May, 2010

During My Land Travels

It’s now May and I found a great orthodontist in Mazatlan who studied at the same school as my dentist in Seattle. This means that she uses the same orthodontic system. She thinks the braces could come off at the end of May. This means that I can entertain myself for 3 months while I wait for my teeth to move. So land travel it is.

My friend Don from North Carolina came to travel with me. This is great as it’s more fun to travel with someone. I have 10 days in between appointments so we first journeyed south along the coast to La Cruz and San Blas. These are ports I have cruised before and we got the opportunity to meet other cruisers who are currently cruising. Then it was on to Puerto Vallarta where we did zip lining through the wooded tree canopy 400 feet above rivers. There were 11 very long zip lines. But the best part was hanging upside down over the canyon feeling like you were going to free fall at any minute without a parachute. Definitely an ‘E Ticket’!

In between, it was time for me to return to Mazatlan. It was a 9 ½ hr. bus ride both ways with 15 hours in between for sleep and the appointment. I returned to Puerto Vallarta, and together we headed out for a 9 hour bus trip to Patzcuaro, a very quaint colonial town with 3 plazas all within 3 blocks. We stayed at one of the older homes on the plaza that was converted into a hotel. It was so beautiful! It felt like a mansion/castle.

From Patzcuaro, 11 hours away, we went to Guanajuato. It’s a beautiful small university colonial town with 33 plazas and lots of cultural activities. I still have some time left until June when I plan to leave Mexico and head for North Carolina on the East Coast to sail north to New York and Maine for the summer on a 46’ Amel. We’ll see what adventures await for me there.

April, 2010

Traveling By Land Versus By Sea
 
I have land traveled Mexico over 3 months now. This is in contrast to the year I traveled by sailboat down the West Coast of North America. The two methods of travel offer unique opportunities.

Sailing is turtle-like. Your shell home goes with you. You have all the comforts of home with dolphins, sunrises and sunsets, swimming, diving, your favorite peanut butter, etc. Your friends are your fellow cruisers who share experiences, local knowledge, favorite marinas and anchorages and most importantly friendship.

In contrast, traveling by land I have to carry everything I need on my back. A couple of books, a couple of shorts, a couple of shirts, and before you know it, including your water, you are loaded down. But learning the daily routines and lives of local people is truly astounding. The architecture, food, music, dancing, sights and scenery are obviously great. I met a crafts person and know his personal life; a B&B owner and learned his family heritage for generations; a woman who shared her personal relationships and how she managed birth control and the men in her life –- all memorable experiences. I found Mexican people generous, easy to be with, peaceful, extremely polite, helpful and fun to be around.

So all in all, after living on a sail boat for a time, it’s energizing to spend time on land. However, being a cruiser in my soul, I can’t wait to get back to my life on the water. Both lives are wonderful. And like all things in life, I appreciate a nice balance.

April, 2010

Guanajauto

Guanajuato was enchanting.  I was here 20 years ago and the old colonial section hasn't changed much.  It's about 400 miles East of Puerto Vallarta.  Like Patzcuaro, they work hard to keep everything looking like it did in the 1700's.  It's hard to find modern signage of any kind.  You have to look hard to find the grocery stores and banks but they are there.

Always a busy area in the main plaza at Teatro Juarez.  At any time of the day students are sitting on the steps.  

 

The park is on the other side of the street from Teatro Juarez.

After you go up the funicular, you get a great view of the city.

A favorite street for breakfast.

We took a tour to get an overview of the city which included a mine.  These keys are hanging as a reminder of the cruelty the Spanish imposed on the slave miners.  If the miners gave them any trouble, they just closed their lips with a a chain and a lock.  Ouch!!!

A fabricator's 'shop'.  They are gluing quartz, jade and various stones onto crosses to sell to mostly Mexican tourists.   An older tourist guide told me that when he was younger, the guides had to learn English as most tourists were from the USA or Canada.  Now English isn't as important because starting around 1970, Mexican tourism began and now most tourists are from Mexico.

 Some of the sugar treats that are available.

 

We listen to the Estudantinas play almost every night.  It's a tradition that comes from Spain.  Students used to play instruments and sing to earn money to go to school.  They are all dressed in traditional cloaks complete with colorful ribbons.  After a crowd has gathered with their songs and jokes, they lead the group through winding alleys playing along the way.   

There are many different groups.

OK, maybe it's a little corny, but you can see how big this paper mache devil is.

