Today I came out of my Mexican Culture class feeling very guilty and depressed. We talked about the Spanish conquest of Mexico today. Hernán Cortes was a major douche. That’s not a strong enough word. Basically he killed a lot of people who didn’t deserve to die and ruined one of the most interesting civilizations I’ve ever studied. According to my professor, the Spanish conquest caused Mexicans to have an inferiority complex that has kept them from accomplishing anything significant in the world today. He started with the example of the Olympics: how many gold medals does Mexico have? Zero. Did you know the man who invented the color television was from Guadalajara? Apparently he tried to get funding for research in Mexico but they just laughed him out of the country, and he ended up getting funded in the US. This is, apparently, all due to the grand inferiority complex that Mexicans suffer from. Now I’m afraid to do anything because I don’t want to make anyone feel inferior. This sucks.
After class I ate a delicious lunch at home (Mexican-style spaghetti with lots of garlic, meat, salsa, and cream) and dawdled around my room until I got a text from Cassandra reminding me of my choir audition today. Lucky she sent that or else I would have completely forgotten. I met her at CEPE at 4 and she drove me to her music school where she takes piano lessons so that her teacher could appraise my skills.
Let me begin by saying that Cassandra told him that I’m catholic because this is a church choir. He had me do some simple vocal exercises and quickly deduced that I’m a soprano, which I am not. He thought I didn’t understand him when I told him I’m an alto in the US and kept repeating himself. Next he wanted me to sing something so he flipped through his book of songs. He paused on Kyrie and tried to get me to sing the soprano part which is way higher than I’m used to singing, so I faltered and he moved on to something else. I recognized the name of the second song but I had never sung it before so I faltered again. That’s when he turned to Cassandra and said, “And she’s catholic?” I really am a bad liar. He gave up and just had me sing the national anthem. In the end, he said that I sounded good and he was only worried about me being able to understand the conductor. So he’s going to tell the conductor yes and I’ll see how it goes at the first rehearsal.
I left my audition and headed for Centro Magno. I realized after getting my nails last Saturday that I can’t play guitar with these things on (or anything else really) so I went back to the nail place and asked if they could shorten my nails. It was the same woman who had put my nails on and she didn’t charge me anything which was really nice of her. Now they are the perfect length and I can touch things with my fingertips again! Then I went and bought and ice cream and walked home.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Urban Cowgirl
Today I got out of class a little bit earlier than everyone else and I started walking home, but then I realized that I didn’t really want to go home, the day was young. So I turned back and waited for the others to get out of class and we decided, after a lot of I-don’t-know-what-do-you-want-to-dos Tyler proposed going to a park he’d heard about where you can go horseback riding. We all consulted Javier (the CEPE version of Cassandra) and the giant map in the entry hall and decided we had to go.
It was probably a 20 minute taxi ride from CEPE to Parque Los Columnas. The six of us (Tyler, Linda, Tyler’s new housemate Jesse, Hannah, Sonja, and me) all crammed into the taxi and only had to pay 10 pesos each.
The horse place was strange because it was in a part of the park that bordered a very busy street, and you had to pass under a concrete footbridge to enter it, but once you were in there, you were in the country.
All the guys that worked there had awesome cowboy hats and equally awesome mustaches, all the horses looked like they had some donkey in them, and it definitely smelled like a farm (to put it nicely). We hardly had to say anything before they ushered us over to our horses, and only once we had gotten on the horses did they ask us to pay. It was 60 pesos each for an hour.
When we first set off I thought they had just given us horses to ride around because no one was leading us, but then I realized there was a little boy about 10 years old following behind us. It was funny because Linda and Hannah had never ridden a horse before so they kept squealing and wiggling around. To contrast, Sonja apparently trains horses at home so she was coaching them through it. The little boy would tell us where to turn when there was a fork in the road and kept all our horses moving. At some point we passed through the camp again and more guides came with us.
There were a bunch of different dusty gray paths through the dry little forest, and at one point we went walking down a little creek.
It was pretty but I wish I’d had a bandana (which reminds me, I need to go brush my teeth). After a while we came to a long, straight stretch of trail and the horses just took off. They must have been trained to run on this certain section of the trail because mine had been a little lazy up to that point and suddenly he was galloping. This was no good for me at first because my stirrups were uneven and my purse kept falling down my arm to where I was clinging to the saddle for dear life. Then one of the guides told me to put my purse on the horn of the saddle and gave me some pointers for when the horse galloped. We kept on running around the different trails for maybe 20 minutes and they let us take a pass without a guide for our last go-around. It was really fun and unexpected.
After horseback riding we tried to find a Japanese Garden or anything else to do in the park, but there was really nothing else there. Besides the horses it looked like the main reason people go to that park is to go running and workout. Once we deduced that there was nothing to find we took a taxi to Wings Army (a popular chain which happens to have 2-for-1 beers on Mondays). We sat around and chatted about nothing really. It was a good group of people, half old and half new. I walked back with Tyler and Jesse and got home around 8. Now I don’t know what to do with myself.
It was probably a 20 minute taxi ride from CEPE to Parque Los Columnas. The six of us (Tyler, Linda, Tyler’s new housemate Jesse, Hannah, Sonja, and me) all crammed into the taxi and only had to pay 10 pesos each.
The horse place was strange because it was in a part of the park that bordered a very busy street, and you had to pass under a concrete footbridge to enter it, but once you were in there, you were in the country.
All the guys that worked there had awesome cowboy hats and equally awesome mustaches, all the horses looked like they had some donkey in them, and it definitely smelled like a farm (to put it nicely). We hardly had to say anything before they ushered us over to our horses, and only once we had gotten on the horses did they ask us to pay. It was 60 pesos each for an hour. When we first set off I thought they had just given us horses to ride around because no one was leading us, but then I realized there was a little boy about 10 years old following behind us. It was funny because Linda and Hannah had never ridden a horse before so they kept squealing and wiggling around. To contrast, Sonja apparently trains horses at home so she was coaching them through it. The little boy would tell us where to turn when there was a fork in the road and kept all our horses moving. At some point we passed through the camp again and more guides came with us.
There were a bunch of different dusty gray paths through the dry little forest, and at one point we went walking down a little creek.
It was pretty but I wish I’d had a bandana (which reminds me, I need to go brush my teeth). After a while we came to a long, straight stretch of trail and the horses just took off. They must have been trained to run on this certain section of the trail because mine had been a little lazy up to that point and suddenly he was galloping. This was no good for me at first because my stirrups were uneven and my purse kept falling down my arm to where I was clinging to the saddle for dear life. Then one of the guides told me to put my purse on the horn of the saddle and gave me some pointers for when the horse galloped. We kept on running around the different trails for maybe 20 minutes and they let us take a pass without a guide for our last go-around. It was really fun and unexpected.After horseback riding we tried to find a Japanese Garden or anything else to do in the park, but there was really nothing else there. Besides the horses it looked like the main reason people go to that park is to go running and workout. Once we deduced that there was nothing to find we took a taxi to Wings Army (a popular chain which happens to have 2-for-1 beers on Mondays). We sat around and chatted about nothing really. It was a good group of people, half old and half new. I walked back with Tyler and Jesse and got home around 8. Now I don’t know what to do with myself.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Go Chivas!
