Tour de Tapachula - Part 2

Here are some more photos taken whilst we've been out and about in Tapachula.

At the movies...  Petrina has been to see a few movies - all in Spanish.  The kids ones (like ''Megamente'' which  you may have had in Australia called 'Megamind') are the easiest for learners to follow!  Occaionally they show a movie with English subtitles but so far there hasn't been one we want to see!

There is a whole condiment bar for the popcorn at the cinemas - including jalepeños, chilli sauce, ketchup and mayonaise.  The kids couldn't believe it when I said we don't eat popcorn with chilli in Australia!

Couldn't resist this photo - just a funny translation(-:

The cinema has all the mod cons of home

Steve getting his meat fix at a 'comedor' (an eating place)

Petrina with 'Jugo para llevar' (Juice to take-away) - think this one was actually a 'liquado' or milkshake of platana, coco, rompope y leche (banana, coconut, rompope and milk).

Any liquid foodstuff in Mexico that you 'take-away' (including the salsa and chilli sauce for your tacos and quesadillas of course!) they serve in a little plastic bag.  With drinks they tie it around a straw.  Juice and fruit-based milkshakes are big business in Mexico, they sell it on every street, often people will have a stall set up outside their front door.  Maybe becuse the climate is so warm and the tropical fruit so plentiful?  Whatever the reason, we're loving it and Petrina is actually developing a taste for Papaya (Pawpaw), as its in nearly everything!

Some photos from the outdoor market where we buy our fruit and veggies a few times a week.  The chickens (right) are sprayed with some kind of preservative, which is why they are yellow.

Tour de Tapachula

Hola faithful followers!  We thought it was about time we showed you around Tapachula....

Well firstly, it aint pretty, but it is home...

Out the front of Number 62A, Our 'apartment block' just around the corner from the orphanage. The entrance into the little complex is at the bottom of the stairs.

Outside of our flat.  You are looking at the kitchen window (left) and the living room window.  The entrance is in the alcove between the two.

Our 'local' for tortillas (pronounced 'tor-ti-yas'), the super cheap, 100% maize, fill-me-up food here.  You buy a big stack (1kg) for 8 pesos (less than 80c) from the little ´window' on the top half of the door.  Gets very busy around lunch-time with a line down the street!

A typical suburban street in Tapachula.  Mexicans go nuts for bunting, its everywhere and adds yet another element of colour to the landscape here.

Most of the schools (and most properties in general for that matter) are surrounded by huge brick walls, like those in the photo below.  You can't see it clearly, but along the top of the wall is the 'security system' - a row of broken glass fragments cemented to the ledge.  No need for fancy barbed wire here!  And why spend money on a fancy security system for the school anyway when the kids only seem to need to go half the time.  If your teacher has an appointment and is busy that day, or is sick (presuming they don't get a friend or family member to teach the class in their place - true story!), or heck, if its raining for that matter, school will be cancelled that day anyway....

The 'kinder' where the two youngest Mission Mexico Albergue kids go (Junior and Kique, both 4 years), well, where they go on most days anyway...

Sadly, vultures are one of the only forms of wildlife we regularly see around Tapachula.  

In the photo above, the vulture is overlooking what we have termed 'rio de hepatitus' (Hepatitus River), just down from our apartment.  We named  it so because if you fell in you'd probably contract hepatitus from something in there.  Although you can't see it in this photo, it is chock-a-block full of rubbish in parts, the result of a lack of free universal rubbish collection in the city...

The horse and cart that randomly appeared in the middle of peak hour traffic one day...

View down part of the Tapachula's main street in 'Centro'.  Once again, it ain't pretty, but it's home...

Shanty town - a typical scene on Tapachula's outskirts

Despite Tapachula having everything you could possibly need for a comfortable 21st century existance, from Walmart to Movie theatres to Office Depot, there's still abandoned houses (see below) and oh so much rot and decay around the place.  Apparently you can fight progress...

Exhibit A

Exhibit B.  Makes for  nice photos though!

On the bright side, all this rot and decay makes Mexico a builders paradise.  If you feel like rennovating one day, have a crack, don't worry about planning it or getting any permits....  (By the same token, you simultaneously get the feeling that if you didn't get a permit, some bored government official would surely turn up with some obscure reason as to why you have to stop construction...)

Mexico, a builders paradise.  No room for storing pesky building supplies in your yard?  No problem, dump 'em in the street until you get around to using them.

And finally, our respite from it all, our daily visits to the Italian Coffee company for kid- and dirt-free, air conditioned, wi-fi comfort, with blood-pumping espresso to top it all off.  Mexicans are loco for Oreo-flavoured anything, and we have become addicted to the 'Cappucino Friorio' (Cappuccino frappe with Oreos).  Bueno!

