Strap in because there are a lot of days to cover in this post. This is the cost of going away on a weekend adventure without my laptop or writing anything down.
Ending Orizaba The Spicy Way - Jan 26
The team woke up quite late on this day as we had a not so early bus to catch. We packed up around 10am and headed for the market that Marcela recommended to get some famous Orizaba memelitas. We arrived at the tourist office and offered a few to the people that work there, including Marcela herself but only her and another accepted, more for us. After nearly killing Marcela with a red memelita which were exceptionally hot, we said goodbye and caught our bus with professional level timing, only waiting about 15 minutes. Mexican time. You understand.
After arriving in Mexico City we had a ton of time to kill before meeting up with our friend Gonzalo who we met in the hostel in Merida. As with almost every town or city I’ve visited, the notion that Mexico is a dangerous place took over my perception of safety. As we walked around I felt a little bit too much exposed. After a few failed attempts to find a restaurant we settled with ADO food. Subway for me. After a little while longer we called an Uber, my first ever, and headed to the hospital near Gonzo’s house. During the trip I came to a realization that I’m kind of hitting a bit of a wall with my Spanish. Not a pleasant feeling. But I’ll talk about that later.
Once dropped off at the hospital, Gonzo and his girlfriend, Amaya, picked us up. God they’re nice people. After settling in and saying goodnight to Amaya, Gonzo, Jan, Leif, and I went out. First we had some Mezcal in Coyoacan, a part of Mexico City that had a homey feeling to it. Mezcal was followed by a beer in a restaurant where we got to overhear a genuine mariachi band sing a few tunes. If you ask me, they were quite good but I could tell Gonzo wasn’t overly impressed. Last, we had another beer in a bit of a strange restaurant that had a couple of karaoke singers in the region of Condesa. Ask me about this later if you like. Our night concluded there. A good introduction to the city that made me feel a lot more comfortable.
Montezuma’s Revenge - Jan 27
Wednesday January 27th, 2016. A day of infamy and pain. After waking up, the brothers Lefevre came to the realization that they were suffering from Montezuma’s Revenge. Here is a link for the lazy. Montezuma’s Revenge - Urban Dictionary.
For Leif, this meant not being able to come out to see the city with Gonzo, Jan and I. Big bummer. After a quick breakfast from Gonzo’s angel of a grandmother, Lleya? Yeya? Yella? Those all sound the same to me in Spanish, we headed out to Centro Historico. The trip from Gonzo’s place to the center was quite long and dragged out, the traffic in Mexico City, depending on the hour of the day, is absolutely ridiculous. After parking we walked around Amaleda Central while Gonzo, an international relations student, gave us the low down on the history of the place. We popped into Catedral and also Museo del Templo Mayor, both of which were astonishing and impressive but one of which, Catedral is hard core sinking. The floor slants at a crazy angle and at times you have trouble standing. We also, of course, saw the main square called the Zocalo. Though I’m not sure if the “the” is necessary there. After the museum Jan was really feeling the revenge and caught an Uber back to Gonzo’s house to rest.
After Jan’s Uber, Gonzo and I visited Palacio Nacional which holds a large amount of murals and paintings from Diego Rivera. There was also a small mask exhibit going on in the palacio which we visited and managed to see a native mask directly from Vancouver. Who would have thought. After that, Gonzo had to leave so I held onto his guide book, sat in the park and read for a while. After checking to see if I could visit the Palacio de Azulejos quick enough before needing to meet with Amaya, which I could not, I grabbed some tacos at Samborn’s, a fairly prominent restaurant chain in Mexico. Delicious.
Finally, I grabbed an Uber to Amaya’s house were I was, of course, bombarded with food and drink to my heart’s content by Amaya’s mother and sister. No complaints there. Then, Amaya and I went for a nice walk to Santa Angel where she showed me a few high class restaurants and other places to eat. We grabbed some chia which is what I would describe as a non-alcoholic mojito with a ton of seeds in it from the chia plant. We also walked into a lot of shops near the main square where we saw a enormous amount of artesanias which are basically small, or big, hand make crafts. Tempting, but I managed to avoid getting anything. I’ll save that for the end of the trip I think. Lastly, Amaya and I met with Gonzalo and walked into a few beautiful churches.
