Jacobo, Markos, Y Jorge Vs. Los Espinos

So, we decided to rent bicycles...

And what could go wrong, two strapping young lads, one a bike messenger of three years in the city of brotherly love, the other an avid cyclist unafraid of puttering up the (College) Hill every night in the dark all summer. Really, what could possibly go wrong?

We started great. Two mountain bikes, helmets (safety first), locks, and a map. We found the bike path that leads out of town and headed towards our first destination: El Tule, quite possibly the largest tree in the world. After a few wrong turns, we made it there with few problems. Yes, it really is a big tree, and over 2,000 years old!

Next stop was the Pemex gas station, which, unfortunately, would play a crucial role later in our excursion. We had stopped for some shade after riding now about 12 kilometers outside of the city when we noticed our good friend Pooh Bear at the play ground next to the station. After a brief conversation that consisted mostly of ho-hums and some questioning about whether we were carrying anything sweet and sticky in our nalgene bottles (after all, he is a bear of very little brain), we took another picture together.

Then were off again. About half a kilometer further on, at about 12:30 in the rather hot afternoon, Jacob´s back tire began to deflate. It turns out we had run through a patch of thistles (good for Eor, bad for Tigger, and- as it also turns out- bicycle tubes). With expertise Jacob quickly stripped of the tire and examined the tube, found the thorns, and patched the tire. No problem, right? Wrong. Our mini travel pump didn´t seem to be able to inflate the tire all the way. Luckily, we had just past a llanteria (tire shack) just a little ways back. So we headed in that direction.

Enter Jorge, who would soon become a major player in our afternoon adventure. Jorge tried to fill the back tire using his pressurized pump, but to no avail. We soon realized that there must be another leak in the tube. Off came the wheel and tire again, and two more thorns were pulled out of the tube and the wholes were patched by Jorge.

We thanked Jorge, paid him a couple of dollars and we were on our way again. Our next stop was the 16th century church in a small town of the major road we were riding along. We stopped there, ate our peanut butter sandwiches and pondered our next move.

Just 4 or 5 kilometers away was small site of Zapotec ruins. We could see it against the hillside in the distance and decided to turn down a small dirt road that was heading in that direction. Given our previous experience with the thistles, this was probably not a good idea. As we got closer to the ruins the roads became smaller and smaller, and we soon found ourselves carrying our bikes through corn fields, down a small ravine, and up the hill towards the excavation site.

Oddly enough, there was no one there at all so we parked the bikes and began to explore the ruins. After about five minutes we could see a man with a rather large machete approaching in the distance. Unfortunately, it was not Christopher Robin.

At this point it is important to know that we left Oaxaca that morning with around 7o pesos, or $7. We gave Jorge 2o and were not planning on entering the ruin site if it was more than 30 pesos, so we would have enough money to buy water or transportation in the case of an emergency.

So, the man with the machete was coming nearer. We decided to play ¨stupid gringos¨(a role we master before the end of the day) and approach him innocently. He was the day guard for the site and informed us that we had to pay money to see the ruins. Of course we said, we just happened to come to the site off the beaten path and must have missed him as he was waiting further down the main road. How much do we owe you, we asked? 54 pesos for two. Great we said, as we scrounged through our pockets hastily. We managed to come up with 53 pesos and 50 centavos. 50 centavos short. What kind of gringos are we?

So now we had no money and 23 kilometers to cover to get back to Oaxaca. It was approaching 3 pm, we had a bus to catch that evening to Chiapas, so we decided we better start heading back. We had better play it safe from here on out, we thought. No more off-roading; one more thorn could mean disaster...

So, how about 37?

Yes, we made it about half a kilometer from the ruins when Jacob´s back tire went flat again. We had a brief conference before Jacob would ride my bike back to the Pemex station to see if he could find a cash machine, or if need be, to change the twenty dollar bill he was also carrying. I would keep walking along the highway until he came back for me.

