Back to San Diego

Posted on June 6, 2011 by wiley

Yup, not the most exciting of posts, but I am back in San Diego.  Rather than ruin this with bad news, lets begin with something positive, lets start with

18-1 Bitches

a post about freedom.   Remember Plaxico Burress, the guy who caught the game winning touchdown from Superbowl MVP Eli Manning to propel the NY Giants to a 17-14 victory over the Pats…well he was unjustly framed and sent away for a couple years but today that man is now finally free!  Welcome back Plaxico.  That catch was so devastating to Tom Brady that aside from all the crying I have previously mentioned on this blog, Brady actually faked a season ending knee injury 7 minutes into the beginning of the following season just to avoid having to face the deadly Eli-Plax combo again.  For that, I thank you Plax.

 

Bring sunglasses when taking pics of yourself!

The last post was from Mexico City, and alluded to the fact that I got sick.  I puked, for days, I couldn’t keep anything down, no  food, no water, nothing.  I was very weak, and it sucked.  Well, I had a post on all that somewhere……somewhere.   It was a pretty good post.  Our friend Roel met back up with us, he was also sick, though he caught his from elsewhere in Mexico a couple days before meeting us, so while he was in rough shape, he was lucky enough to be coming out of it, when I was going in.  I picked him up at the bus terminal, had a nice long story about how I puked out front in front of a bunch of people.  Then there was a little bit more that happened here, some stuff that happened there, who knows, the post is gone.  There wasn’t much aside from puking everywhere, as I told Paul and Roel they were on their own, I was too weak to worry about sightseeing.  We went to Oaxaca, and from there I left them and drove a bit outside the city to Hierve del Agua, which was a great place to recoup.  Admission is 20 pesos (under 2 dollars) and it was only around 3 us dollars a night to camp there.  The place cleared out by 7 in the evening, and I was the only person there the 1st night.  I enjoyed some more reading/guitar as I ate some rice to regain my energy.  I did not do much hiking, just walking to the pools and cliff nearly left me stranded due to my lack of energy.  The second day I hung out with a couple from

Hierve del Agua all to myself

Switzerland, and later that day Paul and Roel were able to meet up with me for one last night of camping, which ended with the 5 of us sitting around a fire fueled from an entire tree.  There is not much wood around up there, so you may want to bring your own, or look around before it gets dark.  Roelfound a downed tree that must have been 30 feet long.  The reason it was there was most normal people would not bother with that, well most people are not Belgian.  Roel broke down that entire tree, with a bit of help from Paul.  I used the old “Im weak from being sick” excuse and stayed away from that scene, due to our lack of saw, there was a lot of rock balancing and jumping on the tree to break it going on up there, I like to think I knew better, i’m probably just lazy.  For those thinking of checking this place out, I would recommend going there in the afternoon and camping the night.  I had the entire place to myself in the morning, and was able to get some sunrise pics, as well as the pools to myself.  As I mentioned I did not do much hiking, but this place wasn’t all that big, so it can easily be done with a day trip, but its about an hr from Oaxaca, so with the driving times you might as well enjoy some cheap camping.

Ok, so I left off hinting that Paul and I were unsure of our future plans, I know, pretty rare for us right.  In Guadalajara he had mentioned to people that we would be out of Mx in 2 weeks.  Well, we still had Mexico City, Oaxaca, the Yucatan, and everything in between before we would hit Belize (checkout a map, that is a lot of Mexican real estate to tackle).  It would by physically impossible to see everything on my rough list in 2 weeks, and of course that doesn’t include anything we randomly hear about or find along the way.  There was no way we would be able to  drive to the destinations I had on my list, let alone actually see them, all in 2 weeks.  This made me look at our future destinations and timetables as well, since Paul and I were both planning on being somewhere in the area of Argentina in the Sept-Oct time as he has to fly out of there to go to Italy, and I have to go to NY.  So we started talking about splitting up, I knew he could backpack at least Central America with Roel, which would help him get his feet wet on backpacking travel, and give him time to figure out his S America plans.  I figured I could either ditch him and go at a slower pace all the way to S America, or at least take my time down to Panama trying to arrive there around Sept, and then fly home for a short break from the trip.  Another option I did not spend much time considering was sticking together through C America, skipping things on my list to move at Pauls pace.  I dismissed this idea as I was concerned that I would for some reason or other end up not being able to go back and see what I missed, something I did not want to risk as there was already too much to see as it is.  I then started thinking about returning to the US, since even though we were 6 weeks into our journey, I was still only a 3-4 days drive from Cali.  Well, as the list of things I could use grew (I want a skid plate, and possibly bigger tires, and of course now that I am back I want a million minor things to change) the decision was easy, send that sucker packing.  Secretly this was all part of my master plan.  I mean come on, who in the hell goes to Central, let alone South America?  Don’t you people watch fox news??  Anywhere outside the US is a cesspool of poverty, crime, and Boston fans…yeah I think I will stay here for now.  I needed to find someone who didn’t know any better, someone I could get pumped up with tales of free flowing cervezas, and women who don’t care what language you speak.  I needed to send someone ahead, to scout things out, and test out the safety levels of the various 3rd world countries.  So the plan was simple, get Paul on board, and then once we were deep enough in Mexico and he was hooked on this adventure, leave him to fend for himself, survival of the fittest.  So now, I have decided I will wait at least until my brothers wedding before going anywhere.  This gives me time to make some changes/get a bit more organized, as well as see how long Paul survives.  I am shocked to say they have already made it to El Salvidor…I estimate I might have just been making it out of Mexico at this point, so we clearly made the right decision.

 

So I am not sure what happens now.  I have to admit it was easier when it was our blog, now that it is just mine I do not know that I want to have it.  As far as I am concerned you should have better things to do with your life than worry about mine.  I may let it go, or I may go all in, we will see how I am feeling when I finally depart.  I know there are some friends and family who are keeping up with it, and I do want to provide information that may help others with the logistics, but what can I say, I hate blogs.  Either way I will be redoing the site again…Paul was kind enough to get his own site AFTER I asked him if he wanted to keep using this one, which he said he would…..what a dick.  So, after setting it up for 2 people on separate trips, he informs me he will be keeping his own blog, so check out where Paul left off at 1guynoride.com.  For now I will keep everything and throw it under a “practice run” section, so that I can start fresh with a trip blog that goes in order and is not so confusing as the masterpiece Paul and I have made.  I make no promises to whether or not anything is done with the site after that!

Categories: 01 Trial Run-Mexico | Comments Off

Guanajuato

More colors
Posted on May 2, 2011 by paul

This is another post more about the photos than anything. Well, that and some info on places to check out, whether for eating or just to see.

The view from El Pipila

This city has been one of the highlights so far on our trip. I know we are only about six weeks or so in, but I don’t see that changing over the course of the next six or so months. There is a reason why this is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (there are 31 total in Mexico, more than anywhere else in the Americas!) and I hope some of these photos show why.

The city itself has a disorienting feel about, starting with its location in the mountains. You can’t see it until you drive through a pass in the mountains and then it begins to appear on the mountainside.  As soon as it appears, it disappears again as you drive into a tunnel. When you pop out of the tunnel, there is no indication of what direction you are facing or what part of the city you are suddenly in. But you are smack dab in the middle of a city and there are people

Why aren't houses in San Diego painted like this?

everywhere, cars honking and street signs likely to send you in a direction you had no intention of going in. This was one of the only times I was glad I was not driving because I would have just pulled over and studied a map for about an hour before moving another inch. Kiel prefers to figure things out on the go, so we went. And went, and went, not finding our camping spot. Instead, we ended up heading back out of town to regroup in the Bugamville Trailer Park, which was just a big, empty field.

We got camp set up just in time for a thunderstorm to pass through for most of the night. I’m happy to report that the Hubba Hubba tent I have been using withstood the best

Chilling on the rooftop

thunderstorm Mexico could offer and I came out completely dry, Although, I did not make it to the next morning without a little mental scarring. Just after sunrise I was abruptly awakened by what I presume to be a stray dog that sprinted straight at my tent, jumping into the rainfly and bouncing off.  Startled and disoriented, I reached for something to protect myself, coming up with the rubber mallet I use to pitch the tent. Mallet in hand, I laid completely still for about fifteen minutes while this dog sniffed around intently, poking his snout under the fly, trying to figure out how he was getting to his next meal. Finally, he left and I tentatively got out of the tent, telling Kiel we needed to get the hell out of there. So we did, heading back into the city. And somehow, we were able to find Morrill Trailer park right away. What a difference a day makes!

Don't remember what church this is, but I liked the pic

Other than the stunning appearance of the city landscape, as it climbs up the mountains, bursting with colors, there are some specific, interesting sites to check out WHEN you make it here. There is the Museo de Momias, which is on the outskirts of town, towards the Plaza de Toros (I’d give better directions, but I kept getting twisted around – but if you take Benito Juarez (the main street) out of the center, away from Nuestra Senora, you will eventually get there) and is within walking distance of the center, but there is a bus that goes there. It is $50 pesos to enter, or $35 for students (I used by BU ID from 8 years ago!). You are not supposed to take pictures, and I did not, but there were plenty of people snapping photos. There is also a tour guide (in Spanish only) who works for tips only, so hook him/her up. However, while the story behind the mummies is cool (bodies were exhumed in the late 19th century if families could not pay the imposed burial tax, but were preserved by the minerals in the ground) the exhibit itself is rather underwhelming. And don’t bother with the secondary exhibit when you exit from the mummy portion. I didn’t go, but Kiel said it was definitely not worth it.

