El Ultimo dia en Mexico!!!

Well sorry folks! I haven´t exactly kept up on my blogging! I guess I was just having too much fun and spending too much time just living to be inside writing on a computer. It really is amazing how much time a person can spend hand washing clothes, cooking, cleaning, and either walking or riding to go buy food and other amenities. I honestly feel like I didn´t even spend that much time on the beach and am disappointed in my tan :-(. As a result I did a little over kill yesterday and now today my skin is not appreciating any more sunshine thank you very much!

Em and I took the 2 am bus to PV last night...it was a bit of a rough time for Em and she very sadly ended up having to go right back once we arrived in PV, as she had forgotten a very very important item there! Poor girl, she will have spent something like 16 hours on the bus for her last day in Mexico :-(. Well I am sure I can cheer her up when she arrives by greeting her with a good stiff tequila and squirt!

I am trying to remember what the heck I did the past 3 weeks...ate lots of good Mexican food, drank WAY TOO MUCH cervesa, ron, y tequila. Made lots of friends ie: Carlos, Carlos, Carlos, Carlos, Tony, Yolanda, y Yolanda, Rosie, Adriana, Tocho, Arlet, Ruben y Ruben, Alejandro (mas o menus), and many other English speakers and near geezers as well!
One very important skill that I have also been practicing and believe I have neared mastering is the now famous, ¨Sparkly Eye Technique¨. For those of you who have watched the movie, ¨Men Who Stare at Goats¨ you will know exactly the technique that I speak of. For those of you who don´t, I advise that you learn it and practice as it does wonders for making fast friends, getting rides for gratis or at least cheap, regalitos, free banana boat rides, accompaniment to walk home in the sketchy dark streets, invitations to fiestas, etc. Also helpful in Mexico and elsewhere is the ¨Cloud-Busting Technique¨ of which I still need much more practice, as many of you may have heard of the large amount of llubia (rain) that Mexico has seen in the past month. Actually our little bungalow that we rented became an Isle de Mujeres Dos as a result of 2.5 days of rain, and we were lucky as compared to what happened in many other ciudades y pueblos en Mexico.

Em and I made it to Guadalajara for 3 jam-packed days of adventure! We started out on Thursday night by having supper, drinks and playing music with the Carlos´, Yolanda y Tony until about 3am. After sleeping only briefly we boarded the 7am bus for a 6 hour journey to this beautiful city of 5-6million people! This is the biggest city I have ever been in! I visited once before during my first journey through Mexico, but had a far different and much more rico experience this time. First off, Em wanted to go to the town of Tonala. So for 80 pesos we took a taxi there to check out some of the famous artisan work there of clay, pottery, glass, textiles, etc. From there another 120 pesos I think to get to Hostel Guadalajara near el centro which was walking distance from the amazing Cathedral and other beautiful old buildings and jardins. Our initial reason and plan for making this trip had been to watch the city´s national soccer team, the Chiva´s as they were to play a game on Saturday night at the massive Estadio Jalisco. When we found out that we could watch the University team the Leones Negros for only 10 pesos instead of 100 (or so), we opted for the Leones on Friday night. Something funny that happened during the game that we really had no idea what was going on until the next day was that, when we first entered the roaring, cheering stadium, the whole crowd seemed to start chanting something to us. We had no clue what the word was and so kept walking, and then all of a sudden they switched in perplexing unison to ¨BBOOOOOOOOOO¨!!! WTF!? We were baffled, and I to be honest, was hoping that they didn´t start throwing stuff at us and kick us out or something. Anyways, the word they were apparently yelling was, ¨vuelta¨which means spin, or turn. They wanted us, the girls, to spin for them and they would cheer...or maybe call you some other nasty name. Apparently with this game, it is hard for the mujere to win. Oh and the Leones lost in over time, it was sad.

