Free at Last
We´ve left Na Luum and WWOOFing behind us now and are ready to embark on the next great (and sadly, the last) phase of our trip -- the fun touristy backpacker part. we´ll be heading to guatemale tomorrow where we´ll be seeing all kinds of wild ruins and animals and lakes and things. we´ll probably be in guatemala for a while and the more we hear about it the better it sounds and the more excited i get about it.
howevuh, we isn´t there yet and before we exit for the last time (most likely . . . ah, the flexibility of it all!) this great land of mexico, a few reflections:
1. mexicans are nice and willing to help, but the help generally sucks. case in point: almost any time we´ve ever asked anybody for directions ever ever ever since we´ve been here the following has been what happens (translated to english for your reading (not to mention my writing) pleasure:
Andy: excuse me sir or madam, could you tell me where the internet cafe is located?
Sir or Madam: internet?
A: Yes, the internet? Do you know where it is?
S or M: Oh, you mean the in-ter-net!, oh yes, that´s two blocks down and around the corner, i think.
A: Many thanks!
(at this point Andy and Rachel go to the appointed spot, which, given the simplicity of the directions is not hard to find, and generally are greeted by a rundown shop or nothing at all, at which point they accost another unsuspecting mexican)
Rachel: Pardon me sir or madam, could you tell me wehere the internet cafe is located?
S or M: the what?
R: the internet? Do you know where it is?
S or M: (clearly troubled and puzzled) internet . . . in-ter-net . . . ah, you mean the EEN-ter-net. Yes, it´s around the corner and two blocks up.
(the observant reader will notice, these directions take us back to the exact spot of the first encounter.)
R: Grrr, many thanks.
Oh yeah, we get lots of exercise -- i hope you enjoy these updates all the more for knowing how difficult it is to get to them.
2. Schedules and basically anything anybody says about something to happen in the future is generally a formality only and basically assures that the exact opposite of that which is posted, stated, communicated, will actually occur. Fortunately once you know this to be true, you can discover truths where before there were falsehoods. case in point, a conversation with Don Ines, a few days ago:
Don Inez: Oh, young ones, are you going to the dance tonight in the park?
A: There´s a dance tonight in the park?
D I: Yeah man, there will be many people and much dancing and much drinking.
A: Oh, how nice!
R: But Don Ines, why is there a dance tonight?
D I: For the month of the country.
R: But isn´t that September.
D I: Yeah man.
R: But it´s October.
D I: Oh, right, well, there won´t be a dance in the park tonight.
3. Mexicans make you feel good about giving up meat, and generally eat nastiness. Any meat you see generally looks nasty and is soaked in grease and oils and whatnot and apparently makes Don Ines sick about once a week (given the motions he makes, namely thrusting his thumb from behind his rear outward in a rather violent manner, i get the impression it´s a disturbance of the digestive system . . . that and his admission that he eats chicken that sits in grease for more than a day (agh!)). I have yet to see a piece of meat that looked sufficiently appetizing since we ¨became¨ vegetarians.
4. Mexicans, despite 1-3, can be and as a general rule are, lovely people. We´ve encountered much warmth, albeit a fair amount of it was intoxicated warmth, from these folks, whether it comes in the form of giving us treats (enchiladas, dulce de leche, natural gum, tamales, beers, etc.), inviting us to their young children´s birthday parties (a wonderful experience in which, despite the fact that the child was 1, much of the above-mentioned intoxicated warmth came from), teaching us how to make gum, offering us advice, letting us make fools of ourselves in their festivities (most people in Noh Bec still know me primarily as the gringo who partook in the pala -- the greased pole competition i wrote about in the independence day celebrations.).
well, that´s what i´ve learned so far about mexico, and i´ve only really been to one state in the entire country, so it´s as uninformed an education as someone thinking everybody in the US is like a Texan, I guess.
That´s all for now. Yikes.
howevuh, we isn´t there yet and before we exit for the last time (most likely . . . ah, the flexibility of it all!) this great land of mexico, a few reflections:
1. mexicans are nice and willing to help, but the help generally sucks. case in point: almost any time we´ve ever asked anybody for directions ever ever ever since we´ve been here the following has been what happens (translated to english for your reading (not to mention my writing) pleasure:
Andy: excuse me sir or madam, could you tell me where the internet cafe is located?
Sir or Madam: internet?
A: Yes, the internet? Do you know where it is?
S or M: Oh, you mean the in-ter-net!, oh yes, that´s two blocks down and around the corner, i think.
A: Many thanks!
(at this point Andy and Rachel go to the appointed spot, which, given the simplicity of the directions is not hard to find, and generally are greeted by a rundown shop or nothing at all, at which point they accost another unsuspecting mexican)
Rachel: Pardon me sir or madam, could you tell me wehere the internet cafe is located?
S or M: the what?
R: the internet? Do you know where it is?
S or M: (clearly troubled and puzzled) internet . . . in-ter-net . . . ah, you mean the EEN-ter-net. Yes, it´s around the corner and two blocks up.
(the observant reader will notice, these directions take us back to the exact spot of the first encounter.)
R: Grrr, many thanks.
Oh yeah, we get lots of exercise -- i hope you enjoy these updates all the more for knowing how difficult it is to get to them.
2. Schedules and basically anything anybody says about something to happen in the future is generally a formality only and basically assures that the exact opposite of that which is posted, stated, communicated, will actually occur. Fortunately once you know this to be true, you can discover truths where before there were falsehoods. case in point, a conversation with Don Ines, a few days ago:
Don Inez: Oh, young ones, are you going to the dance tonight in the park?
A: There´s a dance tonight in the park?
D I: Yeah man, there will be many people and much dancing and much drinking.
A: Oh, how nice!
R: But Don Ines, why is there a dance tonight?
D I: For the month of the country.
R: But isn´t that September.
D I: Yeah man.
R: But it´s October.
D I: Oh, right, well, there won´t be a dance in the park tonight.
3. Mexicans make you feel good about giving up meat, and generally eat nastiness. Any meat you see generally looks nasty and is soaked in grease and oils and whatnot and apparently makes Don Ines sick about once a week (given the motions he makes, namely thrusting his thumb from behind his rear outward in a rather violent manner, i get the impression it´s a disturbance of the digestive system . . . that and his admission that he eats chicken that sits in grease for more than a day (agh!)). I have yet to see a piece of meat that looked sufficiently appetizing since we ¨became¨ vegetarians.
4. Mexicans, despite 1-3, can be and as a general rule are, lovely people. We´ve encountered much warmth, albeit a fair amount of it was intoxicated warmth, from these folks, whether it comes in the form of giving us treats (enchiladas, dulce de leche, natural gum, tamales, beers, etc.), inviting us to their young children´s birthday parties (a wonderful experience in which, despite the fact that the child was 1, much of the above-mentioned intoxicated warmth came from), teaching us how to make gum, offering us advice, letting us make fools of ourselves in their festivities (most people in Noh Bec still know me primarily as the gringo who partook in the pala -- the greased pole competition i wrote about in the independence day celebrations.).
well, that´s what i´ve learned so far about mexico, and i´ve only really been to one state in the entire country, so it´s as uninformed an education as someone thinking everybody in the US is like a Texan, I guess.
That´s all for now. Yikes.