Mexico synopsis
Anna's entry
Heading to Guatemala (Dec. 1), the first leg of our journey is completed.
Cities previously visited are:
Nuevo Laredo, Zacatecas, Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, Melaque, Acapulco, Puerto Escondido, Tapachula. Next stop- Guatemala City.
Best new experience- Staying with a Mexican family in Zacatecas.
Best new adventure- Swimming to Los Arcos islands.
Best new city- Melaque.
Worst experience- Puerto Escondido. Seemed like a rougher city with a somewhat unfriendly attitude to outsiders.
One of the market-like streets in Tapachula, Mexico (gateway to Guatemala). Somewhat insane with the vendors on the sidewalks and into the steet, makes walking with the traffic interesting!
Acapulco, México
Anna´s entry
Loved the nature and the coast, hated the pollution and constant offers to buy something. I must admit that after 4 days of being pounded by offers, I lost it, and a taxi driver and I exchanged a couple of unlady-like statements….
Rob and I found a great snorkeling beach, used only by locals (no sale stands or time share booths), and we had a great time there. The landscape under the water was spectacular, it felt like we were swimming among mountains, sometimes polished by the waves, and sometimes dropping their slopes meters and meters below us. Even though the beach was located right in the city, fish and eels were abundant there- it was wonderful to swim with numerous schools of them. The sad part was that locals would be careless about the surrounds, and right at the shore there were many plastic bottles and cups swimming around. I don’t know if locals noticed that we picked up some trash in the water and followed our example, but the next day, we observed several people cleaning the beach. By the way, basura (trash) seems to be an eyesore for the major part of Mexico. It is unfortunate to see so many people so careless about their environment. A few humorous observations from the previous three weeks of travel:
1. If you are not sure where there centro (downtown) is, just ask for Hildago Street.
2. If you learnt how to ask a question in Spanish, make sure to learn how to understand the answer, otherwise don’t ask.
3. If you’re trying to cross a 6-lane traffic street, just grab on to a local and run for your life (there are no pedestrian traffic lights).
4. If you want to by local grown apples, do not buy the expensive ones- they almost always come from Washington State.
5. If you wake up hearing the Hotel California song in Spanish in techno-ranchero interpretation, you must be on an overnight bus.
Acapulco, near the cliff-diving location
Good snorkeling area behind Anna
Rough water near snorkeling area.
Puerto Vallarta and Melaque, Mexico
Anna's entry
PUERTO VALLARTA- Gorgeous coastal views, stunning nature, and unfortunately, too many Gringos. However, compared to other touristy areas, the city offers true authentic culture and gringos blend in pretty well. The Bahia de Banderas (Bay of Flags) that shelters PV owes its name to a blunder. When one of the discoverers landed therein the 16th century, he mistook the colorful headdresses of the thousands of natives awaiting him for flags. Bahia de Banderas was supposedly formed by an extinct volcano slowly sinking into the ocean. It now has a depth of 1,800 meters, and almost every large marine animal is found here, except for sharks. Apparently dolphins mount an antishark patrol at the entrance to the bay, to protect the young dolphins that are born here year round. Highlight of the trip – Los Arcos Islands. We read in our books that it was possible to swim to the islands. We climbed down to the coast and prepared for a swim. The islands seemed pretty close to the shore; however the waves were pretty strong on the rocky area we were planning to swim from. So, it took us a good hour to get acquainted with our swimming-from platform. Once we were in the water, we had no regrets. Besides plentiful tropical fish, we saw stunning eagle rays (pic at the link below), under the arch of the island (about 8 of them). These were graceful marine creatures which we were observing in awe. Snorkeling that day was a lot of fun, except for a few scratches we got while trying to get out of the water on the rocky shore, with waves still forming a high tide.