EL Pipila, the hero of Guanajuato

The Pipila Monument is also cool, more for the view than anything. Again the story behind the monument doesn’t hurt either; the Spanish were entrenched in the Alhondiga during the war for independence and the Mexican nationals could not drive them out. El Pipila put a slab of stone on his back to protect him from the Spanish gunfire and crawled up to the walls of Alhondiga, spreading oil on the walls and setting fire to the structure so the Mexicans could attack. Ultimately, it was successful and the Mexicans won, with El Pipila getting a huge monument overlooking the city. You can take the funicular up ($15 pesos, one way) or you can walk up if you are feeling energetic. I took the funicular. The views are amazing and certainly worth the climb or the $15 pesos.

As with all major cities in Mexico, there is a main, central market, which is the Mercado Hidalgo in Guanajuato. It is a cool place to just walk around and take in all the sites and sounds. It was two levels, with lots of local crafts on the top floor and food on the first. Just to get an idea of prices, it was $9 pesos (less than $1 USD) for a kilo (2.2 lbs) of bananas!

Mercado Hidalgo

There is the Callejon del Beso, which is an alley leading up the wall of the valley with another interesting story behind it. The story has a Romeo and Juliet feel, as a young woman was forbidden by her father to see a young man she was in love with. Rather than listen to her father, she disobeyed him, as teenagers are wont to do, and arranged for him to visit her from the house across the alley. Since the alley was so narrow the balconies of the two houses almost touched, allowing them to exchange kisses, or whatever teenagers in the 18th or 19th century exchanged. The father found out and killed the daughter. Anyway, you can walk up in one of the houses for free and see how close it really is. Again, this is also right off the city center, just before you get to the Mercado when coming from Nuestra Senora.

Callejon del Beso

We really lucked out in meeting Rodolfo here, as he was able to recommend some great places to eat. Before me met up though, Kiel and I ate at Casa Valadez, which he mentioned had great pancakes and bread, as well as great coffee, for very cheap. It was right across from the Teatro Juarez in a crowded little plaza. The second day, Kiel, Rodolfo, Marianne and I had breakfast at Santo Cafe at Puente del Campanero #4, which has a cool little

FYI, this was not a picture of Kiel...

seating area on a bridge looking down over an alley.  I had huevos Aztecas, which were awesome and only ~$45 pesos. Most of the other dishes were about the same. Also, the waiter (not waitress) kept telling me I had beautiful eyes, which became the running joke for the day. He even showed up at the cafe we were hanging out at later in the day, Club Cafe (free wi-fi, just ask for the code – its LeBlu, shhhh!), and reminded me. I think he just missed his Norwegian wife. Anyway, the moral of the story is I have nice eyes. For dinner, we went to Trunco 7, which, oddly enough, is located at Calle Trunco #7, just behind Nuestra Senora. Kiel had the tortilla soup which looked and smelled awesome. I would have tried some had he not finished it in a matter of seconds. I had mole poblano con pollo, which was so tender, the chicken just fell off the bone. The mole was rich and was plentiful enough to be scooped up with the freshly baked bread. And my dish was only $70 pesos! Also, I

A little girl weaving palms on Palm Sunday

would recommend getting a liter of either (or both!) the sandia (watermelon) or melon (cantaloupe) refresco. It was so good, Kiel got a liter to put in his camelback for the walk home.

Finally, I will use this forum to say that Kiel is a wimp. We had a wonderful day touring the city with Marianne and Rodolfo, our new Mexican friend who lives in Poland (really, wtf???) and he could only have one shot of tequila with us! If I were Rodolfo, I would have been highly insulted. Instead, the three of us who were not wimps, came close to finishing the bottle, before Kiel and I headed back to camp.

I said it before, but I’ll say it again; I really enjoyed our time in Guanajuato. It was a walkable city, if you can handle the hills, has beautiful vistas, a lively spirit, great food and a sort of lost world feel to it. It seems like the Mexicans and Spanish know about it, but I don’t think US citizens, Europeans (except for a sprinkling of Germans and Dutch), or Asians have really discovered this place, but it is well worth the effort of getting there.

Categories: 01 Trial Run-Mexico | Tags: , | Comments Off

Futbol Mexicana

Posted on May 1, 2011 by paul

Estadio Jalisco

On Wednesday, Kiel, Roel, Marianne and I attended the Atlas-Pumas game at Estadio Jalisco, kickoff 8:45 pm. We had tried to get tickets to the Clasico between Chivas and America over the weekend, but that was sold out, so this was the next best choice. Getting to the stadium was pretty easy; again we took ruta 275 to the Lazaro Cardenas stop of the Macrobus and exited at the stadium. I’m not sure which stop it is, but just follow all the fans in the red and black jerseys. The stadium seats around 75,000, so getting tickets was easy. Seating in the upper deck is open, so just find a spot and take a seat.

Great save by the Atlas goalie

With typical Mexican efficiency, we had purchased our tickets and made it through security by the 20th minute, although we didn’t miss much action. I was really surprised by how disorganized both teams looks, loosing shape easily, hitting long passes to no one and bad fundamentals in general. I would say it is about the same level as MLS, with more flashes of technical skill. The only player that stood out for me was Moreno on Atlas. He did a decent job of holding up the ball even though he was getting terrible service. There were a few chances here and there, but the finishing was woeful and it was not until the last 10 minutes that Atlas really came alive. Pumas basically had possession the whole game until then, but it looked like Atlas might steal the game. It was not to be though and the game ended 0-0.

Nice tackle!

However, the crowd was entertaining. Sitting centrally in the upper deck was the Rojinegra fan group, who was singing for most of the game. I couldn’t quite understand most of the songs, but I did pick out a fair number of curses. There was a lot of flag waving, but a lot of it seemed half-hearted as Atlas was not showing much on the field.  There was a woman behind us reeling off every curse word known to man, which was entertaining. At some point in the second half about ten police officers escorted a group of the Rojinegra fans out, but I couldn’t tell why.

After the game

After the game we stuck around and got some tacos from one of the street vendors. Everyone was really aggressive so you had to fight your way up to order and be quick about it. Of course, Kiel got eight tacos, which were some of the biggest we have had all trip. While eating we met a gangbanger from Los Angeles who had spent time in jail in the US and had been deported. We have actually ran into a few other people who were in the same situation. After eating we hopped in a taxi back to Tlaquepaque, which was $120 pesos. All in all it was a fun night, although, I think the Clasico would have been much more lively. Next time!

Categories: 01 Trial Run-Mexico | Tags: , | Comments Off

The Ladies of Lucha Libre

Posted on May 1, 2011 by paul

This post is more about the pictures and I couldn’t help but use the alliteration in the title. It was just too easy.

On Tuesday we checked out Lucha Libre, which is Mexican style wrestling. As Kiel said, Senora Alicia was very enthusiastic about it, so we figured it was a must see. There is a “show” every Tuesday night at the Arena Coliseo GDL, which is located at Medrano 67, only a short bus ride from Tlaquepaque on Ruta 275, which you can catch anywhere along Donata Guerra. In case you haven’t noticed, Ruta 275 (sometimes it is 275-B, but I didn’t notice a difference between the routes) is the ticket into GDL from Tlaquepaque. Tickets were only $60 pesos and two beers were $50 pesos. Lucha Libre is much more about the show and the crown than it is the wrestling.  All the wrestlers must have been gymnasts or acrobats at some point, because these guys were flying all over the place. Of course Kiel thought he could do all the flips and jumps, but I don’t think he would stand a chance. I would be remiss if I also did not mention the ladies of Lucha Libre. Between each of the three rounds of fighting one would walk up the runway, similar to boxing and between matches six or eight of them would park on the runway and just stand there for the crowd to ogle. And apparently sign autographs for young girls.

As I mentioned, the crowd really gets into the action. All night there was a crowd to our left (we sat in the balcony) chanting at both the wrestlers and the fans. In fact, after the matches were over, we were standing outside deciding if we wanted to get some tacos when they came over to me, Kiel and Roel and started chanting Taliban at me! The next morning I shaved my beard.

Categories: 01 Trial Run-Mexico | Tags: , | Comments Off

A Refreser Course…In Revenge and Bureaucracy

Posted on May 1, 2011 by paul

Teatro Degollado at night in the Centro Historico

So after a few weeks of soaking up the rays in Baja California and along the Pacific Coast of mainland Mexico, we turned inland to Guadalajara.  We had decided to take a week of Spanish classes in Tlaquepaque, a suburb of Guadalajara (GDL), but Kiel already told you that. I had done some research and decided on the Guadalajara Language Center (GLC).  There were a lot of options out there, but this school ticked most of our boxes, including easy access to the city center, a homestay option with parking for the Astro, small classes and the ability to start according to our schedule.  We planned to stay for a week and were set to begin in a beginner/intermediate class on April 11.

