Highway Robbery, Car repairs & the Mexican Pipeline

Renegade Camp spot in Playa Ventura

Punta Zicatela 

At our Cabana

Monday 3/5/12-

So this morning we drove into town to try to find someone who could fix our AC in the truck.  On the way into town we passed a police check point.  This is nothing unusual, these roadblocks are all over Mexico usually on the outskirts of town.  This time the officer pointed at our car in the line of traffic passing by and pointed to the side of the road.  It wasn’t really clear what he was signaling and there was no law that I knew about that we were in violation of so I kept on driving and watching my mirrors to see what he would do.  Sure enough he and 3 other police get into 2 separate cars and come after us with the lights on.

Well finally it happened.  Our first armed robbery in Mexico.  Not by banditos, by la policia.  I pulled over and 2 guys came to the window speaking fast Spanish to me, I told them I didn’t speak Spanish very well.  So one officer, in English, goes “Why you no pull over when I tell you?”  I reply in Spanish “Lo Siento, no se que quieres.”  He asks for my driver’s license and I give him a photocopy.  He tells me that he needs the original.  I don’t want to give that up because I know that once he has that he can get a whole bunch of money out of me to get it back.  I tell him no.  He threatens to write me a ticket for $90 US.  I gave the original to him and after he looked at it I grabbed both the original and the copy out of his hands and put them back in my wallet.  He told me to get out of the car. 

Now there are 3 officers standing in back of the car, 1 with a machine gun and 2 with only pistols, the 4^th officer is standing guard with his machine in front of our truck.  So as Marcie waits in the passenger seat I talk with the police outside.   One guy with a big gun is playing “Bad Cop” and saying that he can write me a ticket for having a scorpion in the car if he wants.  This guy seems like he wants to make a point that he can do whatever he wants and is a little pissed that this holdup is taking so long.  The other guy, “Good Cop”, is explaining to me in English “You are not in the United States, this is Mexico.  We have a different set of rules here.”  I reply “Yo soy solo persona y tu eres solo persona.  Yo no tango dinero.  Yo solo necessito un mechanico reparar mi camione.”

Well, they are just going to have to write me a ticket then, and take me down to the station so that I can pay it, OR… I can take care of this whole thing right there on the spot for $3000 pesos.  Now that is like $250.  I probably had $1800 pesos at the time.  So I tell them “No pago” and I walk back and open the driver’s door, lean in and hand my wallet to Marcie and tell her “Give me $500 pesos and keep the wallet.  Don’t give it to them, I love you.”  I go back out and walk up to the officer “Un reglo por tu.  Hoy necessitimos vamos a mechanico.”  He takes the money and says “Follow me”, and gets in his police car and drives away.  So I get in my truck and follow him to a backstreet mechanic who spoke really good English and fixed our AC for 200 pesos ($16 US).  So all and all with the police bribe of 500 pesos ($42 US) it cost about $60 US to get our AC fixed, in a roundabout way.  

~Jon

We then continued to drive out of town with a quick stop at the local Walmart for a few supplies (AC to 12V power adapter, and a few groceries).  A guy in the parking lot then tries to sell Jon some “mota” while the policia are parked in the same aisle of the parking lot.  Jon is a lot more conspicuous than the normal gringo because of his nice hair.  He lets the nice gentleman know that we are all set on the Acapulco Gold and we finally head out of town.  We go the wrong way for a little while and end up and the airport, so we turn around and try not to make eye contact with, car after car of policia and military. 

About 15-20km outside of town we start checking out any mechanico with a reputable looking shop (anything above a mud hut) that may be able to jack up our truck and fix our passenger side air shock.  We installed this before the trip to alleviate a little of the weight on our suspension.  However, the passenger side is a little crooked and after bouncing and jarring it slides off the strut and the bag deflates of air.  We thought it just needed to be set straight and have more air added and we would be all set.  After 2 stops at other mechanicos who recommend the very elusive “El Gato Mechanico” who speaks English from working in the US, we can’t find him!  So, we stop at another place that I thought said “Mufflers”.  It turns out these guys don’t do mufflers at all, they actually place new suspension leafs on cars/trucks.  What luck!  So, the guys there call a cousin of theirs who speaks English.  He arrives and we tell him our problem.  He tells them and the guys (3 adults and 2 boys under the age of 10) jack up our car with Jon and try to fix the problem.  After some inspection and conversing through our interpreter we find out that since our air shock has been deflated for so long a hole has rubbed in it and is now worthless as well as finding out that one of our 2 suspension leafs is cracked-Yikes!  Those dang topes are killing our car.  So, the guy first says he doesn’t have the one for our truck and they start calling around and discussing things in Spanish.  After about 15 minutes we find out that the guy can make us one and install it for 800 pesos ($66 US), so I tell Jon to tell him yes because that seems like a lot of work the price. 

The work begins and Jon and I then have to sit in the mechanico’s dirt workyard which is also a place where chickens are running around and dogs are throwing up.  Gross.  All of the mechanicos and their families seem to live there too because several kids come home from school and the matriarchal abuela (grandmother) is fixing up some tacos under the palapa.  She send one of the kids over with 2 plastic chairs for Jon and I and we try to catch some shade under a lime tree and wait the 3 hours while they fix our truck.  Its hot and dirty but it all works out in the end and we head on our way with a new leaf suspension and its only 3:30. 

We drive on for about 2 or 3 more hours and try to find a camp spot on the beach.  We head to Playa Ventura known for its white with gold-flecked sand.  I nix every spot that Jon wants to renegade camp because I’m still a little tense from the days adventures so finally he has to tell me to chill out and just picks a spot.  It was an empty beach lot next to a really nice abandoned house.  So it turned out to be pretty nice and we set up our camp kitchen and made some shrimp tacos and rice which were delicious. 

