Return to Zee-what.......It's been a Hard Days Night (when you could be sleeping on the ground) and other fun in our final days in Mexico

After several days on the surf-crashing beach of Troncones, we returned to Zeewhat for the final several days of our 4 months in Mexico.




                                                      Troncones

We booked into a beach front hotel, steps from the centro. Rooms were big with our own semiprivate giant, balcony with views of the bay. It was quiet with the gentle melody of the waves breaking on the beach below us. Cost us 700 pesos...and worth every penny for the quiet night's sleep.

Zee-what has a pretty diverse music scene...jazz to rock. We enjoyed one young Mexican band, who nailed the Beatles and other rock tunes.

Lazy days at Playa La Ropa, Los Gatas and even took a day trip to Barra de Potosi.. Nice big, quiet beach, some food services and a giant lagoon where locals catch crabs using a long pole with a small net attached.

Zee-what played host to an International Guitar Festival. We managed to catch the opening show where all acts performed several songs. Loved the 3 Hombres (from Texas).

Decided to invite our son/daughter down for the final days. Kasondra was able to get the time off, while Scott couldn't. Was great to share with her a bit of our time in Mexico. Maybe next time, Scott!

On our 2nd last night in Zee-what, after bar-hopping and dancing, we returned to our hotel, only to find the doors closed, gated and locked by chain. ....generally, when the hotels are closed or locked late at night, all it takes is a key or ringing the doorbell to get us in. Not this time!

After nearly an hour of  banging, yelling, phoning, getting the police to help, asking the bartender at the bar we had left earlier to translate... we are stuck. S had found a comfortable spot on the hotel steps and was trying to sleep. It seemed that's where we might spend what was left of the long night.....our bartender thought there'd be several hotels still open, so we headed off. We found a room and crashed onto the beds for several hours of sleep.

Returning to our locked out hotel in the morning, we discover several other guests had the same thing happen to them.  Once the owners/managers had come in, they settled everything and even gave us the 400 pesos for the room we paid for.

Anyway, that's it! We are writing this on the plane home. The trip has been fabulous!



                                          Zihuatenejo in the distance...

.....4 months later and 30+ different beds/hotel rooms we are both well and healthy. Haven't had any real issues with food or water or eating veggies or having ice cubes in drinks......

It has been a blast and we are plotting the next trip! Shhhh! You will be the first to know..(well, possibly 3rd or 4th) haha!

Final random thoughts...

....when do Mexican children get to bed? They are always up late....

....Mexicans love to celebrate at anytime, for anything with parades, music, food and explosions.....

....wildest celebration had to be the San Blas festival and Chinese New Year in Mexico City...

.....we think we are 'free' at home; but after traveling through Mexico, I'm not so sure....

.....the bus system is fantastic! It is for the people and runs very efficiently. Clean, safe and on time.....

.....family fun and time together is important. Add a weekend and a beach and you have lots of sand in all sorts of places and some really tired kids and grandparents on the long ride back home....

.....restricting your trip to only coastal Mexico/resorts and saying you've seen Mexico, is like thinking that little, slow Mars Rover inching along, centimeter by centimeter (ok, bilingual measurements) collecting data, is able to paint a full picture of the planet......

........Go inland, see old towns, go to mountain towns, visit different states/areas.....

.....having a little bit of Spanish helps, but don't let that 'little bit' stop you from traveling around..... trying not to improve your language skills after repeated visits is just plain lazy...

...,..similar shops are located in the same areas. For example if you are looking for men's or women's clothing, house lighting, car repair, electronics, shoes, grad dresses,  they are all located side by side in the same street. You can just go from one to the next rather than traveling all over town to price compare!  Huh!...

....,there's constant garbage collection, sweeping and mopping in subways, streets, parks...we have often seen dozens of workers in uniform doing these tasks.  Funny, it is often hard to find garbage cans.

.......Mexicans value education....... elementary and secondary schools in small and large centers are fenced with barbed wire on top, locked gates with security guards.  At the end of the day, parents wait at the gate until the guard lets the children out......