The soccer game was pretty cool. Our seats were in the second row pretty close to the center of the field. It was just me and Elan and Cassandra because Nikiya is sick. I really wish she had been there because it’s no fun to ogle at soccer players in your head. 
The stadium wasn’t anywhere near full but there was a very enthusiastic cheering section to our left that made up for it.
The Chivas (from Guadalajara) beat Puebla (from Puebla, a state to the southeast) 3-2 in a pretty exciting game. There was a moment when it looked like it was going to be tied up with five minutes left in the game, but the goal didn’t count because they were off sides (a rule I will never understand). I like soccer because the clock just keeps running. It’s a 90 minute game and it takes 90 minutes to play it. As opposed to football which is really only an hour of playing and 3 more hours of standing around doing nothing.
The stadium wasn’t anywhere near full but there was a very enthusiastic cheering section to our left that made up for it. The Chivas (from Guadalajara) beat Puebla (from Puebla, a state to the southeast) 3-2 in a pretty exciting game. There was a moment when it looked like it was going to be tied up with five minutes left in the game, but the goal didn’t count because they were off sides (a rule I will never understand). I like soccer because the clock just keeps running. It’s a 90 minute game and it takes 90 minutes to play it. As opposed to football which is really only an hour of playing and 3 more hours of standing around doing nothing.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
When in Mexico...
I met Alejandra this morning at Starbucks about five minutes from my house. We sat and chatted for about an hour while I ate breakfast (3 cheese sandwich and orange juice) and she sipped on something with caramel in it. She keeps talking about a friend of hers that wants to practice his English with me but he never comes with her, and she explained to me that he’ll agree to plans and then not answer his phone for a long time. I told her in English there’s a word for people like him: flaky. But when I asked her if there was a word for it in Spanish she couldn’t think of one. Maybe that’s why everyone’s so unreliable here, because there’s no word for it.
After we’d been sitting there for a while I decided I wanted to get my nails done. All the girls here have crazy fake nails and I wanted to join in on the fun, plus I want to get over my nail biting habit once and for all. So we went to a nail place in Centro Magno and she sat there and chatted with the manicure ladies while I got my nails done. Don’t worry, they aren’t too crazy! They’re French nails and the white tips are a little glittery, and then the thumbs have two little flowers on them. They’re the gel kind and it only cost 350 pesos for the whole thing. The manicurist was really nice and spoke to me in Spanish even though she knew some English, so I tipped her extra. Alejandra took before, during, and after pictures to commemorate the occasion. I like them but I can’t do anything! I keep hitting “n” when I’m hitting the space button. I’ll get used to the eventually.
For your viewing pleasure:
Before
During
After! (This is a pose the manicurist put me in)
Now I'm off to the Chivas soccer (I mean futbol) game with the CEA crew!
After we’d been sitting there for a while I decided I wanted to get my nails done. All the girls here have crazy fake nails and I wanted to join in on the fun, plus I want to get over my nail biting habit once and for all. So we went to a nail place in Centro Magno and she sat there and chatted with the manicure ladies while I got my nails done. Don’t worry, they aren’t too crazy! They’re French nails and the white tips are a little glittery, and then the thumbs have two little flowers on them. They’re the gel kind and it only cost 350 pesos for the whole thing. The manicurist was really nice and spoke to me in Spanish even though she knew some English, so I tipped her extra. Alejandra took before, during, and after pictures to commemorate the occasion. I like them but I can’t do anything! I keep hitting “n” when I’m hitting the space button. I’ll get used to the eventually.
For your viewing pleasure:
Before
During
After! (This is a pose the manicurist put me in)
Now I'm off to the Chivas soccer (I mean futbol) game with the CEA crew!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Tonala
Tonala was really cool. There were stands lining the sidewalks (a lot like the Chiang Mai night bazaar) with everything from clothes and cooking utensils to sculptures and jewelry. There was a lot of stuff to look at and I don’t think I even really saw half of it, but I made some good purchases I think. I’m definitely going back.
I took at taxi there with Cassandra and Elan. Nikiya has been a-wall since last weekend when she went home for her law school scholarship interview so she wasn’t there. The taxi took 30 or 40 minutes to get from CEPE to Tonala (I took a nap so I’m not sure). Before we started shopping we went and had lunch at a table next to a bunch of screaming kids. The kids were annoying but the food was good. I had the plancha de res (beef cut in to strips) with beans and a salad.
After eating we watched some guys in a glass blowing workshop just down the street from the restaurant. They weren’t wearing any protective gear or anything.
I didn’t even really think about it until Elan pointed it out. This is what Mexico has done to me. They weren’t even acknowledging that it was hot. When we moved on to the actual tianguis we kind of split up and caught up with each other, stopping to buy things and wandering around. After a while I ran into Elan again and we walked to the end of the market together. The booths near the end were closing down by the time we got there so we crossed the street and made for the bus stop. We had to take different buses home so I said "Hasta manana" and got on the bus Cassandra told me to get on, the one that said Plaza del Sol.After a loooooong time the bus went past Plaza del Sol and around to one of Guadalajara’s many round-abouts. The street right in front of us was Lopez Mateos (the street I needed) and I remember thinking, “I’m almost home!” Little did I know. The bus ended up going around the circle and in the opposite direction of where I needed to go. It took me a minute to figure out what to do, so when I got off the bus to walk back to Plaza del Sol and catch a bus there I was already pretty far away. It took me 20 minutes to walk back to the mall and then the bus ride from there took another half hour or so. I left the tianguis at 3:30pm and didn’t get home until 6pm. Better luck next time, I guess.
No one was here when I got home, so I just went to my room and watched 500 Days of Summer with Spanish subtitles. After a few minutes I got out my notebook and started writing down new words. I got a few good ones. Then I ate some of the guacamole we made last night. Now it’s time for bed!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Cooking Mexican Style
I took a cooking class today through my program. It was just in the CEPE kitchen with Señora Chelo, Cassandra, Elan, and me. We made guacamole, salsa Mexicana, and enchiladas! They were so delicious. I’m definitely going to try to make them when I go home. It wasn’t very complicated and Cassandra is going to send us the recipes in an email soon. We had extra guacamole and salsa so Chelo split them up between me and Elan. I really want to eat some right now but I don’t have any chips!
Me and our yummy guacamole!
Rolling up my enchilada
The finished product, YUM!!
Tomorrow we’re going to the tianguis in Tonala which I’m really excited about. It’s all these local artisans selling their stuff right out of their factories. I hope I can find some good presents...
Me and our yummy guacamole!
Rolling up my enchilada
The finished product, YUM!!
Tomorrow we’re going to the tianguis in Tonala which I’m really excited about. It’s all these local artisans selling their stuff right out of their factories. I hope I can find some good presents...
Monday, February 15, 2010
San Juan Cosala
SATURDAY (2/13)
Suite was really fun! There ended up being about 10 of us from CEPE and we had a really good time.
I went to a tienges near Parque Agua Azul with Alejandra and Linda this morning. I bought ray bans for me and maybe a few other things...It was really cool and there were a lot of nice, handmade things. There was this really cute purse that was reversible with a yellow and grey flower pattern on one side and plain grey on the other side that looked handmade. I want to go back sometime with more money.
