Well, we've left Mexico and are on our way home. We're gonna miss this crazy country, and like a bad Yo Amo MEX tee-shirt (´I love Mexico', like a latino version of I heart NY), this is (part one of) a tribute to los Estados Mexicanos we'll cover what we loved and what we'll miss...
''Loved it '' #1. The muy tranquilo (you can translate that one by now!) mexican culture, evidenced by .....
- Everything being slllloooooooooooowwwwwer
- Mañana…a favourite expression when they can’t be bothered doing something right away. After all, you gotta question if something requires you to get out of your hammock, is it really worth doing?!
Even at Walmart, on the day we went to buy ourselves a local mobile phone, no one had the key to the sale cabinet – their suggestion? Come back mañana, of course!
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| You gotta question if something requires you to get out of your hamaca, is it really worth doing?! 'I think I might switch careers and import hammocks when I get back'(!) says Steve. |
- you have to call for the bill – they never ever try and hurry you up in a restaurante or comedor
- the slow walkers (could also be because the footpaths were either terrible or non-existant)
- the slow riders…Petrina would overtake grown men riding bicycles to work whilst she was running
But our favourite anecdotes about the muy tranquilo way of life here definately relate to our viajamos (travels) around the country, separate from our volunteer work at the orphanage....
Like when we arrived in Puerto Escondido, we enquired at a hostel if they had any vacancies, they didn’t, but said we could leave our bags there until we found one… ‘just put them out back’ – in this room without a door or lock…no mention of we can’t be held liable if anything happens to them (though you instantly got the feeling that Puerto wasn’t the kind of place where that would happen anyway). So we went looking for another hostel, we found one, checked in, and having the money on us, offered to pay in total up front (to get the cash off our persons!) but were told we can pay ‘later’ and leave our bags there; Puerto was muy muy tranquilo!
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| One of the swimming beaches at the muy tranquilo Puerto Escondido |
Of course there are several disadvantages to this approach to life as well….
- Returning 'home' to Tapachula (after our above one-week break from the orphanage on our trip to PE) to find our apartment occupied – no one had bothered to tell us there would be two strange Mexican men who spoke no English in our house when we arrived home – actually workers at the orphanage flown down from Mexico City to complete the plumbing work on the new pool….
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| Our temporary room-mates hard at work on the pool |
- being told at one hostel where we had a private room that we’de have to change rooms mid-stay, and so packing up our things only to find when we returned from our sojourns that day that we didn’t need to move at all, our stuff still sitting neatly all ready to up and go in our room, and that in fact the place was half empty. Random.
- you always felt you should be celebrating when we arrived somewhere – you always got the feeling that ‘this is gonna require just a lil bit o luck’ for us to get where we needed to go that day with us and our things in one piece….
- half the transportation info in lonely planeta was wrong or already out of date
- bags would get thrown around in and out of luggage holds and up and down from the tops of buses like they were light-weight toys (at one stage a taxi driver just put steve’s surfboard in the boot of the car and closed the hood as far as it would go with absolutely no kind of restraint to hold it in whatsoever; when we asked if we could move it he insisted it would be fine and the hostel was muy circa - very close. Consequently we held our breath for the entire cab ride, and every time the cab would turn a corner or stop we’d brace ourselves for the $700 board to fall out and get run over by an ensuing camion (truck).
- sometimes announcements at the bus stations were in English as well as Spanish but it seemed totally random when they chose to do this. This was despite the fact that the announcements were always pre-recorded so didn’t actually rely on having an English speaker at the terminal. We were very paranoid about getting on the right bus after we bought tickets for one leg of one of our many bus voyages for the wrong day and managed to get to the first main stop without it being picked up – at this point we had to turn around and go back as other people were getting on with valid tickets for our seats and the rest of the bus was full! Case in point as to why we were super paranoid about getting on the right bus from then on!
- overnight buses would make stops en route but the driver never announced how long for and would swiftly disappear so you couldn’t ask – and you got the feeling they’d just as soon leave without you if you weren’t back from the bathroom in time when he got back (occasionally they’d do a head count but often it wasn´t until half and hour down the road till they´d remember!).
