Okay so my Spanish is not so good. But I thought I would tell everyone about the last few days. We arrived on Saturday evening. My luggage got lost. We did manage to make it out of the airport fairly quickly. You have to avoid the vast hallway of timeshare sellers and other offers being yelled at you. Apparently they don't let regular taxis pick you up at the airport you have to use an airport taxi. We made it to our hotel - Mayan Palace.
Sunday, we spent the day wandering through downtown. We are here during the Mexican National Holiday - which is to say that most of the tourists here are Mexican, not a lot of Americans around which works well for practicing our Spanish. I do like the fact if we try to use Spanish they speak to us in Spanish. In some places, like Japan, the natives always speak English no matter how hard you try. Since I was short on clothes I bought a dress from a store downtown and wore it out on the street, it was cooler than my jeans. We decided to buy some music, so asked for a recommendation on where to buy music. The shop owner sent us to a Woolworths. Once inside we found the cds and there were a couple guys looking at music. We asked for a recommendation - or rather Michelle did since my spanish is better for understanding than it is for speaking. They found a couple cds for us, one is mariachi music, we think, and we aren't really sure what the other is.... of course we don't have a cd player so we'll have to wait to get home to listen. It's always fun to have regional music.
Woolworths was located on Juarez Street, so we decided to take the bus back to the hotel. The bus said Hoteles in the window, so we got on. Things seemed fin until we turned North at the WalMart. Yes, you read that correctly there are both WalMart and Sam's between our hotel and the downtown. We shouldn't have turned at the WalMart. We didn't worry too much until everyone - and I do mean EVERYONE - else had gotten off the bus. We found ourselves in the foothills of the Sierra Madres, where the people of the area live in run down, sad looking shacks. It very much reminded me of the tv shows where they show children walking through slums and talk about the sad living conditions. It was a very eye opening ride. Dogs running wild. Chickens running around a police truck (pickup) with a man face down in the bed- handcuffed. Then the driver pulled over and stopped the bus. Michelle and I looked at each other. Michelle's face showed my exact thoughts "What do we do now!?" As we discussed it, I felt confident the bus would eventually go back downtown, Michelle didn't seem so sure. Again, Michelle's Spanish being the best we had, she got the task of asking what was going on. We were told it would be 30 minutes before we returned downtown. AHHHH!!!!
As we sat on the bus, a little uncomfortable thinking about getting off the bus - it was really hot on the bus. We started laughing at ourselves. Then we noticed our audience. There were five or six men standing outside the bus staring at us. A couple of them guestured at us to get off the bus. What could we do. So we did. They pulled out plastic lawn chairs for us to sit in. Then tried to talk to us. It was clear they spoke little to no English, which is fair since we are in Mexico.
This is when we met Gustavo. It turns out Gustavo is in charge of determining if the buses are running on time. We hung out with him for 20 minutes or so. We sat and chatted with him and by chatted I mean he spoke NO english and our spanish was pretty bad (well, Michelle's is okay, mine, not so much). Finally we headed back to town, only to find out that that bus does not in fact go anywhere near our hotel. So we got out and found a taxi home.
Woolworths was located on Juarez Street, so we decided to take the bus back to the hotel. The bus said Hoteles in the window, so we got on. Things seemed fin until we turned North at the WalMart. Yes, you read that correctly there are both WalMart and Sam's between our hotel and the downtown. We shouldn't have turned at the WalMart. We didn't worry too much until everyone - and I do mean EVERYONE - else had gotten off the bus. We found ourselves in the foothills of the Sierra Madres, where the people of the area live in run down, sad looking shacks. It very much reminded me of the tv shows where they show children walking through slums and talk about the sad living conditions. It was a very eye opening ride. Dogs running wild. Chickens running around a police truck (pickup) with a man face down in the bed- handcuffed. Then the driver pulled over and stopped the bus. Michelle and I looked at each other. Michelle's face showed my exact thoughts "What do we do now!?" As we discussed it, I felt confident the bus would eventually go back downtown, Michelle didn't seem so sure. Again, Michelle's Spanish being the best we had, she got the task of asking what was going on. We were told it would be 30 minutes before we returned downtown. AHHHH!!!!
As we sat on the bus, a little uncomfortable thinking about getting off the bus - it was really hot on the bus. We started laughing at ourselves. Then we noticed our audience. There were five or six men standing outside the bus staring at us. A couple of them guestured at us to get off the bus. What could we do. So we did. They pulled out plastic lawn chairs for us to sit in. Then tried to talk to us. It was clear they spoke little to no English, which is fair since we are in Mexico.
This is when we met Gustavo. It turns out Gustavo is in charge of determining if the buses are running on time. We hung out with him for 20 minutes or so. We sat and chatted with him and by chatted I mean he spoke NO english and our spanish was pretty bad (well, Michelle's is okay, mine, not so much). Finally we headed back to town, only to find out that that bus does not in fact go anywhere near our hotel. So we got out and found a taxi home.
That evening we decided to find Benitto's Cafe - a recommendation from our tour book. We found where it was located on the map, but what should have taken 15 minutes definitely took 2 hours to find and then the Plaza was closed because it was Sunday. So we decided to wander down an alley just outside the gate to the plaza. There were a few shops visible so we figured, why not?!? (I'll post pictures when I get home.) It turns out we found the Marina. We ate at a great little Mexican place, had some amazing food and returned to the hotel to crash. All in All an interesting, and educational day.
Oh, so while wandering downtown, I ate meat off a stick, and if you know me, that was way outside of my box. Not really sure what it was... fish, maybe Mahi Mahi. It was pretty good. More soon....
Oh, so while wandering downtown, I ate meat off a stick, and if you know me, that was way outside of my box. Not really sure what it was... fish, maybe Mahi Mahi. It was pretty good. More soon....
what a great little unexpected adventure you had! aren't they "fun":)
ReplyDeleteby the way...it is only 9:25pm here:) hehe!
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