Both Kiel and I had taken Spanish throughout high school (12 years ago!) and we had picked some  up in the first few weeks of our trip, but neither of us were conversational.  I guess having a perfect average through four years of high school and receiving a perfect score on the New York State Regents exam doesn’t get you anywhere close to being fluent in Spanish.  Thanks New York state educational system!

Churros!

Anyway, a few more words about GLC; the school is run by Wouter Stut, a Dutch transplant to GDL. He is a great guy and made it exceedingly easy to sign up and get us scheduled into a class. He was also very helpful with details about the city, how to get around on public transport, things to do and see and general information about Mexican culture. We had class from 9 am until 1 pm, with a short break after two hours.  There are other options available, including more or less hours per day and private lessons.  Kiel and I shared a class with a woman from Vancouver, Janine Coney, who was on vacation in Mexico for a few weeks. If you happen to be in Vancouver and need a photographer, check her out. In the mornings, our classes were taught by Monica and in the afternoons, we had Alejandra, both of whom spent most of the classes speaking only in Spanish.  Both were wonderful teachers and the verb tenses and vocabulary started stirring in my brain again. I wasn’t fluent after the week, but I certainly was understanding the language better and was able to gain some confidence when speaking, which was in short supply the first few weeks.

Kiel chiliing with Pope John Paul II

The reasons I didn’t get as much out of the class as I should have were twofold: Mexican bureaucracy and Montezuma’s Revenge. I won’t give you the gory details of the later reason as I don’t want to scare anyone away from the site or make anyone sick. I’ll just say, be careful when you order a drink to request no ice, even if you want a whiskey on the rocks. You’ll be better off drinking it warm. Besides, the flavor is probably more full without the ice, especially if you are drinking Old Grandad.

However, I have a lot to say about the former reason. As you may remember, I had not received a tourist visa when I entered Mexico since I had walked across the border in Tijuana, which is a “free zone”. Since La Paz I had been inquiring about it with local officials, but because of timing and excessive charges I had delayed the inevitable. Realizing I would be in GDL for a week, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get this out of the way. Being the second largest city in Mexico, I also figured things would be handled a little more “officially” instead of with the local flair of places like Mazatlan ($1,000 peso extra “fee”). Now, I should have went first thing on Monday morning, but I wanted to start class and get everything in order, so I decided to wait until Tuesday. When I arrived at class Tuesday morning, I asked Wouter how to get to the federal administration building since I wanted to go after class. Apparently, they stop fielding inquiries at 1 pm so they can be done by 3 pm. Must be nice.

Roel and I, with my Taliban beard

So Tuesday was out of the question and I was definitely going to have to miss class. Exacerbating the problem, while watching the Manchester United – Chelsea Champion’s League quarterfinal with Roel and Kiel on Tuesday, I had my whiskey on the rocks, initiating my demise for the week.

So Wednesday morning rolls around and I pick up the 275 bus from Tlaquepaque to GDL Centro. After an hour of fighting through rush hour traffic, I arrived at 500 Alcalde, which is the Palacio Federal. On the fourth floor was the Immigration office. What a zoo this place was! It was filled with Mexicans getting passports, Americans and Europeans renewing or getting visas for the first time and some people that looked like they had no reason to be there except for some sort of masochistic principles. I jumped on the information line, which is to the right when you get off the elevator. It is possible I never noticed this in the US before, but Mexicans give you no personal space while in line. I could feel the guy’s breath behind me on my neck the whole time and I am pretty sure he had eaten chiliquiles for breakfast.

Chess players were all over the centro

After about a ninety minutes of being shadowed, I spoke to a nice woman who helped me get the process going. I explained how I walked across the border and then took a flight, so I never received the tourist visa form. This appears to happen often, as she had a form letter already available; we just filled in the dates and location where I crossed. Next, I had to fill out an application online; conveniently, they had a kiosk right there. This is where things got dodgy. Obviously, the application was in Spanish, and I understood most of it, but there were all these odd questions about religion and whether I was working with a partner, etc. that I just did not know how to answer. Luckily, after about thirty minutes, I flagged someone down and asked what the heck was going on with these questions. She helped me finish the application and since the machine couldn’t print, I had to write down my application number and bring it to the other side of the office to present it for approval. Not so bad, right? Ahhh, but first, I had to find a bank to pay the application fee. Makes total sense, why would you be able to pay the application fee for an immigration issue at the immigration office? So I headed out to the nearest bank to pay up, acutely aware that time was quickly dwindling. I should mention now that Montezuma was attempting to viciously exact his revenge this whole time.

Iglesia de Nuestra Senora

I paid the $260 or so pesos at the nearest bank and headed back to the office just before 1 pm. I pulled a ticket number and waited. And waited. After what seemed like too long without calling a new number and no one at the counter, I just walked up and tried to explain my situation. In the middle of trying to show I had paid and providing my application number, it came to the woman’s attention that my application did not match my passport. I had forgot to put my middle name in the application, but it is in my passport. Damn you WILLIAM!!! I offered to write it in, but that would not work. I had to go back to the other side of the office and redo the application. So I did and returned. When I returned, a nice young gentleman was there, Armando, how spoke excellent English, who helped the process along. He explained that it would now take until at least Friday for the application to be processed, and, oh by the way, there was an additional penalty of $299 pesos that the first woman had forgot to tell me about, which was calculated by the number of days I was illegally in Mexico. How ironic that a San Diego resident was illegal in Mexico. So, I was coming back on Friday, hoping that the application would be ready and Kiel and I could set out on our way.

Centro Historico

So Friday morning I rushed through breakfast, explaining to Senora Alicia that I had to return to the immigration office and would miss another day of classes. Maybe I wasn’t meant to speak Spanish. Anyway, off on the 275 bus again and into Centro, having paid the penalty and done all that was asked of me by Mexican Immigration. I was actually rather nervous as I was expecting that I would have to wait until at least Monday and that there would be some new fine I would have to pay. Not understanding the process causes a level anxiety that I am not familiar with and I began understanding (only slightly) the apprehension that Mexicans must have when awaiting their fate from the US government. It all seems rather arbitrary.

So I arrived at the office and went straight to pull a number. I was there early enough that the line was not too long and my number was called within twenty minutes. I was hoping to get the same woman that I submitted the application with, but I got her less patient, less helpful and more incompetent coworker. I showed her my application, the receipt from payment of the fine and my passport. She had no idea what was going on. I asked if Armando was around, as he helped with the application. She said he was and told me I had to wait for him. But she took my application and receipt and told me to sit back down, rather brusquely.

The front of our homestay

After waiting for quite a while, I saw Armando and asked him what was going on. He told me that it would be a little bit longer, maybe 20 minutes, but that he needed the original receipt for payment of the fine. I explained that I already provided that to the woman who had helped me earlier in the morning. Not surprisingly, she completely denied that she helped me and that I gave her the receipt. I showed Armando all of my paperwork and explained again that I already provided the receipt and asked that he check if it was mixed up somewhere. He looked around for awhile, but could not find it, explaining that I would need that to finish the application. I made it clear that she had taken the receipt and that they would have to find it. Luckily, the woman who had helped me on Wednesday decided to look around the three desks to see if it was misplaced. Wouldn’t you know it, the receipt was on the rude woman’s desk, buried under a pile of other applications. Even though it was right there, she continued to deny she took it and tried to blame it on the woman who helped me!

Either way, they had all they needed so Armando told me to come back around noon. I left to try and eat something and returned at noon as instructed. Armando explained that it would be another twenty minutes or so, so I sat down in the office and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally at 3 pm, he reappeared with my tourist visa and a form for me to sign and I was on my way! In total, I spent about two full business days in that office, missed two days of classes and was out about $550 pesos. The moral of the story is get your tourist visa as soon as you cross the border!

Me, Kiel and Senora Alicia

GDL was not all bad though.  First, our homestay was great. As Kiel mentioned, we stayed with Senora Alicia, a widowed, older woman, who was unusually vibrant and full of vigor. And an excellent cook! In addition to the fresh fruit and fruit juices at almost every meal, she whipped up delicious traditional Mexican fare that was healthy and filling without weighing you down. For breakfast we had dishes like chiliquiles, huevos con chorizo and frijoles; at lunch, which was the biggest meal of the day, we had sopas, quesadillas and mixtas (unfortunately, I missed a couple of lunches); and for dinner it was always something light, like a bocadillo. Everything was made with fresh ingredients and right in front of us. It was a wonderful change of pace after eating mostly rice and tacos for the past few weeks.

Casa de Senora Alicia

Her house was also beautiful. As Kiel mentioned, we each had our own private rooms with bathrooms in a separate building across the courtyard. The house was Spanish colonial, with bright, colorful tiles adorning the walls and trees and flowers throughout the courtyard. There were also two dogs, Cleopatra and Ben Affleck. I think the dog had more talent than the actor, but that’s just my opinion.

GDL itself was unlike any of the other Mexican cities we have been to. It was very modern, with highrise office towers, broad avenues, shopping malls and abounding with technology. However, it has not lost all of its traditional Mexican and colonial feel, especially in the historic center.  We walked around a couple of evenings when the churches, theaters and administration buildings were lit up, making you forget that just outside this area there were all the trappings of modern life. The tacos were cheap here and you could also grab one of the local specialties, the torta ahogada, which is a torta drenched in a chile sauce with onions.