We finished off the night with a movie! The Danish Girl, which I recommend. It was funny for me because even though there were Spanish subtitles, I was transported to Victoria, just catching a movie with some friends at SilverCity. Of course that reality was shattered fairly quickly. But still, a strange sensation.
Montezuma’s Defeat and Castle Viewing - Jan 28
In the morning, Leif and Jan were both feeling better. What wonders 24 hours of sleep can do. We all headed to Castillo de Chapultepec to go see the castle and its grounds. Again, the car ride took a while. Once there, we did quite a bit of walking because the grounds are quite large and there is a lot to see. First we managed to find a genuine Canadian-imported totem pole. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever feel like I’m actually away from home. We went into the zoo and saw pandas, gorillas, and other animals, many of which I had never seen in real life before. We then headed up to the castle, an impressive building containing well preserved paintings, furniture, and everything else you might expect. I was impressed and Gonzo gave us a history lesson for most of the things that we came across. It pays make the right friends!
After the castle we went to one of Gonzo’s favourite taco places called Restaurante Don Manolito. There we engorged ourselves with tacos and majas and also became well acquainted with horchata and jamaica which are both agua frescas. Those two drinks are probably my favourite drinks in Mexico so far. After that we arrived back to the once visited Coyoacan for nieves. Nieves are pretty much Mexican gelato but they are, from what I could tell, completely natural, with some sugar of course, frozen fruit. God they’re good. However, since Mexico City drops to some fairly low temperatures, Gonzo seemed to be suffering a little more than us Canadians.
On the trip back to Gonzo’s house we talked about plans for Los Cabos. Gonzo told us he was heading out to Acapulco to his father’s house to have a long weekend with his eight friends and said he wished we could join him. Since I don’t have any deadlines or scheduling issues I realized that I could tag along, return to Mexico City and fly to Los Cabos to meet up with Jan, Leif, Mack, and Jass. Directly after I made this realization, Jan and Leif too made the realization that they could avoid the pain of another 14 hours in buses and 12 hours on a ferry by flying to Los Cabos. Done and done.
To finish off the night, Gonzo and I went for a grocery run, a great place to get some one-on-one Spanish lessons on food names.
Faces for Names and Tomadores Profesionales - Jan 29
On Friday morning, Jan and Leif had packed up and were heading out to take a quick peak at the city before catching their flight. They bid farewell to Gonzo and headed out. Leaving us to do a few last minutes things before meeting up with the gang. This included a trip to the bank, memorizing eight Mexican nicknames, and visiting Gonzo’s dad. Shortly after our return to Gonzo’s house, we met up with five of the Acapulco crew, Zozaya, Bachi, Hobbit, Pato, and Paco, all of which seemed like good guys itching to have a ton of fun. On the way to Acapulco we stopped a restaurant they go to as a tradition called Fonda 4 Vientos. The food that we had was simple but delicious and if you ever find yourself on that highway I highly recommend stopping to get some sopes or tacos.
Once we arrived at the house I figured out just how lucky I was to be there. The house was amazing. It was air-conditioned and had a pool which is basically everything I need to survive the 30+ degree weather in Acapulco’s winter. We grabbed some goodies from the Costco-like store and I then proceeded to get to know everyone over a few rounds of drinking Apples to Apples and “Stack the Cup”. Though I don’t think they knew what they were getting themselves into with me as I am a master at that game. This first night was the night I realized that Mexican time and Canadian time are different things. Suffice it to say that they stay up later that I normally do. There were adjustments that needed to be made.