......roadways and highways always have vendors selling a variety of good from window washing service to fruit, sandwiches, smokes, gum, peanuts, sweets and really anything you can imagine......
.......see them at intersections and they walk down the middle of the lanes. On one toll section we saw about 50+ vendors weaving in and out as the cars were slowly moving along.  When buses stop, vendors get on trying to sell fruit, drinks, sandwiches, yogurt, candy, pastries...

..... some restaurants  allow you to bring in drinks and sometime food too if you only go in for a drink.  Vendors also enter restaurants freely trying to sell their wares as do beggars.....

.....Zee-what had the most town/beach pedlars of any place we've been. Constant stream, wanting you to buy an endless variety of stuff!......

....getting hot, sweaty, and dirty has happened a lot..sometimes it's only one or 2. Sometimes, when they all happen together..it is a travelers nirvana, the ultimate trip high...and those 25 peso chilled beers make getting there, all the sweeter! Haha....

....we've met great, fun and honest people constantly during our travels.. both local or tourists.. Tom, RoseAnn, Phil, Nina, Bill and the rest of the Isla Mujeres sunset gang, Eliana, Gil, the Chacala crowd, Martha, Tim, Oso,  Pat & Julia, Richard, Monique, Jerry, Ricardo, Dana & Robert, Gord & Linda, the Arizona crowd from La Ropa, Oscar, Eugenia, Valdemar and more. You know who you are...Plus, friends and family back home thanks for sharing in our travels and fun....

During our 4 month journey, we:

......used planes, trains, automobiles, ferries, boats, taxis, truck-buses, collectivos, buses

...have visited 14 states in Mexico out of a total of 31 ........     Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Huatulco, Jalisco, Nayarit, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Mexico, Puebla, Guerrero.......

.... haven't cooked a single meal but did help cook one in a hacienda in Guanahuato, and enjoyed one other home-cooked meal.......

......have had at least one beer every single day ( Sol, Indio, Victoria, Tecate, Corona, Modelo, Leon, Pacifico, Bohemia)

Adios Shayne & Yvonne...we know we've missed many others, you are with us in spirit..

PS.....now back in Vancouver to enjoy family and friends before heading home.  It's been a great adventure!!

Puebla.....city of churches, ringed by volcanoes, festivals in the streets, underground tunnels, en route to the Pacific coast again...

Puebla is another lovely, walkable city located about two hours south of Mexico City by bus...it is filled with market sellers, antique and second-hand dealers. The main square, esp on weekends, is a riot of music, noise and families all out enjoying the night.

There's another, more local/neighborhood style plaza with several blocks filled with stalls and music to dance to. We even practiced our moves, to the delight of the people watching.

And, once again, random parades stop traffic......

This time, a Venice-Carnival type street celebration, fancy-ball costumes, music (booming out of the back of a parked delivery truck stopping traffic in the middle of the road) and the diabolo cracking a whip and people wearing masks which we haven't seen before.

Next was a ribbon dance where the 20 or so dancers joined ribbons while continuing to dance back and forth up and down the street.

The finale was a May Pole dance using long ribbons attached to the top of a 6 metre pole held upright by two men. Dancers weave in and out creating a design at the top of the pole.

This was something Yvonne remembers doing as a kid.  Maybe some of you do too!  This was part of the annual Puebla festival days that last for 3 days. Just as fast as the dancers began, they cleaned up and cleared out so traffic could once again resume on their merry way.

One day we took a bus out to the neighboring town of Cholula so we could visit another pyramid. This one, however, is mostly still covered by dirt and has a working church perched on top. The pyramid, has had successive structures built on top of earlier ones.

Today, it is the largest pyramid structure in the world due to the size of its base and volume. Abandoned and hidden by vegetation and overgrowth, it escaped most the destruction the Spaniards wrought on other indigenous pyramid structures. However, the Spaniards still managed a few indignities, by using material from exposed portions of the pyramid to build a massive cathedral on the very top.  Today, you cannot even tell it is a pyramid... it just looks like a large hill with a church on top.