A kid playing a homemade tuba, made of a bucket and tube

In addition to checking out the sites, we went out a few nights to experience the local nightlife as well as some local activities. On Friday, we checked out this little cafe called Cafe Andre Breton with some Mexicans who knew Roel’s brother from when he was in Mexico. The place is located at Juan Manuel #175 in the Centro Historico. It was a cool little place with good food and $30 peso beers. There was going to be live electronica, which didn’t sound all that appealing at first, but ended up being pretty cool.  The friends we met there knew the guys performing and the show was very entertaining. The three of them dressed up in what appeared to be naval white dress uniforms, complete with covers and toy swords. They were also passing around a $25 peso bottle of tequila or mezcal, which I was smart enough not to partake in. We also checked out a salsa bar, but Kiel gave you the details about that. All I will say is that Mexicans, and probably most Latins, must have  been born with a gene of some sort that gives them rhythm and dancing abilities that has been bred out of caucasians.

Categories: 01 Trial Run-Mexico | Tags: , , , , | Comments Off

18-1 Bitches!!!

Posted on May 1, 2011 by wiley

18-1

Hmm today’s title was a tough decision. I was saving the shirt for a special occasion. I was going to wear it when we planned to drive from Mazatlan to Durango on one of the worlds most dangerous roads; “Espinazo del Diablo” otherwise known as The Devils Backbone. Filled with both perilous cliffs without guardrails, and crazy truckers who have no choice but to take blind corners in your lane due to the narrow roadway, this is apparently a hair raising journey that last for just under 200 miles of both beautiful scenery and enough stress to shave off 10 years of your life. Unfortunately we changed our plans and headed south instead…besides it was way to early in the trip for Paul and I to go crashing off a mountain to our death, what would you read if we had? I then thought about saving the shirt for the border crossing from Mexico to Belize, since so many people thought we were crazy to try and travel through the dangerous third world hell hole known as Mexico. But alas, as you read in my previous post, that border crossing will not contain the two of us…so once again I had to revise my plans. So here we are, what better time to break out a symbol of triumph and greatness, than the day Paul and I climbed the third largest pyramid in the entire world, as well as meandered down the “Avenue of the dead”. Yup, Teotihuacan….bad ass.

 

But 18-1 Bitches!…why you ask?? Well, 18-1 stands for excellence, determination, the greatest NFL Quarterback of all time Eli Manning and the 2007 New York Giants, and because I know Tom Brady reads my blog regularly and it brings me great satisfaction knowing I just made him cry. But once again I am jumping ahead of the story, so lets start where I left off, headed for the crazy lego looking city of Guanajuato.

 

Guanajuato, Guanajuato Mx

Once we finally said our goodbyes and got out of Guadalajara we headed for

Guanajuato City

Guanajuato, one of Mexicos many UNESCO World Heritage sites. The city lies in a small valley, with houses of every color crammed side by side up the steep hillsides. Anyone who has done some research before heading to Guanajuato has heard it is a rather confusing city to drive in….well its exactly as described. This small city has a series of underground tunnels, formerly used for the river, now used to confuse any tourist stupid enough to try and drive through the city. There are guides all over the city that practically jump in front of you to offer their services…but we chose not to use one due to the fact that there was no seat for them, and traffic is not very bad here as most roads are so narrow they are for walking only. Wellllll, I would recommend you pick one of these guides up. It was easy to figure out or way around the city as we did 2 or 3 circles, but finding the RV park we stayed at ended up being a whole other challenge. All directions regarding Mexico are incorrect, we have seen this on maps, the internet, as well as directions from the locals themselves. This place proved to be difficult to find, so difficult that I decided when we left I was going to retrace my steps and video the drive into the city to the RV park to help any one else trying to find it. Unfortunately when I tried to get back to the west side fo the city where we originally started from I got lost again, and eventually ran out of time as we had to meet Marie in San Miguel de Allende though that is again getting ahead of the story, so unfortunately there is no video as of now.

 

 

Sunday morning we hit up breakfast at a place that I had assumed would be too expensive, as it was very fancy looking and right in the main plaza. Well, for about 100 pesos or less than 10 US dollars I got some hot cakes with ham and bacon (5 pesos) some orange juice (3 pesos) and a water (2 pesos) along with a basket of free, delicious bread. After that we walked around the city checking out the sites and decided since we are so young and in shape to head up some random alleys, which are nothing more than stairs going straight up. We had joked consistently about how we are all travelers, not tourists….no one likes tourists, yet we all know who they are, so Paul and I were off to see the Guanajuato few see. Near the top of one particularly long set of stairs I had Paul wait below so we could get a picture of each other to try and show

Paul is old, he needs lots of breaks

the distance, when a gentleman stuck his head out the window and started talking with me. Now I assumed he was going to yell at us for being too loud, but he was just curious to what we were doing way up here, and knew just enough English to really converse with my non-fluent Spanish. After many stairs Paul eventually joined us and suddenly this guy invited us up to his rooftop for pics of some great views of Guanajuato. This is the type of thing I feel like I will go on and on about here on this site….people will go out of their way to help you or show you a good time when there is nothing in it for them, he simply wanted us to see his city from an amazing perspective few tourists get to see….good thing we are not tourists, but travelers (See, I don’t make this stuff up). His house was huge, and up top there was a sweet fireplace, along with some empty cerveza bottles. The only thing I didn’t get a picture of that I wish I had was the ladder required to get up there…it was lacking a bit according to US safety standards. I joked about him getting down after too many cervezas, I could tell he knew exactly what I meant from previous experience.

 

 

So as I stated in my last post Maria from our Spanish school was also traveling to Guanajuato, so we met up with her on day 2. She also brought her new friend Rodolfo from her hostel, and the four of us wandered around the city, enjoying an amazing day. We hit up the normal sites, as well as checked out the mummy museum. It was interesting, though didn’t do much for me personally, but for 5 us dollars who can complain. We spent the rest of the day chilling at a cafe, then a restaurant where I again proceeded to eat way too much, and finished off the night on the hostel rooftop where I was smart enough to avoid the tequila drinking that was going on….for the most part.

Guanajuato group shot

Overall, a perfect way to spend the last night in Guanajuato. While packing up camp the following morning I went and began talking to an older gentleman who had gotten to the RV park the night before and had NY plates. Turns out Kevin was from the general area Paul and I went to high school at, and had been driving around the world in a van for years. He pretty much reinforced our opinion on travel, the people out there, and the relative safety of it all. He also provided us with some more tips on what to see in Mexico…so I may never get out of this country.

 

 

San Miguel de Allende
So the next stop was San Miguel de Allende, a small town about 1 hr from Guanajuato that a friend of ours from San Diego had told Paul we had to checkout. San Miguel de Allende is a bit upscale, especially for Mexico. This is not what I was looking for in Mexico, there were American plates everywhere, and the prices were jacked up slightly with Semana Santa (Easter) around the corner. As you can tell from this blog, we are awesome, so awesome in fact that Marie is now stalking us, and joined us in this town as well for some sightseeing and to see how life on the road is, joining us at camp. We decided to walk around a bit, and relaxed in the plaza for awhile as we listened to a guitarist and pan flutist play renditions of Dust in the Wind, along with a few other well known songs I cannot remember. Eventually we made it back to the RV park, but in just a few hours I got a second wind, and decided I was not going to spend my time in Mexico watching movies or checking email. So off I went to see what San Miguel de Allende had to offer,

Streets of San Miguel de Allende

leaving Paul and Maria behind to make whatever important facebook status changes they needed to make. Let me tell you, once the sun went down my perspective of this place completely changed. As I walked down the streets I couldn’t help but note how the dimly lit lights perfectly illuminated the cobblestone roads, while lighting the Baroque (yup, I had to look that up!) colonial architecture painted in brick reds and golden yellows. There were hip looking restaurants and bars everywhere, which appeared to be filled with a younger, yet elegant crowd…now this I can handle. I made my way back to the Plaza, which was absolutely beautiful at night, and as with every other plaza, was filled with people out enjoying the great weather and atmosphere. But this plaza was different, this one had bands serenading people. The music was perfect, not too loud, not too fast, and with that Spanish flair I had been searching for. The guitars melted away as the trumpets came in at just the right times, the violins accented the singers voices as people gathered to watch, dance, and just have an overall good time. Now I don’t usually say things like this, but this place was magical. This was just what I needed, I ended up staying in the plaza the rest of the night, just people watching and enjoying the music (and of course I couldn’t pass up enjoying a delicious hotdog wrapped in bacon, peppers, onions, etc….you can tell by looking at me I normally do not eat everything I see, but for some reason, I cannot stop eating….yet). Of course all good things must come to an end, and mine certainly did. As a man stumbled in my direction and began slurring to me, I quickly realized I was in for a treat. As I explained in Spanish that I didn’t speak Spanish, which threw him a bit off, he proceeded to sit down next to me. Oh, what do you have there, a bottle of tequila, hmm, ok I will stick around and see where this goes, I am sure this guy has a lot to offer entertainment wise. Oh wait, your just spit a giant wad of saliva on the street, turned to me with 3 inches giant still hanging from your mouth without any inkling that it is there….ok I am out. Within seconds I was out of my seat, speaking some rapid fire English knowing he clearly wouldn’t understand, and hurried my way across the plaza back to the safety of the Astro. Ok San Miguel de Allende…I suppose I deserved that for not giving you a fair chance from the start.

