Memorial Day Weekend

It just so happened that we had big plans and lots of exciting things on Memorial Day weekend, even though that isn’t a holiday here.

Mikko and Matthew and Seamus went camping on the Presa Peralillo. Some friendly fellows came with a boatload of kids, fishing poles and an air gun. They shared it all.

Butch and I stayed home and defrosted the fridge!!! I listened to NPR streaming through my computer, real loud. It was heaven.

Then on Sunday night the boys came home and Little Mary Wheeler flew in from Portland!!

On Monday we went to Escondido, hotsprings outside of San Miguel. This is the only picture from there.  I’d just like to point out – water distorts things.

We had a fabulous time waiting for the bus, with beers, and cards and an amazing girl who chatted, took pictures and played with us while her mother read at a nearby table.

Continuing on to Veracruz

We left Tuxpan, and traveled south past orange groves and corn fields, through little towns and over hills that turned to mountains.

It was overcast all the way down and the air conditioning was going strong in the bus so it felt like a cool gray day – so welcome. When we arrived in Veracruz and got off the bus we were blasted by the wet, heat – I was surprised my glasses didn’t fog up.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed with Veracruz. I had seen a movie that I thought took place in Veracruz and I was all ready to be in this charming town whose zocolo was on the water. Turns out it is a great big city on a harbor. There is charm as there is in all of Mexico – but it wasn’t what I had expected. We had a good time though. We stayed in a hotel right on the Zocolo with a room that looked out over the harbor.

I was attracted to the mix of building types and their ages – modern buildings abutting colonial buildings, abandoned wrecks nestled beside fancy fresh facades. I don’t think I captured the mix very well, now that I see these, but here are some groovy buildings.

Below you can see the art deco PEMEX building in the distance. The big building in front of it is all torn apart. There were people using jackhammers up in the middle stories. We wondered if they were whittling it down and if so what it would look like when they were done.

We took the bus to the beach our second day. It was miserably hot so my first dip into the Atalantic Ocean was very very welcome.

The sleepy fellows below had had a few beers before we showed up and slept all day. Their families didn’t seem to miss them to much though.

That night we had a fancy dinner – here is my big bubbly pot of meat and cheese. mmmmmm

the zocolo.

from the hotel

4 days in TJ

This is a bit of an epic post, but Tijuana is a bit of an epic place. It is all so big and heavy. I have just barely scratched the surface. Our friend that we stayed with has a blog about living there.

We traveled up Baja through miles and mile of this type of landscape .

This is the first of 6 military checkpoints that we had to stop at. They just chose a few random suitcases to go through, then showed the crowd pictures of things: drugs weapons etc. that they have gotten at that particular checkpoint. I got reprimanded for taking this picture, but he didn’t make me erase it.

At about 2 in the morning they made a bunch of people, including Matthew get off and frisked them. Mikko and I were sleeping like babies, so missed the whole thing.

When we woke up the ocean was right outside and the hillsides were covered with wild flowers.

Jesus was there to welcome us at some point. He’s such a nice guy.

I was very attracted to the dashboard of our bus.

It was much colder, so far north, than we were used to. (Mikko was still a little sick too.)

We were greeted, at our friends’ house by their nine month old Chihuahua, Xoloitzcuintle, Xolito for short. He was a sweet companion, when he wasn’t humping your arm.

Our friends live less then a block from the beach, about 5 or 6 blocks from the border.

This fence runs all the way along the border, so basically is the northern border of Tijuana.

This was a park that represented the friendship between Mexico and the US. They started building the fence just before NAFTA, long before 9/11. The powers that be knew how NAFTA would trash the Mexican economy and that people would be coming north to look for work – so we had to be sure to lock them out.

Families used to picnic on either side of the fence. There were always vendors on the Mexican side selling delicious things, so people would pass food through this hole to the US side where they were miles from a McDonalds. La Migra closed the hole though. There is no one on the US side anymore, except immigration police watching the fence.

The wall has become a site for a lot of art. This shows how once the wall was built and the doors were locked it forced people to risk their lives crossing the desert.