- No receipts, ever. We’d book a shuttle bus or something that cost the equivalent of nearly a full week’s standard Mexican wage, and get no receipt – when we did ask they’d say ‘no importante, no necessitas’ – don’t worry, you don’t need one…This kind of thing was a bit of a worry when you left your bags in storage somewhere - the equivalent of leaving all our wordly possessions for that moment in time with a complete stranger - and they couldn't give you a receipt or a ticket of some kind!
Over time though we became much more tolerant (and tranquilo!) of the uncertainties associated with day to day life and by the end of the trip, we’d regularly complete sentences with the qualifier ‘…but you never know, this is Mexico’! But it was also catching...we stopped caring about making hostel reservations and planning any sort of itinerary for all the places we went to, and we like to think we're a little more muy tranquilo ourselves now! Hence, the muy tranquilo mexican culture made it onto the ''loved it '' list!
''Loved it'' #2. The various ambluantes (street vendors)
- On foot – chicle (chewing gum), balloons, toys
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| Se vende globos y juegos...balloons and toys for sale! |
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| ¿Quiere un bracelete? (Would you like a bracelet?) |
For these type of vendors, we had definitely perfected the art of the ‘side glance’ – an attempt to check out what was on offer but not attract attention so as not to be hassled by the seller.....But if they didn’t see you lookin, vendors here all have a unique way of attracting your attention. The ambulantes in the plazas would click or hiss at you – one even made this freaky noise that sounded like a dying cat!
Then there is the driving vendors – the gas man, the agua (water) man, the basura (trash) man – anyone in a vehicle who delivers something or provides a service has their own annunciator to let you know they’re ´´drivin by´´ with their goods. For instance, in most cities we went, the gas man had metal rings attached to a chain which dragged along the road behind his pickup, so it made a really loud jangling noise when he was about - you could definitely hear from inside your house – in fact it would wake you up in the morning (if you slept past the fireworks (see next blog), roosters and blaring sun hot sun that is!).
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| The gas man. Note the chain dangling between the back wheels for plenty of good ol-fashioned noise-makin! |
Their various annunciations would continue all day, as long as the sun was up. Agua man and basura man would just yell ‘agua’ or ’basura’ in this really throaty, croaky voice like ‘arg-waaaaaah’ and ‘bas-uuuura´. Petrina’s favourite was the naranga (orange) man - yes, they have a man just for oranges! Juice is big business in Mexico, but we'll get to that in our food blog.... Anyway, he drove around in a pickup full of loose oranges with a recorded message booming from a megaphone permanently attached to the roof spruking 'narangas, narangas, dulce narangas, narangas de jugo, cincuenta naranga para treinta pesos…' (organges, oranges, sweet oranges, oranges for juicing, 50 oranges for 30 pesos...) which would just repeat over and over and over and….
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| The basura man |
Then there was the cabs and collectivos (kind of like private mini-buses in old kombi’s! – mexico is definitely the dumping ground for dying VWs from the states....). When they were empty and on-duty they would beep at anyone walking along the road that even remotely looked like they might want a cab or a ride sometime in the next 20 years! I (Petrina) even regularly got beeped whilst running – like they were thinking ‘what are you using your legs for gringa (white girl), I got a perfectly good taxi right here!’. Petrina was just flattered they weren´t completely repulsed at the idea of her putting a sweaty body into their precious cab! On that note I think it is worth mentioning that mexico in general is good for your self-esteem – some of the many remarks Petrina received (in Tapachula in particular, which doesn’t see many gringos) included guapa (female equivalent of handsome), kisses were blown, there was baby, there was I love you, there were wolf whistles etc. etc. This is despite the fact I (Petrina) never wore a piece of clothing without sweat marks, holes, mud and general orphanage dirt. Yep, Mexico is definitely good for your self-esteem…
''Loved it'' #3. Not having to do laundray (and virtually no housework) for the last 5 months.
Not many people seem to have laundries in mexico (small houses and a big outlay for a machine maybe???), so everyone who can afford not to have to hand-wash takes their laundry to the local lavenderia. About equivalent of $1 AUD per kilo, so would usually be less than $5 a week to have your laundry done..nice. Also, even when we lived in our self contained apartment around la esquina from the orphanage, the full-time staff at the orphanage would come and clean it. Part of the deal with volunteering there, they would clean both the on and off-site cuarto de voluntarios. Score!