 

 

Mexico City Pt 1 (The long way around)

Mexico city is a nightmare to drive around. But before I get into that, these next two pics are a must see.  One of the main reasons I have held off on buying a big rig for so long is my fear that I had no idea what I would do if I lost the top half of it.  Well, while driving to Mexico City my concerns have been answered.  Unfortunately my driving while picture taking skills still need some work, but you get the idea here.  The only thing I didn’t capture were the sweet goggles he was wearing.  Now, back to Mexico City.  I have spent some time in LA, that place is a hippies green paradise after being in the sunless Mexico City. I think my lungs will forever be scarred. There is so much traffic and pollution that there are restrictions on what days you can drive depending on your license plate number. There are also reports that a US plate may always get you in trouble, regardless to your plate number. For this reason, many people choose to head north to Teotihuacan, home of the famous Pyramid of the Sun, and Pyramid of the Moon. Teotihuacan Trailer Park provides a base camp within walking distance of the pyramids (30 mins, or you can cab it), and you can leave you vehicle here and take a 45min-1 hr bus ride into Mexico City, avoiding driving through or around the city. What a great plan, we like simple solutions. Now if you have just tuned into this blog, you know that for us this just sounds too easy. I am going to blame my navigator here, simply because I only have another week or two where I can do just that. Paul got us lost, sure he says it was because there were no signs with the route numbers we needed, but come on man, its Mexico City, piece of cake. Teotihuacan is northeast of Mexico City…we basically followed the periferico all the way around the city the long way…south, then east, then north, eventually finding our way to our destination….hours later. The further south we went, the more rundown the city became. As it was daytime (or ignorance) we never felt we were in any danger, though it was clear this was a very impoverished city. And lets not forget the sewage smell. I have been in nasty areas, but these poor people live in a truly awful place, I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But like the Mexican way, there were kids in the “parks” if you can call them that, and people out running, trying to make the best of what they have. I have seen this mentality everywhere, they pay the cards they are dealt in life, and that is something you have to respect. Oh, and on a side note, a guy hit me, can you believe it?? As we pulled up to a light on of many window washers we have seen came to clean my window. Now I am torn on this, I know its at least a respectable source of income, and he is not out robbing people or anything, but even if my windows are clean they see the cali plates and zoom in. I said no several times making it clear I wasn’t interested, while Paul also reiterated that we did not need a cleaning. I didn’t like him approaching us in a nasty area so went to drive past him, and he kept going right up to us, lightly getting hit by my mirror. Now in honesty it tapped him, we stopped right there, he didnt fall back or anything, he just stepped into a slow moving vehicle. But this he didnt like, so he punched the mirror and went back to his corner after giving us a look of disgust. Ok, well at least that is over. Green light, lets get the F out of here….as we drive by he squirts his cleaner on my window. Making the best of the moment, I give him a friendly wave and throw on the windshield wipers, sweet, at least we got a free cleaning! (I am writing this a week or so later, we got another free one today, score! I told another guy no and he proceeded to clean it anyway, and then stare at us for a tip. Well, since I mad it blatantly obvious I didn’t want it, I drove away as the light turned green. I think if they were not so aggressive I might actually get them once in awhile to help these poor guys out….but you can’t force me to pay you for something I don’t need buddy.)

 

Teotihuacan

Avenue of the Dead

So as you can see a lot happened in Mexico City considering we were trying to avoid it. Finally in Teotihuacan Paul wants to get up early and beat the rush to the Pyramid. I told him not to wake me, if I heard him getting his stuff from the van I would decide whether or not to go. Well I got up, but we barely got out. Since Paul was up before me and had a much more difficult time than I did I will leave that part of the tale to him, but I believe we left at 6:30 since the park opens at 7:00 (7:20 Mexican time). So we hike over there and they finally let us in at 7:20 and we book it to the Pyramid of the Sun. This thing is crazy. Now I don’t know if I am more blown away by why those people would do so much work building this gigantic structure out of stone, or the fact that people think its a good idea to climb to the top of the world’s third largest pyramid. Ok so it wasn’t awful, though there was a bit of huffing and puffing from Paul. Eventually he made it to the top, and thanks to his eagerness to get a jump on the day, we found ourselves on top of the pyramid with absolutely no one else around, aside from 10-15 hot air ballons above. Now this is sweet, and we had it to ourselves for about 30 minutes, so we could relax, enjoy, and take it all in.

Paul descending the Pyramid of the Sun...always lagging behind

Once we had our fill and saw some people start to slowly storm the pyramid we made our way down, and over to the pyramid of the moon, a smaller,but still awesome structure. The pyramid of the moon sits at the beginning of the Avenue of the dead, which is lined with even smaller, but still impressive pyramids and structures. As you can guess from the name, there was a lot of humansacrifices going on here. Think Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Over the next two or so hours we walked around the rest of the park and eventually made our way home, I was extremely glad I had taken Pauls advice and gotten to enjoy the park virtually to ourselves.

 

Mexico City Pt 2 (Where is everyone???)

 

Mexico City

We later took the bus into Mexico city, which cost us 26 pesos (2.16 US), and got us right to the metro. There are stories here I will leave to Paul, I am only going to focus on the negative here. I actually enjoyed Mexico City for the most part, and there are many nice areas as well as great people. But Mexico City was not what I was looking for. Now it was Santa Semana, and we had been told everyone leaves the city and heads to the beaches. Well, I wanted to see the crazyness, not empty streets, and with a city of this size how empty can it get? Well, this place was dead, I couldn’t believe a city of this size could be so calm. The only people in town were tourists, great just what I hate! This also made it a pain to see things as lines were everywhere, which may or may not be normal. We decided to take one of the hop on hop off city bus tours, which would provide easy access to safe areas of the city, all for 12 US dollars! Sweet, lets role, 1st stop, museum of Anthropology. We decided we would split up for the day as we had our own interests, and since I didn’t have a watch on me it would be too tough to meet up later. The museum was great, I would recommend it to anyone in the area. Unfortunately when I left I tried to get onto a bus where the guy informed me that my ticket # didn’t match my bracelet, it was off by one. Clearly the lady had switched Paul and my tickets, but he wasn’t having it. I forced my way onto the bus so the driver would go as they are impatient and continued to talk some reason to the tour guy, but all he wanted to do was sell me another ticket. So he forced me off at the next stop, telling me to go talk to his boss. Fine, this should be no problem, and at least I know Paul must be having the same problem so they will know the situation already (Of course he had no

Museo Nacional de Antropología Stone of the Sun

idea what I was talking about the next day, not 1 person questioned him!). So I find the ticket counter, talk to some people, and they tell me it shouldn’t be a problem. Great, I wait around for 20 minutes, the bus pulls up, and walk up to get on, ignoring the long line in front, since we already waited in a similar one this morning in Zacalo. Well the guy here doesn’t buy it. He tells me he needs to respect the paying customers who are waiting in line. What?? You guys made me get off at a stop I wouldn’t have gotten off at, now needing to get on a bus going the wrong direction, why on earth would I wait in line again? He tells me something else about them having priority. So your telling me once you get our money you don’t care what happens to us? A little more “bickering” (I have worked retail and know to be calm, I was very civil with this guy) I even get him to admit his company was at fault, and he still wont budge. Hmm, ok, this guy is a dead end. I decide to track down the guy who said no problem, as he was extremely reasonable with the situation. I tell him I am not waiting in line and play dumb asking for directions to the museum…hoping he will just put me on the bus. Success, this guy rocks, knows the other guy is being a dick, and just lets me on. But now I am too afraid of getting off the bus and not being allowed back on…so I take it all the way back to Zocala and walk the streets for awhile. I waited till 5pm for the lines to die down and ride it once more around the city as I had missed half the tour from where they made me get off and walk due to the directions the buses ran. After that things were closing down, and while I generally try and avoid fast food since I am in Mexico, I headed for the quick and easy Burger King. This is where my world fell apart.