Tuesday March 6, 2012

Last night was the first that I had to put on bug spray.  We are now officially in the tropics and since we decided not to take a year worth of Malaria pills we need to be cautious about not getting bitten.  Now, we are on the road to Puerto Escondido.   

4 hours and one military checkpoint later we arrive in Puerto Escondido the place for catching the “Mexican pipeline” so we are told.  Maybe A. Brown or Gnarles can let us know about that but the water looks pretty calm right now?  We are told not to swim at the beach across from our cabana because of intense waves but Jon did it anyway.  The cabana is nice with a fan, mosquito net, sweet pool and bar area where all the local expatriate Americans hangout for only 200pesos ($18american).  We have enjoyed the pool and booked a tour tomorrow with our hotel friend to go swimming with Sea Turtles.  I am very excited about this and he guarantees that we will see them.  It will be nice even to snorkel but I really want to see some sea turtles.  Tonight cooking in to save some deniro  after our highway robbery yesterday.  Hasta luego. 

~Marcie

Adios Mexico City, Hola Pie de la Cuesta

Me, Jon and RussellMania after the Cuban night

I asked Jon to take my picture, he waits until I almost get hit by a wave!

Campsite in Pie de la Cuesta

Laguna

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

Wednesday's Witch Walk

Mexico City Monuments

RussellMania & Jon wrestling in the National Palace Square

Magic Potion Ingredients at the Witch Market

Eagle eating the snake on a cactus

Cathedral

Yan and the bag of Coconut Water

RussellMania and a Cohiba

Plaza de Republica

 

2/29/12

Don’t worry, the make-out is alive and well in Mexico City.   As we walk around the city here in the parks, plazas, on top of tall building and pyramids, subways, sidewalks, monuments, and any other public place we have noticed that there are plenty of couples making out.  They do this passionately and without any qualms it seems about the decency of the make-out.  Many of the couples that I notice making out would definitely get a slip from the hall monitors in High School for a public display of affection (PDA) and have to go to detention.  In America, one rarely sees such fervent display of affection for one’s partner.  A kiss here, a hand holding there at the most but never a full-blown make out.  It’s quite interesting and I often find it hard not to stare but I’m sure I’ll get use to it. A few places that we have visited were quite inspiring places for a make-out and I was able to get Jon to at least give me a little peck, but he is from Massachusetts so that’s as far as it could go.

Another thing that has been on my mind since we’ve been in Mexico is the tamale.  These tasty little morsels are quite filling and always cheap.  Jon and I were wondering about the tamale when we were in San Felipe as we saw our first native with a large pot on the side of the street selling tamales, 2 for 15 pesos ($1.10).  We pondered whether or not to try them.  We wondered what they were exactly and recalled a few songs that mentioned tamales and the one time we tried them in the dorms at UCLA.  We decided to go for it even though that experience at UCLA wasn’t very satisfying. We were extremely pleased.  Tamales are a dish made of masa (a starchy dough, usually corn-based), which is steamed or boiled in a leaf wrapper. The wrapping is discarded before eating. Tamales can themselves be filled with meats, cheese, fruits, vegetables, chilies or anything else, and both the filling and the cooking liquid may be seasoned.  We have had them with chicken, pork, peppers, onions, salsa verde and even pineapple.  I enjoy the sweet ones for breakfast and the chicken and vegetable ones in the evening.  If you have the opportunity to get a tamale, do so, you won’t regret it.

For the past couple days we have been going to class and cooking dinners at home in the flat.  We tried to go to the Zoo and find a post office on Monday but both of those things were unsuccessful.  We found a mailbox store to mail our 3 postcards but they wanted $33 American Dollars for 3 post card stamps.  WOW! We didn’t mail those postcards.  Why is it so expensive?  Where is the federal post office?  These seem to be lacking in Mexico.  Hopefully we can mail our postcards sometime before we get back to the US.  Yesterday was just as uneventful and unsuccessful because we tried to find a small portable fan for our truck and we couldn’t. 

Today has been fun because RusselMania, Yan, Jon and I took the subway to Zococalo Square where we tried to again visit the National Palace but they were having some kind of special invitation-only party with like 300 guards with machine guns, so we didn’t go.  We did walk about 2 miles to find the Witches Market, which was a very interesting outdoor market where you could go to buy whatever you need to perform your witchcraft or plan your child’s costume party.  They had herbs, candles, animals such as goats, puppies and peacocks, children’s costumes, cigars, bags of unknown powders and barks, etc.  Jon bought 25 Cuban cigars for 80 pesos ($6.50) and we almost bought a goat.  It seems like a fun idea.  After all, it would most likely do all kinds of amusing things around the apartment, the school has not paid the cable bill so this would be like a punishment to them and if it did not work out we could just eat it.  We didn't think that we had enough money but I was suprised when I asked the guy how much and he said 500 pesos ($42)!  There were also smaller ones that I probably could have bargained city'd him down to 300 pesos for.  In the end we chickened out and did not buy a goat.   But there is always tomorrow!  

We had a little street cart dinner of tacos de biztec (steak, 20 pesos) from a guy selling them out of a metal shopping cart that he had rigged a gas stove onto, both dulce (sweet) and salsa verde tamales (20 pesos) & fried plantains (15 pesos). Jon and RusselMania actually had a real Wrestle Mania match in the ring that the Mexican government put up in their historic square right next to the Occupy Mexico City Camp.  They were very entertaining and a few locals took their pictures.  It was quite a long walk back and I am a little tired right now. Buenos Noches.