April, 2010

Men's Cantinas

A typical cantina bar in Mexico is a men’s watering hold. Last night we wanted to grab a beer and we ducked into a place that we thought might have beer on tap. When we entered, I realized it was a men’s bar. ‘Uh oh,’ I told the bar tender, I think I made a mistake and came into a hombre only bar. ‘Not to worry,’ he assured me, ‘No problem, women can come in here.’ ‘Fine!’ I said. Mexico might be opening up to the idea of women in the bars. So we talked to the male bar tender a bit and then sat down at a table to drink our beer. There was only one other patron at the bar who apparently had been there for a while. In came another person and I heard the distinct sound ‘kreeettt…..phetttewww’….. of spitting. It was unmistakable. ‘We’re inside’, I thought, ‘Where could they be spitting? I didn’t see any spittoons.’ So I looked around and saw that between the bar stools and the bar, there was a 4” rain gutter for spitting into. Yukk! Standing, spitting down at your feet to hit a 4” gutter in the floor didn’t sound very sanitary. ‘Well, OK, I can deal with that.’

The 'spit gutter' running along the lower bar on the floor

Then while we carried on our conversation, a guy left his stool and went to the corner of the room next to the bar and started peeing in a stainless steel cabinet that looked like it was meant to hold ice cubs. Another Yukk!!! He stood there a long time and I was incredulous that he was doing his duty a couple feet away from the bar. Then a guy came in off the street did the same thing in the corner, no hand washing involved, and then headed back on to the street. Wow. I feel like I’m in some surreal movie scene. Ladies, we aren’t missing anything by being excluded from these drinking establishments.

Bar on the left, pee box in the corner with sink on the other side

Can you imagine just for a moment if a woman designed a drinking establishment? Let’s see, soft chairs to lounge upon, beautiful mirrors and lighting with nice scented soaps in the bathrooms…

April, 2010

Mexico Color

In a restaurant above the market in Mazatlan, these young folks pay $2 each to cook their own food. They have the afternoon off from the cruise ships so they take the opportunity to get together and cook their favorite foods that they can't get on the ship.  They are from the Phillippines and Thailand.  There was a group in the next kitchen from India.

A hand carved painted mask from Oaxaca.  The gift shop where we saw it is below in Patzcuaro.

Patzcuaro is known for weaving colorful fabric used for brightly colored table ware.  

A weaving loom and below you can see a spinning wheel.  Notice how a bicycle tired is used.  

Other photographs from Patzcuaro.   

A funereal procession for a school aged person.  Notice the flowers in the truck.  After going to the church, they will walk to the cemetary.

These are costumes that are used in the Baile de los Viejitos or Dance of the Old Men. The dance is done to make fun of the Spanish conquistadors who, to the natives, were old men with white hair. 

In this region of Mexico, the people eat a lot pork. It's mainly fried and a lot of it is pork rind.  Here you see a great big mound of it being sold on the street.  

Near Patzcuaro lake in Quiroga, a local interestingly presented dish is called molcajetes.  It consists of a volcanic stone grinding bowl filled with delicious sauce, chunks of onion, and piled high with finely sliced steak, chorizo, cheese, grilled nopales and avocado slices.  Yummy!

Stopping for a beer with Don...I mean pitcher.

So many flowers in this area of Mexico!

 Even the coconut is colorful.  The bright yellow and orange mounds are actually colored coconut.

April, 2010

Night Music

I’ve come to the conclusion that the noise level is much louder in the small pueblitos than in the city. I know this seems contrary to logic. In the city there is a hum of the cars passing by until the wee hours of the morning. At this time, you can go into a deep sleep knowing that you probably won’t be awakened until around 6:30 am.

In contrast to the city, in the pueblito you can be awakened for any reason whatsoever at any time of the night. For example, if there is a strange dog in the neighborhood, this can get all the dogs barking and answering each other. ‘Who is this?’ ‘How dare that dog enter our turf?’ ‘Are they gone yet?’ ‘Are you sure they’re gone?’ ‘Let’s bark some more to make sure they don’t come back.’ This can go on for at least 30 minutes to an hour.

One of the culprits.