 

 

We later took the bus into Mexico city, which cost us 26 pesos (2.16 US), and got us right to the metro. There are stories here I will leave to Paul, I am only going to focus on the negative here. I actually enjoyed Mexico City for the most part, and there are many nice areas as well as great people. But Mexico City was not what I was looking for. Now it was Santa Semana, and we had been told everyone leaves the city and heads to the beaches. Well, I wanted to see the crazyness, not empty streets, and with a city of this size how empty can it get? Well, this place was dead, I couldn’t believe a city of this size could be so calm. The only people in town were tourists, great just what I hate! This also made it a pain to see things as lines were everywhere, which may or may not be normal. We decided to take one of the hop on hop off city bus tours, which would provide easy access to safe areas of the city, all for 12 US dollars! Sweet, lets role, 1st stop, museum of Anthropology. We decided we would split up for the day as we had our own interests, and since I didn’t have a watch on me it would be too tough to meet up later. The museum was great, I would recommend it to anyone in the area. Unfortunately when I left I tried to get onto a bus where the guy informed me that my ticket # didn’t match my bracelet, it was off by one. Clearly the lady had switched Paul and my tickets, but he wasn’t having it. I forced my way onto the bus so the driver would go as they are impatient and continued to talk some reason to the tour guy, but all he wanted to do was sell me another ticket. So he forced me off at the next stop, telling me to go talk to his boss. Fine, this should be no problem, and at least I know Paul must be having the same problem so they will know the situation already (Of course he had no idea what I was talking about the next day, not 1 person questioned him!). So I find the ticket counter, talk to some people, and they tell me it shouldn’t be a problem. Great, I wait around for 20 minutes, the bus pulls up, and walk up to get on, ignoring the long line in front, since we already waited in a similar one this morning in Zacalo. Well the guy here doesn’t buy it. He tells me he needs to respect the paying customers who are waiting in line. What?? You guys made me get off at a stop I wouldn’t have gotten off at, now needing to get on a bus going the wrong direction, why on earth would I wait in line again? He tells me something else about them having priority. So your telling me once you get our money you don’t care what happens to us? A little more “bickering” (I have worked retail and know to be calm, I was very civil with this guy) I even get him to admit his company was at fault, and he still wont budge. Hmm, ok, this guy is a dead end. I decide to track down the guy who said no problem, as he was extremely reasonable with the situation. I tell him I am not waiting in line and play dumb asking for directions to the museum…hoping he will just put me on the bus. Success, this guy rocks, knows the other guy is being a dick, and just lets me on. But now I am too afraid of getting off the bus and not being allowed back on…so I take it all the way back to Zocala and walk the streets for awhile. I waited till 5pm for the lines to die down and ride it once more around the city as I had missed half the tour from where they made me get off and walk due to the directions the buses ran. After that things were closing down, and while I generally try and avoid fast food since I am in Mexico, I headed for the quick and easy Burger King. This is where my world fell apart.

 

 

Categories: 01 Trial Run-Mexico | Tags: , , , | Comments Off

Addendum Post

Posted on April 22, 2011 by paul

Just another routine sunset at San Blas

Clearly, I am a little behind on updates.  As you can see from Kiel’s post, we made our way south from our failed attempt at Copper Canyon, hitting Mazatlan, San Blas, Sayulita, Puerto Vallarta, La Manzanilla (not to be confused with Manzanillo, which is just south) and Barra de Navidad. I thought I would throw in some more information and pictures since I am sure we will eventually convince some of you reading this to make the trip.

Mazatlan

The mercado in Mazatlan

More like Mazat-lame.  Gotta say I was not really a big fan of this area. It was basically just overrun with tourism to the point where it lost any sort of Mexican vibe. We stayed two nights and I’m still not sure why. Also, it should be noted that when I went to the Immigration Office to get my tourist card squared away, the woman working basically told me that her boss would only do it for $1,000 pesos, even though the cost of the card and the penalty was much less.

Kiel, doing what he does, inhaling tacos

According to her, the boss of each Immigration Office is allowed to charge whatever they want in addition to the actual cost. I guess this happens often in Mazatlan so this is a good money maker for them. Plus, she said it would take a week! I decided to take my chances without the card until we got to Guadalajara.

 

 

 

San Blas

Wall of murals in San Blas

San Blas was a great way to forget about our Copper Canyon failure and get out of the spring break/tourist areas. The town was quiet and the beach was even quieter, minus Kiel’s nuptials to a minor. For three days I did nothing but read a book (Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes) and a random selection of Playboys provided by my friend Troy. I swear I was reading them just for the articles! Also, I was getting bit incessantly by sand flies, especially at night. This was really the only drawback to the beach.

 

Got the camp all set up

 

Sayulita

After a few days in San Blas we packed up and headed to Sayulita.  We had heard that it was a chill little town right on the coast that had some good waves. I’m not so sure I would describe it that way.  The town was awesome, and totally alive, but it was unbelievable packed with people from all over.  The beach was really rocky and there were a ton of people surfing, so it wasn’t the best place to jump in and relearn the little I know about surfing. We subsequently talked to a couple of other people who passed through recently and all of them said it was not that busy, so maybe we just hit it on a particular weekend when a lot of people were in town. I would certainly still recommend going, just plan ahead for where you are going to stay as there are not that many camping options.

Kiel loves all Coke products

Puerto Vallarta

Pretty cool how they do these things

Another town like Mazatlan.  PV is pretty huge and the malecon can be fun, but you have to be ready to party like its 1999.  We thought about hitting one of the clubs, but they were just too much.  As Kiel mentioned, we went to this bar with live music, called Bebotero Company (528 Paseo Diaz Ordaz). It appeared to be mostly locals and the band played some good music that got the crowd going. Beers were cheap enough, 6 for $200 pesos. And there was an awesome picture of Diego Maradona as a fat cherub – which is basically what he is anyway. A fat cherub with a coke problem and lots of gold jewelry.  Also, right before you get onto the malecon is a taco place with a 5 for $35 pesos deal (1055 Avenida Mexico). And they are safe.

On the last day before we were heading out of town we stopped at a taco shop to fill up for the road. As I was sitting there, somewhat out of it after a night out, about to scarf down my tacos, the woman next to me pushes this bowl of salsa over to me and tells me it is great for tacos. And she is saying this with a smile on her face. And her friend is laughing under her breath. Obviously she means well and wouldn’t be trying to play a joke on me, right? So I slather the salsa on one of my tacos and dig in. Her and her friend start dying laughing, my eyes start to tear up and I’m now regretting not getting a refresco. I was punked by a middle aged Mexican woman.  Good riddens to PV.

 

La Manzanilla

Man, that tent is awesome!

Cheap beach camping, a cool little town. Can’t beat it, right? Unless there is a crocodile preserve across the dirt road protected by a fence that looks like this and you are sleeping in a tent.

Clearly this fence should stop a rampaging crocodile

Needless to say, my first night was a little sleepless. That may have been helped along because the book I was reading as I was going to sleep was ending with an intense scene in the Vietnamese jungle where this young kid is out on a night patrol and while walking through the dark his partner’s head is bit off by a tiger. So my imagination runs wild with scenes of a crocodile (think Lake Placid, the movie) leaping (can crocodiles leap?) through my tent to crush my cranium to small pieces, while Kiel watches in the relative security of the Astro. Why does my imagination run wild like this in the middle of the night when it is completely unnecessary, but never when I was at work and needed to come up with some solution to a unique problem? Anyway, the taco truck that is parked where the paved road begins leaving the camping area, and also right across from the entrance to the crocodile preserve, has great fish burgers for like $60 pesos. Also, there is no ATM in this town.

Barra de Navidad

There were some crazy waves here

Not much to add here, except the place we ate was called The Office and the burger was pretty awesome. So were the quesadillas. Also, Kiel ate about six pastries in the space of a day.

Categories: 01 Trial Run-Mexico | Tags: , , , , | Comments Off

Decision, decisions, decision

Posted on April 18, 2011 by wiley

Only half way through Mexico and I am loving every minute of it. Well, almost every minute of it, there are some minor issues with the Van/gear that were out of my hands that are causing minor inconveniences. That with a few other things have left me with some decision making to do. Paul and I unfortunately are on different schedules which may mean we go separate ways. If that happens, I am left with 3 options. The 1st option would be the most ideal or me, though it would mean Paul and I miss out on enjoying Central America together. 1st I can continue to enjoy Mexico a little longer and return home to fix the problems and maybe work until my brothers wedding, delaying Central and South America until Oct 1st. This would mean I drop Paul off at the Belize border, and return to the US. As of now this is my plan, though I have at least 2 weeks until the border to be convinced otherwise. The second option is to rush the rest of Mexico, rush through Central America but not cross the Darien gap as that is the point of no return due to the expense and inconvenience of crossing the gap, and then take my time coming back. This option means I drop Paul off in Panama, but means I spend more money than option 1 with gas, border crossings, etc as I would do them more times obviously. The last option is to go on through both Central and South America as planned, but rush both Central America and South America on the way down to get Paul there by October, leave my Van in SA as I return for my brothers wedding and work until the end of Dec, then returning and continuing the drive back alone when Paul flys to Italy. Hmm, there is nothing easy about those decisions. But 1st….Guadalajarrrrrrrrrrrrra.