All went well with the plan, sort of. No cash machine, but Jacob was able to exchange the twenty for about 18 dollars worth of pesos. I had made it back to Jorge´s llanteria by the time Jacob came back to me and so we decided to try and fix the tire again.

For the third time, the wheel came off and the tube was pulled out. Jorge first patched one whole, and then a second, and a third. At this point we realized there were probably espinos in other tires so we pulled them all off and began to check. Meanwhile, Jorge´s tally had reached about 13 patches on Jacob´s back tire. Jacob found at least two more in his front tire, and I pulled a couple out of both of mine as well, watching the air slowly leak out bemusedly.

Another brief gringo conference resulted in the decision that maybe taking the bus back to Oaxaca would be a better idea than riding home with wheels that were more patch than tube. Jorge seemed to agree, along with his whole family that had now gathered to watch the spectacle that was us.

Cuernavaca

It has been a couple of days since we have posted anything. And there have been many adventures. After Mexico City we headed for Cuernavaca where Mark has a friend from the University of Toronto. It is only an hour and fifteen minute bus ride which is probably our shortest yet. When we got there Mark´s friend Kate met us at the bus station and we went to her house. It was nice to be able to relax in a real house for a little while. It was not something that we have been able to do much. Kate and her husband Arturo both teach yoga in Cuernavaca. This is us in our pajamas just before we went to bed. They were leaving early so it was the last time to take a picture.

The next day we headed out for the ruins called Xochicalco. We had a fun time finding the bus in the local Market. We were reminded of the rule that you should ask three people for directions and if two of them say the same thing go with it but if the all say different things keep asking. We did find the bus eventually and after bumpy ride we made it to the ruins of Xochicalco. They were very interesting. There was a lot more to them than the ones in Mexico City, perhaps because there wasn´t huge city built on top of them. It was pretty neat to see though. We had some discussions about the realness of the pyramids because many of them had been reconstructed so it was hard to tell what was original and what a archeologist's impressions of what it looked like. In fact there is one pyramid there that was reconstructed but there were like 30 big pieces some with carvings on them that didn´t fit so they just left them next to the pyramid. Strange.

That night we got to cook some food. Yeah!!! another first for the trip. We cooked up a bunch of vegetables and added some falafel that they had already made. With some tortillas and bread it was a pretty good dinner. Arturo made some fresh lemonade with lemons from right outside the window of the kitchen mmm good.

NEXT STOP PUEBLA.......................NOT!!!

We were going to go to Puebla but when we got there we decided to not spend a night there and just head straight for Oaxaca.

NEXT STOP OAXACA

Feliz Cumple Papa!

Happy birthday dad! We bought you a birthday cake at a Pastelria in Mexico City but ate it all before we could make it to the post office. Reminds me of the time Pooh brought Eor a pot of hunny for his birthday, but then got hungry and ate it all on the way to the party. At least Eor still got a useful pot to put things in, as well as a popped ballon from Piglet. Lost my tail again... Nobody likes me... Its my birthday...

Things are good here, we are headed to Cuernavaca this afternoon to visit a friend from Toronto. The Frida museum was cool but the Leo Trotsky house in the same neighborhood really took the cake (quite literally it would appear). Why did Stalin have to ruin Communism for the rest of us?

Stay tuned for more soon, including a first hand account of the situation in Oaxaca and our experiences in Chiapas!

MEXICO D.F.

We arrived in Mexico City Monday afternoon from Guadalajara. The only useful thing that our guidebook was able to give us was a map of the Subway in Mexico City. Which is very beautiful and efficient. Many of the tunnels in between lines have art or other cool things in them. None the less even with out the help of the book we were able to find a cheap hotel close to the center of town. It even had a TV which was a first for our Mexican hotel experience. Cartoons in the morning have been a nice way to wake up. Plus since they are for children the Spanish in them is pretty easy to understand. Monday night we walked around the Zocalo, the huge central plaza. After a quick dinner we headed to find some internet and in passing noticed that Borat was playing at the movie theater. We had been looking for someplace playing Borat for a while. It was in English with Spanish subtitles. We seemed to be laughing more than other folks in the theater. Maybe the translations were not as funny or if you don´t know American culture you don´t get all of the jokes. It was pretty good.