When I got back I took a power nap, packed, and rushed off to meet Linda and Kristen, and then we were off to San Juan Cosala!
We took a taxi to the old bus terminal which is pretty much in the center of Guadalajara. It’s also definitely for a lower income level, one that I like better and eats much tastier food. We had 45 minutes before our bus left so I bought four delicious steak tacos and my new favorite drink, horchata con fresa. It’s a cold milky drink with nutmeg and a few other spices and then this vendor added strawberry. It is heavenly.
Our bus for the hour ride to San Juan Cosalá, on the banks of Lake Chapala, was a step up from the public busses in Guadalajara. We sat all the way in the back in a row that was elevated above the others.
We could feel every single bump in the road but for some reason I never got motion sick. I got a special pleasure out of watching the heads of the other passengers bob around in unison with the movement of the bus. For some reason it was really funny and reminded me of chickens.
We didn’t know when to get off the bus so we accidently missed it by about 20 minutes. I finally asked the guy sitting next to us where we were and he told us that we had already passes San Juan Cosalá, so then we went to talk to the bus driver to see what we could do about it and this nice guy pointed us in the right direction. We just had to get off and cross the street to wait for another bus to come by. We were clearly in an area where they don’t see many foreigners so we got to be a special freak show for about ten minutes while we waited on the corner for the bus. Luckily for us our hotel (Villa Bordeaux) is pretty popular, so the bus dropped us off right in front.
It was so beautiful!
Villa Bordeaux is the grown-up part of a small water park (Balnearios) which draws all its water from a thermally heated, underground source. It had a pool with an infinity edge that looked over the lake, a hot tub (both filled with thermally heated mineral enriched water), and a restaurant.
We got there around 7pm and immediately went to get dinner. It took us a while to find somewhere to eat and we realized that the only places to eat were in our resort. Luckily, we made it to the restaurant, Toña, in the main water park in time to eat. We all got enchiladas and they were delicious. Unfortunately, by the time we’d gotten back we couldn’t go in the pool anymore because they were chlorinating it so we just went back to our room and fell asleep at 10 or so. We had all had a late night the night before so I guess it was understandable, plus, there was nothing else to do!
SUNDAY (2/14)
Why did we decide to go to the spa over Valentine’s Day weekend? That dominated our thoughts as we ate breakfast and lounged by the pool full of couples. After sunning for nearly four hours we ate lunch and decided to take a gander at the spa in the water park.
The manager came over when he saw us loitering around the spa menu and offered us a tour of the place. It was basically about six different baths with different herbs and things in them, a super hot sana, and what I can only describe as an oxygen cave. After hearing that we would only have to pay 90 pesos (a little under $9) to do all of it we decided we really had to go.
The first bath was Epsom salt, then hydrangeas (which claimed to cure obesity and sadness), then phototherapeutic herbs. I’m not even sure what that last one means but it was very green and they sprayed this icy-hot minty stuff on our hands for a little extra aromatherapy. Then we moved on to the special baths: coffee (with fine coffee grounds floating around), red wine, and finally, mud! For the last one we had to spread mud all over ourselves and then stand there while it dried before getting in to the hot tub and rinsing it all off. By the time we got to that one my sun burn had fully bloomed and the mud was very unpleasant. Also, the sun had just set so we didn’t dry very fast and it had gotten really cold. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this wonderful experience because I didn’t want to ruin my camera, but just imagine us in our bathing suits and then covered in redish-brown mud, even our faces. After the baths we rinsed off and sat in the hottest sana I’ve ever been in. It was this little steaming cave with some herb’s branches piled in the center. After being so cold in all the mud the cave was the exact opposite. We could only bear it for about five minutes and then we moved on to the last stop, the “oxygen cave.” It was so lame we only stayed in for a few minutes. There was a little hole with rocks and bubbling water due to a tube of oxygen stuck in it and it wasn't very hot.
We finished at the spa around 7 and went back to our hotel and sat in the pool for an hour, looking out at the lake and soaking our sun burnt selves. By the time we had gotten out, putzed around our room, and decided to go eat everything was closed. Toña closed at 9 and we didn’t know of anywhere else, so we bought Flaming Hot Cheetos and Cup-O-Noodles at the amusement park’s bar before it closed, and went in search of more food. The convenience store down on the corner outside our resort was closed and so was the little taco stand on the other corner. As we turned back to our hotel with our measly dinner I noticed a sign for a restaurant kind of behind our hotel. It turned out to also be closed but I think I just looked so sad and hungry (and white) when I asked them “¿Está abierta?” that they agreed to serve us. I had three deliciously spicy steak tacos and an Indio and Linda had the same with a Coke. The bill was only 70 pesos so I gave them 100 and told them to keep the change. I thought it was only fair after they had basically reopened to feed us.
Then we went back to our room because there was nothing else to do, and had another early night.
MONDAY (2/15)
We found out that because we stayed two nights at the hotel they would give us another night free. We didn’t want to stay another night because our new classes start tomorrow, but we decided to stay later and take our time checking out. It turns out Mondays are extremely slow at Balnearios and we were the only ones at breakfast. There were probably 30 guests in total, so it was very quiet compared to the day before when it had been packed with families and couples.
We lounged around the pool for a few hours after breakfast. I wore a T-shirt over my bathing suit because my sunburn on my chest and shoulders was so bad. I can’t remember the last time I had to do that. I need to be more careful from now on. Two weekends in a row is enough for me.
We left the hotel and hopped on the first direct bus to Guadalajara around 2:30pm. While we waited for the bus we made a new friend, Carlos, at the taco stand on the corner. There was a little white stray dog running around nearby and Kristen kept googling over it so Carlos picked it up and brought it over for us to pet. I took one look at it and refused to pet it, but Linda and Kristen did. Once we were on the bus Linda was convinced that the dog had given her fleas. I’m glad I didn’t touch it!
It only took us an hour to get back to Guadalajara. I bought another horchata con fresa and then we got a taxi to Centro Magno. New classes tomorrow.
Suite was really fun! There ended up being about 10 of us from CEPE and we had a really good time.
I went to a tienges near Parque Agua Azul with Alejandra and Linda this morning. I bought ray bans for me and maybe a few other things...It was really cool and there were a lot of nice, handmade things. There was this really cute purse that was reversible with a yellow and grey flower pattern on one side and plain grey on the other side that looked handmade. I want to go back sometime with more money.
When I got back I took a power nap, packed, and rushed off to meet Linda and Kristen, and then we were off to San Juan Cosala!
We took a taxi to the old bus terminal which is pretty much in the center of Guadalajara. It’s also definitely for a lower income level, one that I like better and eats much tastier food. We had 45 minutes before our bus left so I bought four delicious steak tacos and my new favorite drink, horchata con fresa. It’s a cold milky drink with nutmeg and a few other spices and then this vendor added strawberry. It is heavenly.
Our bus for the hour ride to San Juan Cosalá, on the banks of Lake Chapala, was a step up from the public busses in Guadalajara. We sat all the way in the back in a row that was elevated above the others.
We could feel every single bump in the road but for some reason I never got motion sick. I got a special pleasure out of watching the heads of the other passengers bob around in unison with the movement of the bus. For some reason it was really funny and reminded me of chickens.We didn’t know when to get off the bus so we accidently missed it by about 20 minutes. I finally asked the guy sitting next to us where we were and he told us that we had already passes San Juan Cosalá, so then we went to talk to the bus driver to see what we could do about it and this nice guy pointed us in the right direction. We just had to get off and cross the street to wait for another bus to come by. We were clearly in an area where they don’t see many foreigners so we got to be a special freak show for about ten minutes while we waited on the corner for the bus. Luckily for us our hotel (Villa Bordeaux) is pretty popular, so the bus dropped us off right in front.
It was so beautiful!
Villa Bordeaux is the grown-up part of a small water park (Balnearios) which draws all its water from a thermally heated, underground source. It had a pool with an infinity edge that looked over the lake, a hot tub (both filled with thermally heated mineral enriched water), and a restaurant.We got there around 7pm and immediately went to get dinner. It took us a while to find somewhere to eat and we realized that the only places to eat were in our resort. Luckily, we made it to the restaurant, Toña, in the main water park in time to eat. We all got enchiladas and they were delicious. Unfortunately, by the time we’d gotten back we couldn’t go in the pool anymore because they were chlorinating it so we just went back to our room and fell asleep at 10 or so. We had all had a late night the night before so I guess it was understandable, plus, there was nothing else to do!
SUNDAY (2/14)
Why did we decide to go to the spa over Valentine’s Day weekend? That dominated our thoughts as we ate breakfast and lounged by the pool full of couples. After sunning for nearly four hours we ate lunch and decided to take a gander at the spa in the water park.
The manager came over when he saw us loitering around the spa menu and offered us a tour of the place. It was basically about six different baths with different herbs and things in them, a super hot sana, and what I can only describe as an oxygen cave. After hearing that we would only have to pay 90 pesos (a little under $9) to do all of it we decided we really had to go.
The first bath was Epsom salt, then hydrangeas (which claimed to cure obesity and sadness), then phototherapeutic herbs. I’m not even sure what that last one means but it was very green and they sprayed this icy-hot minty stuff on our hands for a little extra aromatherapy. Then we moved on to the special baths: coffee (with fine coffee grounds floating around), red wine, and finally, mud! For the last one we had to spread mud all over ourselves and then stand there while it dried before getting in to the hot tub and rinsing it all off. By the time we got to that one my sun burn had fully bloomed and the mud was very unpleasant. Also, the sun had just set so we didn’t dry very fast and it had gotten really cold. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this wonderful experience because I didn’t want to ruin my camera, but just imagine us in our bathing suits and then covered in redish-brown mud, even our faces. After the baths we rinsed off and sat in the hottest sana I’ve ever been in. It was this little steaming cave with some herb’s branches piled in the center. After being so cold in all the mud the cave was the exact opposite. We could only bear it for about five minutes and then we moved on to the last stop, the “oxygen cave.” It was so lame we only stayed in for a few minutes. There was a little hole with rocks and bubbling water due to a tube of oxygen stuck in it and it wasn't very hot.
We finished at the spa around 7 and went back to our hotel and sat in the pool for an hour, looking out at the lake and soaking our sun burnt selves. By the time we had gotten out, putzed around our room, and decided to go eat everything was closed. Toña closed at 9 and we didn’t know of anywhere else, so we bought Flaming Hot Cheetos and Cup-O-Noodles at the amusement park’s bar before it closed, and went in search of more food. The convenience store down on the corner outside our resort was closed and so was the little taco stand on the other corner. As we turned back to our hotel with our measly dinner I noticed a sign for a restaurant kind of behind our hotel. It turned out to also be closed but I think I just looked so sad and hungry (and white) when I asked them “¿Está abierta?” that they agreed to serve us. I had three deliciously spicy steak tacos and an Indio and Linda had the same with a Coke. The bill was only 70 pesos so I gave them 100 and told them to keep the change. I thought it was only fair after they had basically reopened to feed us.
Then we went back to our room because there was nothing else to do, and had another early night.
MONDAY (2/15)
We found out that because we stayed two nights at the hotel they would give us another night free. We didn’t want to stay another night because our new classes start tomorrow, but we decided to stay later and take our time checking out. It turns out Mondays are extremely slow at Balnearios and we were the only ones at breakfast. There were probably 30 guests in total, so it was very quiet compared to the day before when it had been packed with families and couples.
We lounged around the pool for a few hours after breakfast. I wore a T-shirt over my bathing suit because my sunburn on my chest and shoulders was so bad. I can’t remember the last time I had to do that. I need to be more careful from now on. Two weekends in a row is enough for me.
We left the hotel and hopped on the first direct bus to Guadalajara around 2:30pm. While we waited for the bus we made a new friend, Carlos, at the taco stand on the corner. There was a little white stray dog running around nearby and Kristen kept googling over it so Carlos picked it up and brought it over for us to pet. I took one look at it and refused to pet it, but Linda and Kristen did. Once we were on the bus Linda was convinced that the dog had given her fleas. I’m glad I didn’t touch it!
It only took us an hour to get back to Guadalajara. I bought another horchata con fresa and then we got a taxi to Centro Magno. New classes tomorrow.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
New Amiga
Yesterday I met my new Amiga Amistad. After meeting my original partner, Guillermo, and then never seeing or hearing from him again, I decided to get a new partner. This time I made sure it was a girl so that it wouldn’t feel like a blind date.
I met her yesterday outside of CEPE at 5 and she was very nice. Her name is Alejandra (or Ali) and she is so adorable. She seems like the typical Mexican girl, all done up with the make-up and the nails and the matching clothes, but she looks very classy and vibrant. Like, she has the fake nails, but they are just French nails with one rhinestone on each nail, not some obnoxious, flashy design. It is a little weird because she’s 19 years old and pregnant. I don’t want to pass judgment because there’s no way I can understand all the cultural influences that have lead her to being pregnant. She seems very happy about it.
We talked a lot about her boyfriend and her plans with the baby. She told me she plans on moving to LA in May so that she can have her baby in the US in July and then fly back with it in August. I’m not sure if that’s legal but it’s what I would do if I had a boyfriend from LA, and she said it’s very common. I just smile and nod. We also talked about baby names. If it’s a girl, she likes the name Maria Jose (that’s the Catholic part shining through). Her boyfriend wants the baby to have an American name so she said if it’s a girl she likes the name Zoe and if it’s a boy, Paris. I hope it’s not a boy for the baby’s sake. After she has the baby she’s going to come back to Guadalajara and start university. I think it’s very brave and a little naïve of her to be so cheerful about this plan, but I was raised in a different culture, that’s for sure.
Yesterday Alice came into my room and told me some really sad news. I’ve known for a while that my 4 year old host nephew, Haciel, is really sick. He has some sort of blood disease like Leukemia and he’s been sick pretty much his whole life, but it’s taken a bad turn. He was sent home from the hospital yesterday and the doctor said there was nothing else they could do but wait to see if he responds to the medication he’s on now. It’s so sad. The whole family has been at the house for the last few days, and I could feel that something was happening while they were gathered in the kitchen, or the living room, or the upstairs patio. It was just in the tone of voice they used. Alice thinks it’s a good thing that we’re here as a means of income for them during all this difficulty. I agree with her, but I’m also selfish and I just want an uncomplicated family who will talk to me and treat me like one of them, more or less.
