Mexico
December 24, 1996 through January 7, 1997
We started the trip by spending the Christmas holidays in Mexico, where Geoff's parents live in Mexico. Mary and Diane would meet us after Mexico in Fiji.
A Detour via Colorado
We had originally planned to start our trip by flying from Boston to Mexico City. Then Geoff's brother Craig called and asked if we wanted to go to Mexico via Colorado where he lives. They were going to Mexico too, we'd be seeing them there, we'd been to Colorado a lot before, we hadn't really finished all of our preparations to leave yet, and at the rate we were going, we weren't going to. So it wasn't the best time to go to Colorado. But he also told us that if we did, we could go out to Phil's hunting lodge on the plains for the weekend and then fly down to Mexico with them on Phil's private jet. Phil is Craig's boss and is one of the richest men in America.
Our plans for the year didn’t include luxury travel, and instead it was budget travel in the back of planes, on crowded trains and buses, and in cheap hotels. The thought of some very fancy travel for a few days had a certain appeal, and so we detoured via Colorado. The rest of our preparations would get done somehow.
Where Are We Going, Anyway
It was finally time to leave, and some friends, Ann, Dennis, and Sarah saw us off at the airport. We checked in and then headed to the bar. About ten minutes before departure we said our goodbyes and left for the gate. The flight had already boarded, and we quickly gave them our boarding passes and got on the plane. In the back of the plane, someone was sitting in our seats. A flight attendant came, looked at their tickets, and then looked at our tickets. Then she informed us that we were supposed to go to Denver, not San Francisco. We told her, "yeah, we know."
It turned out that while we were in the bar, our flight was delayed and they made a gate change. Fortunately for us, the San Francisco flight was full. If it hadn't have been, we would have started our trip in California. We headed back to the bar where Ann, Dennis, and Sarah were still sitting, had another beer, and finally caught the right flight.
Colorado
Colorado was fun, the trip still didn't feel real. When we weren't off pretending to be billionaires, we were trying to finish up the things we didn't get done before we left and to finish Christmas shopping. Work was still only a couple of days behind, and that also made if feel more a long weekend than anything else.
The Flight to Mexico
On December 24, we left Colorado for Mexico. We woke up, and drove to a private airport that we would take the private jet from. The pilots were already there and the plane was ready. The pilots loaded our bags, we all jumped in, taxied away, and took off. No check in, parking hassles. We stopped in Monterey to clear customs, and the customs officials came out to the plane to meet us – no lines or anything. This was definitely the way to go. When we left the plane in Queretero, we asked the pilots if they wanted to continue with us around the world, but instead, they flew back to the U.S. for Christmas eve with their families.
The only way to fly, Monterey, Mexico
Finally in Mexico
Once we arrived in Mexico, work started to fade fast. And once here, it's almost impossible not to love the country, although it's so screwed up, it's hard to tell where it's headed. Every time we visit, things seem better than the last time, but too much stays the same. There are islands of prosperity – which seem to be growing – but the poverty also seems to be growing.
There are too many people for the land, and not enough good land and not enough water. The government tries to preach birth control, but the church tells people they will go hell if they do. From the way the population is growing, it seems people have much more faith in the church than in the government.
The trash and the pollution are also overwhelming. Raw sewage dumps into the streams and then into the rivers and then into the lakes. There's also trash everywhere--on the roads, in the fields, in the rivers--everywhere. There now a campaign to try to stop people from littering ("No tira basura-es muy importante" (Don't throw trash-it's very important)), but so far it doesn't seem to be working. I remember as a kid in the U.S. that people threw their trash everywhere and now they don't, so hopefully they'll stop in Mexico too.
Still, it's a great place. The people are very friendly--such a contrast to Italy, where we were this summer – and there's also incredible beauty. Some impressions from a quick visit:
Quotable Quotes
"No worries."
--Everyone in New Zealand, in response to almost any problem
"I'll do my best to keep us alive."
--Lauren, driving on the left for the first time in NZ
"Mary, I for one would be more comfortable if you were driving on the correct side of the road."
--Lauren, as Mary hurtled down the right side of a winding road
"No worries, it's supposed to clear by mid-day."
--"Dion, our kayaking insructor at Abel Tasman National Park
"It can't rain like this all day."
--Paul, shortly thereafter, and prior to it raining even harder for the rest of the day
"When it comes to beer, if Speight's Dark is around, I'm monogamous."
--Diane, at a pub somewhere, on what had become her favorite beer
"Now that's a Speight's smile!"
--Mary, to Diane at another pub
"That's a large ice cube."
--Paul, at Fox Glacier
"When I get home, I want to get a lazy fat cat."
--Diane, after seeing one
"When I get home, I want to be a lazy fat cat."
--Mary, in response to above
"Nature is cruel."
--Diane, on her first overnight hike in Mt. Aspiring Nat'l Park
"All right, I guess this is kind of fun."
--Diane, on the Routeburn Track
"Diane, you don't understand - when I give you a hard time, who says I have to be fair about it?"
--Geoff
"I don't want Ron to think I'm falling behind in my beer consumption."
--Geoff, somewhere in NZ
"I don't think they know how to park this ferry."
--Mary, thinking that the ferry was pulling out to make another try at the dock. It wasn't, Mary and Diane had missed the stop
"The next time I go around the world, I'm going with Ron, Clay, and Wilki -- 'drunks around the world'."
--Geoff, after the Superbowl festivities
"I can't wait until Paul gets here so we can talk about manly things -- sports, beef, cheez-its, beer, and coke."
--Geoff, feeling the pain of being the only man on the trip.