Our second day in Mexico City was taken up mainly by visiting the Museo de Templo Mayor. It is an excavation of the main Aztec Temple. It was really interesting. There were so many layers building because each new king had to improve the temple and would just build on top of the old one. Than the Spaniards came a wrecked a lot of it or just built on top of it. They could probably excavate the entire city and find things under many parts of it. That night we had dinner at the house of a friend of Mark´s . He was Mark´s Seminar Camp director. It was very nice to eat a home cooked meal and him and his wife were very nice. Of course we ended up looking at old CISV pictures and knew some of the faces in them. The world of CISV is small even if you are in Mexico. Sorry no photos today. Later we are off to the Frida Kahlo Museo it should be interesting.

Gringo-Land-ia

Hey there, friendly blog readers. It has taken a bit but I have figured out how to post too, so Jacob can stop spreading his anti-Mark propaganda across the universe.

No, but seriously, we have decided that Jacob will give you the play by play, and then I will come in with some color commentary. Yes, I will be the Joe to his Marty (that is a Cincinnati baseball reference for those not from the 513).

We have had a good trip. Beaches, Busses, Blue Agave plants. Todo bien con nosotros.

Jacob has informed me that we have been here an hour and will be paying more if we stay much longer, so I am going to cut this short for now.

More to come soon, including a detailed account of spilling orange fanta into my taco as well as an ode to pooh. Tiddley-tum.

Adventures in Gaudalajara

As expected Guadalajara is a very nice city. We did some touristy things here on Friday saw alot of murals and walked around a lot. There are a lot of streets and plazas that are blocked off from cars with little shops and restaurants. We also visited the biggest covered Market in Latin America and it was impressive. We decided to go for Chinese buffet for dinner... and well bad Chinese food in Mexico tastes pretty much like bad Chinese food in the States but it was nice to try something different. Saturday was the fabled Magic tournament. Mark went to go play in the morning and I met him later on in the day. And he won out of 32 player in his bracket he moved up to the final round where him and his opponent decided to split the winnings instead of playing for them. Then he sold the cards he won and made 10 dollars on the day. Yeah!!!!!

Sunday it was off to Tequila. Yes there is actually a town called Tequila where the drink comes from. We took a guided tour that took us to the fields first. Here I am next to the Blue Agave plant which is what Tequila is made from. Next they took us on a tour of the Jose Cuervo Factory. It was pretty cool to see how it was made. We got to taste some of the plant after it is cooked before they mash it which was actually pretty good kind of sweet. And of course at the end we got to taste the good stuff. MMMMMMM And after three types of Tequila plus a small cup of Margarita we were feeling pretty good.

Monday we leave Guadalajara for Mexico City. We will probably stay a couple of days there and then head for Cuernavaca where Mark has some friends.

Mark With Pooh Trash Can

This was a funny picture that i forgot to upload from when we were in Mazatlan.

Guadalajara

Not much to report today. Our second day in Mazatlan was spent walking. Up a long hill to one of the tallest natural light houses in the world. It was a pretty nice view but I forgot the cord for my camera today so you can´t see it. Then we took a long momantic walk on the beach. And had a nice dinner of shrimp and fish. After dinner we played music for a little. Mark worked on a new song for guitar and I practiced Silent Night currently one of my three songs on the Harmonica. We have been able to play one or two songs together although figuring out what key my harmonica is in. We headed to the local bar to watch the baseball team from Mazatlan get beat by the Tomateros from Culican in the Mexican Pacific League Championships. The next day it was off to Guadalajara where we currently are. After a long day of travel and a lot of walking with our packs trying to find a cheap hotel we were exhausted. I couldn't speak Spanish for the life of me and we were both spilling our food all over the place at the restaurant where we went to get some dinner. The waiters were nice and only laughed at us a little. Now we are off to explore Guadalajara which seems to be a promising town.