On a lighter note- we went to a soccer game on Sunday. The Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente. (Xoloitzcuintle, is that crazy looking Aztec, hairless dog, BTW.) This is a shot of their fans. They were as loud and rowdy as the Timbers Army in Portland.

And one crazy Mexican hotdog. The Xoloitzcuintle colors are red and black which is why the hotdog comes in a red tortilla, of course.

Unfortunately, they lost. Which was a big deal – I blame myself. Generally when I go to a Timbers game their winning streaks come to a halt too. Sorry.

Another picture I wasn’t supposed to take – so I’m posting it even though it doesn’t really show anything. According to Lynn, the new soccer stadium and everything around is owned by the ex mayor of Tijuana. Including his own private zoo, pictured here. (We could hear lions getting intimate, I believe.)

On Monday we planned to go to some museums to see some artwork of a friend and just generally do some touristy things. Little did we know it was the official holiday celebrating the nationalization of oil, so everything was closed. We saw some pretty park benches though.

The next day we ventured across the border to do a little shopping. I guess I wasn’t supposed to get this picture either.

Ah the beautiful US of A.

And a good ol’ American hotdog.

We found good sushi in Tijuana the next day.

And dropped by a workers’ rights office.

So nice to be around some radical politics, after the ultra conservative GTO.

Though why peace, workers rights and the environment are radical is a mystery to me. (Actually, unfortunately it isn’t a mystery, just a travesty.)

Then on Wednesday we got a ride to the airport, past our last glimpse of the wall, and the art on it. Each cross represents someone who has died making the crossing. At this point more people have died than in 9/11 or US casualties in the Iraq war, since the wall was built.

BARRA BABY – the extended dance version

We’re nearing the end of our trip – in our favorite hostel in Morelia – and it has wireless !! As it turns out I found it nearly impossible blog in internet cafes.

So Barra:

The first morning it was overcast and misty – we were in heaven.

Mikko’s first sight of the ocean during the day.

The actual beach in Barra is too steep and rough for comfortable frolicking so we found other places to go to swim. Our first day we took a bus to Melaque, the neighboring town.

It is a little bigger than Barra and more of a Mexican working people’s town (though much of that work is tourism.) The beach is lined with palapa restaurants, hotels and beach umbrellas and chairs that you can rent. We got an umbrella and set up camp and then played played played in the waves. The only other time I have played in warm(er) Pacific Coast waves was in San Fransisco after a summer of swimming in Wisconsin lakes. I remember getting very annoyed at the waves persistentness and ended up feeling quite bullied by the whole experience. This was very different. The waves would come in patterns of low ebbs for a while then nice sized body surfing vehicles.

It was a Sunday and the beach was full of Mexican families eating, swimming, basking. playing soccer, building sandcastles – all those things that are done at the beach.

There was a constant stream of vendors selling hammocks, tchotchkies, snacks, shrimp cocktails, jewelry, wooden bowls and spoons, wheelbarrels with big trays piled high with candy. Our favorite was the fruit – mangoes on a stick with chili, salt and lime, or pineapples with the tops cut off and the centers mashed to a pulp to be drunk and spooned out.

Mikko spent 100% of the day in the water or at the water’s edge if no adults were willing to go in with him for a bit. He was in heaven.

His hands at the end of the day.

After hours of play and lying around reading or dozing, we decided to walk back the four miles along the beach to Barra. We walked along the slanted beach watching pelicans dive for their dinner, beautiful bronzed youth boogie boarding and playing soccer. On the left the hotels changed to an RV park full of gringo retirees, to a large swamp for a stretch that had crocodile warning signs, and eventually back to the hotels of Barra. It was hard to walk on the steep sloped beach and the last 20 minutes became a little grueling. I realized that lately the walks I have been taking don’t really feel like a walk until there is a slightly grueling stretch.

That’s Barra way in the distance, to the right.

We got back just in time to watch the sunset with margaritas and big plate of guacamole and another of baked cheese. Oh my god – the heaven we were in.

Is this crazy or what?  I actually took this picture – it isn’t a stock photo of “dream vacation spot”.  ( And in my other hand is a margarita and in my mouth is guacamole.)