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| Me, Jon and RussellMania after the Cuban night |
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| I asked Jon to take my picture, he waits until I almost get hit by a wave! |
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| Campsite in Pie de la Cuesta |
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| Laguna |
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| Shower gecko |
Thursday
3-1-12
Today class was so frustrating. It was absolute torture for me to sit there and I was fully
in touch again with all of the passionate hate that I used to have for
school. Our Spanish professora is
a twit. She has attempted to teach
the same lesson on grammar and sentence structure for all four days so far this
week and she plans to keep on going with it on Friday as well. I have tuned her out and am only
participating in the class when I have a question, unrelated to what she is
teaching, about real life Spanish language uses. Other than that I ignore her and spend my time in class
reading the Spanish/English dictionary and writing down words that I think are
important. I think that maybe she
could spend ½ of one day teaching her grammar lesson, but after that lets move
on. There is no way that a Spanish
student who is only there for 2 weeks should spend a whole week on any one
subject, especially if it is a non-conversationally functional one. Does she think that I’m going to try to
write a book in Spanish? No! I just want to be able to order a taco
from a street cart and know what I’m getting. I’m pissed that she has wasted my time and money this
week. So, we are not going to
class on Friday, our last day. I
will learn much more Spanish walking around the streets and markets of Mexico
City talking to people.
Alright, enough about that. After that stupefying class I did a little yoga on the roof
wearing only a flesh colored bathing suit. This got a lot of hoots and hollers from the construction
workers on the high rise next to me.
That was alright though because I was in the yoga zone, deep in
conscious relaxation. We then
dropped off our laundry and got some tamales to eat in the park.
Later on in the night Marcie, RussellMania and I walked
across the street to Cubano El Rincon where there was no cover and 2 for 1
mojitos. At first it seemed like a
weird scene because the band was not on yet, so they had Cuban music playing really
loud over the sound system while unrelated MTV Jams rap videos were projected
in mute onto a large screen on the wall.
But as the night got going the band came on and the dance floor got
packed. Most of the dancers looked
to be Cuban and had clearly done this before. There were Rico Suave types with greased back black
ponytails, purple silk shirts and skin tight black jeans twirling around any
lady who was lucky enough to be their dance partner, and older Cuban Michael
Douglas types with slicked back touch of grey do’s, wearing snappy suits. We were the only white people there so
at first Marcie was nervous about getting up to shake it on the dance floor but
at the end of our night and five mojitos later she was the best dancer on the
floor. We had a great time, and
danced all night until about 1am and then went home. I have not been drinking alcohol since Lent started last Ash
Wednesday. I feel like I can be a
better servant of my lord and savior Jesus Christ when I’m sober. Just kidding. Really I’m just doing it to get healthier and to party
harder in the long run. But when
our table was covered with 2 for 1 tasty mojitos it was tempting. However I did abstain and I drank only
espresso and red bull. When the
waiter brought over the “café” that I ordered I thought: Dang! This is a small cup of coffee. But then I tasted it and realized: Holy
Mole! This is a huge cup of
espresso! So I was wired.
3/2/12
Last night after we got home and were lying in bed I heard a
lot of gunfire out in the street.
At first I heard a couple of pops that sounded like 2 or 3 small
firecrackers going off, but from living in the Tenderloin, SF, CA where people
get shot up regularly in crack-head street violence and on John’s Island, SC
where weekends sound like a semiautomatic weapon shooting spree, I knew the
noises I heard weren't party favors.
A couple of minutes went by and then about 7 or 8 more pops followed by
the sound of cars racing away real quick and a couple of seconds later police
sirens. I wanted to get up in look
out the window but I was afraid to catch a stray bullet. We were a little concerned because
RussellMania had gone out to buy his single cigarette and hadn’t come back when
we heard the gunshots. Was he
involved somehow in the gunfire?
This morning we found out that he too had heard the gunfire but wasn’t
involved because he had been at the 24-hour gym at 2am pumping some iron after
drinking 8 mojitos and 3 cervezas!?!?!
We decided to skip our pointless class today and instead we
visited the local indoor market to buy all our groceries and supplies before we
leave for Acapulco tomorrow. We
were able to get vegetables from the vegetable guy, fruit from the fruit guy,
tortillas from the tortilla guy, meat from a butcher and cheese & butter
from the creamery lady. It was fun
buying ingredients from a person who sells those specific items. It’s the last day in our flat and
that’s good because it’s a sinking ship of smelly kitchens & bathrooms and
broken refrigerators. Time to go,
so we’re off to the beach and back to sleeping in the truck again for a
bit. I hope to swim with some Sea
Turtles soon because I believe we are going to be in prime territory for
that. Hasta luego.
Saturday –
We woke up early, got the truck out of the secure parking
lot where it has been for the last two weeks, packed up our goods and hit the
road. It wasn’t so bad getting out
of the city. We were staying on
one of the main north/south roads so all I had to do was follow it south and it
lead to Mexican Highway 95D.
The drive was about 4 hours through some desert
mountains. It was pretty desolate
country so I started looking for a gas station when we had about a quarter tank
left. But there weren’t any for at
least 100 miles and we were going to run out of gas so I pulled over and for
the first time used the reserve 5 gallons we keep up on the roof rack. We sat in Acapulco traffic for about an
hour as we drove west along the south-facing coast to the campground we are
staying at for the next two days.
My first impressions of Acapulco were hot, touristy, crowed
and lots of American chain businesses.
But from a distance it is very beautiful to see the golden sand beaches
stretch around Acapulco Bay and the green island just off of the coast. Where we are staying outside of town is
quieter though still a little more crowded then I would like. But there is so much beach here it is
almost impossible not to have a large chunk of it to oneself.
After we set up our camp, using the awning and the camp
kitchen counter both for the first time, we went for a swim. Everyone had been telling us that the
ocean was dangerous here and they were right. When I was in the water I could feel how powerful the
current was when the waves pulled back.
~Jon
3/4/12
Today was a day spent lounging around our campsite. We had a relaxed breakfast, swam in la
mar, laid out on la playa, and rode our bikes around town. It has been a very relaxing 2 days on
the beach and tomorrow we go to Acapulco proper to try to get our AC in the
truck fixed. It is only blowing
warm air so hopefully the Freon has just been depleted and all we have to do is
get it charged but we could have punctured something on that damn road in Baja
and maybe something might need replaced.
Hopefully it isn’t too expensive and we don’t have too much trouble
communicating with the mechanics in Spanish. We then plan to spend a few days and nights traveling down
the coast and sleeping on the beach.
~Marcie
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