P.S. Sorry about turning comments I think I was trying to change the settings in Spanish so they are back up. Comment away.

Soccer and Long Travels

After some sleep we decided to go out an explorer Chihuahua. The first mission find a supermarket to buy some things including Peanut butter and a bowl for cereal. After a bit we did find a super market and left with food and other supplies. Outside of the supper market we saw three guys two of whom were carrying soccer shoes. Since one of our goals of the day was to find a game to play we asked them if they were going to play soccer if there was a field close by. They invited us to come play with them they were headed to a game not far from there. So we piled into the coaches mini-van and were off. After warming up, being given socks and ripping up cereal box to use as shin guards we both sat on the bench for the first half and were beginning to wonder if we were going to play at all. At half time we were both given cleats and I was given shin guards. WE both played the rest of the half and it went pretty well. We ended up tying the other team 3-3. Here is a picture of us with them when they dropped us off.

After some food and a little siesta we headed out to see the sights in Chihuahua. That night we had quite an adventure getting to a movie theater by bus but we finally made it and were able to see the rest of 007 it was pretty good.

The next day we got up early to go to the train station. We took the train from Chihuahua to Los Mochis through Copper Canyon. It is said to be one of the most beautiful train rides in all of the Americas and it was pretty spectacular. I had taken part of it before. Here is us at one of the train stops looking out over the canyon. Of course the picture doesn't do the real thing any justice. After a 17 hour train rider we decoded to get on the night bus to Mazatlan because there really isn't anything to see in Los Mochis. It was more than 24 hours of traveling but Mazatlan is a very nice beach town although it wasn't warm enough to swim today. Another day in Mazatlan and then it is off to Guadelajara (SP?) To find a Magic tournament for Mark. Who knows maybe I will play as well.

PICTURES!!!!

Hey look I learned how to load photos. It wan't actually that hard. Any way here is from left to right Erick my host brother, Me, Mark and Felix (the one who is getting married) just before Erick left to go back to Japan. Expect more photos in the following posts.

Day 3

Well we arrived in El Paso with only a slight delay due to de-icing in Denver. I took some pictures of the snow out the window of the plane. Possibly the only snow that I will see this winter. Erick whose family Mark and I stayed with when we were in Juarez picked us up at the airport. We spent two days in Juarez hanging out with Erick, his family and friends. Felix a friend of Ericks and ours is going to get married to some one who did the same program in Juarez as us in a different year. We saw the first 30 minutes of 007 casino royale before the projector quit. oh well the first 30 minutes looked good.
Saturday we left for Chihuahua after staying up until 3 to see Erick off on his trip back to Japan. In Chihuahua we discovered that our guide book is either old or just really bad. We have discussed burning it. A bus station that was supposed to be a few blocks North of the main plaza of chihuahua city was actually probably 4 kilometers south and after a lot of walking and some confusion we got a ride from someone that we asked directions of. We did make it to a bar in the really nice hotel in time to see the Eagles kick a field goal and than lose to the Saints. All in all it wan´t bad for our first day on our own. I vaguely remember being in Chihuahua city some things look familiar and we might even be staying in the same hotel.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to by new blog. This is my first attempt at this so pardon me if it takes a while to get going and figure things out. So just a quick run down of the details in case you don't know. Tommorrow Mark one of my best friends from High School and I are leaving for El Paso Texas/Juarez Mexico. We will be staying with the host family that we lived with in Juarez when we did the Border Studies Program there in college. After a few days there we will head South. We don't have definate plans yet from there. We plan on being in Nicaragua by mid February and to see as many places and people as possible inbetween. In the begining of March, Mark will head back for the States and I will start language school in Guatemala. So if you want to follow our travels check back here often. I will try and post once a week or everyother week. And hopefully I will be able to figure out how to put some pictures up as well. Ok I need to get back to packing since we leave in about 4 hours. Can you say procrastination?