MELAQUE is such a pretty peaceful coastal town. When we got there around 4pm, the city seemed all empty. I even kept asking Rob if we perhaps missed a tsunami warning- it just seemed so dead. However after about 7pm, the community was in full swing- tons of taco stalls opened up, mercados, lights, music- apparently the life there starts in the evening. We stopped by a local street taco stand and voraciously began consuming pollo tacos. I was so hungry that day, and did not notice that I ate the whole fried jalapeno pepper. After a short delay, I realized that I could not breath.... It took me about 10 minutes and 1/2 liter of water before I could return to normal again. I must say however that my flu was gone by the end of the day, and I no longer needed any flu medicine. The next day, Rob and I went snorkeling around the rocky area of the bay (which was just a few minutes waling distance from where we were staying). The abundance of marine life was amazing. Just a few feet away from the shore we say many species of tropical salt-water fish, as well as an incredible number of sting rays. When we were swimming over the sandy area, Rob noticed about 20 sting rays hiding in the sand. We could detect them by two big eyes staring at us, and long tales shaping the sand. Also, this was the first time we encountered an angel shark (pic at the link below). The front half of the body looked like a sting ray, and the other half was like a shark. It was a beautiful graceful animal to watch, a great example of evolution of marine species. Also, to me, it looked almost mystical. Snorkeling that day was definitely a highlight of our stop in Melaque! The next day, on the other hand, we did not anticipate to be so LONG. We got up around 5am to catch a 6:30 bus to Manzanillo (to continue further south to Zijuatenejo). However, when we got to Manzanillo, our only option was to take an evening (overnight) bus, which we read was not advisable. Not having too much of a choice, we decided to take our chances, our goal is to get to Guatemala by the end of this month. So, we’re writing this blog sitting at the bus station. We should head out further south to Acapulco by 18:30 tonight. By the way, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone reading this blog today (Nov. 24th) ;)
PS Just wanted to let everyone know that we did make it safely to Acapulco, which is where this posting is originating.
Before the swim to Los Arcos Islands
After the swim...
Los Arcos Islands are in the background
Peaceful shores of Melaque
We stayed in Melaque at a small hotel run by a very sweet Mexican family - just a block from the beach
Angel Shark:
http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/living_species/organism_images/lsl_AngelShark_m.jpgEagle ray:
http://131.103.247.68/sfwd/photo_galleries/elaine_blum/blue%20heron%20spotted%20eagle%20ray.jpg
Rob´s entry (#1), Beginning to Puerto Vallarta
Lots to catch up on. This is all being composed in the Manzillo bus station on thanksgiving morning. I’ll try to summarize events to date.
The bus ride from Nebraska to the boarder was fairly uneventful. A few things happened, but not too much to mention., It as slightly interesting to note that from San Antonio south, we were the only native English speakers on the bus. That, naturally, set the tone for the trip so far. Of course, that was the intent (to leave our own culture behind), but im surprised at how few other travellers we’ve encountered. It may be a bit early however.
As Anna has done a good job covering the positive aspects of our voyage, I´ll try to fill in some of the other side, to provide a more complete description of our travels.
My one year of Espanol has helped, but is woefully inadequate for getting a full cultural experience. We are looking forward to exploring language options to enhance our voyage.
I was surprised at Laredo Tx, not what I expected from a boarder town. It was very modern and tidy. Nuevo Laredo, on the other hand, was as expected- not good or bad, just a boarder town. Zacatecas, our next town (and the first real stop) was unexpectedly diverse with its architecture. We received an excellent tour from our host family, and got to see much more than we would have on our own. After Zacetecas, our next stop was Guadalajara. Again, presenting a more ´balanced description, it was a very busy and somewhat gritty town. Our location where we stayed at, I dubbed ¨Hooker Hotel¨ as there were several business girls always there. Fortunately, we were placed on the third floor (we suspected that for convenience, the first two floors seemed to cater towards a more transient-hourly clientele. Also fortunately for us, our things were safe (at least while we were there), and the room adequate for our purposes (and cheap- $11-day). I was unaccustomed to being in a city of this size fore some time. The frenzied pace, traffic, pollution, and various characters around the center was a little overwhelming for a while. It got to Anna a bit more than I however. The market was a similarly overwhelming place, but no more traumatic (the meat section) than others. Guad served as a good, cheap base to get on our feet, and plan things out. We took a side trip to Lake Chapala, nice, not anything too memorable.
From the mind-boggling enormous bus station, our next stop was Puerto Vallarta. We both immediately felt easier there, not because of the Gringos (those we mostly avoided), but because it seemed more manageable than Guad. in terms of traffic, pace, etc. We are also big fans of nature, and PV delivers. The highlight of the trip was swimming out to a couple of islands in the bay. Along the way were the normal plethora of pretty fish, a few stingrays, but the big highlight was the school of eagle rays residing under the rock arch. I counted at least 8 swimming (looks like flying underwater) close under us. One notable aspect of PV is that with a few exceptions, almost everyone we met wanted to know where we were from, and then segwayed into trying to sell us something (time shares, property, hotel, etc.). It got a bit tiresome to continually being viewed as an object to exploit, a bit of a harsh word, but that sort of idea. One great exception was a lady that helped us find a bus station that we would have been helpless to find on our won. Thanks again Valerie! Unfortunately during this time, I picked up a little flu and didn’t feel 100%. Fortunately, that is over.
