My Mexico Trip
Lan Yu
As 2004 drew to a close, I found that I
had 104 hours of use or lose leaves. It was too late to plan a trip back to my
country China and travelling
anywhere north outside of California
would invite coldness and probably bad weather. I decided to go to Mexico.
Mexico had always
been my planned destination. I had been picking up some Spanish for over a year
and I had been learning Ballet Folklorico with a local dance group. My interest
in going to Mexico
also lied in the fact that I crave to be in a place where there were more
people in the streets.
After about a month’s reading of travel
guides that made me headacha, I boarded a Greyhound bus for Austin on Dec. 15th. I had a
friend in Austin who was married to an American man and was now raising their
baby boy.
A friend of my friend called saying there is a party in the
evening. From their phone conversation's bits and pieces of words it appeared
to be a host family party for UT's international students. When my friend asked
me if I wanted to go, I said yes. But it turned out to be an international
outreaching fellowship of a local Church
of Christ.At the party, I
met a young American man speaking very good Chinese. He told me he learned
Chinese simply by reading textbooks and listening to tapes. Now he has a
Chinese wife. There was another Chinese couple new from Taiwan and were
still looking for jobs. The wife did not speak English at all. A pretty
Phillipine Chinese lady was just a few months in the U.S.. She was also looking for a
job. She came to the U.S.
as the wife of a citizen. The party was nice. A middle school history teacher
talked about all races being the sons and daughters of God. It is interesting
to listen to Texan accent preaching a point. When he was talking about how today's
difference races fought with each other rather than love each other, he drew a
curved line on the board and asked what it was. No one knew. "It is the Great Wall of China! They built it simple because there
were fightings between the oriental descendents of one of Noa's sons."
After the meeting there was a potluck. most foods were prepared the Asian way
and were delicious.
My friend's friend was from Qinghua
University, born in 1978.
At the party she met another Qinghua lady who was of the 77 class and now an
insurance agent as well as the owner of a restaurant in Austin. The younger Qinghua seemed to have
all the traits of the university students of her generation, energetic and
confident of being Yappie.
The following day, 19th, my friend drove me to a local Chinese
church. It was a quite sizable congregation, about 50 or 70 people. The pastor
preached in Chinese and there was a man doing consecutive interpretation into
English. After the preaching, we first comers were asked to introduce ourselves.
I introduced myself and told them in Monterey
there was a Chinese church. Later, a man came up to me and?said he had a friend, a former roommate, in Monterey and asked me to
bring him to church. I was so surprised to learn that his friend’s name was Li
SM, a colleague at my school.?What a
small world!
Went to downtown Austin
in the evening with Chris. Had cappuchino in a coffee house. He had a beer in
another bar while blues was played.
20th
Went to Mexican counsulate downtown to get a trvel permit. Lots of Paisanos
lined up there but it was fast. The counsulate officials worked with
efficiency.
now sitting in a internet service at 5 pesos an hour. lost my note
book so i have to recall what happened quickly as a memo.
Arrived at nuevo laredo
in the early morning before daybreak. originally planned to take a bus and
leave but the only bus leaving for Guanajuato was at 19 hours. so roamed the
center of town to kill time. the town was noisy, dirty, full of people and
venders. it is like a county town of china in the 70´s and 80´s. hard to find
an internet bar. only one found was closed. sawa scarred homeless dog walking
timidly and silently in the street.at noon when hungry, could not eat the
mexican food because they did not semll good. tried only one thing like the
chinese zha2 gao1 with ground pork stuffed in. farely ok but one is 10 pesos.
decided to go to a gracery and bought several bananas, oranges and a small bag
of tortillas at 14 pesos. that lasted me for three meals. while eating the zha
gao at the roadside, a woman while taking up some boxes on a stool infront of
me, looked at me with curiosity. i said hello. she asked hesitatingly if i was
mexican. said i was de china y vivo in california.
going to guanajuato and then to mexico
city. she said i needed a partner. i said maybe it was
her. she said no possible because she was married.
left nueo laredo at 19:00 hours and arrived at Monterrey around 10. have
a e-pal there but she was in peru.
so no stopping there. pretty big city. the bus was not full so i could lie down
and sleep. arrived at guanajuato around 10 am. found a hotel for 150 pesos a
day, hot water was literally cold but hotel position was right in the center of
the town with good view from a balcony. almost empty, suprised me. boiled water
to make an instant noodle brought with me. then toured the town and found
spacially the historical center could be done in three hours. but for the
details, one week is not enough. there are several other spots outside.
this city reminds me of Chongqing
or Wanxian Countytown, with streets winding and going up and down. all paved
with rocks. there are several tunnels too. street width narrow, say two buses
from wall to wall. it was quite a scene to see old buses and trucks and cars
move slowly in these streets.
