01.06.07 Day 18, Mexico Trip 1

The good things about Mexico are the following:
1. Most refrigeration is turned up too high so when you crack open a diet coke, you get a little frost for your first few drinks, it is a great treat.
2. Raw salt from the sea. It is so good and natural.
Limes, lots of good, juicy fresh limes, not just a dried up brown slice of lime that you get in the U.S., this is serious business down here and you gets lots, usually they bring you a full plate full.
3. You kind of get over yourself here, there are lots of ugly, fat people walking around; so you don’t feel like a whale when you wear a two-piece. I have met a handful of people for the first time here in a bathing suit which is totally not something I would do at home. I am not looking forward to heading back to reality on my swim suit attire when I return.
4. Learning not to worry about Sheraton, it took me until week three, but it finally happened for me, again, I am not looking forward to that mess when I return.

Mexico will sell you anything, they package up used batteries and sell them for 10 pesos a piece ($1). They put them in a little baggie and sell them right back to people. My camera keeps dying here, I think it is the heat, so when I went last night for batteries I had to ask the 8 year old behind the counter running the till not only the price per battery but also it comes in a factory direct package. I struck a deal there, probably the only one I have thus far in my Mexico trip.

Palm trees lean towards the ocean, if you are lost and you are trying to get to the ocean, you just have to drive in the direction of which way the palm trees are leaning.

You can burn the shells of coconuts after you have sucked out all the juice from them. Lots of people down here drink coconut juice with some sort of liquor in it that I have never heard of- Helio says that the dried coconuts make good kinling and they are supposed to be great to cook with on your indoor/outdoor grill. Many homes close to the ocean have piles and piles of them outside in their yard. I wouldn’t want to look at heaps of dried up coconuts every morning over my grape nuts but then again I , often times, have three cars in my yard to look at each morning on my way out.

We made it back to Playa Azul on Friday. We were greeted with such warmth and kindness. Levi has made us regular celebrities. It took us nearly four hours to return here so as Helio was trying to see if a room was available I threw all my normal American rules out and put my kid and myself in their pool. I didn’t know if we would be able to stay or if I would get yelled at but we were both dripping (literally) with sweat that I just didn’t care. Levi, finally, woke back up. I found the cold medicine I packed “just in case” and gave him some as we drove out of Zihuatenejo as he was mental from his cold. I nearly had to ask Helio to pull over to throw up on our return trip. I had two coffees in the morning bc I could, and there was coffee to be purchased, the roads are twisty/windy up the mountain to get back, and I thought that I had given Levi too much cold medicine as he was out cold in the back seat. Luckily, it was just a mixture of the bad experience we had just endured in Ixtapa/Zihuatenejo, the heat, and the meds. He is totally fine now.

As Levi and I were swimming in the pool, the staff ladies yelled down to him by name, “Hola Levi, gracias que regresaste” (hi Levi, thanks for coming back) The people around here want to touch his hair. He works it- He gets a sucker from all pretty near every place we stop and there is an old lady sitting in a chair. Her payback is to be able to touch his hair. It is pretty funny.

The residents of the neighboring town to Playa Azul honestly receive their daily ration of water delivered via horse drawn cart. The horse pulls a cart with a big metal tub of water behind it. The shirtless guy manning the cart then stops at each house and uses a big hose to fill up what I can only assume is something similar to the baptismal pool in Jona.
There is only one kind of gas station here, Pemex. Helio says that businesses here don’t have competition, creating a monopoly for whichever type of commerce you want to go into. The phones are the same way, only Telcel. You know the Mexican government gets a big chunk of their profit, Mexico is so messed up.

I laid in that gross hotel room last night and tried to watch a little news via Spanish/Mexican translation. I saw a clip of something happening on the senate floor. Honest to God, I teared up when I saw the American flag behind the person who was speaking. I have never experienced that in my life. I wouldn’t consider myself this big patriot but when you are deprived of your country for a month (yes, by choice) you start to see the beauty of the United States. I know there is so much bad happening at home, but I just want to be back there. As much as I want that, I am sure I will be totally depressed once I am stuck wearing multiple layers and have to walk those three stinking blocks from the parking ramp to the office. (I hate that walk and it is so much worse when the wind rips through you, thank God for the genius of Apple and their Ipods)

There is a store here on Playa Azul called Jesus y Edgar. I can’t help but silently giggle every time I see it. You would think I would be used to that by now, maybe I am just extremely immature.