Today we met the midwives who will be delivering our baby in Guadalajara.  They were fantastic and we couldn’t be happier!  Gracias, Maria y Lupita!

I’ve driven in some big cities, but Guadalajara was intimidating to me (in my imagination).  Is it a little crazy?  Like do you see mopeds and occasionally cars driving the wrong way (against traffic) on the shoulder of pretty major highways?  Yes, most definitely.  Will pedestrians run across these same highways? Yes.  Did we see a sizable rock, maybe the size of a decorative gourd, fall out of a truck, hit a car, and then witness the car driver make the truck stop? Yep, sure did.  However, I must say it wasn’t that crazy.  For the most part it’s orderly and drivers are friendly.  They’ll let you into traffic, they’ll give a friendly wave if you let them into traffic, and they’ll honk and flip you off as a friendly way to let you know what you did was against their driving preferences (oops).  My favorite mind-numbing activity when I need one is to watch crazy Russian driving videos on YouTube.  They’re worth a viewing.  Don’t let Carrie tell you they’re a waste of time.  Compared to the Russians in those videos (given, it’s a lowlight reel of human behavior), Mexicans I’ve encountered while driving are incredibly polite.  No yelling, no punching, and no guns.

We went to Guadalajara yesterday so we didn’t have to do the round trip all in one day.  The $35 awesome hotel three blocks from our midwives’ clinic made that an easy decision.  We found a trendy, what should be expensive, area of the city for dinner (under $10 total for dinner) and a cool little waffle cafe for breakfast (also under $10).

We were excited to meet Maria & Lupita and we’re very happy we get to have our next child with them.  They’re professional, kind, and full of laughs, which might just be the best part.  Carrie and the baby appear to be as healthy as can be.  It was confusing to them Carrie tested low on vitamin D on her lab work done while we were still in the US.  They don’t run across that much in sunny Mexico!

  

  

  

   

-Ryan

After being on the road for a couple weeks it’s nice to be at home.  It’s our temporary home near Lake Chapala, south of Guadalajara.  Carl the car was in need of a break too.  Poor guy got a good workout with all the potholes and unmarked speed bumps.  Turns out he’s a low-rider too, a lot of speed bumps scrape the undercarriage.  Ouch.  He’s just shy of 242,000 miles and still going strong.  By the way, if you’re thinking about driving to Mexico, don’t drive a newer car.  Just don’t.

Google Maps likes to route us in odd places.  My guess is that on unknown roads, like gravel back roads, Google guesses what the speed limit is and estimates it to be way faster than what you can actually travel on that road unless you feel like doing some rally car racing.  Based on the mis-estimate, Google then routes us that way because it’s “5 min faster”.  In almost every case we’re quite positive we take 30 minutes longer than if we took the “slower” routes.

Here was the final stretch before arriving at our destination.

  

We knew ahead of time this area has a large gringo community, lots and lots of retirees from the US and Canada.  We’ve been pleasantly surprised though that it’s not as overwhelming as we thought.  It’s still 95% authentic Mexican culture and the predominant language, by far, is still Spanish.  The area is beautiful with great weather.  I don’t blame all the gringos for coming down!

  

  

Today we got ice cream by the lake, 20 pesos for two scoops in an edible bowl.  Two separate hungry guys asked for money to buy a seven peso taco (less than 50 cents).  At least they’re not in Minnesota.  I never understood how one could survive on the streets in the winter.  And there wouldn’t be many street tacos.  As my personal policy I used to almost always say no to beggars, justifying it because they were probably going to buy drugs, not food.  I read in a book awhile back to think about not judging so much when considering giving to others.  I’ve been pleased with my policy change.  It feels a lot better to simply give and not question motives.  One of the guys got a packaged Rice Krispy treat Carrie had in her bag and he seemed genuinely thankful even for that small treat.

Public potty breaks are the best. It was our unplanned navy color day.

  

This is a dual use court, either basketball or soccer.  I’d bet I know which one gets used more.

A dog walking around with sunglasses, can’t beat that.

Painting with water back at home.

  

-Ryan

iola likes her doll to go down the slide much more than she likes to go down the slide.  She counts uno, dos (as pictured), tres, and somehow those three numbers in Spanish melt my heart.

   

  

  

-Ryan

Zacatecas was so much fun we didn’t want to leave, so instead we put in a full day of fun before leaving (doing this and this, the previous posts).  The plan was to arrive Tuesday evening to the house where we’ll be staying for the next three months, not quite a five hour drive from Zacatecas.  We’ve learned the potholes alone make it a dumb idea to drive at night here, so we wanted to arrive before sunset.  We failed completely at planning this correctly.

Instead of departing when we needed to, which doing basic math would have told us, we couldn’t resist a quaint little cafe/restaurant (neither of those words really applies but I don’t have a better one).  Two burritos, three orders of quesadillas, & two liters of bottled water later, I was 114 Pesos ($6.86) poorer.  All of it was incredibly delicious.  iola loved dipping her quesadillas in the green chile salsa that was too spicy for me.  My favorite was “brocheta”, which I think was seasoned beef chopped up together with bell peppers.  I can’t guarantee that description is accurate, but I can guarantee it was delicious.

We got lost leaving town, which didn’t help, and even if we hadn’t there’s no way we would have made it to our destination as planned before sunset.  So instead we stayed in a hotel on the outskirts of Guadalajara.  Last minute? No problem, we’ll give you a clean, modern hotel room with a great breakfast in the 2nd largest city in Mexico for $47.

Workers manually bagging onions on our way toward Guadalajara.