At everyturn there was a scene worth taking a picture of. i visited a church,
the outside of the university of guanajuato, the home museum of painter Diego
Rivera. Saw many of his drawings as studies.
seems to me cost of living in mexico
is high. vegies etc, compared with the price of USA, even more. i wonder what is
the average income of the people. travelling by bus from nuevo
laredo to mexico city
is more than 800 pesos. do they regard the peso as same as we regard the dollar
or the yuan?
plan to leave tommorrow at night and arrive at Mexico city around 5 am. Xmas there and
starting return trip on the 28th.
In the evening the city is a paradise for roaming among many stalls. The market
area is huge, like Beijing´s Hongqiao market. another corner of the city sees
private vendor stalls much like those in a night free market in China, or Wuhan´s Hanzheng Street
market. Except for the language spoken, the general atmophere is exactly like
in China.
At a church I heard lound singing from a speaker. Waling inside, I saw a woman
singing to many kids. Presently the kids started to troop out and at the door
they were given a naranja and a small bag of candies. When I was leaving, I
also was given these two things. Upong asking, I learned that it was posada.
Many people are very religious. I noticed that quite many did a cross when they
pass the church in the street.
There is a candy store that sells a variety of candies and candy processed
fruits (GUO3 PU4). Seems to be a logal attraction. Mexicans like dulce (candy)
very much.
12,23
visited the museum of mummies. 60 pesos. about 20 to 30 minute hiking up hill.
lots of mummies, men, women, kids, some in clothes. In one of Shakespeare´s
plays, there is the line that after one dies, what remains is merely a stinky
leather bag. true indeed.
checked out of hotel at 12 but deposted luggage there. brought too much winter
clothes. useless. many people are in shirts. roamed the town aimlessly and
revisit some places with much leisure to savor the details. had a haircut for
20 pesos, 2 dollars. the barbar`s is a socializing place for the local
community. three barbars worked slowly and meticulously, as if doing art work.
did a quick sketch of a street when sitting down to take a rest. call it
impressionism in sketchingl, because there is no respect to details. will scan
it when back home.
have to admit that mexicanas are pretty, most of them.
December 24. morning 7, 20
arrived at mexico city
early morning around 5. take metro to the international youth hostel at Zocalo
the center of the ancient city. 10 dollars for a bed in a collective dorm with
one shower room, big metal lockers, five computers with free internet access at
fast speed, but no chinese fonts. also free breakfast and guided tours of zocalo
and museum of anthropology. there is another one i want to check out because it
provides bike rental and all day coffee.
taking metro or subway from the north bus station to the hostel was convenient.
everything is like in Beijing.
as long as you know a few spanish words, you won't get wrong. subway station
name is easy to identify at the stations and the lines are also marked by
colors.
one little incident though. around five there was no one selling ticket. two
men was at the entrance. thought they were guards. asked one of them where to
buy ticket. he showed me the booth but there was no body. then he walked over,
asking me to give him money and showed me a gate to enter the subway. i asked
him how much. he said 13 pesos. i gave him three 5 pesos and he showed no
motion to give me changes. i thought that might be a case of petty corruption
and let it go. however, then i thought subway should not be so expensive.
asking other passengers, it was 2 pesos. so i went back to talk to the man.
then man motioned me aside, away from his coworker. i thought he was going to
try to convince me of giving up, but he gave me 13 peso in change. i guess he
just wanted to take advantage of me and seeing that i already knew the real
price, he was afraid of being reported.
a good beginning.
there was a long walk from line yellow to line green, but luggage on wheels
posed no problem, except that there were several stairs to climb up and down
when changing lines. In the long tranfer corridor, i saw no ads on the walls,
only large luminated photos of natural things, animals and plants, with their
spanish names. i used it to practice pronunciation silently as i walked
through.
youth hostel is full of young people from around the world. i like the
atmosphere.