 

Guadalajara, Jalisco Mx

Guadalajara Centro Historico

So the plan was to be in Guadalajara Sunday as our Spanish classes start Monday, we then decided to try and get there early and head up Saturday to see if we could somehow get our hands on the hottest tickets in town…well of course we couldn’t. But lets not jump ahead, here it was Thursday and suddenly I find myself in Guadalajara…um, what just happened? Well we decided to make a last minute change of plans, and that has worked 0% of the time for us so far, so we figured we were due some change of luck. We were headed to a place which is not far from Guadalajara recommended by one of the people we met in Barra de Navidad, but we either missed a sign, or more likely as is the usual case here in Mexico there wasn’t one. Well once again I am kicking myself. I should have stayed by the waves for a little more surfing. If not that, I should have gone and checked out Parque Nacional Volcan Nevado de Colima for some hiking and camping. Lots of should haves, but I need to let that go, I am now in Guadalajara. Guadalajara is a great city, I wish I could say that I saw more of it, unfortunately our Spanish schedule made it a bit difficult to get into the city without canceling all our meals with our host mom. We had decided to take a week of Spanish classes, which included a home stay with the fantastic cook Senora Alicia, in Tlaquepaque a suburb of Guadalajara. We knew this would be a bit more expensive than Guatemala, where we plan to take another week of Spanish, but also knew it would be worth it so that we could

Safely parked in the homestay

converse more with people, rather than just use basic statements. The total was just under 300 US dollars (will update) which included 4 hours of Spanish a day for 5 days, 6 nights at the home stay with 3 meals a day, and also gated parking which is important for us. The price would

have been slightly less (will update) for those of you not driving. Tlaquepaque is a nice area to stay for a week. The bus into Historico Centro is about 20-30 mins, and Tlaquepaque itself has a nice plaza with a good amount going on. Overall it was a great experience, Alcia was wonderful, but I was left with a few minor things I would have hoped worked out different. 1st the home stay. The place was beautiful, but had its pros and cons. We had a separate building to stay in, with our own rooms and showers which was great, it allowed us to come and go whenever we wanted, and after a month of van living let us get back into normal living mode. The downside to this was we only had 20-25 min of face time with Alicia at breakfast, 45-60 minutes for lunch, and another 30 minutes for dinner. I am not sure if I would have preferred to be in the same house with a family all the time or not, but you should keep this in mind if you sign up at the same school and request Alicia. (I would definitely recommend her, she was fantastic!) The second was that dinner was at 8, which meant the nights we went into the city we either skipped dinner, or couldn’t really go till 9…no big deal, but again keep it in mind. The teachers were great, as well as Wouter who runs the school. My only semi complaint is that you jump into learning…there is no review. I figured we would be loaned text books, or at least get a sheet with a list of common verbs we would use, but you just jump in depending on your Spanish level. I haven’t read, spoke, or listened to Spanish in 12 years, so that was a bit tough! Otherwise it was great, and I would tell anyone considering it to sign up with Wouters school…it was worth every penny. An obvious bonus is that everyone at the school is doing the same thing we are, traveling the world. You will meet some great people who all share that common bond, and most likely find one or two going the same direction as you to meet up with later. In our case, Roel from Belgium, and a dutch girl, Maria. Unlike us travelers, Roel is a brave tourist, he flew into Mexico City, his 1st experience in Mexico…. without knowing a single word of Spanish. We enjoyed some drinks and conversation with him while watching the UEFA Champions League matches Tuesday and Wednesday. He also joined us

Apparently there were some wrestlers at Lucha Libre too!

for Lucha Libre or Mexican wrestling. Lucha Libre was recommehough most surprisingly by Senora Alicia. Senora Alicia is a slightly older woman, so it was a bit of a shock when she got so animated talking about what to expect….I think she may have wrestled a bit in her past! Well it was…an expierience all right. I think everyone should go once…..only once. But for 60 pesos who can complain, it certainly was entertaining. Its a bit more theatrical than anything…I am not a wrestling fan, but this was more over the top than the WWE stuff I think. More entertaining was the crowd, though they were more civil than I inded by many, , tmagined after all the stories we had heard. Anyway, I won’t ruin it for anyone, if you can, you should go.

Atlas vs Pumas, these guys are terrible!

Thursday Roel joined Paul and I, along with Marie for the Atlas-Pumas match. Atlas is Guadalajara’s second most popular team. This was also a great time, also only 60 pesos, and again not what we expected. Atlas is terrible! Pumas is also terrible, but apparently the best team at the moment. Seriously, I have seen better college matches. This was not what the level of soccer we thought we would be seeing. The game ended 0-0, with the highlights being the lights going out with about 10 minutes left, the crazy girl behind us singing along passionately to every chant/song, and possible the last 3 minutes of the game when Atlas turned it on trying desperately to score. Paul, Roel, and I have discussed canceling the trip and trying out for the team, we think we could turn their season around.

 

Of course we did the normal things like walk around Historico Centro, but my highlights were the churro guy in Tlaquepaque, and of course the taco stands Paul had discovered….6 tacos for 15 pesos. Yes, 15 pesos, that is 1.25 US dollars! Now you should know tacos are smaller than what you see in America, but still…6 of them? Well, once again I felt it was my duty to stimulate the economy and went with 12. I wanted 18, but they were closing down, and I wasn’t sure 18 end of the day tacos was a good idea. Too bad too, I was hoping to top the 14 tacos I had in Puerta Vallerta…luckily there is still plenty of Mexico left. From there we met up with Roels friend of a friend at a cool, alternative bar that we never would have found on our own. We joined Mexi, her friend Carolina, another girl, and a guy whos names I could not here over the electronica playing rather loudly….though not in your face like I imagined when we were told what the evening was going to consist of. It was actually lot of fun. From there the girls whos names I did know too us to the

Salsa!!!!!!!!

local Salsa place (bar?). Let me say one thing about Mexican women, they are dangerous! While I have never had a drink thrown in my face, I have seen it happen a few times in America. You can usually see it coming, the drunk girl slurring words struggling to stand looses her cools and wastes whatever fine beverage is in her hands at the time. Well, some girl at the salsa bar who appeared absolutely sober, tossed her drink in the face of the guy she was with, hitting several other people, myself included…in the process. Now I am fine with a wasted girl doing this I suppose, but you just don’t see it coming from a sober one. On top of that…they continued to argue over in the corner, where she later punched him in the face before people stepped in. All this happened around people who not once broke their salsa groove…which was almost as impressive as the gentleman who appeared to be in his late 70′s salsaing like there was no tomorrow….which could have been true for him. Before we kick the bucket, we are off to Guanajuato, a UNESCO world heritage site. Assuming you are reading this and not skimming for the pics, Marie from the Tlaquepaque school also happens to be headed for Guanajuato, so we will be meeting back up with her at some point.

Categories: 01 Trial Run-Mexico | Tags: , | Comments Off

Barrance del Cobre…PWN3D

Posted on April 16, 2011 by paul

Where the F did that come from?!?!?

Urban Dictionary defines “owned” as:

To be made a fool of; to make a fool of; to confound or prove wrong; embarrassing someone; being embarrassed.

e.g.: I owned you in counter-strike. You were owned at the party yesterday.

That was us trying to get to Copper Canyon.

After spending a night in the Astro in a Pemex parking lot in Los Mochis, we set out for Copper Canyon. We would be heading for Batopilas, a town on the southern edge of the canyons.  This would be our jumping off point for Urique and Creel. We had done quite a bit of research on routes heading into this area and knew that we would be encountering a fair amount of dirt roads and a potential river crossing, none of which would be easy. But we were not deterred. We had devised a cognizable set of directions that were confirmed by some of our “resources” and were ready to go. With a mix of optimism, apprehension and gratitude for Bear Gryll’s introducing us to Copper Canyon on Man vs. Wild, we set out.

We jumped on Route 23 headed toward El Fuerte on our way to Choix.  This small town was the last significant outpost and would be our jumping off point for the rough stuff, but it was about time for the Astro to get a good work out after stretching its legs in Baja.  We rolled up to the outskirts of Choix and were provided a warm welcome. Bienvenidos a Choix! Yes, welcome to Choix.

Welcome, my ass!

Such a warm greeting from an overwhelmingly warm nation of peoples. We rolled into town, following our directions as closely as possible, even bottoming out and hitting the transfer case on an unusually large tope. We didn’t appear to be headed in the right direction, so we circled back into town to ask directions and make sure we were going the right way.  We stopped at the Pemex near the entrance into town and asked the two young chicas working the pump if they knew of Batopilas. Negative. Alright, but maybe they knew some of the towns on the way, like Tasajeras or Tubares. Not a chance. The way she looked at me I might as well of been green and had antennae.

Time to check the convenience store next door. I walked in and they were playing the Mexico-Paraguay friendly. Ah, yes, I can finally connect with someone and hopefully get some real insight about directions to Copper Canyon.

“Quien esta ganando?”

“Mexico, 3-0.”

“Quien estan los marcadores?”

“Chicharito, por dos y algun mas.”

“Ahhh, Chicharito es bien jugador.”

Nice, a little rapport started, they know I’m not some stupid American. Well, clearly I’m stupid (and terrible at Spanish) for trying to drive into Copper Canyon from here, but at least I’m not ignorant.

After much discussion, one of the employees drew us a map of where to go and warned us that it would be a long drive on mostly dirt roads.  We were ok with that, as this was the sort of thing we were looking forward to. So we head out, with map in hand, ready for the Astro’s real first test. A couple of kilometers out of town we came to the first dirt road we would be traveling on and turned off.  Not much later, there was a fork in the road…with no indication where to go. So we headed left and hoped for the best.  This worked out, and we came upon signs for Tasajeras, one of the towns we knew to be on the way. It was slow going, and dusty, but the Astro was handling things well, so we pushed forward. There were a couple more forks in the road, but luckily there were signs this time, so we followed along, all the while, passing these tiny communities dug right into the sides of the mountains with only a few people living there. Although we weren’t far from a decent sized town, this place was a world away. Well, except for a few satellite dishes. No one wants to miss the USA-Mexico World Cup qualifiers.