Leaving PV took us to Melaque. A very beautiful and peaceful area. More to come on that.
Guadalajara, Mexico
Anna´s entry:
We've been in Guadalajara, Jalisco for 4 days. The city is the second largest in Mexico with population of 8 million people. The city gives a dubious impression. On one hand, the architecture and history aremagnificent- Plaza de la Liberacion along with the 17th century cathedrals, numerous fountains, open air concerts, and friendly locals make the city a welcoming and beautiful place. On the other hand, pollution and noise are horrendous, and after several days, we took a retreat trip away from the city- to Lago Chapala (Lake Chapala). When we returned back, we could feel the contrast right away. In some ways, Guadalajara´s busy life style may be compared to New York with a European-Mexican touch. Overall we enjoyed this stop, and were able to catch up with a few practical items. We also planned our next week- tomorrow we are heading out to the Pacific side! Manana vamos a Puerto Vallarta y Melaque. ;)
Metropolitian cathedral, 17th century located on one of the numerous squares in Guadalajara
Plaza de Armas- Downtown with iron pavillion specially brought from Paris in the last century.
Palacio de Gobierno (Government Palace) 18th century.
Plaza de la Liberacion- Downtown square where many locals spend their afternoons.
Lake Chapala- A contast to Guadalajara.
Zacatecas, Mexico
Anna´s entry:
Despite some of our relatives´warnings to avoid Nuevo Laredo, Mexico – where without a doubt, we would be captured, kidnapped, or even killed – we managed to cross it, yet without a single ransom note. Instead, we met a bunch of helpful friendly Mexicans, took a very comfortable overnight bus ride, and the next morning entered the gorgeous city of Zacatecas.
Zacatecas is on the UNESCO world heritage list as one of the most historical and cultural cities, with plentiful cathedrals, monuments, parks, squares, and friendly people proud of their city. We stayed with a local Mexican family for a couple of days, who took a wonderful care of us. The mother (Soco) even knitted a scarf for us to take home as a reminder of friendship. Since Zacatecas was as the very beginning of our Latin American travels, and our Spanish was VERY limited, the family practiced their English with us, and soon enough we could chat away our stories. I guess we did get captured after all- by sincere hospitality and kindness of strangers…..
Leaving Lincoln, NE
Zacatecas landscape viewed from the cable car
Anna on the Plaza (note the cable car overhead)
Rob at one of the historical cathedrals
´Rob on the rocks´ over Zacatecas
Rob, Perla, Soco, and Anna, at their casa.
Heading South- finally!
We are finally set to leave the US, first beginning in Mexico!!
As for the last few weeks…..
We definitely spent more time in Nebraska than planned; we took some extra time on (international) insurance issues.
Unfortunately, there hasn't been much to update thus far but have tickets to leave on Friday (11/11), so we are VERY happy about that! It was good to be able to spend so much time with my mother (been years since anything like that was possible), and Anna went to Russia for the first three weeks.
For those interested, a few cities we plan to visit or pass through in Mexico include:
Nuevo Laredo, Saltillo, Monterrey, Zacatecas, Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, Barra de Navidad, Melaque, Playa Maruata, Manzanillo, Ixtapa, Zihuatanejo, Puerto Escondido, Puerto Angel, Huatulco, Tehuantepec, Tapachula.
On the way back from Central America, our route may include: Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Mexico City, Camitan, Palenque, Minatitlan, Puebla, San Cristobal de Las Casas.
On the flip side, Central America has been rocked by one hurricane after another, and it seemed a good idea not to rush down. Hopefully things will be better weather-wise now. If we hear from travelers that it is unwise to go, we'll just hang out in Mexico longer. Personally, I feel like a year wouldn't be enough to fully explore Mexico, but of course, that isn't the focus of this trip.
That’s about all for now, lots of last-minute things to take care of before tomorrow morning.
One of the market-like streets in Tapachula, Mexico (gateway to Guatemala). Somewhat insane with the vendors on the sidewalks and into the steet, makes walking with the traffic interesting!
