Yes, I am a real vampire. The vampire legend is typically told as a morality tale, one told to warn a young woman of the dangers of an older man; and I am just such a danger. A vampire is driven by a hunger to seduce, to posses, to enflame the blood of someone young and in the flower of youth. It is why we are both feared and revered. A very powerful vampire, I am able to create the image that I am lighter than air, have a desire that no mortal can comprehend, and that only she whom I desire can fulfill my desire and lead us both to an ecstasy that even she cannot imagine.

Another vampire has described this path to ecstasy as blurring everything in his consorts mind, causing the consort to become drunk on his words, his aroma, his –slight’ touches…just to arouse the consort further. He makes the consort believe that the vampire has hungered for him in ways not comprehensible to normal lines of thinking…he makes the consort understand that there is a place behind the day where he and the consort must be together and finally he makes the consort agree to join him there.

It is my oath to the vamp I seek that both the journey and the destination will be sublime. A true vampire must deliver as promised.

On Monday, January 2; I took a turistica bus from Guadalajara to Zacatecas, Mexico. I left GUadalajara at about 9 am and arrived in Zacatecas at about 2 pm. I collected my luggage and flagged a taxi. I asked the taxi driver to take me to a hotel familiar (2 stars) in the centro. He asked me how much I was willing to spend and I answered. He recommended the Hotel del Sol, which we went to. It looked like a reasonable familiar and it was quite inexpensive with rooms available; so I took one and paid for 3 days. It turned out that the hotel was actually about a mile from the center of town an not in it as I had been told by the taxi driver. But the walk to the center of town was almost entirely downhill--with a taxi ride home.

I spent the first afternoon exploring the immediate area around the hotel, eating lunch and napping. Early the next morning, I ate breakfast and then I took a tour of the Mina Eden, a Spanish Silver mine that operated from the 18th century until the mid-20th century. The tour focuses heavily on the role of native slaves in the mining operation and the toll that the mine took on their lives, health and culture. It was easy to get a sense of the deaths and tortured souls that the mine had hosted. The flooded chambers only enhanced a sense of isolation and loss. After the tour, I took the mine train back into the city and had lunch. After lunch, I went shopping for belated Christmas presents and found a wonderful huichol vampire mask. As soon as I am able I will photograph it and include it here.

Shopping and lunch led back to the hotel for a siesta. I was clearly in need of energy and the two trips to the centro had revealed a Hotel Quinta Real on the way. The Quinta Real is a very high-end Mexican hotel chain that always has an excellent bar and restaurant: a perfect hunting ground. So I put on my best black and headed out to hunt. As I walked in to the hotel I met a very attractive, young hotel clerk. She directed me to the bar. I sat down, ordered a vino tinto, pulled out my book and began to watch. Not long afterward the same clerk entered the bar. She came over and spoke to me, and I thought here is a perfect energy source so I began to feed. Immediately as I did so, she disappeared behind a rock wall for a couple of minutes. When she reappeared, she was smiling. The hunter had been hunted. The next day I began to get sick.

The next day, I went to the Coronel Art Museum--very nice collection of early 20th century fantastic and surreal art. But, I was really beginning to feel the effects of the previous nights encounter. So, another lunch and siesta. I spent the evening at a bar on the square near the cathedral reading and drinking vino tinto. The next day I went to an a museum with a collection of huichol masks but by this time I could not stay on my feet so I sent to a clinic. The physician gave me some asthma medication and told me to go to bed for the rest of the day. I did. The next day the mask museum was closed so I went to a huichol art museum. It had excellent huichol "paintings" (bead work). I spent the rest of the day shopping and siesta'ing. That evening I went hunting again at the bar near the cathedral to much more success. I was feeling better. The next day I returned to Guadalajara.