Ok, so the other reason for skipping the Chiva´s game was so that we could go on a tequila tour to the town of Tequila where we visted agave fields, distilleries, rode around in a big, yellow, tin bus shaped like a tequila bottle while drinking tequila from the bottle first, then from clay pots, wearing 20 peso cowboy hats in the town of tequila on Valentine´s Day!! Craziness and so much fun! Thanks to my implementation of the aforementioned ¨Sparkly Eye-Technique¨, Em and I were invited to a fiesta at the home of our tour guide and his room mate (who is the manager of the Hostel). I was exhausted...but Oh Thank Heaven for 7 Eleven!! I´ll be damned if we didn´t stop at a 7 Eleven to buy beer, and that I could buy a coffee which prevented me from passing out!! Let me tell you, that was a long damn day. See if you can drink tequila starting at 11am and go till 6pm, then attend a party and not pass out and look like and idiot while for the most part trying to speak a language that you still barely know!! Its hard work! jajaja. The morning after photo of me and Em as we dopily stumbed down the residential street to find a taxi back to the hostel is quite hilarious. We couldn´t stop laughing and giggling the whole way as we walked to find a main street. The neighborhood was beautiful! I would love to live there! Clean, trees, character in all the buildings, a nice park, close to amenities...quit different from downtown around the hostel especially at night when it becomes very sketchy to be out on the streets! Something like missing your bus stop after the futbol game on a Friday night and having to walk back 6 blocks in the dark streets dotted with sex workers, druggies, and mariachi guys...yes that´s right! For some unknown reason, the last 3 blocks to the Hostel that night there were mariachi guys all standing out on the street on every corner, like angels with pot-bellies in tight lycra pants with gold tassels down the sides, the mariachi´s guided us safely home! ;-)

I don´t want to miss my last sun set here so I better run. Em and I (I hope) will board our plane tomorrow and begin the long journey home. Wish us luck and good traveling conditions on all spectrum's please!!

Luv,
Anna

Scorpion!!!

My heart was startled during supper for the second time in less than a week...first it was a stray cat who wandered in the back door, through my bedroom and into the kitchen. Tonight when the screams rang out at first I thought cat...then no maybe a rat, .....holy crap a scorpion!!!! Kill it!! kill it!! The ´poor´thing didn´t know what hit him. They are a lot softer shelled than cochroches...I know this becuse of smashing one on the floor of the hostel in Vallarta at 3am with my sandal!!

I was just getting to a nice relaxed state during my sleep, the geko(s) in my room...no problem but now you can bet I´ll be shaking out my blankets before i crawl into bed and I am sure I´ll be feeling the creepy-crawlies under the covers for a little while!

Now What??

Em and I managed to go on a tour of ¨The Children of the Dump¨(El Niños de la Basura). Us and about 8 other Canadians all vacationing in Vallarta piled into a van with the organizations main guy Arthur. We toured a daycare, the dump/transfer station, drove by the homes of some of the 30 families who work in the dump, as well as the School of Champions. It was pretty amazing to see all of this and I would love to have worked/volunteered in the school however for me to only be there for a week or two would cause more of a disruption than a help. I did at least get to help one little boy with his english pronouns lesson while we stopped into one of the classroooms. I love teaching and the kids here are just so gosh darn cute! Anyway, sadly unable to volunteer for the amount of time that I/we have, we donated some pesos instead.

I am noticing also a trend...it seems that more than my physical help, what most people need here is money! I talked with an Indigenous man who lives near Mexico City who would love for me to help out his village. He asked me what I wanted to do and really I couldn´t say, but just that I would do whatever the village needed! I tried to explain with the help of a translator that I have no place in waltzing into his village and telling them what THEY need! I think that he understood. The Federal Government of Mexico gives his village (not sure if this applies to all Indigenous villages) one lump sum of money for one project per year. He has many ideas, as do the other villagers who come together several times to discuss what to do with the money before finally deciding on the best project. It is not aligned with custom for women to help with building so Em and I are out for that idea. That is fine with me, as I would be just as happy in a classroom or some other traditional ¨women´s¨work. This is not to say that the women do not to manual labour as they surely do!! Lorenzo has ideas of reforestation....and here I thought I was done with planting trees!!! haha. The best time for projects it seems is in May y June (I think). I think that the best thing I could really do for Lorenzo and his village is to raise some money for them so that they can buy the resources they need to build and improve the living conditions for the villagers. For me to go there would be cool, but again this would cost more money and the little bit of Spanish that I have learned would mostly be out the window as the villagers speak there Native language of ¨Now what¨ (this is just the phanetical spelling, not the actual spelling).

Anyway, this Sunday is an Auction Fundraiser for Ayuda de los Niños in Melaque...maybe I can go over and ask a few questions there if there is a way for me to get involved other than just by donating or raising funds.

Now the other issue I have been having is with my intestines!!! Dios mio! I have been drinking food grade hydrogen peroxide, strawberry extract y this stuff called Yakurti or something like that full of the good bacteria that one´s digestive system requires!!! wheu! I sure hope things pass soon....oooh! Poor choice of words! GOT TO GO!!

Tequila Sunrise or Te-kill-ya Sunrise??

A post i started on Jan. 16th and didn´t post till now...

