Mexico Redux

We are back from Mexico after an amazing week and there is just too much to say about it, so I'm going to condense our experience into some vignettes...

...sitting on the plane trying to convince myself that yes, Hillary really did just call us and tell us about another baby. Pinch myself. Repeat, yes, Hillary really did just call us...

...trying out my high school Spanish lessons at the taxi stand and feeling like an idiot because I can't remember what cien means right away (it means 100). The taxi was 140 pesos, which is about 14 dollars...

...realizing with trepidation that the marks on the road indicating "lanes" don't mean much in Merida. They are more of an indication of which direction to drive...

...trying frantically to conjure up my high school Spanish lessons as federal soldiers wave our rental car to the side of the road for drug inspection on Saturday. They had machine guns. They laughed at my Spanish and let us go. Thank God...

...in the hotel on the first night, teaching J to say "Lo siento, no hablo Espanol" which means "I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish" (he took French in school). He tried this line out on an old man at the pool on Wednesday and received a look of shocked disbelief. The elderly Mexican probably thinking "What is this man doing in the middle of nowhere in the Yucatan without knowing Espanol?!"...

...realizing with delight that the hotel would serve us breakfast tacos every day...

...exciting my palate with all of the haberneros, jalapenos and avocados I could ever want...

...experiencing my first "tamarindo" margarita. A wonderful combination of spice, salt, lime and tequila that cannot be adequately described, or replicated in the U.S., I imagine...

...paying $60 for a bottle of wine on Saturday night and then going to Campeche's Wal-Mart on Sunday to stock up on better and cheaper cerveza and vino...

...walking back into our fancy 5 star hotel carrying clinking Wal-Mart bags of booze and giggling like teenagers...

...being upgraded to a suite at the Hacienda Santa Rosa and realizing we had a private pool/hot tub (used to be a well/cistern in its hacienda days) that the staff lit with candles and decorated with flowers each night while we were eating dinner...

...swinging in a Mayan style hammock while reading a good book and listening to the birds chirp in the jungle...

...stopping by the side of the road to ask a local for directions to "las zonas archeologicas" (the archeological zones, as was printed in our map) and having her smile and nod, responding, "Si, las ruinas!" (Yes, you mean the ruins). Yeah, that...

...visiting the remote agricultural village of Kanku, down a long dirty road, to find the local Mayan ruins and being directed by a local shopkeeping to "drive down that dirt road there until you find a truck and that guy will drive you to the ruins. You can't get there in your car." Is this is the definition of "off the beaten path?" I think so. We weren't dressed for Indiana Jones type exploring, so we drove off to a more touristed set of "ruinas"...

...climbing steep Mayan temple pyramids at Edzna, Uxmal and Chunchucmil and realizing while climbing up and down their steep steps that there is no way a U.S. landmark would let tourists climb up this high without guard rails...

...driving two hours to Celestun and renting a boat for $65 for a two hour tour of the nature preserve and bird species, only to have a thunderstorm make it the most miserable, wet, cold, windy vacation experience of our lives and we only saw one flamingo, from a distance. Evidently the flamingos hide in the jungle during thunderstorms and didn't care that we paid so much to see them...

...in conclusion, eating more and better seafood in one week than we have in the rest of our lives, discovering the delights of fish stuffed with shrimp, eating such wonderful coconut shrimp with apple dipping sauce (La Pigua restaurant in Campeche and Merida) that we had to go to the same restaurant twice in one week, enjoying fresh picante salsa with every meal, and somehow not gaining any weight because the food was all so fresh and healthy.

A tip for travelers to Mexico: something we noticed and remarked upon often during our stay. In Mexico it is evidently not customary to bring "la cuenta," the check, to the table when it is clear that the party is finished dining. There were times when the servers actually cleared away everything from the table except for water glasses (and yes, we had declined dessert) and still wouldn't bring the check unless asked. It was so odd to us, as we are used to the U.S. tradition of the server dropping off the check very promptly after dinner, if dessert is refused. In one way, this Mexican tradition is nice. It gives diners a chance to feel relaxed and talk after dinner without feeling rushed out of the restaurant. On the other hand, if the server is being elusive, it can be quite frustrating and puzzling. So, be forewarned. You must ask for the check. A corollary to this: we also noticed that most times we had to ask for another round of drinks (beer mostly). A server would come to the table and collect our empty beer bottles and not offer us another round. I know, strange, right?! If I have any Latino readers who can explain this phenomenon to me, please do so! Are the servers just turning up their noses at free money or is it considered rude to offer more cerveza? I'm curious.

We did get the homestudy for R and G last night and I'll start working on a post about it...thank you to everyone for your kind comments about the new Clio!