The majestic Astro

Eventually, we came to another fork in the road, this time with no signs and no clear indication as to which way we should go. It was only later that I wished I had taken my camera out so that I could convey the types of roads we were traversing and the people we were passing by.  Unfortunately, I’m an idiot and I didn’t take it out at all (as you’ll see later I took about 100 pictures at a soccer game I attended – priorities). So with no idea which way to go, we decide to ask someone. We had stopped in the middle of the road, opened the window and waved down the closest man.  He walked over and we attempted to ask him which direction would take us to Tubares, Batopilas, Urique, or any other town we knew to be on the way. Sadly, I think we got the village idiot. We were clearly struggling with asking directions and all the kids that had gathered were laughing hysterically at us. The man pointed to the right, which seemed like about a 45 degree grade littered with potholes. Of course, why would it be the nice road to the left? So we eased the Astro downhill and it handled like a champ. But the road was only getting worse so Kiel and I decided this was probably not the best idea. Plus, it was getting late in the day and our progress was too slow. We turned around to head back up the way we came, which was no easier than going down. And it was over. We headed back towards the main road.

Once we got back, we decided to head north on the main road instead of going back to Choix to see where it led.  It was clearly brand new, so maybe it would snyc us up with a town further down the road on a path that no one yet knew about. Pie in the sky. After a few kilometers (and a huge crater in the road) later and there was a detour onto a dirt road. So we took it, of course. And drove straight up hill through winding mountain roads for about an hour until we finally admitted we had no idea where we were going. Once again, we turned around, tails between our legs and headed back to Choix. We were going to need to do some more research and find better directions. The question was, would we stay in Choix for the night, or head all the way back to Los Mochis. That question was answered as soon as we got back into town. As we pulled up to a stop sign, a military pick up truck with an “adequately” sized machine gun mounted to the bed, along with 4-5 masked troops hanging out there convinced us that Los Mochis was the better decision. And so, the sun set on our adventure to Copper Canyon. Bear Grylls would be terribly disappointed.

The road out of Choix

Categories: 01 Trial Run-Mexico | Comments Off

La Paz to Topolobampo: Getting My Sea Legs

Posted on April 9, 2011 by paul

Our ride to Topolobampo, the California Star

After a wonderful night of sleep and a hearty oatmeal breakfast cooked on the beach, Kiel and I headed to the port at around 9:30 am to start the process of buying our ferry tickets and figuring out the process of loading the Astro.  Neither of us knew what to expect, so we figured five hours would be sufficient to get things in order, run into town for a few things and get back in time to catch the 3:00 pm ferry.  It is a good thing we left as early as we did, as there were some surprises along the way.

As I mentioned in the last post, the ferry is actually in Pichilingue, not La Paz, and we would be taking Baja Ferries rather than TMC Ferries. From our research we learned that Baja Ferries had a nicer ship and was faster than TMC, although it was a little more expensive. Fare for one person on Baja was 790 pesos, whereas on TMC it was 710. For the car, it was supposed to be 1790 pesos (with driver, according to the website) on Baja and 2000 (with driver) on TMC.

Well, that’s not really how it worked out.  To start things off, we went into the ticket office to buy the tickets and the first thing they asked for was the vehicle importation permit. No problem, as Kiel had paid for and taken care of this in Guerrero Negro. We handed what we thought to be the permit to the saleswoman, who appeared very confused. She explained that this was only Kiel’s FMT (foreign tourist card) and that he would need to still import his car. Kiel was not happy. She also noted that we would have to go through customs, and only then could we purchase our tickets.

So we headed over to the Banjercito office, which is the Mexican authority who issues vehicle permits; it was on the ground floor of the main building.  Luckily for us, the young woman who was working spoke excellent English and went out of her way to help us get our crap together.  Kiel gathered up his title and personal identification documents by making several trips back and forth between the Astro and the office and after about 45 minutes, was able to get the permit he thought he already had.

Next, I realized I had not obtained a FMT. Neither of us were sure whether I needed it to get on the ship, so we went up to the Immigration office, which was upstairs in the main building. The immigration officer was rather vague about it, but said we should probably be ok to get on the ship, provided the police did not want to view my FMT. He could not process it there, but I could get it taken care of back in La Paz.  Since we were pressed for time, I decided to take the risk of getting it later in the trip.  A word of note, if you walk across the border, in my case, San Diego to Tijuana, they do not provide you with the application since you are in the border zone and it is not necessary. Typically, if you fly from the US, they will provide the form on the plane and the price will be included in the airfare. Since I walked across and then flew from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas, I never received the form. Whoops.  Well, provided we do not get pulled over and I do not get asked to show the card, we should be alright. My plan was to pick up the card at another immigration office along the way.

After clearing up that confusion, we finally headed to the ticket office to purchase our tickets. Dos personas, uno auto, por favor. Thinking the tickets would be 2580 pesos, we were pretty surprised to find out that they included a separate charge for Kiel, even though he was the driver of the car. Explanation was futile and we needed to get on the ferry, so we paid. I guess the website is not entirely accurate, so be prepared to pay for the car and two people.

We were moving now. Next stop was customs, which we were dreading. We pulled up to the stall and the official took a look inside and did not seem the least bit interested. Kiel got out and pushed the button and we got a green arrow! No search necessary. That saved us a heck of a lot of time, so we decided to park the Astro and go grab some lunch from one of the taco trucks outside.

Grabbing some lunch outside the ferry offices

As with most of the places we’ve eaten, the food was good.  The owner of the place recommended we try the octopus soup (I can’t remember the name), which was really good.  Since I tend to be a glutton, I also got a torta with pork, which was very good. Kiel got his usual mess of tacos, some dorada, some asada, all delicious. We also had the chance to practice some Spanish with the owner since we had a lot more time than we had expected. He spoke plenty of English and was able to help us with some basic stuff. We plan on taking some language classes in Guadalajara, as well as in Guatemala, and those cannot come soon enough.

My lunch of soup and a torta.

 

After lunch we got back into the Astro and circled it around to get in line to board the ferry. From here it was just a waiting game to board the ship.  It was about 1:30 and we were supposed to depart at 3:00, so we expected some movement pretty soon. No such luck.  Everyone was just hanging out around their cars, waiting for something to happen. At around 2:30, a Baja Ferries’ official came by and told me I had to go wait in the passenger departure area as only one person could be in the car during the loading process. So I went up and waiting in the departure area wondering if I was going to get sea sick.

Waiting to load the Astro onto the ferry

Anyway, after about an hour of waiting and wondering if I was going to puke octopus over the rails of the California Star, they finally started checking tickets and boarding the passengers. I should mention that I have been on an oceangoing vessel twice in my life that I can recall; once on a small fishing boat off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and on what I recall was a high speed catamaran between Menorca and Mallorca in the Mediterranean (N.B. I vomited on the way back to Menorca). Clearly, I am a landlubbing wimp.  Sorry to disappoint the Navy folk reading this. Anyway, this was easily the biggest ship I had been on that would actually be moving, so it was a little intimidating climbing up, deck after deck in order to get to the main passenger area. Plus, I had read stories that the ship would be full of Mexican truck drivers getting completely inebriated and vomiting throughout the ship. So that would be cool.

I scurried up as far as the stairs would take me in the hopes that I would get to watch some of the cars and trucks boarding and was able to just catch Kiel as he almost got plowed by a rig that was dropping off trailers in the cargo area, as the attendants told him he had to back up the ramp rather than just drive in.

Kiel backing up the loading ramp, narrowly avoiding a rig

After parking the Astro, we met up in the main passenger area to get settled in.  We didn’t get going until about 4:00 pm, an hour or so late, which meant we’d be getting into Topo at 11:00 pm. The ship was nice enough; there was a large dining area where they would be serving dinner (included in your ticket), as well as another bar/lounge area across from the dining area. As the ship was loading, a line began forming at the serving area, which should have clued us in that dinner would be served immediately after we left, but we waited until it died down. I’m not sure which is worse, airline food or ship food. I will say that there was an abundance of pastries and cake as the night went along, so that tips the scales in favor of the ship, although those were extra. Also they had a bunch of big screen TV’s blaring Mexican telenovelas.

View from the bow shortly after leaving

I hung out on the deck for a while, thinking this might increase my chances of getting seasick, but no such luck. The seas were pretty smooth and there wasn’t much wind. Inside, it was more of the same. I could barely tell we were on the water, except for the occasional rocking of the ship.

Along the way we passed Five Finger Brown's crib

I did notice as we rounded the point to head out into the Sea of Cortez/Gulf of California, that we passed right past the beach that we had camped on the night before, Playa Tecolote. I imagine our friend was on the beach, with his pack of dogs, scaring the crap out of some other unsuspecting soul.

Close to 11:00 pm, we finally pulled into port in Topo, with no where to go. Kiel headed down to the Astro and I de-boarded, not quite sure how we were going to meet up. But it was fairly simple – there was a waiting area just outside the ship where you could watch the cars coming out. As I saw the Astro roll off, I jogged over to where it would be passing, hopped in, dodged a Mexican semi who tried to run us off the road and we took off for Los Mochis.

Not really knowing where to go, we just headed into town, about 20 km away looking for a RV park or other suitable camping area. There was nothing available except autohotels, which are apparently by the hour and mostly for picking up prostitutes. Since that wasn’t our aim tonight, we drove past and around town and couldn’t really find anything. So, we headed to the Pemex on the edge of town near Mexican Route 15 and crashed in the Astro around 1 am.

Categories: 01 Trial Run-Mexico | Tags: , , | Comments Off