Impressions of Mexico City
After settling down in the hostel, i walked around the Cathedral of Zocalo. The
streets were already full of venders noisily shouting their goods.
Symbolically, zocalo square is to Mexico
as Tiananmen Squae is to China,
but here, the square is really the people' square. It is literally a huge small
commodities market.
The noise made me feel regetful of choosing this place. Walkng in the street,
the smell of indigenous food made me feel sick, especially the chopped roast
pork meat in small totillas. As far as food is concerned, I have to say Chinese
cooking is better. Nor do I like the deep fried anything here. The oil was used
to the extreme, just like in China.
In this place, eating is a problem for me. At noon, after a nap, I only ate
some dry bread with water. In the evening, I bought something between a burger
and two pancakes sandwhiching some vegies at a subway station. Then at Zocolo,
I bought five chicken feet for 10 pesos, ate them while walking around and spat
the bones into the trash left over by day venders. I was glad to see at seven
that the noisy venders were gone. Actually, most stores were closed by that
time and streets became deserted. This is so different from Beijing.
Zocolo was lit with colorful lights depicting Bible Christmas stories. on he
three sides facing the cathedral.
In the afternoon, I went to the Museum
of Bellas Artes only to
find it closed. Police told me it would remain closed till Monday, but the
hotel people told me museums should be open on Sundays. I then went up the
tallest building of the city and had a bird's eye view. Then i asked the police
where to find the plaza where mariachis get their singing business. when i
arrived there, i saw many but no one is playing. they play at customer{s
request.
then took a bus to Basillica.
Dec. 25
went to Teotihuakan with Leila, an Iranian American girl from S.F on her way to
Veracruz. she
checked in the day before, sleeping under my bed holding her huge backpáck. she
asked for time and we chatted a while and I said I was going to Teotihuakan and
she said she would like to come too. on the bus we had nice talk about politics
etc. Back in the city, we went to the Basillica and then looked for a mercado
and bought grocery, cooked the first real chinese meal. seh cooked her rice and
beans seperately. she was vegi.
dec. 26. fine arts museum with leila, anthropology with Liz and her son. Liz
was my e-amiga, divorced with three children. she is big and beautiful and has
a pleasant personality. lunch at Cafe Shanghai. 131 pesos.
dec. 27 checked out, bought shoes for folklorico at 29 after barginning with
the lady, unable to achieve the 28 dollars agreement her brother made with me
the other day. take a bus to cuernavacar, leaving luggage in the hotel, but
only to find that it was 300 pesos cheaper to go to tijuana from here. have to return tommorrow,
still cheaper.
a long hiking from downtown to PK's language school. checked two bazars, used
good stores, on the way. it so happened that right at the time i arrived at the
school gate, she and her hostfamily sister Dinora were coming down the street
on way to the bank. i felt immediately relieved.
Dec. 28 see my article When I Met My Waterloo in Mexico
Dec. 29 bought the ticket for Tijuana
for 30th. Toured the town a little bit. At noon, bought a pineapple and ate as
lunch. I ate only 1/3 of it and my tongue got blisters. Returned residence and
took a nap. Read Sister Carrie till PK was back. Paid 200 pesos for my staying
at her host family.Had pleasant talking with PK's hostfamily sister, a 32
widowed merchant owning a clothes store. Her looks and voice reminded me of a
sister (jiemen) from the Beijing Weekend Club. She has a daughter of 13. Her
husband died of heart problem at the age of 47.
Her brother joined at the table and talked a lot about Mexico's
police, crime, etc., as if I understood what he was saying.
Dec. 30
Spent the morning at PK's language school doing catchup journal writing. Do not
intend to go downtown again. Will buy some fruit from the grocery at the corner
of the street to bring them on the bus for food.
Jan. 2
I arrived at Monterey
at 9 am, and now it was no difficult for me to drag my luggage since I dragged
it a lot in Cuernavacar. MIIS lab opened at 9 am, so I can write this now.