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| Drop your laundry off at the laudromat, then it'll be done within 24hours - you pick it up like this in a bag all folded and clean. All for less than $5! |
''Loved it'' #4 - A working life totally different to at home….
- Speedy getting ready in the morning…
Obviously working at the orphanage meant that I (Petrina) did not need to wear make-up and neither or us needed to wear fancy clothes and certainly nothing that needed ironing because we didn't have access to one anyway! In fact, old faithfulls of shorts, singlets and thongs was all that was needed. Then it was just a 2 minute walk circa la equina (around the corner)!
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| Petrina dressed and ready for work! |
- Working in an orphanage obviously means you’re outdoors most of the time in the sunshine and fresh air
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| Look closely and you can see the results of not being stuck inside an office all day for the last 5 months - the slightest hint of a chancla (thong) tan on Petrina's feet! This is highly unusual for this lass whose catch-phrase regarding sun exposure is usually 'tanning is skin cells in trauma'. Happy days! |
- A new perspective…
When you’re dealing with kids running away, teenage pregnancies, getting verbally abused by 7 year olds using the worst language you’ll ever hear…it puts into persepective the relative unimportance of meeting strategic planning deadlines…and all the puffed up types of things we normally do back home at work, as much as we love it of course! Seriously though, it sounds clichéd, but even though they hated us most of the time(!), gosh it was lovely when they were good! And you really appreciated that if the volunteers weren’t there, the kids would be back on the streets, in broken homes, living with their parents in prison (you can do that in Mexico – families can stay together, but still… There were honestly kids there who’d been concived and born in prison…). These really are the kids that nobody wanted, so keeping the wheels turning (which is really all we were able to do) for the day to day grind of life was what was important, cos those disrespectful 7 year olds come round and their edges get softened over the years…and now there’s Misión México kids going to university. They’ll have a profession and be able to travel, and have control over their lives. They’ll have choices. And we think that is pretty cool.
''Loved it'' #5 - New food
We’ll blog all about that soon, but to cut a long story short, we now have una addición a (an addiction to)....chile (jalapeños), limón y sal (lime and salt), aguacate (avocado), cilantro (coriander), salsa de tomate y cebolla (tomato and raw onion salsa), oaxaqeño queso (this special super stretchy unpasturised cheese from Oaxaca), arroz y frijoles (rice and beans, mexican style of course!), tostadas y totopas (fried tortillas) and salsa picante (hot sauce).
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| The Logan no-cook mexican signature dish - tostada con tomate, aguacate, cebolla, letuga y salsa picante (fried tortilla with tomato, avocado, onion lettuce and hot salsa (the green splashes around the edges). |
''Loved it'' #6 - We have not watched TV for 5 months
Friends and colleagues of Petrina's know she believes that television is of the devil(!), and will understand the significance of this one to her! What a shame we've had no TV to watch this whole time....there wasn't one in our Tapachula house and there wasn't one in any of our hostels, so it was simple as that!
''Loved it'' #7 - New language
Ok, Steve may say this was a curse not an apportunity…But even still, we have a whole lot of fun, new 'Spanglish' expressions such as ''aye aye aye'', ''oooiiii'' and ''oooush''!
''Loved it'' #8 - the roosters
We will actually miss those crazy characters crowing up a storm every morning, noon and night...Petrina is not sure if she'll be able to sleep without them in the background!
''Loved it'' #9 - Deserted beaches
On one 50 minute run Petrina did along the beach in Tapachula, she passed one person….and the uncrowded waves were a major highlight for Steve.
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| There could be a dozen people paddling for this wave on the Goldy.... |
''Loved it'' # 10 - Neuvo amigos (new friends)
This one doesn't really need an explanation....
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| Petrina at the orphanage with fellow las voluntarias (volunteers) Alycia, left, a Naturopathy student from NZ and Erin, centre, a financial planner from Tassie. |
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| This big guy turned up and made himself comfy next to Petrina on the beach one day in Peurto Escondido |
Stay tuned for more on the wrap up of our time over here in our next blogs.
S & P.
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