Crew Completion and A Late Night/Early Morning - Jan 30
Saturday morning, jumped out of bed, and met some more Mexican dudes named Santi, Rodrigo, and Diego. Again, completely stellar dudes. Gonzo keeps good company. First thing was first, the beach, we had to check out the beach. We parked at a hotel and met up with some more friends of the group whose names I do not remember. This beach was my favourite so far, great sand, lots of shade, and waves that were tall but not too tall, but powerful enough to body surf for quite a ways. We did the beach thing for some time, played some soccer which is where I realized I haven’t exercised for almost four weeks, and relaxed.
We went back to the house for some pre-gaming before we went to a night club. We then left for the club, though Santi was a little bit too prepared to come with us. I didn’t realize it at the time but the pre-game was an important part of the night because the cover for this place was around 400 pesos. Ridiculous! At any rate, at the club we had a blast, meeting up with friends and dancing. I even managed to introduce myself to some strangers in Spanish which gave me a strange confidence boost over that wall I was talking about earlier. A few people dropped out a bit early from the club leaving us to dance until daybreak. That is not a figure out speech. We literally stayed at the place until almost 7am at which point we drove off into the sunrise back to the house blaring music the entire time. These guys are crazy and fun.
On The Seventh Day We Rested - Jan 31
Unfortunately, Santi and Hobbit both had to leave early on this morning to get back to life in Mexico City so I didn’t get to say goodbye. I’m quite sure I’ll see them again at some point in the near future so it’s not a huge shame. Considering the 7:30am bed time, the crew stayed in bed for a quite some time, hoping to recover and get back to business as soon as possible. We woke up, begrudgingly, ate, and hydrated. Quick warning: Vodka, Tequila, Rum, or other liquors with Skittles is a good idea but I wouldn’t mix those things in with Stack Cup. After we were sufficiently lubricated we headed out to the beach again, this time walking. We stayed at the beach for a while, but since we started so late the night came up quite quickly as we relaxed in the hot tub and were served by the same friends we had met up with the day before at the same beach.
This night was a night in. We started up with the games again and had another blast of a time hanging out and chatting. The only problem I was having was with breaking out of my Canadian sensibilities to not interrupt conversations. Again, my Spanish comprehension is improving by a lot every day that I don’t speak English but I still have trouble getting words out of my mouth. I’m close but it’s not where I want to be.
Straight Chillin - Feb 1
This will be a quick entry for this day. We basically took this day to recover from the last two days. There was a lot of sleeping, some swimming, a little bit of a volleyball in the pool, and more sleeping. We finished off the night with the movie American Wedding, but only because the zombie movie we chose was awful and no one seemed to have a big enough problem with the alternative.
The Drive Back, Upholding Tradition, and Quick Goodbyes - Feb 2
As I’m getting a bit tired from writing all these posts, this one will also be short which is OK because not a lot happened.
Four of the guys left before I even woke up on this day. We had breakfast, straightened the house out a bit, tried to grab everything we brought, and piled into the car for the trip back. This was another good day for Spanish learning as there were only three of us in the car so I was able to more easily get some thoughts into the conversation. We made our second stop at 4 Vientos and hit the traffic in Mexico City.
I quickly hopped out of the car, Gonzo’s keys in hand and relaxed at his house until he returned from a visit with Amaya who had just gotten off one of her 36 hour shifts at the hospital. I we thought we were tired.
I spent the rest of the night on my computer doing next to nothing, lamenting over the fact that I am leaving Mexico City and my new friends. But the upside is clearly that I’m going to see Jan, Leif, Mack, and Jass in less than a day and we’re also going to have a blast. This travel stuff has been so many different things so far: scary, funny, exhausting, intense, beautiful, sad, happy, painful, exhilarating, and much more. Saying goodbye sucks, but it’s going to happen one way or another.
I know I’ll be coming back to Mexico City on my trip but Gonzalo will be in Spain by then, learning Portuguese. Yeah, you read that right. Anyway, I want to take this time to thank Gonzalo for giving me an amazing week in Mexico City and Acapulco. It was exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to do on this trip: make new friends and go on amazing adventures with them. I hope we can stay in touch while we are in separate countries and that we can see each other soon. Let’s say less than 2 years before our next visit. Muchisimas gracias, Gonzalo!