The draw for us was not only the size but the 300 metre network of tunnels that we are allowed into, out of 8 km excavated to date.  Most of them were quite cool, (as in hip, neat and temperature) well lit and short and narrow.

It was like an Indiana Jones movie, exploring the hidden temple tunnels for the Crystal Skull. Shayne had to duck the whole way and the width was just enough to pass. 

Cholula is a nice, quiet, little suburb of Puebla.  It deserves a day trip or two from Puebla. 

Taking the local bus...cost us 12 pesos/person to get there...(that's only because we stopped to see the world's littlest volcano, Cuexcomate, on the way to Cholula). Cute!

And only 7.5 pesos/person back direct to Puebla Centro.

Puebla is indeed a lovely city!  

We are now on the road again en route to Mexico City to fly direct to Zihuatenejo.

Love and hugs,

Yvonne & Shayne

Last day in.....Mexico City...So, how many people can you STUFF in a Volkswagen van, Duck & Cover (the sequel - read the San Blas blog) - celebrating Chinese New Year...who knew?....taking a cab CAN be dangerous to your health...and in the shadows of the Hunchback of Notre Dame....read on...

Final Day in Mexico City....

We're off to the bus station to our next destination... 

More to follow..

Final thoughts on this massive city...

- the people are all friendly and curious about us

- there have been no worries about our personal safety anywhere or anytime even in the massively crowded areas we were in

- the city is very polluted. Yvonne found her throat and eyes a bit scratchy and coughed a fair bit. 

For sure there's a haze in the air. It's very difficult to see the small hills in the city due to this air pollution.  

I guess that's what you get for one of the largest cities in the world!

Drop us a line when you can..

Hugs,

Yvonne y Shayne

Day 5.......Mexico City...So, how many people can you STUFF in a Volkswagen van, Duck & Cover (the sequel - read the San Blas blog) - celebrating Chinese New Year...who knew?....taking a cab CAN be dangerous to your health...and in the shadows of the Hunchback of Notre Dame....read on...

,,,,,And we thought the San Blas fireworks celebrations were wild, well.....you ain't seen nothing yet... 

We spent the entire day, about 12 hours, by our hotel, wandering a 2 block stretch that had been set up to celebrate Chinese New Year..

Chinese New Year meets the Mexico's love of noise, music, color, festival and chaos. It is a perfect fusion of 2 great cultures and a recipe for a wild, wacky and outrageous celebration!

What follows are moments from our day...

........ martial arts demonstrations by young and old, lion and dragon dances.......drummers drumming...

.... vendors set up shop everywhere selling everything from clothes, jewelry, toys, shoes, food, drinks, trinkets from Asia.....anything you can imagine in a flea market...

...little children sit in cardboard boxes under tables...

.....crowd continues to swell.......

...lions continue to dance throughout the alley, around people.....

....., people appear from second floor windows, make speeches about life, God, acceptance of differences (yes, we can now understand these basics).

......crowds surge forward, little children, old women almost trampled in the rush to catch candies, pouches filled with small gemstones and seeds, calendars and confetti thrown from windows....

.....at a market stall, we score some Ray-Bans sunglasses for 50 pesos! Hey, for that price they must be genuine......

...drums continue to pound, music continues to blare, vendors yell and shout over and over and the odd set of firecrackers begin to blast off....,.it is sensory overload...

.... afternoon moves toward evening....

....there are at least 2 dozen strands of firecrackers, 3 - 4 metres in length, extending to the ground, hanging from various buildings around the alleyway....

.....several structures holding FIREWORKS are erected in the crowded plaza....

.....as darkness descends, the madness & chaos starts to boil.....

.....we begin a night of drinking (to quell the nerves) in a quiet cantina (that, later swells, as groups of people flee the chaos to seek sanctuary inside). It affords a front row seat to the impending explosion of sound and colors...