Then there’s the roosters. When one starts, they all start echoeing through the neighborhood times 100. ‘I think it’s a little light out here.’ ‘Cock-a-doodle-doo’ with their very shrill crowing. It is incredibly jarring and put one on pins and needles waiting for the next round. You look at your clock and it’s 2:30 am. What are they thinking? The full moon gets them inspired. Great!!! Then it’s 3:30 am. ‘Cock-a-doodle-doo.’ “What?”, I’m thinking, “I thought you just woke me up.” Now at 5:30 they start crowing because the sun is going to come up. Then we go back to sleep. Then they crow again when the sun actually comes up. What? I haven’t gone to sleep since the last time you guys woke me up!!!

Donkeys can also start chiming in at any time and tell the chickens to please shut up. But more impolitely. Donkeys can be heard for miles. ‘What the hell are you guys thinking’, they say, ‘Please go back to sleep and shut up!!!’

A donkey being useful.

There’s also the occasional 3 piece band playing for the neighbors until 11:30pm resounding in all of the surrounding valleys.

And I haven’t even mentioned Saturday night when passing cars blare really, really loud music from their cars until 4am. That’s until 4AM!!! Then you’re woken up a few hours later at 7:30 am from the big loud speaker strapped to the top of a car announcing hot tamales. Geez!!!

The lizards between the clay walls even have a say in it all. ‘Click, click, click.’ They have the audacity to mention that you have the lights are on beyond their bed time even though it 9 pm. They are always there watching you admonishing you and you can’t even find them.

I’ve been trying to sleep in this little, quaint, colonial town. Even with earplugs, I’m awake at 2:22 am with the choral of roosters serenading me. What are they thinking? No, I don’t really want to know. Just give me some deep sleep.

 Just a couple of locals on the left...the town of Concordia in on the right just outside of Mazatlan.  They are famous for making rocking chairs.  Most of them are smaller than this one in the town center.

April, 2010

Danger in Mexico
 

When I left San Diego in 2009, many people warned us about the danger in Mexico.  The drug wars.    People being killed.  Overall danger.  Don’t go.  Well, obviously we went anyway.  To date, the most violence we have seen was helicopters hovering above the city when they arrested a drug king in LaPaz.  Other than that, we haven’t seen anything related to drugs or danger. 

However, last night I encountered a dangerous situation.  I was sleeping in the castle/mansion on the plaza in Patzcuaro from the 1700’s.  In the middle of the night, I went downstairs to the water cooler to refill my water bottle.  I was thirsty after sipping some tequila the night before.  OK, more than sipping.  Since it is after the Easter holiday, we were the only guests in the 42 room mansion with 16 foot ceilings, huge 10 foot wooden doors with stone arches and columns.  There wasn’t a single light on anywhere.  The little green light on the TV set was the brightest light on my journey through the upstairs halls, down the stone stairs and on to the grand hall doorway where the water cooler is located. 

So I cautiously crept downstairs so as not to fall on anything, and was in the process of filling my two water bottles when I saw a big black figure in the corner.  Uh oh, it looked like someone watching me.  It was very, very large and dark.  Uh oh . . . my heart started pounding and I didn’t quite know whether to stand quiet or run.  Then I suddenly realized it was a big, black, full suit of armor at the far end of the hall.   Wow, I gave a sigh of relief.

So there it is, my most dangerous situation in Mexico so far.

P.S. After some practical thought, I’ve decided that sidewalks are definitely the most dangerous hazards in Mexico.  I wiped out a couple of weeks ago and fortunately only bruised one knee.  A friend also wiped out and has several pins in her hand.  I was lucky. 

March, 2010

Semana Santa in Copala, Mexico

The meandering streets of the colonial mining town of Copala are lined with red tiled roofs.  It’s about a 45 minute drive outside of Mazatlan.  I went there to spend the Easter week and stayed at a quaint Posada named Barboza.  I got to be friends with the owner and we cooked, of course, Mexican food.  Almost every meal includes beans and tortillas. 

 

Roberto's house which is now a posada for guests has been in the family for generations. 

Here is the living room with bails of hay for his 3 horses.  It was fun going to feed the horses which were down the street.   

 

The kitchen was very cozy.

 

 

The small plaza has a small wrought iron bandstand in the center and timber supported portals onthree sides.  It’s elegant and simple.

 

 The vegetable truck arrives two days a week.

 Or you can go two one of two little stores.

 The celebration for Semana Santa or East Week consisted of a re-enactment of Christ being crucified.  The next day, Sunday, the play closed in the evening with smoke coming out of a rock in front of the church and Christ walking from behind it in a white robe.  Everyone cheered.  Then there were beautiful fireworks coming from the roof of the church.  It was wonderful.

 

 The crowds following behind.