San Juan Nepomuceno

Okay, here's the promised blog about our Club de Campo: San Juan Nepomuceno. Known to us as the Nipple, to other socios as the Nepo, and to everyone else as el Cluuuuub.
It is literally 300 yards from our house and the kids can walk to and fro on their own. Here are Nanne and Ilse making the trek.

The club was built in the ruins of an old hacienda (400+ years old) used to clean the minerals taken from the mountain mines that were once a huge part of Guanajuato's economy and existence. It sits across from a river that we call the Po-Po River because of, well, all the po-po. I guess that it was once beautiful and abundant and a lifeblood of the community.

The socios or members of this place are all Mexicans, middle-class and up. There are many racquet sports, one of the main draws is the Fron-ten, an interesting game which seems to combine raquet ball, squash, tennis and who knows what else.

The kids are all over the pools. And I just wish we had a reason to use the amazing basketball court -- I always imagine Obama playing there.

Once the weather started warming up, we began to spend a lot of time swimming and playing at the cluuub. Now, don't worry, I still feel uncomfortable with the whole membership idea and this won't change anything back in the States. I can't rationalize it except to say that it is a part of this Mexican immersion we are having as the only gringo socios to date.

The kids take friends there many times a week. We will have their birthday party there. Most weekend afternoons stretch into evenings as the kids swim with their friends and Jos and I just take it all in with a michelada.