My return trip was very smooth. It took 48 hours to reach Tijuana. On the way, there were frequent drug
checks and security checks. Only one occasion made me uncomfortable. A security
guy looked at my papers and wondered why I as a foreigner should travel by bus.
After I explained that bus was cheap and convenient, he looked at my papers and
said :" I still do not understand why you travel by bus." I had to
repeat my reasons again and stated that many foreigners travel by bus in Mexico. He told
me that on that route there had been bad guys but he decided I was a good buy
and let me go. The tip for treating them is to be polite and patient.
After I left the house, I dragged my luggage to the road before Avanida
Moreles, where there was traffice going in the direction of the center. I
caught a bus and got off at Avanida Moreles, not far from the bus station, so I
arrived well ahead of time. At the bus station, I struck up a conversation with
a guy guarding a special waiting room equipped with soft coaches. That room
seemed to be meant for passengers on a long trip so I could enter. He told me
that he was once in Chicago and Utta but later he got into trouble, stabbing
another Mexican for a Mexican woman and got into jail for five years.
Immigrations told him that he was finished in American and should never return.
He said he still wanted to return.
On the trip I met some interesting people. First was a tall pretty young woman
of 22 years old from Mazatlan.
She was looking for her seat in the bus but her ticket had no seat number so I
let her to sit beside me. She knew a few English words. She was a lively
personal and love to chat. I corrected her English from time to time. She had a
boyfriend who was a captain and now somewhere near Asia.
Although only 22, she behaved a much matured and sophisticated woman. At drug
checking points, she joked with young soldiers who appeared very rustic and
unexperienced. She bought me a Coke. When she address me, she always began with
:"my friend.". When it was hot in the bus, she shouted to the bus
driver for air con and went forth and sat in the driving cabin, chatting with
the driver and put videos for passengers. Such an amusing creature.
Another is a man mostly silent until we reached a city for a break and he
offered to tell me enthusiastically what he did in Mexico. He smuggles used cars and
sells them. He said used cars can sell more in Mexico than in the States. He knew
how to avoid check points. He had a house in Tijuana
and had two addresses in other Mexico
cities, mainly used as fake id. He said his house in San Diego was huge and now had more than 40
cars waiting to be delivered over the boarder. He did it all by himself, each
week make a trip or two. On appearance, though, he looked more like a tramp.
You can never tell who has money!
Before reaching Tijuana,
the bus had to climb over a hugh mountain formed of big and small rocks. They
simply looked like rock piles. In some places, one could see vast cannons, a
feast to the eye.
The timing was perfect. I reached Tijuana
around 6:45 pm local time and there was an 8 pm Greyhound bus, which I already
learned about on internet. At the bus station there was a guy working for the Mexico
immigrations who stamped my passport and reclaimed my travel permit, saving me
the trouble of turning it in when crossing the border. Actually, later when the
Greyhound bus crossed the border, I only went through the American's checkline.
At the station, money change offices were closed but the girl who sold me the
Greyhound bus ticket said she could change money for me. I had 112 pesos and
the rate for buying pesos from them was 11.60. She gave me 9 dollars for the
pesos. Later I realized she actually did not count the coins. I should have
kept the coins since they are useful for going to WCs. When changing pesos back
to dollars, do a rough calculation and ask:" If I want to get 10 dollars,
how much pesos do I own you?" This way, you just give what you are told.
You never know if you are visiting Mexico again and keeping the coins
is useful.
Greyhound buses are full of people. In San
Diego, when I was dozing off I was punched hard by
someone. It was a stout young black woman who wanted to sit on the seat by my
side and indicated that I should remove the book I put there. She managed to
squeez down and promptly starting reading a book. The title of the book was The
Art of Love.
Back in the US, the change
of landscape convinced me of the prettiness of the country, after I viewed so
many junk car yards and shanty-like brick houses that suggested unplanning
sprawling of cities along the trip in Mexico. Monterey area had been rich in rainfall. Salinas valley was
luxurant. The air was cool.I slept a lot in the bus, so I was not sleepy at
all.
2004-12-24
05:29