I’m so excited for this weekend! It’s the end of term tomorrow, so we have a three day weekend. A bunch of people are going to the beach, but I want to see something other than the beach for once. Mexico isn’t all beach. I believe there’s other stuff in between the east and west coasts. So, I originally wanted to go to Zacatecas or Mexico City (D.F.) but the weather is going to be pretty gross there this weekend. Instead, Linda, Kristen, and I are going to go to San Juan Cosalá where there are a number of thermal water pockets on the banks of Lake Chapala.
Tomorrow night we are going out with Camila (who is going home to Brazil on Sunday) to one of two clubs (Classic or Suite) that we have discounts at thanks to Cassandra. Then on Saturday morning we’re meeting up with Alejandra to go to the tienges (a kind of cultural flea market). After that, sometime in the afternoon we’ll take the bus to San Juan Cosalá and maybe stay there until Monday. Obviously a few things need to be figured out before then. Like where we’re staying. Speaking of, it’s time to do some research and maybe study for my finals…
I met her yesterday outside of CEPE at 5 and she was very nice. Her name is Alejandra (or Ali) and she is so adorable. She seems like the typical Mexican girl, all done up with the make-up and the nails and the matching clothes, but she looks very classy and vibrant. Like, she has the fake nails, but they are just French nails with one rhinestone on each nail, not some obnoxious, flashy design. It is a little weird because she’s 19 years old and pregnant. I don’t want to pass judgment because there’s no way I can understand all the cultural influences that have lead her to being pregnant. She seems very happy about it.
We talked a lot about her boyfriend and her plans with the baby. She told me she plans on moving to LA in May so that she can have her baby in the US in July and then fly back with it in August. I’m not sure if that’s legal but it’s what I would do if I had a boyfriend from LA, and she said it’s very common. I just smile and nod. We also talked about baby names. If it’s a girl, she likes the name Maria Jose (that’s the Catholic part shining through). Her boyfriend wants the baby to have an American name so she said if it’s a girl she likes the name Zoe and if it’s a boy, Paris. I hope it’s not a boy for the baby’s sake. After she has the baby she’s going to come back to Guadalajara and start university. I think it’s very brave and a little naïve of her to be so cheerful about this plan, but I was raised in a different culture, that’s for sure.
Yesterday Alice came into my room and told me some really sad news. I’ve known for a while that my 4 year old host nephew, Haciel, is really sick. He has some sort of blood disease like Leukemia and he’s been sick pretty much his whole life, but it’s taken a bad turn. He was sent home from the hospital yesterday and the doctor said there was nothing else they could do but wait to see if he responds to the medication he’s on now. It’s so sad. The whole family has been at the house for the last few days, and I could feel that something was happening while they were gathered in the kitchen, or the living room, or the upstairs patio. It was just in the tone of voice they used. Alice thinks it’s a good thing that we’re here as a means of income for them during all this difficulty. I agree with her, but I’m also selfish and I just want an uncomplicated family who will talk to me and treat me like one of them, more or less.
I’m so excited for this weekend! It’s the end of term tomorrow, so we have a three day weekend. A bunch of people are going to the beach, but I want to see something other than the beach for once. Mexico isn’t all beach. I believe there’s other stuff in between the east and west coasts. So, I originally wanted to go to Zacatecas or Mexico City (D.F.) but the weather is going to be pretty gross there this weekend. Instead, Linda, Kristen, and I are going to go to San Juan Cosalá where there are a number of thermal water pockets on the banks of Lake Chapala.
Tomorrow night we are going out with Camila (who is going home to Brazil on Sunday) to one of two clubs (Classic or Suite) that we have discounts at thanks to Cassandra. Then on Saturday morning we’re meeting up with Alejandra to go to the tienges (a kind of cultural flea market). After that, sometime in the afternoon we’ll take the bus to San Juan Cosalá and maybe stay there until Monday. Obviously a few things need to be figured out before then. Like where we’re staying. Speaking of, it’s time to do some research and maybe study for my finals…
Sunday, February 7, 2010
La Playa Parte Dos: Guayabitos
Thursday afternoon I left the house with Alice around 3 to go to the bookstore, but we ended up going all over the place. I had to pick up my laundry at 7 but other than that we felt like we had a lot of time, so we went to the Museo de la Ciudad in the centro historico (which was pretty small and useless but free!) and ended up meeting with Matt (one of her CEPE classmates) at the bookstore and going out for drinks on Chipultapec. Alice and Matt are both more than ten years older than me, so it was fun to talk to them about life after college and just funny to talk to them about technology (like Facebook).
We ended up sitting around and talking for probably two hours and by the time we were done the Laundromat had closed so Alice and I went out to Indian food because we had the time. The chicken vindaloo that I got was ridiculously spicy and nothing like other vidaloos I’ve had before. I thought that maybe Mexican Indian food would be good because mole is very similar to curry, but I was sadly disappointed. We probably got back around 9 or 10, so I had failed to run any of my errands before leaving for the beach! I did, however, manage to buy the first Harry Potter in Spanish.
FRIDAY (2/5)
We took another Primera Plus bus from the Zapopan station to Guayabitos. It was a quick and easy four hour ride compared to the bus ride to Barra de Navidad.
All the scenery was pretty much the same, but when we got close to the beach this time it started looking a lot more lush and green.
We stayed at the De Cameron Hotel, an all inclusive resort right on the beach. It was made up of three different areas, all with its own restaurant, pool, and bar, and all painted in very bright colors. Nikiya and I shared a room and then Cassandra and Elan each got their own rooms. Our rooms were in the nicer part of the hotel, farther away from the beach. The beach itself was much tamer than Barra de Navidad. The sad little waves that lapped the shore reminded me of Pinecrest Lake, but the sand was soft and I didn’t end up doing much swimming anyway.
We all met up on the beach after checking out our rooms and went for a nice stroll down the beach during sunset.
The further we got from our hotel, the bigger the waves got but they never got as crazy as Barra de Navidad. After the sun set around 6 it got pretty cold so we went back to our rooms to warm up and we planned to meet for dinner at 8. This turned out to be a big mistake at least for me and Nikiya because we got so hungry. To pass the time I watched Nikelodeon in Spanish. It's surprising how much I was able to follow.
We had a buffet dinner at the Tropical Restaurant which is where we ended up eating all our meals because you didn’t have to make a reservation. Afterwards, Elan, Nikiya, and I went to explore the surrounding area which was basically one long road with very few open shops. The hotel claimed to have a club, so we went to check that out and ended up being three of maybe nine people in there. The DJ took suggestions so Nikiya and I asked for lots of Lady Gaga and danced a little bit, but the whole thing was a little sad. Us girls ended up going to bed around midnight because we knew we were going to have to get up early-ish for whale watching!
SATURDAY (2/6)
We met to go whale watching at ten in the morning and piled into a small boat with a few other people. One of the guys on our boat had been there for a while, filming the whales for a nationally broadcast special about the nature around the Pacific Coast of Mexico, so he was pretty knowledgeable and spoke English and Spanish very well. He and our boat driver seemed to have been working together for a while. He said he had been trying for a long time to get good underwater shots but every time he jumped in the water the whales would get freaked out and swim away.
We drove out into the bay for at least half an hour and then they told us to start looking for whales. We would know we saw one by a big splash or spray of water. And so we looked. We had been out on the water for about an hour, and I had kind of given up so I was staring blankly out at the water, when I saw a giant tail rise up out of the water and splash down pretty far away. I yelled out and pointed in the direction of the splash and we started really booking it over there. About five minutes later we got to the group of whales (which the filming guy said was a mother and baby and at least one other whale). The baby, which was bigger than our boat, was kind of rolling around on the surface. I couldn’t really see it except for a few odd flippers flopping and waving around. I imagine it was learning the feel of the surface and getting a feel for its surroundings while the adult whales kept an eye out for danger. The filming guy said immediately when we got there that this was going to be an excellent sighting and maybe five minutes later two of the adults started jumping! I got it all on video. Cassandra said in her six years of doing this trip with students she had never seen a whale jump out of the water (the Spanish verb is brincar).
We followed that group for a while and then the filming guy decided to jump in to get some underwater shots. He was so funny. From the beginning of the sighting he said we have to call out to the whales because they are curious creatures and they will come looking for the source of the weird noises. So the whole time he was calling out to the whales with odd squeaking noises kind of like Dori in Finding Nemo. When he jumped in the water with his snorkel on it only got funnier. He ended up getting really close to the mom and baby and said he got some really good shots.
We went off to where another group of whales was being very active, but by the time we got there they had stopped jumping because there were so many boats nearby. On our way back in we came upon the first mother-child pair from the beginning and our filming friend got a few more good underwater shots.
After getting back and eating lunch we tried to rent a catamaran from the hotel, but apparently we needed to make a reservation in the morning. Elan got the only kayak left with the hopes of going out to some of the islands in the bay, but he had to stay within a small roped off section so I just laughed at him and swam around his kayak. Then we got the idea to rent a jet ski. The jet skis weren’t part of the resort so we actually had to pay money and they were asking 450 pesos for half an hour. Our problem was that none of us even brought that much money with us because the resort was all inclusive. Elan had talked to one of the guys earlier in the day and the guy took the price down to 400 for forty minutes because Elan spoke Spanish, so we went and found the same guy and split the cost.
It was so much fun! Elan drove for most of the time, but I got to drive too. I gave up after maybe five minutes though. It was such a weird feeling, going so fast over the water, and turning was pretty unsettling. We went almost all the way down the beach to where there weren’t restaurants or hotels along the water and rode in a lot of circles. Toward the end Elan discovered that by going at the waves in a certain spot really fast we could jump off the water, so we kept going around in big circles to get to those waves and go back around for more. Neither of us had watches so we just headed back to the beach when we thought it was time and our guy waved us in. Then Elan went to go get his money in his room and I found out that we had been flagged in five minutes early, so I went and talked to the guy and he said we could have another turn around to make up for it. Since Elan was gone I convinced Nikiya to go with me and I drove. I took us around in those same big circles and got some good jumps. Nikiya loved it and kept telling me to go faster. I’m happy she got a chance to go out too.
After dinner we met a rowdy group of old Canadians and ended up talking to them for hours. Two of them were married with three kids a little younger than us and I, apparently, reminded them a lot of their youngest daughter, Marley. The other guy was this awesome old gay guy named Brad from Alberta who was there with his husband trying to buy a condo in Guayabitos. After we got kicked off the patio where the Cactus Bar was for being too loud and we moved on to the “club” again, Brad and I talked a lot about politics, gay marriage, healthcare, and Palo Alto. He was such a cute little guy and he talked with that cheery Midwestern accent that made everything he said sound happy.
Overall, it was a fun weekend. Very different from my Barra de Navidad experience but still a good time. We left Guayabitos around 1:30pm on Sunday and got back to Guadalajara around 6 (Guadalajara is one hour ahead of Guayabitos).
We ended up sitting around and talking for probably two hours and by the time we were done the Laundromat had closed so Alice and I went out to Indian food because we had the time. The chicken vindaloo that I got was ridiculously spicy and nothing like other vidaloos I’ve had before. I thought that maybe Mexican Indian food would be good because mole is very similar to curry, but I was sadly disappointed. We probably got back around 9 or 10, so I had failed to run any of my errands before leaving for the beach! I did, however, manage to buy the first Harry Potter in Spanish.
FRIDAY (2/5)
We took another Primera Plus bus from the Zapopan station to Guayabitos. It was a quick and easy four hour ride compared to the bus ride to Barra de Navidad.
All the scenery was pretty much the same, but when we got close to the beach this time it started looking a lot more lush and green.We stayed at the De Cameron Hotel, an all inclusive resort right on the beach. It was made up of three different areas, all with its own restaurant, pool, and bar, and all painted in very bright colors. Nikiya and I shared a room and then Cassandra and Elan each got their own rooms. Our rooms were in the nicer part of the hotel, farther away from the beach. The beach itself was much tamer than Barra de Navidad. The sad little waves that lapped the shore reminded me of Pinecrest Lake, but the sand was soft and I didn’t end up doing much swimming anyway.
We all met up on the beach after checking out our rooms and went for a nice stroll down the beach during sunset.
The further we got from our hotel, the bigger the waves got but they never got as crazy as Barra de Navidad. After the sun set around 6 it got pretty cold so we went back to our rooms to warm up and we planned to meet for dinner at 8. This turned out to be a big mistake at least for me and Nikiya because we got so hungry. To pass the time I watched Nikelodeon in Spanish. It's surprising how much I was able to follow.We had a buffet dinner at the Tropical Restaurant which is where we ended up eating all our meals because you didn’t have to make a reservation. Afterwards, Elan, Nikiya, and I went to explore the surrounding area which was basically one long road with very few open shops. The hotel claimed to have a club, so we went to check that out and ended up being three of maybe nine people in there. The DJ took suggestions so Nikiya and I asked for lots of Lady Gaga and danced a little bit, but the whole thing was a little sad. Us girls ended up going to bed around midnight because we knew we were going to have to get up early-ish for whale watching!
SATURDAY (2/6)
We met to go whale watching at ten in the morning and piled into a small boat with a few other people. One of the guys on our boat had been there for a while, filming the whales for a nationally broadcast special about the nature around the Pacific Coast of Mexico, so he was pretty knowledgeable and spoke English and Spanish very well. He and our boat driver seemed to have been working together for a while. He said he had been trying for a long time to get good underwater shots but every time he jumped in the water the whales would get freaked out and swim away.
We drove out into the bay for at least half an hour and then they told us to start looking for whales. We would know we saw one by a big splash or spray of water. And so we looked. We had been out on the water for about an hour, and I had kind of given up so I was staring blankly out at the water, when I saw a giant tail rise up out of the water and splash down pretty far away. I yelled out and pointed in the direction of the splash and we started really booking it over there. About five minutes later we got to the group of whales (which the filming guy said was a mother and baby and at least one other whale). The baby, which was bigger than our boat, was kind of rolling around on the surface. I couldn’t really see it except for a few odd flippers flopping and waving around. I imagine it was learning the feel of the surface and getting a feel for its surroundings while the adult whales kept an eye out for danger. The filming guy said immediately when we got there that this was going to be an excellent sighting and maybe five minutes later two of the adults started jumping! I got it all on video. Cassandra said in her six years of doing this trip with students she had never seen a whale jump out of the water (the Spanish verb is brincar).
We followed that group for a while and then the filming guy decided to jump in to get some underwater shots. He was so funny. From the beginning of the sighting he said we have to call out to the whales because they are curious creatures and they will come looking for the source of the weird noises. So the whole time he was calling out to the whales with odd squeaking noises kind of like Dori in Finding Nemo. When he jumped in the water with his snorkel on it only got funnier. He ended up getting really close to the mom and baby and said he got some really good shots.
We went off to where another group of whales was being very active, but by the time we got there they had stopped jumping because there were so many boats nearby. On our way back in we came upon the first mother-child pair from the beginning and our filming friend got a few more good underwater shots.
After getting back and eating lunch we tried to rent a catamaran from the hotel, but apparently we needed to make a reservation in the morning. Elan got the only kayak left with the hopes of going out to some of the islands in the bay, but he had to stay within a small roped off section so I just laughed at him and swam around his kayak. Then we got the idea to rent a jet ski. The jet skis weren’t part of the resort so we actually had to pay money and they were asking 450 pesos for half an hour. Our problem was that none of us even brought that much money with us because the resort was all inclusive. Elan had talked to one of the guys earlier in the day and the guy took the price down to 400 for forty minutes because Elan spoke Spanish, so we went and found the same guy and split the cost.
It was so much fun! Elan drove for most of the time, but I got to drive too. I gave up after maybe five minutes though. It was such a weird feeling, going so fast over the water, and turning was pretty unsettling. We went almost all the way down the beach to where there weren’t restaurants or hotels along the water and rode in a lot of circles. Toward the end Elan discovered that by going at the waves in a certain spot really fast we could jump off the water, so we kept going around in big circles to get to those waves and go back around for more. Neither of us had watches so we just headed back to the beach when we thought it was time and our guy waved us in. Then Elan went to go get his money in his room and I found out that we had been flagged in five minutes early, so I went and talked to the guy and he said we could have another turn around to make up for it. Since Elan was gone I convinced Nikiya to go with me and I drove. I took us around in those same big circles and got some good jumps. Nikiya loved it and kept telling me to go faster. I’m happy she got a chance to go out too.
After dinner we met a rowdy group of old Canadians and ended up talking to them for hours. Two of them were married with three kids a little younger than us and I, apparently, reminded them a lot of their youngest daughter, Marley. The other guy was this awesome old gay guy named Brad from Alberta who was there with his husband trying to buy a condo in Guayabitos. After we got kicked off the patio where the Cactus Bar was for being too loud and we moved on to the “club” again, Brad and I talked a lot about politics, gay marriage, healthcare, and Palo Alto. He was such a cute little guy and he talked with that cheery Midwestern accent that made everything he said sound happy.
Overall, it was a fun weekend. Very different from my Barra de Navidad experience but still a good time. We left Guayabitos around 1:30pm on Sunday and got back to Guadalajara around 6 (Guadalajara is one hour ahead of Guayabitos).
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Barra de Navidad
What a weekend! I didn’t want it to end.
FRIDAY (1/29)
Minori, Alice, I went straight from school to the bus terminal. Alice was going to visit friends in Mexico City, so we all shared a taxi. Everyone else was driving and planned on heading out around the same time as our bus.
Minori and I took Primera Plus all the way to Barra de Navidad and back for a little under $56! The bus ride itself took 7.5 hours but it wasn’t too bad. They gave us snacks and drinks when we got on the bus in Guadalajara and played movies the whole time. We drove through a landscape that reminded me of Thailand all dried out with a little California. Dry rolling hills, little pueblos with a few beat up cement buildings, vast agave fields, etc. There was a car accident in the middle of the main highway that delayed us and hour and a half.
We got to Barra de Navidad around 9:30pm and found out that we were the first people there from our party, so we dropped our stuff in our hotel (Hotel Caribe) and went exploring for a few hours.
The car with Elan, Kim, Tyler, and Jan showed up at 11:30pm and they told us the others weren’t going to come after all, so we had these giant rooms reserved for a party of twelve that only had six people in them. Oh well, it was a really good group of six.
We ended up going and exploring the town again because the others hadn’t eaten dinner yet. Nothing was open so we went to a tiny burrito/hamburger place called Pipi’s. We made friends with the owner, Pipi (or as Tyler called him El Jefe), and always said hi to him when we came by for the rest of the weekend. After Pipi’s we went to the only bar that was open (and I’m not even sure if it was open) called Lucy’s. There were two old Canadian hippies jamming on their guitars for the bar owner and we sat down with them and listened to them play. I couldn’t help myself so I asked if I could play a song which turned into five because they wouldn’t let me stop. It had been a long time since I played so I really couldn’t remember much, but I faked it pretty well I guess.
SATURDAY (1/30)
We got up and went to La Casa de Mi Abuela, a breakfast place half a block from our hotel that the proprietor at Lucy’s told Kim about the night before. The portions were tiny, but it was good. I drank a glass of carrot juice because my CEPE professor told me it would help me tan even if I wore sunscreen.
After breakfast we made our way to the beach very slowly. I had to buy a bathing
suit because I forgot all my bathing suit bottoms in Guadalajara (just like Thailand), but there were also a bunch of other touristy shops selling hats and dresses and little souvenirs. When we finally did get to the beach it was around 2 and we hung out there until lunch/dinner around 5, just drinking beers with lime and playing in the water.
Lunch/dinner was at Mexico Lindo which turned out to be our favorite spot along with Pipi’s to grab a bite. It was this cute little place with an open kitchen that faced the dining patio in the back. There was a woman making tortillas and there was fresh squeezed juice and lots of bright, tropical colors. It seemed to be run by a family with many many women. I got a delicious super burrito with chicken!
After dinner we went back to the beach with some tequila and lime, rum and coke, and watched the sunset. Kim kept saying how lucky we all were to be where we were at that moment, saying “this is the life!” and we all kept agreeing. It was beautiful to sit there with such a great group of people and be so thankful for it in that moment. We sat there for hours after the sunset just talking and frolicking on the beach like we do.
After a while we tried to go dancing but that was a bust. The only "club" had a cover charge of 40 pesos so we decided it wasn’t worth it because we’re cheap. We headed back over to Lucy’s where there were a lot more old hippies than the night before and I ended up getting coaxed into playing for them again. I played all the same songs, but no one seemed to care – “The Show,” “Far Away,” “Winding Road,” “You and I Both,” “Giving Up,” and “One Sweet Love”. I caught one woman taking a video of me and I thought I should have been getting paid for all the business I was getting Lucy’s.
SUNDAY (1/31)
Minori and I got giant smoothies at a place around the corner from our hotel for breakfast and got to the beach (after much dilly-dallying) around noon. Tyler and I rented boogie boards but the waves ended up being really big and rough. I think some were as high as 15ft. I kept trying to go in and catch some waves but it was too hard and I got tossed around a few too many times, so I gave up. People from our group kind of came and went during the day, but it was mostly me and Minori. After the beach we went to Mexico Lindo, again, and I got another smoothie.
Then we repeated our sunset ritual with more tequila and limes and rum and coke.