Our beloved Italian Coffee Company is where we've been doing most of our blogging and emailing

Mmmm, caffeinated sugary goodness...

Moments at Mission Mexico

Here are some snaps of moments from our day to day life here at the orphanage.

This is the ugly reality of working in an orphanage...we've never been so dirty or tired!

Ditto

The pool construction continues.  We think the workers could single-handedly support the entire Coca-Cola market in Tapachula.

Rueben (left), 9 years, and Carlitos, 16 years, battle it out in the great table tennis championship of Christmas 2010.  The great tournament took place in the orphanage's Sala Grande (lounge / rumpus room).

Steve trying to show the kids a move or two

A little about the food at Mission Mexico - a sneak peek 'en la cocina' (in the kitchen)

'The Pan' (sweet bread) which the kids eat for dinner, plated up on the serving trolley.

Dinner time is the food highlight of the day for most of the younger kids here, they go nuts for 'the pan'.  If I have one more kid ask me 'Cun i hep wit da pun?' (translation - can I help with the pan?) I think I will stab them.  They start asking if they can help with the preparation of the next day's bread (which basically just needs to be plated up after the 'pan man' Alberto makes his delivery each day) as soon as the previous night's pan is eaten!  This is because, apparently, not all pan's are created equal and some are more delicious than others.  The golden child who gets to 'hep wit da pun' is thus able to 'hook up' his or her mates with the best ones...  Small things...

As you can imagine, I (Petrina) was not too impressed with the sugary white bread on offer for dinner.  Although this is very much a food practice deeply embedded in the Mexican culture (most eat a big meal for lunch and then just have a light sandwhich for dinner), and would be what most kids in Mexico would have, and is what they've been giving the kids at Mission Mexico for the last 10 years, I still couldn't help but feel uneasy dishing up the 'white death' every night.  Luckily, at the time of our volunteering there were also Naturopaths and a prospective Nutrition students volunteering, so together, the three amigas making up the 'diet police' managed to convince the couple that run the orphanage to start giving fruit for dinner.  This resulted in the oldest group of kids now get oranges and bananas at the evening meal.  Its a start anyway!

The Pan...waiting to be plated up.

Alberto the Pan Man making his daily delivery.

Above and below: Christmas day lunch for the kids, with soft drink as a special treat.  Plates, cutlery and drinking vessels all disposable, thank god!

The kids all eating happily...  Something interesting I noticed at Mission Mexico was that there was no fussy eaters.  You ate what you were given, because besides there literally being nothing else, there were no daytime snacks, so they were pretty much always ravenous at main meal times.  On a related but sadder note, we actually had to stop some of the kids from eating out of the bin and off the dirty plates etc., as some of them had come from homes where they didn't have nough food to eat, and it was still a strong drive in them to eat whenever and whatever they could get.  The couple that run the orphanage explained that over time, with consistent discipline in this area, they grow out of this primal drive.  Happy days!

 

 

Above and below: Normal weekday lunch for the kids, usually consisting of beans, rice and some kind of meat dish, always accompanied by chille and frijole.  If there was no chille one day when you delivered their plate, you were the worst person in the world as the kids go nuts for it!  Before eating, the kids need to have hair tied back, hands washed and shoes on (for which there is a mysterious black hole at the orphanage...somewhere in the world there is a lot of single shoes...).  The regular phrase being yelled out in association with 'A-comir' (time to eat) is 'busca su chanclas' (find your thongs).

One of the regular favourite dishes of the kitchen ladies - sopa de frijoles negros con queso y crema (black bean soup with cheese and sour cream).  Also was served with rice, chille and tortillas.  EVERYTHING is served with tortillas, even on the days the kids ate spaghetti and bangers and mash!

Bienvenidos a Puerto Escondido...Welcome to Peurto Escondido (AKA Paradise....)

 The photos are pretty self explanatory, all are from our week in Pto Escondido.  The high scenery shots were taken from our accommodation, Ananda, up near Casa Dan y Carmens.  There are some art shots of ceilings of various eatery establishments we visited as well as some general scenery shots.  We were lucky to visit Pto twice during our trip, we thought it was paradise.  The waves were amazing with rare off season swell seeing some 10 foot peelers coming through.

An average wave that came through, upon close inspection you can see its well over head.  The wave breaks in waist deep water (sometimes less) so it kinda hurt.

Ahh, a smaller 4 footer, perfect.

Petrina, did you have to include this one.

Please can i stay?

Markets.......... Beans anyone? 

Loo with a view, out toillet at the place we stayed.

Petrina drinking out of a coconut, we then broke into it to get the flesh (next photo).

Ouch, one broken board.  This shows the size of boards locals were using.  My 6'0 was a little short.

This little fella had to go through Mexican Pipeline to safety, i hope he made it.

Petrina's random friend to watch the surf with

Dont loose your balance in the dry sand......