diff -r 87e906f2ad2d site-packages/mysql/connector/django/base.py
--- a/site-packages/mysql/connector/django/base.py	Wed Jul 09 08:06:52 2014 -0400
+++ b/site-packages/mysql/connector/django/base.py	Wed Jul 09 08:35:43 2014 -0400
@@ -389,7 +389,7 @@
                 raise ValueError(
                     "MySQL backend does not support timezone-aware times."
                 )
-        return self.connection.connection.converter._datetime_to_mysql(value)
+        return self.connection.cached_converter._datetime_to_mysql(value)
 
     def value_to_db_time(self, value):
         if not value:
@@ -400,7 +400,7 @@
             raise ValueError("MySQL backend does not support timezone-aware "
                              "times.")
 
-        return self.connection.connection.converter._time_to_mysql(value)
+        return self.connection.cached_converter._time_to_mysql(value)
 
     def year_lookup_bounds(self, value):
         # Again, no microseconds
@@ -462,14 +462,20 @@
         self.server_version = None
 
         # Since some features depend on the MySQL version, we need to connect
-        self._connect()
+        try:
+            self._connect()
 
-        self.features = DatabaseFeatures(self)
-        self.ops = DatabaseOperations(self)
-        self.client = DatabaseClient(self)
-        self.creation = DatabaseCreation(self)
-        self.introspection = DatabaseIntrospection(self)
-        self.validation = DatabaseValidation(self)
+            self.features = DatabaseFeatures(self)
+            self.ops = DatabaseOperations(self)
+            self.client = DatabaseClient(self)
+            self.creation = DatabaseCreation(self)
+            self.introspection = DatabaseIntrospection(self)
+            self.validation = DatabaseValidation(self)
+
+            # Cache the converter to be used by DatabaseOperations
+            self.cached_converter = self.connection.converter
+        finally:
+            self.close()
 
     def _valid_connection(self):
         if self.connection: