November 20, 2008

Vive la revolution!!! Happy Revolution Day!!!

What a start to today! Lynda, Viri, and I spent last night in Zihuatanejo in a little hotel right downtown called Posado Citlali. The rate for 3 of us in a very comfortable room was $400 pesos for the night (that’s about $40 CDN folks) After a very full afternoon and evening in Zihuat yesterday, we were thankful for our cozy little room that had as it’s very best feature, in my opinion, a shower with lots of water pressure and hot water – aaahhhhhhh!

As soon as we arrived in Zihuat yesterday (we caught a ride into town with neighbours Amilio and wife Gabby) we located a boat for hire and took a gorgeous ride over to Los Gatos (a beach on the other side of the bay) where we were served some appies and drinks by our waiter named Chai who as it happens has lived in Cawston (about 30 minutes from Penticton). How small is our world?! And then to make it even smaller...it turned out that our boat captain’s girlfriend is from Vernon!

After our boat, we wandered around Zihuat and then took the local bus to Ixtapa to check out the nightlife in that 5 star locale. Viri even found a place to take a cha cha and salsa lesson while Lynda and I cheered her on with cerveca’s in hand.

All in all, it was a fun night, we had some good drinks, some great entertainment and lots of memories. This morning the memories just kept on coming. We had barely finished in our room and getting ready to go out to find a place to grab a bite to eat when we heard what sounded like drums. Well, it was drums alright!! An entire parade full of them, along with hundreds of marching kids, horses, acrobats, buglers and dancers. Today is November 20th, the official day to celebrate the Revolution and everyone gets into the festivities, the roads are shut right down to traffic, and there is celebration in the air.

We watched some of the parade from the balcony outside our room and then made our way across the street to have some breakfast as we watched the rest of it. About an hour and a half later we seemed to have reached both the end of the parade and the end of our breakfast so the timing was perfect and it was as though Zihuat had thrown the parade just for us.

The only worrisome thing about the parade was that it had shut the town down to traffic so getting to the airport might be a bit of a problem. We decided to do our best though so hit the streets with suitcases in tow and became part of the end of the parade. We walked along the streets that were lined with locals (way too crowded on the sidewalks) and sure enough....we located the end of the closed area and found a bus to the airport. Prices are sure reasonable when you choose to take local transit over taxis. Today, we paid 15 pesos for two of us to take the bus all the way to the airport. That’s about $1.50 Cdn.

We’re sitting in departure now waiting for our $45 Cdn flight to Toluca, the highest city, the capital of this state, and home to an active volcano you can drive up to within an hour or so and one of the staff here just told us that it is maybe about 3 degrees there so we’ll be going from +33 to +3 in a matter of an hour. Could be a bit of a shock to the system assuming his information is correct – we’ll know soon enough I guess. As I type this Lynda is making new friends (what else is new) and as it turns out....they are from Mexico City and she is getting some good info on what we should do while there. They’re expats from London, England, who have been living abroad for more than 30 years, 5 of them in Mexico City. As luck would have it....one of their friends happened to be on the same plane and lives in Toluca soooooo....well......I’ll leave the rest of that story to the next paragraph after we’ve touched down.

You won’t believe this chapter of our adventure...and an adventure is exactly what it is turning out to be. We landed in Toluca, got our bags, got into the vehicle with our new friend from Germany (now residing in Toluca) and his son Sebastian. They had decided they’d like to drive us from the Toluca airport to a nice hotel where we would be comfortable and that was reasonably close to the central part of the city. When we arrived at the hotel.....neither Lynda nor I knew what to say as the concierge and multiple porters opened our doors to escort us into the opulent foyer that exuded an air of people with lots of pesos and designer clothes....not something we currently look like we fit into. All in all, it was a place that was looking for way more money than we were interested in donating to their cause. We waved good bye to our transport and pretended we weren’t in shock. Once inside, we simply asked the room rates and decided that we’d try elsewhere. As we left the hotel, a taxi driver approached and before we knew what was happening...we were in the back of a luxurious cab (leather seats and air conditioning) with a driver named Jesus who was prepared to take us anywhere we wanted to go for the next two days. He would also be our personal guide and protector in the event that we found ourselves in any areas that were less than desirable. It was kind of a dream come true.....here we were en route to a reasonably priced hotel (oh yes, Jesus was able to secure that for us too) with a personal driver in a luxury car....all was good in our world and we were reminded that we are mucho suerte (lucky)! The laughter really began once we realized that Jesus was driving us right back to the airport to get our hotel. It was as though we had made a decision to go with the German family to find a place in town and then divine intervention occurred to ensure our experience would be primo. And to top it off....our driver’s name was even Jesus!!

Once we were checked into our room at the City Express for $88/night for two people where there is free internet, free breakfast, free tequila...yes....free tequila you read it right and as a result I may make an error or two in my typing tonight. As an aside...did you know that tequila and Squirt ( a kind of pop)is delicious? Our room is new, clean, air conditioned, large, separate double beds, big shower, water you can drink from the tap...yep.....it’s a luxury model in my mind and when I compare it to the almost $500 price tag at the other place....I’m a happy camper.

Okay, so we’ve checked in had a quick clean up and are back downstairs in record time where Jesus is waiting for us by the door. We really are going to live the lifestyle on this leg of the adventure. When I think that we were going to be couchsurfing in Toluca....as nice as I’m sure that would have been, this is giving it a run for it’s money. For those of you who have never heard of couchsurfing...it is an internet “family” ½ million strong who are willing to share their couches (homes) with travellers looking for a cultural experience. Mitch told us about it and chances are we’ll try to find another place to surf but the guy we were hoping for in Toluca was away in Europe as of today so that didn’t work out this stop. Anyway, back to Jesus.....we climbed into our plush leather seats and were off to tour the central part of Toluca. Our first stop was at the Botanical Gardens in the centre of the city. What an amazing sight that is! The entire place is stained glass windows on the walls and ceiling. The colours are so bright that the multitude of plants inside have the colours of the windows reflected onto them as the sun shines through the windows. I took so many pictures there – I hope some of them turn out as if they do....they’ll be gorgeous!! When we’d had our fill of the gardens, there was Jesus waiting for us right outside the front door. Yep, this is the way to sightsee! If we were riding in a bus...we’d still be looking for which bus to catch. From the gardens we toured around the zocalo (city centre square), saw the cathedral where we had a peek inside and found some really interesting glass work there. It was all stained glass but all clear....no colour....very different and very beautiful. Next we were off to run a quick errand with Jesus. He had to pick up a part for a motor and deliver it to a mechanic so we saw a part of the city that was different from anything most touristas would see. Language barriers can be interesting things and our German drivers had English but it was definitely not perfect and Jesus has .... well.....I guess the only way to say it is to tell the truth....he has none! Our German friends had tried to tell us about something that Toluca is famous for....the Tree of Life that is made out of dirt in an area outside the city centre. Once we started talking to Jesus about it (and remember folks...there is no English going on in this conversation) we were able to figure out that it was pottery done by the indigenous tribe who still live in their original village. They are the Metepeq people and the tree of life isn’t anything very big....but what a lot of work goes into one of these intricate pieces. They’re made of red clay, are 3 D, and most are painted quite colourfully. Anyway, we enjoyed walking around the Metepeq Pueblo and going into the shops and trying to talk to the people working in them. Very little if any English is spoken anywhere here. And....we’re doing very well, if I do say so myself. Lynda is doing really well. Her vocabulary is really quite good except when she calls an onion a horse or when she gets the word for ice mixed up with the word for full and best of all when the number 9 becomes something new. It makes for lots of laughter and the Mexican people are sooo forgiving and understanding with us attempting to speak Spanish. They’re so helpful and pleasant all the time.

By the way...the 3 degrees we’d find when we landed was a joke! It was about 30 degrees but...the air is dry which was very pleasant and really,,,,it just felt like the Okanagan on a nice summer day. So, picture me in a sleeveless top as you’d see me in Penticton in July....I’m happy as I’m not sweating like a pig for the first time since my arrival. I love this place! (Sorry if it’s snowing at home...well....I’m not too sorry, but I felt compelled to say something nice so you didn’t feel more jealous that you already do) Anyway, back to the dress code of Toluca.....as the day wears on, temperatures begin to fall and by dusk it’s getting close to that 3 degree mark. Lynda is bundled up in her coat, Jesus has taken his out of the trunk and the locals walking the streets with us are wearing parkas with hoods up, scarves on top of that and only eyes peeking out in the freezing temps. I on the other hand am still smiling in my bare arms as the locals eyeball me as some kind of freak of nature. Eventually, I broke down and put on a sweater so as not to scare people. Tomorrow will be more of the same...hot by day and cold by night. The elevation here is just under 10,000 feet. Maybe that’s why one drink of tequila can make you dizzy!!! I like it here!!!

After walking around the Metepeq Pueblo, listening to Christmas carols in Spanish, Jesus joined us for dinner in a local Metepeq restaurant (specialty all kinds of fish) where I ended up with soup instead of sopes. I had my taste buds all set for sopes and when this huge bowl of soup overfilled with seafood of all kinds arrived, I didn’t know quite what to think! Some of it was really good but other parts of it were not so wonderful and I think the biggest thing of all was that I was all set for sopes and my tastebuds were looking for that and I ended up with something so far from sopes it isn’t even funny. Regardless, there was so much food that I didn’t go hungry and much of my soup went home with Jesus tonight.

Tomorrow, Jesus will pick us up at our door at 10:00 and we’ll have our private tour of the volcano and Teotenango where we’ll explore the pyramids and ancient ruins found there. I don’t know too much about it yet, but I think it is believed to be the oldest site in all of Mexico and some of the oldest in the world. Regardless, it will be very interesting I’m sure. And....we’ll have our luxury ride there and back.

Oh yes....I guess I forgot to mention that Jesus and his car (well, here’s the real irony...it’s not his car...it belongs to the hotel where we didn’t stay cuz we couldn’t afford it) are with us for the full two days going anywhere we want for the bargain price of $1300 pesos ($130 CDN). The trip to the volcano will take about 1 ½ hours to get there and the same to come back. The trip to Teotenango is about 1 hour each way. Jesus waits for us for as long as we want and all of it is top drawer travel. Seriously though....we’d never have been able to do half of what we’re doing in twice the time if we were trying to do it with public transit and taxis would have been much more expensive than Jesus and the taxis aren’t even in the same league as the car Jesus is using. Lynda y Lorrie esta mujeres con mucho suerte!!

Time to sign off for this day – it is 9:45 pm after all. I’m so looking forward to a few days of respite from the bites I’ve been suffering at the coast. Some kind of bugs have taken a liking to me and they’ve made short work of my legs from the knees down and my arms as well. Basically anything that is exposed from dusk onward is fair game for them and they have bites that itch for days afterward. It’s not something everyone suffers from though – its just me....I’m way too sweet I guess. Hasta luego,
Lorrie