Though I can not be absolutely certain as to the cause of my illness this morning, be it the non-potable water from Thursday, or the mass amounts of cheap tequila consumed last night...I think the latter was the more probable cause! The Italiano guy and as I found out today, one of the Aussie girls at the Hostel both had a hand in mixing the ¨Muppets¨! These drinks are made of bad tequila, squirt pop...and apparently some vodka as well!! The Italian guy just kept bringing them to the table, he would anounce his arrival and for the consumer to prepare for chugging, cover the cup, slam it on the table twice to make it fizz, then it was chug, chug, chug!! It was fun for one night, but that is enough of the Muppets for me...unless it is the fuzzy ones and not the fizzy variety!



The Canopy tour with El Eden was a lot of fun! More than I expected which was great! We had both wanted to go on a zip line tour, but until talking to a very genuine seeming young salesman on the beach, the tour that boasted about being on the set of the movie Predator and riding ATVs was last on my list. The trip was great, ride in the back of a big truck out into the jungle. When we arrived we were given lockers for out things, helmut, facepaint and harnesses. David gave us out safety/how-to lesson then off we went! The first couple lines were only maybe 20m, then after that...holy crap!! Yes I screamed like I never have!! Emily found my screams quite hilarious I think...actually even I thought my screaming was funny as I am generally a yeller...not a screamer! haha. Oh, while we neared the end of the lines it began to rain slightly and then turned into an out right down pour!....Wet cables go much faster than dry ones and as you can imagine are a little harder to brake on!! Yes, I slammed into the end at a pretty good velocity!! Whoa Anna!! lol. Oh well that was better than my earlier accidental braking on the one line that the guy said, ¨don´t brake on this one!¨ Well the wind started to blow, combined with my poor technique...I had to get rescued by David!! I came to a stop a few meters away from the platform I was to have stopped on...then started to roll backwards into the middle of the ravine!! Fortunately David got to me before I had rolled back very far, wrapped his legs around me and with his hands on the wire, pulled us both back into safety! ...David later commented on how much he loved his job...;-) lol

Puerto Vallarta...potabale water???

Hola Amigos,

Well day two in Puerto Vallarta is getting better (not that it was bad, we are just getting more settled). We found a brand new very nice hostel in town yesterday and so moved out of our first home ¨Hotel Posada Don Miguel¨. Anyways, we actually didn´t get to the beach until sometime around 5pm and I still don´t have a tan!! On the other hand, I am also not burnt which some other people I know can´t say the same! ;-)

So there is a sign in the kitchen, and I was told by the Hostel owner that they have potable water here. This is great otherwise it can actually get quite costly to be buying it all the time. So, when we arrived here this morning, I smartly filled up my water bottle for the day. I turned on the switch that said something about ultra-violet light, and filled-er-up!! Being accustomed to filling up my glass at a regular tap, I didn´t even notice the smaller one off to the side of the sink (similar to what you would see in Canada...duh!!)...As it turns out, I filled my bottle of the non-potable water and drank and entire litre of it today!! Now it that doesn´t make me sick I don´t know what will....although Em also said that to me after I bought the 4 camarones from the guy on the beach who had been carrying them around for god knows how long trying to sell them!!

Anyway..time for bed...or the toilet. I´ll have more stories tomorrow!!

later!
Anna Mexicana

GRAND CANYON TO NEW MEXICO!!

The Canyon was truly amazing, one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I guess I had seen it once before from a plane on my last trip to Mexico which was quite exciting, though perhaps not as much as standing on an icy wind swept cliff 1 mile above it! Em and I drove back from our Red Feather Lodge in Tusayan (I spelled that wrong yesterday) and hiked the Rim trail. When they say "Rim" they really mean rim! Like right on the edge! Were it not for the rocks set along the edge in some key places, a person could really just fall off!

