Jan & Steve's Mexico Report - #1

Photos from the world - photography and stories of our travels

México Report Home > Report 1

Jan & Steve's México Report #1 April 21, 2003

FIVE WEEKS
Jan & I have graduated from nightly bowel status discussions, (in some of Mexico City's most romantic restaurants) to my regular cases of sunburn (a new diet program…loose weight from the outside in), to learning how to drive all over again, with smiles on our faces.

Jan is settling into her job very nicely. Her staff is great. They practically fight over who gets to do us a favor, or drive us to the apartment if we're in the office late. Spanish is still quite frustrating for me, but that's about the only frustration I have at the moment. Our Spanish lessons resume this week. Jan starts at level four; I pick up where I left off at level .25.

Along the way, we've had a couple of firsts: we are now members of Sam's Club and we signed up to rent movies at Blockbuster. Our first movie was Jackie Chan in "El Smoking" otherwise known as "The Tuxedo."

In the morning, we walk about a mile and a half to the office building where Jan's company rents two floors. Jan goes to her office, and I go to the small conference room they have set up for me to use temporarily. Jan & I have worked in the same building before so the biggest change would probably be that I wear a suit nearly every day, and a tie every day, Monday through Friday. Oh, and everyone speaks Spanish… :-p

Around 2:00, we go out for a two-hour lunch, the biggest meal of the day. We finish work around 7:30 on most nights and walk home. Sometimes we'll stop for "cena," a light supper, on the way home, other times we'll come home, then go out for soup or salad around 9:00 or so. The weather so is beautiful (this is the dry season), we dine al fresco most nights.

FOOD
Until we get a little more Spanish under our belts, dining has been at times a bit of an adventure. During our first trip here in September, we unknowingly tried "Escamoles" one of Mexico City's delicacies. You would probably call them "ant egg tacos." Expensive!

On a recent trip to a cute Argentinean restaurant in our neighborhood, we were rushed to order by two very fast speaking waitresses. In our haste to choose something, I picked the "all you can eat grilled meat" choice from the menu for both of us. While our meal was being prepared, I could smell the smoke from the wood fired grill. Argentina is known for fantastic cuts of beef. We sipped our "vino tinto," red wine and waited.

Shortly, a waiter placed a great assortment of grilled things on our plates. We were now staring at four types of sausage, dark lumpy hard things, and a slice of gray/white grilled something. Jan recognized the blood sausage, we both recognized the Mexican chorizo (spicy red sausage). We determined that the hard lumps were kidneys and the other mystery item was grilled brains.

We quickly ordered a side dish of grilled vegetables and filled up on the chorizo while sampling the other grilled items. Just when we finished our wine, vegetables, and anything we didn't find too offensive, the waiter came out with a tray of some of the most beautiful steaks we've seen in Mexico! I had forgotten that this was "all you can eat."

We found one of Mexico City's two Thai restaurants, and have now experienced the spiciest food yet in Mexico. Most people will have a hard time believing this, but the food specifically in Mexico City isn't that spicy.

DRIVING IN MEXICO CITY
Simply walking in Mexico City is considered a sport. I get points every time I successfully cross the street—motorists get points every time I don't. Let me start by saying that this city of 24 million people has no driving school requirement before receiving a driver's license.

There is only one rule of the road: NEVER STOP! No matter what, always remain in motion. The "ALTO" stop signs are always ignored, and traffic signals are more of a suggestion than a firm rule. I have noticed that if a car is going to impact your car, they slow down. And if you are about to bump someone else, you stop—or at least so down enough that a collision is avoided.

Paso de la Reforma is the most important boulevard in all of Mexico City. It can be as few as two lanes in each direction, or as many as eight—depending on the time of day. Reforma runs at an angle across the city. Actually, everything runs at an angle across the city, so Reforma is not unique. I believe some city planners long ago, dropped a handful of straws and called it a street plan. Everything intersects with everything else at an odd angle, and when too many streets intersect in one place, they put a "glorietta" or roundabout at the intersection.

For those of you who haven't had the joy of driving in Europe, the way to handle a roundabout is to pray, accelerate, and watch the street you want to turn off at pass by several times. Usually, I exit at the first street possible and promise to avoid roundabouts. Here in Mexico City, thanks to traffic light technology, they have figured out a way to have traffic go in both directions around a glorietta!

It is also common to find as many as three one-way streets all going in the same direction in a row, or find that the one-way street you are driving on, becomes one-way the in the opposite direction, across the intersection from you. We have discovered that if you can go the wrong way down a one way street, as long as you look determined and repeatedly sound your horn. Or, at least that's what we've seen.

QUERETERO
Jan's co-worker loaned us his purple minivan for a couple of weeks. We used it to explore some of the ancient Spanish-colonial towns around Mexico City. Our first trip outside of Mexico City was to the 461 year old town, Querétaro

Querétaro is only 2 hours outside of Mexico City, but it is a world away. Some of the streets have been turned into pedestrian malls where you can buy anything from art and crafts to the ubiquitous t-shirts. Jan's secretary made reservations for us (yes, they do that and bring coffee-it's like the 1950's all over again) at a Hacienda/spa an hour outside of town. We prefer to stay as close to the center of town as possible, so we found a nice place, changed our reservations, and became happy pedestrians.

DRIVING THE CUOTA
There is nothing quite like speeding past a police car at the equivalent of 96 miles per hour, knowing that he won't bother going after you! Yes, highway patrols busy themselves with stopping trucks and busses, and rarely, cars.

While on the highway, Jan asked if I saw any pattern to the seemingly random use of turn signals. After a few minutes, I commented that some trucks and busses would leave their left turn signal on as an indication that they were moving slow. At that moment, a car came up on us in the left lane, with his left turn signal on, wanting to pass. So the opposite must be true for cars. We were intrigued because turn signals are never intentionally used in Mexico City.

SEMANA SANTA
The "Holy Week" of Easter for most Mexicans means one thing, get out of town and go on vacation! Despite warnings from our Mexican co-workers, Jan & I took the purple minivan out of Mexico City again, this time at the most popular weekend of the year to be on the road.

We visited San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato. In San Miguel, we stayed at a budget resort hotel, just outside of town. Thanks to the Semana Santa crowds, all 250 rooms were full. With Mexican families averaging about five kids, I estimate there were on about 1,847 children in the swimming pool at any time.

The music from the 1970's and 80's never really died, it simply retired south of the border. Poolside, people of all ages were serenaded by the soulful sounds of Air Supply and Van Halen, intermixed with blissfully timeless Spanish tunes. During the second chorus of She's Havin' My Baby, I jumped up and started dancing around the pool, much to the dismay of my fellow holy week vacationers. My new dance moves were the result of a bee crawling inside my swim trunks! Jan pulled the stinger out of my hip, and suggested that I soak my fresh bee sting in the crowded heavily-chlorinated skim-milk colored pool. While soaking, I realized that a "frappe" margarita would be the perfect solution to my problem, since it can be used both internally and externally—I had two.

Having never been stung by a bee before, I was impressed at how much it hurt and swelled. There was a hard spot on my hip about the size of my palm for days. Then later, it itched like crazy! Even weeks later, I still have a dark colored area where I was stung. That must have been some bee...

TAXCO
On Sunday, April 27th, we were taken to Taxco by Juan Morales and his fiancée Esperanza. The highlight of the trip was purchasing our "Mexican" wedding rings, for only $70 each! ("$" is also used for pesos. Currently, 11.5 pesos = a dollar.)