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...