I don’t know why I’ve waited so long to update this thing; I really have no excuse because I’ve been sitting home alone, bored out of my mind.
So, some people want to know about my week of traveling that I did after my classes finished. Get ready for a long post...
My friend Mary and I started out in Acapulco, where we hung out on the beach all day. We took turns going in the water so one of us was always on the beach to watch our stuff. Well, one time I was laying there with our stuff and fell asleep and this guy runs by and grabs Mary’s camera case and keeps on running. This guy next to us went after him and caught up to him on the bus and was yelling at him and stuff and he gave it back. Then Mary was making fun of me for falling asleep instead of keeping an eye on her stuff better. (I don’t think she was actually mad, since she got her camera back.) We also met this older guy who had a Frisbee. Since we hadn’t seen this college campus staple in months, Mary asked if she could play with him and he told her she’s the only girl who’s ever wanted to play with him. I guess Frisbee isn’t a very feminine game to the Mexicans. So after we had played awhile, he tells us he drives a boat for parasailing. He offered us a great deal and we told him we’d come back early the next morning to do it. But when we got there at like 9:30, he wasn’t there yet, so we waited awhile but then had to go to catch our next bus at 11:00. We should have known he wouldn’t be there early—Mexicans never show up when they say they will!
The bus to Puerto Escondido was only seven hours, but it felt so much longer than the 15-hour ride from Guadalajara, probably because we didn’t sleep as much on this one. We got there in the evening and found a nice hostel close to the beach for $7/night. It even included mosquito netting, which reminded me of that expedia.com commercial with the couple fighting off the bugs in the middle of the night. Luckily, it was nothing like that.
When I woke up the next day, Mary had already gone out for a run, so I took a shower (in the communal shower outside the dorm) and went out in search of breakfast. When I got back, Mary was there and she wished me a happy birthday. What? Oh yeah, it’s my birthday. I seriously hadn’t even realized it yet! Then we packed up and went out to find a different hostel for that night. We wanted one that was a little more active, with more people. (It was only us two and one other guy in the first one.) So we found this place which seemed pretty chill and we paid (only $4/night for this one!), claimed our beds, and went out to the beach.
We met a lanchero who wanted to take us for a boat tour that included snorkeling, tortoise-watching, and going to a different beach for lunch. He wanted 250 pesos, so we said no way but then he brought the price down to 100 and we agreed to give it a shot. We then had to wait an hour and a half for him to go find his buddy, buy some booze, and retrieve his boat. I was expecting more people to be going but, nope, it was just Mary, me, the boat guy (Juan) and his friend. We head out at top speed toward the horizon, the two guys in back, manning the boat and chugging Indio beer; Mary and I in front, catching some sun. After a little while, Mary starts to worry, thinking these guys are gonna take us out into the middle of the ocean and rape us or something. Then, all of a sudden we slow down and Juan stands up looking into the water. Then he jumps into the water and comes back to the boat holding a huge turtle. He hoists it up to his friend and climbs back in the boat and insists that we take pictures with it. Then the turtle starts flailing around so he throws it back into the water. Mary and I just thought this was the craziest, most random thing, and kind of sad too. We then headed to a small beach with a few hut-like restaurants. We ate some delicious pescadillas (fried fish taco-like things) and then Juan said the boat would be back in an hour so we went off to swim.
And that’s where we met Memo and Rodrigo. We started talking and it turns out that Rodrigo is going to study next year at Linfield College, where Mary went to school for a year, and that he actually knows some of Mary’s friends from there. So I guess that made us instant friends. Juan was kind of creeping us out, so we told him we were going to get a ride back with these guys—turns out they were staying at the hotel right next door to our hostel! So when the sun went down we all piled into their jeep, Mary and I sharing the back seat with their big old dog.
We went swimming in the pool at the boys’ hotel, and they bought me a huge birthday margarita. After dinner we went to the beach and talked for a couple hours. When Mary and I finally headed back to our hostel, it was locked, so we rang the bell and pounded on the door for about 20 minutes but no one came to rescue us (geez, it was only like 2 am!). We talked about our options—we could either curl up on the beach and attempt to sleep there until the sun came up, or we could join Memo and Rodrigo in their little cabin room. So we chose the latter, since they had an extra bed and we knew they wouldn’t mind. The next morning, I said goodbye to everybody because Mary had decided to stick with the boys who were going camping along the coast. She had another week in Mexico after I left so this was just the kind of opportunity she was looking for. So I headed off to Oaxaca alone.
The seven-hour bus trip was different from others I had been on. It was a second-class bus, so not everyone got a seat (I think you had to pay more for a seat—I only paid $9 and got a seat the whole way) and there was no air conditioning so it was HOT. We went up this windy road in the mountains and through beautiful jungle-type terrain. The only bummer was that this little four-year-old girl kept throwing up in the seat behind me and her daddy would toss the bag-o-barf out the window. Good ole Mexico!
In Oaxaca, I just wandered around the city by myself, seeing the typical touristy things like cathedrals and the city center. I went to the market and sampled some grasshoppers, which are quite famous there as a snack or in tacos. They were actually pretty tasty, once I got past the thought of eating bugs. And one of the little legs got stuck in my teeth...
In the evening, I met a few Mexican guys in my hostel who were going out dancing and they invited me along. I said sure, expecting to go to a disco or club. So I was surprised when we arrived at an outdoor area with a live cumbia band. There were people everywhere, and not just young people, either. Apparently this is the hip place to be on Thursday nights. Since I was the only white girl there, I got asked to dance for literally every song. I had to ration my time between the four guys I came with, plus a couple other guys who wanted to dance. This was actually ideal because I could just dance and have a good time without having to feel pressure to dance exclusively with one guy the whole night. After that, I had to get to the bus station because I was going to take an overnight bus to Mexico City, saving me the cost of a night’s lodging (yeah, I’m cheap, so what?).
I got to DF around 7am and called my buddy Moi to see if I could see him a bit before I headed back to Guadalajara. We went to his house and his mom fixed me a huge breakfast. Then we went to the wax museum and took pictures with the likes of the Beatles and Presidents Bush and Fox. Then it was time for me to go, cause I didn’t want to get to Guadalajara too late. I chatted with the bus driver for the last half of the trip and when we arrived at the station, he got his taxi-driving friend to give me a free ride home because I only had enough pesos to get me to the airport the next day. Sweet!
I counted it up and it turns out I had spent a total of 45 hours in buses in only one week. Well, actually 50 if I count the Greyhound from Tacoma to Moses Lake.
And that brings me to now. The reverse culture shock is going fine, especially since I hardly leave the house. One thing is that I can’t believe how much people can spend on clothes and stuff here. I’m so glad I did all my Christmas shopping while I was in Mexico! Also, it seems very quiet here. Besides all the traffic and honking, Mexican houses are so close together that we always got the opportunity to listen to the neighbors’ music, barking dog, fighting spouses, and telephone ringing. It kind of reminds me of how, in The Poisonwood Bible, the girl said that she missed the smells when she came back from Africa. Everything is just so fresh and sanitary in the US, and I’ve noticed that it’s also very silent.
I haven’t decided yet if I want to continue this blog now that I’m back. Since this was all about my adventures in Mexico, maybe I’ll start a new one for my regular life. But I know it will be a huge distraction/time waster/procrastination tool during school and I really don’t need more help putting off my homework! So this may or may not be the end...
posted by Susan @ 10:14 PM
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