OUR TRAVELS ARE COMING TO AN END

Our travels will be coming to an end as of June 25th.  That is when the house will close escrow and we move.  We have been traveling around Mexico since late 2011 and have learned many - oh so many - things.  It truly was an adventure well worth the time and money it took.

We started out in the state of Chapas, in a crowded town by the name of San Cristobal da la Casas.

This was our very first rental in Mexico.  

I will never forget the first time I went to the grocery store. 

I left the apt. to go shopping for food with no idea where to go and never having been in a Mexican grocery store in my life.  I got a cab drive and got across to him I wanted food.  So he took me to a restaurant.  Then I got across to him I wanted food to cook with and he took me to this market.

It took me two hours to find the milk.  I had never seen milk in a carton and on the shelf.  My only experience was with milk in the refrigeration section.  

Well since I was setting up the kitchen for the first time I needed everything.  I was in that market for three hours trying to figure out how to adapt what was there to what I needed.

I had a ton of stuff and I got a cap to take me home.  He loaded this cap up and then he turned to me and wanted an address.  You guessed it - I did not have one.  I never had an apt. before = hay I never even rented before so when I left my home I knew where I lived and I was driving.  Now I had no idea on earth where I lived.  

The cap driver was more than a little upset with me.  I told him to just drive and I would find it.  WRONG!  Every street looked the same, I could find no land marks that I knew.  We drove and drove and drove.  

This cap driver was so mad at me and he was balling me out in Spanish and I was balling him out in English and long story short - 

I told him to just drop me off at this corner.  He did - he was crying and I was crying and all my food (frozen or not) was out on the street...with Ken and myself.

Ken guarded the food while I got a cap with a cap driver that spoke English...was not easy.  Told him my story and he was kind enough to take on the challenge. Hours went by and we drove and drove and drove.  Then this driver went and picked up this other person who spoke better English and we drove and drove and drove.  

Four or Five hours later we found our apt. and I was never so happy to be home in my live.  So much for frozen food.  I put our address on a string around Kens neck and it stayed there for some time.

Chapas is full of Mayan people dressed in their traditional ways

Before we found our apt. we were in a hotel.  I thought that we could just walk around and find a real estate store or a property management place.  Well that was sure a dumb idea.

But walk the streets we did and found that there were three 
"people" streets.  Only People could use these streets.  There were restaurant and shops lining the streets and they were crowded with people, most of them sitting in the outside restaurants.

Now were new Americans in Mexico coming with the thinking of an American.  We had been told that this was a dangerous place to come.  I did not believe it or I would not have come with Ken.  But while we were walking around town I heard this noise that sounded like guns shooting.  The nose was getting more and more intense the longer into the day.  Night time was coming and now I noticed that the noise was associated with fireworks.  It was not guns but fireworks.  By dark the sky was lit up with fireworks going off all the time.

Ken and I were on one of the "people" streets and we were walking down the middle of the street when in front of us came these people with torches running at us chanting.  I noticed that people were moving out of the street so these people could run down the street.

So I grabbed Ken and plopped him in a chair at a restaurant.  

As these people ran by the people on the sidewalks throw little things made of paper at them.  

The group ran passed us but then another group was coming and another = there were constant groups of people with torches running down the street.

I had no idea what the heck it was all about.  Then I saw two boys in white shirts with ties on and they were Mormons   I ran across the street and grabbed this kid and hugged him like he was my savior.

He explained to me that these people come on a homage once a year.  They are different tribe's of Mayans.  They run non-stop from their village to this church in San Cris.  Some have been running for weeks.

This is the church that they were running to.  However, after running for days without stopping, before they could get to the church, they had to run up these stairs. 

It took Ken and I half a day walking up this hill, it is very high.  I did find another way down which is the picture below.

We stayed in Chapas for several months and then left and went to Cancun and on the way saw all the ruins and many different sights.  That film was lost with the camera,,,the first camera I lost.  There ended up to be four or five over the period of our travels.  

There is only one picture I have of that journey

Here is a link to a video made by someone else of this 

http://youtu.be/EKGrCElqD5k beautiful Agua Azul Waterfall area.

We went to Palenque and while walking around inside some of the buildings ran into bats and very big spiders.  We traveled along a river in a boat and met some people that lived in the jungle and they asked us to come stay in their village.  I was not quite sure about that one so we said thank you but no.

We traveled by bus through Chapas to Cancun.  I had no idea about how long a trip or what to expect from the bus company.  Everything was in Spanish and they used the 24 hour clock so I was flying blind where any knowledge was concerned.  

Found out on this bus run - you bring your own food cause they did not stop for anything.  It took a day and a half to get there and boy were we hungry.

Once in Cancun we found a place to stay and I set up a dolphin swim for Ken.  Best money I have ever spent.  That is a memory that he will hold forever and cherish. 

We returned to Chapas and another rental unit.  

Spent many evenings with people that I had met through different expat computer groups. 

  

Chapas has many wonderful restaurants and very good chiefs.  It is a town that is full of life - especially night life.  Sights and sounds,texture and flavors.  There is almost just too much of everything there.

Every woman and child in Chapas carries their goods to sell.

  

Babies are wrapped up in material and carried on their mothers backs - all day long.  The little bundle of blue on the ladies back is her baby.

From Chapas we went to Oaxaca.  

We stayed there only a couple of weeks in a hotel.  I will never forget this one place that we went to eat.  Someone told me how to get there and what to do.  They said, you go in through this door and in the yard you will see a table, sit down and wait.  We did just that and pretty soon this lady came out with some food.  It was fantastic and then she brought some more - it also was great - and she brought us some more.  After about an hour of eating this wonder dish after dish, she presented us with a bill.  Five dollars in American money was the total.  Now I have no idea what we eat or how to ever find her doorway on the street again - but she was a really good cook.

I purchased this hand embroidered piece of cloth, large enough for a queen size bed.  Some day I will quilt it.

From Oaxaca we went to Guadalajara 

Stayed there a few weeks in a hotel.  That is where we found Butch.  

I was told that Butch was a boy and hence her name is Butch.  She has been the very best dog I have ever had.  

With out new addition to our family we headed off to Lake Chapala in the state of Jalisco.

We found a wonderful home to rent in a town called San Antonio.

The house was two bedrooms with another one bedroom house in the back.

We stayed there quite some time.  Loved the area, but it was just not right for us.  Too expensive for one thing.  I did not want to pay 2 to 300,000.00 for a house so we moved on to a state called Michoacan to a city called Patzcuaro.

More about Michoacan, Patzcuaro, Colima, and Puerto Vallarta on the next blog.  For now we say good night from Ken and Donna