-Ryan

After breakfast and the pool, we walked to Mina El Eden, a 16th century silver mine that’s now in the middle of town.  iola fell asleep on the walk, rocked into a slumber by the rough, rocky roads.  What she didn’t know was these same rocks nearly ejected her from the stroller multiple times.  She quickly woke up when she saw the “choo choo train!!!”  we’d be riding deep into the mine.  That train is the only thing she liked about the mine visit.  The sobs for “more choo choo train!” didn’t stop the entire time we were in the mine.  Take a guess if a toddler’s cries echo a lot inside an old mine.  Luckily our Mexican tour companions were nothing but kind and understanding…to our faces.

There was a cool rock museum inside the mine and then a tour of the mine that showed how they extracted the rocks manually since the 1500’s.  If I had any doubt conquistadors were a-holes, that doubt is gone.  1 to 3 slave miners died on average PER DAY.  A slave was lucky to live to the age of 30.  Meanwhile we were frustrated our child wouldn’t stop screaming, or might throw Carrie’s phone down about 1,000 feet into the acidic pool of water below us.  Seeing pictures on Carrie’s phone was the only thing that kind of made her stop screaming, afterall.  Funny the “problems” we have these days.

  

The mine started collapsing so this picture is blurry.  The choo choo train barely got us out in time.

-Ryan

Hotels are cheap in Mexico.  Old and rustic (in a good way) or new and modern, your choice for less than $50 US per night.  Our breakfast at the cool, old, downtown hotel in Zacatecas included the following:

1. Toast with butter/jellies
2. Guava juice and coffee
3. Generous plate of fruit for each of us: pineapple, guava, & cantaloupe
4. Our choice of hot cakes or a variety of scrambled egg options, all made to order.  Carrie & iola had pancakes, I had a revuelto con chorizo.

Our breakfast bill for even a cheap greasy spoon in the US would have been at least $20.  The total hotel bill, which included the free breakfast, was $45.  Crazy.

iola was excited for her pancakes and even more excited to swim in the amazing pool.  I was excited the hotel had free underground parking.  I’m perplexed by the economics of these hotels.  Are construction costs that much cheaper? Are food costs that much cheaper?  Are labor costs that much cheaper?  How is anyone making a profit?!  I will continue to investigate this.  I will also continue to enjoy the great hotel options in Mexico.  Just stay clear of the roadside love motels.  Lots of those, too!  Those will set you back about $20 (or less) per night should you find yourself in the market for one.

It’s amazing how quickly one gets spoiled.  Effective immediately I am too good to wipe with anything that isn’t ornately folded.

-Ryan

Today we made it to Zacatecas, capital city of the state of Zacatecas.  What a beautiful city.  We knew some celebrating was still happening today leftover from Day of the Dead, but we had no idea what was happening, exactly.  Today is All Souls Day in English, although the literal translation is The Deceased Faithful, and that’s a better fit for how they celebrate.

We left the hotel for a relaxing afternoon of walking around the city with our only goal being to ride the sky tram that takes you from one mountainside to another.  We did that and explored the area where it takes you up high above the city.  We walked down the mountain on a steep windy path and ended up by the cathedral.  This is where our day got unexpectedly awesome.  We showed up right as a parade was starting.  A Halloween parade would be the closest explanation in the US, but they take their costumes very seriously.  One guy had a real animal head and bones on a stick (see below).

We enjoyed the celebration for some time, then decided iola should be more involved.  All the other kids were going from shop to shop in their costumes singing a Day of the Dead song and getting candy in return.  Carrie, with her amazing foresight, had packed iola’s pumpkin costume and pumpkin basket in the car.  We went to the hotel, dressed her up, and went back out.  She loved it!  If we’d stay in a store too long she demanded to go back to the street.  She got lots of love back.  She’s a little blonde in a sea of brunettes.  What a fun, unique, unexpected night.  My second favorite part of the night, after seeing iola trick or treat in Mexico, was eating street food.  Pizza (60 cents), tamales (60 cents), chocolate filled churros (43 cents), all delicious and at a price I can’t afford not to eat them.

(If you haven’t figured this out yet, you can click on pictures to see them larger)

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Tamales and a sleepy little pumpkin.

  

-Ryan

We spent a quick night in Laredo, Texas, then headed out early this morning for the border.  Of all the days in the year we could have done this, I think we nailed it choosing Day of the Dead to cross into Mexico.

I don’t often think about all the time I’ve put into learning and practicing the Spanish language, but it’s times like this border crossing that I’m quickly reminded how handy it is to not be lost by Spanish-only signage.  It was confusing enough even knowing what the signs said!  The border process on the Mexican side took about two hours, which consisted mostly of waiting in lines.  First our passports were approved, then we waited in another line to obtain a permit to temporarily import our car into Mexico, with a limit of 180 days.  If we don’t return within that time-frame we will lose a $200 deposit and won’t be able to take a car over the border again.  Evidently they were having issues with people taking cars over the border to sell in Mexico without paying an import tax.

Leave your gats in Texas, gents.

iola’s first order of Mexican business? Do her business.  Please note the yellow ball fringe hanging inside our windshield.  We got into the Mexican spirit a few weeks ago.

  

Sports drink bottle soap dispenser, and don’t you dare try taking it.

Flowers for sale everywhere for Day of the Dead cemetery decorations.

Mexico so far is rough around the edges, but beautiful at its core.

     

For those of you that don’t speak Spanish, this sign means, “Lift with your knees and wear a sombrero.”

Trash cans are located along the highways every few miles.  Great idea if you ask me.