After we had our fun there, we piled back into the car and headed south-east to Flagstaff. Now despite my having been ranting about the ice and driving through the mountains, when the next option came to take the easy straight and flat road or a scenic by-way through the mountains...guess what I chose!?? Yup the mountains! Em as my co-pilot pointed out the scenic byway stating that it had those little dots all along the road on the map. I replied, "Oh, I thought those little dots indicated that the road would be potentially life-threatening and terrifying!" As it turned out, THIS TIME, unlike some OTHER roads (THANKS TODD) it was fine ;-). Just kidding Todd! The road past Quake lake was amazing, terrifying, icy and snow cover with no other vehicles but us on it...but amazing! ;-)
Oh, yeah! I didn't write about Quake lake! It is in the south west corner of Montana...possibly into Idaho (can't remember exactly now). Anyway, it is this lake that was created by an earthquake and is basically a standing forest in a frozen over lake. Now greenery left on the trees, just a bunch of eery looking gray trees all along this massive lake in the mountains! After surviving the snow covered, icy mountain roads, we made it to West Yellowstone only to discover that yes indeed, the maps were correct and you can not get into Yellowstone park, nor to see Old Faithful unless you take a snowmobile tour :-(. We decided to keep driving....or rather skating along the icy roads!!! I was very happy to make it to the flat potatoe growning land of Idaho!!! After a couple hours rest in driving through the flat lands, it was back into the mountains as we went up and over the pass into Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Please excuse me if I am repeating myself...but this road was still the craziest and scariest encountered! I didn't really understand at first what a 10% grade mean on the signs, but with a picture of a truck on what looked like a 45 degree angle...this means very, very steep! Em drove up and down the mountain, so you can imagine that I was a nervous wreck in the passenger seat! My poor "Black Beauty" (as Em calls my car), barely made it up the hill and I think the front brakes were burnt off on the decent!! We stopped at the top to let the car cool down, have a look at the lights of Jackson Hole below, and allow our nerves to settle a bit. Once down the other side, we went to an outdoor shop so I could buy a compass (so happy I did that!!). Then hotel, Mexican restaurant, then the famous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar for some dancing, pool and listening to a really good band! Now, I say dancing, but compared to the Wyoming folks, Em and I probably looked like we were doing a hillbilly stomp!! There weren't too many people there, but all could dance very well! One man came to our table to ask us to dance. Had we not already pegged him as a creeper, one of us might have agreed. Unfortunately, he was definitely a creeper so we both made some jokes about our terrible dancing skills and that we would make him look bad or something and then made our exit from the bar. Speaking of creepers...there was also another old man that came over and started talking to us while I was kicking Em's @$$ at pool. When he asked how we had found the place (the bar), I looked at him and with some Saskatchewan sarcasm in my voice I exclaimed to him, "THERE IS A GIANT NEON COWBOY ON THE ROOF!!" I laughed...as did Em...he didn't even crack a smile! haha oh well, I'm sure he was drunk!! Em and I were both very excited when the band started to play a little known but very fun song, "the Boys From Alabama!" We danced and spun, lost our grip, fell apart laughed our heads off and drew the attention of the band as we did this on the empty dance floor and sung along! So much fun!!

Ok. That's enough for now. We are off to an old volcanoe that we will be able to climb into!! There is apparently ice inside!...oh yeah....more ice :-( haha, nontheless, it will be cool and I don't mean just the temperature!!

ciao!

GRAND CANYON...IT REALLY IS!!

Well after a long haul and good progress on Wednesday from Provo, Utah to Page, Arizona we shifted to a sloth's pace yesterday!

Wednesday...Em and I have both decided we don't really like Utah all that much. Not that anything bad happened, it was just heavily populated and a fast pace with bad air pollution! Actually, while we were careening through the mountain pass into Provo Em kept accusing me of farting in the car!! Well it wasn't me! honest! We discovered on the weather network on TV at the hotel that it was air pollution! How blessed we are to live in an area that air pollution is so foreign to us that we could not even recognize it!
On the drive from Provo we stopped at the Big Rock Candy Mountain and played in the classic huge red rocks/mountains near Bryce Canyon. How shocked were we to find them sprinkled with snow and for this to be a common occurrence in the winter!! It was awesome! we climbed all around (sorry..that we went off the trails...trails were deep with snow filling our shoes!). Lots of photos, playing in the red mud and making our own version of petroglyphs on the rock. I would love to post photos but have not yet been able to as I left my camera computer cord at home, and so far none of the computers I have been on have a card reader. We checked out Powell Lake (second largest human-made lake in the USA at 186 miles long). It was creepy driving down in the dark/dusk to a location on the lake called "Lone Rock". With all of the cliffs and drop offs everywhere I was afraid Em might get excited at the potential of water and fishing and drive us right off of one!! Well she didn't ;-) and I managed to get some photos of the "lone rock" even in the dark! We stayed in Page that night.

Yesterday I spent a tonne of money on jewlry, pottery and gifts from Navajo women selling there wears along the road of the Reservation while on our way to the Grand Canyon. As a result...I am now broke ;-) and we got to the Canyon at dusk. We decided to stay in a small resort town called Tuscayan (or something like that). The day is clear blue and cool, perfect for Canyon exploration!! If we do any hiking we will have to buy some crampons at the trails are mostly all slick with ice and I already had a 'dream' of slipping and fallin the 1 mile to the bottom of the Canyon! (I'm so glad I'm one of those care free people who don't worry about things like that!)

hasta luego!
From,
Anna y Em