Queretero
Queretaro is one of Mexico’s islands of prosperity, and seems to be booming, but maybe too much so, as there is now Sam’s Club, Price Club, Burger King, Blockbuster Video, and a lot of other American stuff that wasn't here when we were last in Mexico four years ago. The center of the town is still very Mexican, very beautiful, prosperous, and even very clean. It also had some of the most unusual Christmas displays we’d ever seen, which we found to be very cool.
Unique Christmas decorations in Queretero
San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de Allende is where we've always spent most of the time in Mexico, as it's where Geoff's parents live. It’s a drop dead gorgeous colonial city on a mountainside in the desert about four hours northeast of Mexico City at an altitude of 7000 feet. If anything has changed since our last visit, it is busier and there are more tourists, especially from Mexico City. It's also a place with a large American and Canadian presence, which is a combination of students, trust fund babies, and retirees. The disposable income that the expats and tourists bring is clearly visible, especially in terms of more restaurants and shops than most other cities in central Mexico.
San Miguel de Allende
Sunday Afternoon Bullfight
[This post was written by Lauren, but sums up how we all felt.]
In Mexico, bullfights are a big deal. This was our first and last. We entered the arena, where vendors were selling beer and snacks, and the atmosphere felt as congenial as a minor league baseball game. This was fun!
Then the fight began. The first bull didn't want to come out into the ring, shades of Ferdinand, which was my favorite childhood story. Once he was encouraged out, the first round of "pre-matadors" waved bright pink capes at him, which he charged, and which sent them to hide behind boards strategically placed at the edge of the ring. Then a man came out on horseback, the horse heavily padded and the man's legs encased in armor, and this man stuck a huge spear in the bull's back. Then two picadors each ran up and stuck two arrows festooned with crepe paper in his back, bravely backing away as he reacted. Finally, the matador appeared, with a red cape draped over a sword in one hand and a second sword in the other and did the classic matador/bull number.
The bull was totally worn out by the time the Matador came out and in pain from the arrows waving around whenever he moved, and it took a lot of taunting by the matador to make him charge. The matador stuck a sword all the way into the bull once he'd convinced the poor thing to charge a few times. Finally, the bull just stood there, with the matador and two of the pink-caped guys waving their capes at him, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, his eyes rolling back in his head. He just turned his back on them and crashed over on his side.
The crowd went wild. Someone (I wasn’t watching by this point) stuck a knife in the bull's neck to kill him. Then a team of horses came out to drag him out of the ring. At this point, our daughter Carol and I had tears streaming down our faces, and we left the next five bulls to the rest of the crowd. I'm still on Ferdinand's side.
The Croquet Club
Geoff’s parents, Art and Verna, belong to one of two blossoming croquet clubs in San Miguel. We had some time to learn and play a few games. Their club's court is only a few blocks away and has nice views of the cactus gardens.
The game is not as much like the old backyard croquet we all used to play (you can't put your foot on your ball and blast your opponent's ball into the next county). It’s much more formal and is like billiards on a large scale. A four-player game with two teams, the teamwork and strategy are intricate and interesting. If only Art could keep the rules straight – he kept changing them throughout and across games – we might stand a chance...
Croquet in San Miguel de Allende
Leon
Leon is a city that is literally down on its heels. It is the center of Mexico's shoe industry which has mostly lost out to Southeast Asia. That loss and Mexico's recession really shows here. The city still has a beautiful Centro, but just a block in any direction, things are run down. For MBTA readers, and in the "why didn't we think of this?" category, on the main street, the right hand lanes are reserved for buses and right hand turns. If it works in Mexico, it should work in Boston.
Morelia
Morelia is another old colonial city in Mexico's mountains. It is like an old Spanish city surrounded by a Mexican city. The center of the city is all Spanish colonial, and what is claimed to be the most beautiful cathedral in Mexico. Of all those that we have seen, only St. Peter's is more impressive. Even us non-Catholics were impressed.
Downtown Morelia
Patzcuaro
Patzcuaro is in a wooded highlands area in the state of Michoacan, between Morelia and Guadalajara. It has beautiful colonial plazas and looks as if it were once prosperous but is now fading. Its main attractions are woodcarvers and nearby Lake Patzcuaro, which is in a volcanic basin surrounded by mountains and has a number of islands.
The woodcarving is still very much alive, and we bought a fancy hand carved wooden chair that Geoff’s parents promise to get back to Vermont for us. One of the guys who helped tie a chair onto the car spent two years in Massachusetts working as a dishwasher on the Cape and at the Top of the Hub "doing all the dirty work". He told us he didn't speak any English when he went there but now does and did a good job as our interpreter.
Juanitzio
From Patzcuaro, we took a boat out to Janitzio, which is a cinder cone in the middle of Lake Patzcuaro. From afar, Janitzio looks like a Greek island covered with buildings, but with a 130 foot/40 meter tall statue on top. The statue is of Morelos, who is a Mexican hero of independence. To put the statues height into perspective, it’s nearly the height of the Statue of Liberty and like the Statue of Liberty you can walk up inside of it all the way to the cuff of Morelos' upreaching arm.
Juanitzio
Statue of Morelia
Janitzio is one of those places that you never knew existed and couldn’t understand why. It appears on many Mexican travel posters and does attract many Mexican tourists. However, on the day we were there, we were the only foreigners. If Janitzio were in the U.S. or Europe, it would be overrun with foreign tourists.
The traditional way to earn a living on Lake Patzcuaro is by fishing for tiny sardine-like charales, which are the local delicacy when battered and deep-fried. Our ferry was treated to a show of fisherman with butterfly nets, which was the old traditional way of catching them. Today, more modern, less photogenic methods are in use today.
Fisherman near Juanitzio
Woman selling charales
Mexico Map
Mexico Links
For more information on traveling to Mexico, the following are particularly good links:
Mexico News Daily News about Mexico.
Lonely Planet The best online source about Mexico for general information for independent travelers.