After dark Kim, Tyler and I went to Pipi's for some excellent burritos, followed up by ice cream at Thrifty's. Then we rejoined our group back at the beach and chatted for a long time. It started raining around 9 so we moved all our towels under a big beach umbrella from one of the restaurants. Eventually we got tired of sitting under the umbrella and we gathered up our stuff to go hang out at the hotel.
In our hotel there was a big covered porch on the second floor that we planned to hang out on, and when we got there there was a group of six Australians already there playing UNO and generally having a good time, so they invited us to play with them. We ended up sitting around with them for hours. There was a girl named Alex who had spent seven years growing up in the US so she "translated" for us, and we talked a lot about cultural differences and traveling. I love the Aussies. I think I got to bed around 6am?
MONDAY (2/1)
We all dragged ourselves out of bed around noon and went to Mexico Lindo (one last time) for breakfast. The service was terrible for some reason and we only got about half the things we ordered after waiting a ridiculous amount of time. Despite this, Mexico Lindo will always have a special place in my heart.
The others left around 1pm because their rental car had to be back by 5 or 6 or else they’d be charged for an extra day. Minori and I sat around for a while in the room and then went to the beach for an hour or so.
Minori and I caught the bus at 3:30pm and it was back to Guadalajara for us. We both slept most of the time. We got to the Guadalajara bus terminal around 10pm and Minori’s amigo amistad said he could pick us up in twenty minutes. Twenty minutes turned into an hour. It was so cold and wet outside! When I finally got home around 11:30 I just plopped into bed and fell asleep without doing my homework or unpacking.
FRIDAY (1/29)
Minori, Alice, I went straight from school to the bus terminal. Alice was going to visit friends in Mexico City, so we all shared a taxi. Everyone else was driving and planned on heading out around the same time as our bus.
Minori and I took Primera Plus all the way to Barra de Navidad and back for a little under $56! The bus ride itself took 7.5 hours but it wasn’t too bad. They gave us snacks and drinks when we got on the bus in Guadalajara and played movies the whole time. We drove through a landscape that reminded me of Thailand all dried out with a little California. Dry rolling hills, little pueblos with a few beat up cement buildings, vast agave fields, etc. There was a car accident in the middle of the main highway that delayed us and hour and a half.
We got to Barra de Navidad around 9:30pm and found out that we were the first people there from our party, so we dropped our stuff in our hotel (Hotel Caribe) and went exploring for a few hours.
The car with Elan, Kim, Tyler, and Jan showed up at 11:30pm and they told us the others weren’t going to come after all, so we had these giant rooms reserved for a party of twelve that only had six people in them. Oh well, it was a really good group of six.We ended up going and exploring the town again because the others hadn’t eaten dinner yet. Nothing was open so we went to a tiny burrito/hamburger place called Pipi’s. We made friends with the owner, Pipi (or as Tyler called him El Jefe), and always said hi to him when we came by for the rest of the weekend. After Pipi’s we went to the only bar that was open (and I’m not even sure if it was open) called Lucy’s. There were two old Canadian hippies jamming on their guitars for the bar owner and we sat down with them and listened to them play. I couldn’t help myself so I asked if I could play a song which turned into five because they wouldn’t let me stop. It had been a long time since I played so I really couldn’t remember much, but I faked it pretty well I guess.
SATURDAY (1/30)
We got up and went to La Casa de Mi Abuela, a breakfast place half a block from our hotel that the proprietor at Lucy’s told Kim about the night before. The portions were tiny, but it was good. I drank a glass of carrot juice because my CEPE professor told me it would help me tan even if I wore sunscreen.
After breakfast we made our way to the beach very slowly. I had to buy a bathing
suit because I forgot all my bathing suit bottoms in Guadalajara (just like Thailand), but there were also a bunch of other touristy shops selling hats and dresses and little souvenirs. When we finally did get to the beach it was around 2 and we hung out there until lunch/dinner around 5, just drinking beers with lime and playing in the water. Lunch/dinner was at Mexico Lindo which turned out to be our favorite spot along with Pipi’s to grab a bite. It was this cute little place with an open kitchen that faced the dining patio in the back. There was a woman making tortillas and there was fresh squeezed juice and lots of bright, tropical colors. It seemed to be run by a family with many many women. I got a delicious super burrito with chicken!
After dinner we went back to the beach with some tequila and lime, rum and coke, and watched the sunset. Kim kept saying how lucky we all were to be where we were at that moment, saying “this is the life!” and we all kept agreeing. It was beautiful to sit there with such a great group of people and be so thankful for it in that moment. We sat there for hours after the sunset just talking and frolicking on the beach like we do.
After a while we tried to go dancing but that was a bust. The only "club" had a cover charge of 40 pesos so we decided it wasn’t worth it because we’re cheap. We headed back over to Lucy’s where there were a lot more old hippies than the night before and I ended up getting coaxed into playing for them again. I played all the same songs, but no one seemed to care – “The Show,” “Far Away,” “Winding Road,” “You and I Both,” “Giving Up,” and “One Sweet Love”. I caught one woman taking a video of me and I thought I should have been getting paid for all the business I was getting Lucy’s.
SUNDAY (1/31)
Minori and I got giant smoothies at a place around the corner from our hotel for breakfast and got to the beach (after much dilly-dallying) around noon. Tyler and I rented boogie boards but the waves ended up being really big and rough. I think some were as high as 15ft. I kept trying to go in and catch some waves but it was too hard and I got tossed around a few too many times, so I gave up. People from our group kind of came and went during the day, but it was mostly me and Minori. After the beach we went to Mexico Lindo, again, and I got another smoothie.
Then we repeated our sunset ritual with more tequila and limes and rum and coke.
After dark Kim, Tyler and I went to Pipi's for some excellent burritos, followed up by ice cream at Thrifty's. Then we rejoined our group back at the beach and chatted for a long time. It started raining around 9 so we moved all our towels under a big beach umbrella from one of the restaurants. Eventually we got tired of sitting under the umbrella and we gathered up our stuff to go hang out at the hotel.In our hotel there was a big covered porch on the second floor that we planned to hang out on, and when we got there there was a group of six Australians already there playing UNO and generally having a good time, so they invited us to play with them. We ended up sitting around with them for hours. There was a girl named Alex who had spent seven years growing up in the US so she "translated" for us, and we talked a lot about cultural differences and traveling. I love the Aussies. I think I got to bed around 6am?
MONDAY (2/1)
We all dragged ourselves out of bed around noon and went to Mexico Lindo (one last time) for breakfast. The service was terrible for some reason and we only got about half the things we ordered after waiting a ridiculous amount of time. Despite this, Mexico Lindo will always have a special place in my heart.
The others left around 1pm because their rental car had to be back by 5 or 6 or else they’d be charged for an extra day. Minori and I sat around for a while in the room and then went to the beach for an hour or so.
Minori and I caught the bus at 3:30pm and it was back to Guadalajara for us. We both slept most of the time. We got to the Guadalajara bus terminal around 10pm and Minori’s amigo amistad said he could pick us up in twenty minutes. Twenty minutes turned into an hour. It was so cold and wet outside! When I finally got home around 11:30 I just plopped into bed and fell asleep without doing my homework or unpacking.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