.....firecrackers go off on the ground around the lions as they dance amid  the smoke and blasts...

....the dragon weaves its way through the packed alleyway...

.....the hanging strings of firecrackers are set off around the crowd.... gunpowder fills the air....fireworks are set off, ricocheting off the walls, windows and rooftops...breathing becomes more difficult...

...And, then....fireworks are set off among the crowd......(in Canada, crowds would be blocks away, here, mere steps)...

....we hide out (more like, duck and cover!) in the cantina, as the final strand of fireworks goes off, literally in the open doorway...….paper, smoke, smells pour into the cantina as people take refuge....

......then, fire, shoots out above the crowd, showering the lucky few who didn't duck and cover, with sparks and singed clothing.. Somehow, no one gets burned (badly), no babies got crushed, no one was robbed, and everyone stayed polite and laughed!  See Shayne in the doorway!

The amount of smoke hanging in the air over the alleyway, resembles the aftermath of a tear gassing after a local demonstration out of control....

Truly, a wild, wacky day that they would repeat for 3 straight days.

If anyone is planning a trip to Mexico City, find out when Chinese New Years would be held, and plan your trip around that! You would not be disappointed!

Adios Shayne & Yvonne ....our final day in Mexico City next.....

Day 4....Mexico City...So, how many people can you STUFF in a Volkswagen van, Duck & Cover (the sequel - read the San Blas blog) - celebrating Chinese New Year...who knew?....taking a cab CAN be dangerous to your health...and in the shadows of the Hunchback of Notre Dame....read on...

 ....A trip to the Valley of the Gods....

Today, we headed out to Teotihuacan, where the ancient city holds the gigantic Pyramid of the Sun, along with its little brother/sister, the Pyramid of the Moon. With names like that, why wouldn't you want to visit this amazing site?  The city of Teotihuacan was believed to hold 150-250,000 residents. These peoples predated the Maya and Aztec.

After a short ride in the wrong direction on the metro...

(hey, what can we say - even us experienced travelers get confused once in a while.....)..... we get back on track and head to the bus station to get the bus out to the pyramids!

....take local transport, rather than the gringos tour bus. Cost us just over 50 pesos to ride the metro and bus (an hour ride) return/person.....cheap & easy & comfortable...

The day (actually about 3 hrs) wandering the pyramids was fun! Great weather for climbing and conquering the summits!



                          The Pyramid of the Sun... 260 steps up!!





      Pretty steep steps!  Most sections have a rope/cable to hold on to if needed.



                                     It could be intimidating...









Pyramid of the Moon viewed from Pyramid of the Sun.  You cannot climb to the top.





Sitting on Pyramid of the Moon looking at Pyramid of the Sun and back down Avenue
of the Dead.






                  Sitting on the first set of step on the Pyramid of the Moon.


Once again, these ancient civilizations did a bang up job in the construction! Although, naming the main walkway the Avenue of the Dead might be a bit of overkill!



             Avenue of the Dead with the two pyramids in the very far distance...

Returning to MC, we spent the evening wandering Chinatown, (actually an alley and walkway about 40 ft wide filled with shops, restaurants, vendors and people - remember this for later).

The opening night of several days of celebrations devoted to Chinese New Year - the Year of the Goat, started off with a bang!

Strings of Firecrackers about 3-4 meters long,  hung down to the ground from various buildings around the alleyway.

As the lions made their way along, the fire crackers were lit! No crowd control, people were literally standing an arm length away as they went off.

In addition, fireworks of the Roman candle kind/Symphony of Fire events were being set off in the nearby intersection. Rockets blazed up, bouncing off buildings and windows. The crowd continued to swell and pressed closer together. It could only get better!

Hung Hay Fat Choy to all of you! We think it actually means....May you and I survive this night and the ones to follow!!!..

Adios Shayne & Yvonne ...Day 5 to follow ...the carnage of Chinese New Year.......