 12 hours. We don't need to wait for foreign terrorists to mess us up. We are doing pretty well by ourselves.

Our flying to Leon on 1/11 was predicated on the Dia de Los Inditos festival that has taken place on 1/12 since 1876. The festival celebrates Saint Juan Diego, a Mexican peasant who was visited by the Virgin Mary i.e. Our Lady of Guadalupe, by dressing in traditional costumes in the spirit of Juan Diego. It makes for a very colorful festival. Exhausted as we were, we were relieved that we did NOT miss the festival.

Arrivals / Departures Board - 9:06 AM January 11, 2023 - RDU. Our 5:24 am flight did not leave until 10:00 am ;-( causing us to miss our connection in DFW to Leon. Then we waited 7 hours for the next flight to Leon to leave, finally arriving at our hotel at 1:00 am on the 12th. Thousands of people were affected that day, we were happy to safely make it to our destination with only the pain of exhaustion.


Día de los Inditos was lots of fun. We walked with the locals up to the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Inside, a priest was blessing the participants and offerings were made at the altar. And outdoor "studio" photos were taken.










15-second video.




15-second video.


















Bonus photo: Leaving BJX, the Leon-Guanujuato Airport, in a taxi at just before midnight local time.

Travel News + Blog Update

First, the travel news: On January 11th we flew from Raleigh to Leon, Mexico to start a 5-month trip. We plan to travel in Mexico until the end of February, then fly to the eastern Mediterranean to visit Malta, Tunisia, the Middle East, and Georgia-Armenia-Azerbaijan, returning to Raleigh the first week in June.

Second, the blog update: Although we returned home from our Fall 2022 trip on December 14th, the blog is "paused" on October 31st, our last day in France. We still owe you 6 weeks of Italy. Stay tuned. We'll get back to Italy this summer. Meanwhile, look for posts about our travels in Mexico.

Thanks for reading and sticking with us the last 13 years! Yes, it's been 13 years since we became "retired and traveling". Wow! -john and sun-ling