We last left you in the area coming out of Mazatlan, where the accident occurred. Of course, this gave us a very direct experience of our mortality and of the fragility of life. We decided after this, to stop pushing so hard to make deadlines and to allow the trip to unfold. We felt that it would be better to arrive behind schedule, rather than to not arrive at all due to a dangerous rush rush attitude. I have to tell you, even so many days later, I am left with the vivid memory of the hearse, the crushed SUV and the assorted personal belongings piled up on the side of the road. If you read the section about driving through the mountainous sections and the dangerous roads, you will begin to understand why we are taking so long. Somehow, it has to do with being secure and making our steps based on not taking chances. The fact that the family was returning from the South to Oregon hit me so hard as well. I know that we are behind schedule and I feel badly about that. We miss all of you. But we are going to take the time that it takes. Especially since having a push push attitude down here just makes things take longer. There are so many levels of security guards, and border officials, and police. You just have to let the thing take the time that it is going to take, or you go crazy. Not to mention, you start to take chances. We are very aware of the fact that we are responsible for the health and well being of our children as well, and that we need to protect them as our first priority. The second priority is to return home to all of you and Hernande’z safely.

Okay, so to tell you about the rest of the trip…

From Mazatlan, we drove to Tequila. Jerson wanted to see the tequila factories. The blue agave gives a dusty bluish cast to the areas where it is planted. The plant seems to thrive in dry, hot climate and apparently otherwise “unproductive” land. I had to watch Guapo and Chula while the family took the tour of the facilities, so you”ll have to ask them about the details. But, the land was beautiful! The various tequila factories…and there are a lot that we”ve never heard of or had access to in Canada…have the trademark on the name “tequila” and no other part of Mexico can produce Tequila.

In Tequila, we befriended a dog. He was quite annoying actually, because he wanted to play with Guapo…but he had a major problem with his skin and fur and his eyes were all red…so he looked a bit like something from a Stephen King novel. I was worried that he would be contagious. He seemed to live in the central square in Tequila. He was just a puppy…but he was so playful, that I was sure that if he could get better, then someone would want to adopt him. The whole time we were in Tequila, we fed him. And when I left, I gave some antibiotics to the tour guides to give to him. Hopefully he gets healthy. The thing is that there are so many dogs down here! And so many dogs that just run around looking skinny and malnourished. No wonder why the hotels don”t allow pets!

On the road out of Tequila, we took a wrong turn and ended up on the regular highway, rather than the cuota highway. There was a lot of traffic. I think this is because cuota roads cost quite a bit (I”ll add up all the cuota receipts to give you an idea of how much it costs, but it is not like the Coquihalla, where you pay once for a huge stretch of highway…you pay and then drive for a few minutes and then pay again! But like I said yesterday, it is worth it.

We took the road from Tequila to Guadalajara. We had to actually enter Guadalajara because we had to purchase more car insurance (we were running behind schedule already and the car insurance was about to run out…actually, I made it to the office in Guadalajara to purchase insurance one minute before the actual insurance ran out!). You cannot purchase car insurance, except in the major cities ie. Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey…this is important information if you are travelling, because you can easily get stranded. We assumed that it would be relatively easy to purchase insurance anywhere in Mexico, but we were very wrong.

Anyway, Guadalajara is a HUGE city. And it is a bit difficult to navigate because the roads change names at the Zolcalo. Mostly we got around by driving a little way, asking directions, making a mistake, returning to something that looked relatively familiar, asking directions from somebody else and continuing on like that. When people give directions, it is very difficult to follow them because even if you speak Spanish, they are not referring to landmarks or street names, they just tell you “drive along for two streetlights”, then they make a sort of movement with their arms to indicate how to turn…and then they say something else that seems unintelligible and then make another movement with their arms in a sort of curving way…and then give you a brilliant smile. And you feel like it would be rude to try to pin them down to street names or to take up more of their time, so you give them a bright smile, too and drive off for a few more meters to repeat the experience.

At the insurance place, it took two hours to purchase insurance. A transaction that usually takes about 15 minutes here. You have to wait and then go the the manager, and then wait some more, and then go to where there is a place to pay, and then return to the manager with the receipt and then wait some more…like that. Everyone is so hospitable along the way, though, that it is hard to get upset with the waits. It is part of the culture here. There is no point trying to rush it. They have their various levels of administration and systems of authorization and there is no point trying to impose our values or expectations on them.

Guadalajara itself has old colonial houses, narrow streets and all the charm of an old colonial city. However, it is being suffocated by industrialization. A huge neon KFC sign shouts out, a contrast to the beautiful old churches. They have Seven/Eleven stores, Starbucks and McDonalds, but when you walk past some of the colonial houses and peek past the windows, you get a glimpse of the beauty and grandeur of 300 years ago. The once huge monuments and cathedrals magnificence is diminshed by the huge modern buildings of glass and steel. The central plaza lacks the vibrancy that we found in some smaller towns. There were not many vendors or tacos stands on the street..if you want to have a small business there, you will need to be able to rent a space and pay accordingly. This eliminates the family run businesses in favour of larger enterprises.

In Guadalajara, the industrial revolution has had a definite impact. I do not know if you would call it the industrial economy or the post industrial economy…whatever it is, the landscape is reflecting a major change.

I have to go now, my sister in law and my niece have been waiting patiently for too long. Will write more as soon as I get time!

Love Tamara

Comments are closed.