Driving In Mexico

I am home from Mexico now and really missing it! There are always surprises and learning experiences on every trip I take and this one was no different. Foreign countries have so much to offer and there is never a dull moment. This was as true in Moscow as it was in Puerto Vallarta, although I think the later is a much more relaxing vacation in spite of some of the stress we went through there.

I would no sooner drive in Moscow than I would in Mexico City. Way too crazy. I thought driving in Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara and the towns in between would be more manageable. For the most part that was the case, but it was still quite stressful and I am fairly certain I would never rent a car in Mexico again.

I drove from Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara, which took about 6 hours. It was interesting to me (in the way that watching a train wreck might be interesting) that the Mexican drivers don’t give a rat’s ass about the rules of the road. Double yellow line? Doesn’t that mean cross at any time into oncoming traffic whether or not you can see around the next bend in the road? Of course that is what it means down there. You may remember our experience last year in the collectivo (small bus) driving through the mountains… Caroline and I were sure we were going to die. The driver was pretty sure that if he crossed himself continually and kissed the crucifix hanging from his rearview mirror every 15 minutes he would probably be spared the gruesome death of a head-on collision with a mac truck. Fortunately we didn’t die.

I guess I wasn’t really thinking about that in terms of driving ourselves around this year. Unfortunately I am not so faithful nor am I quite dexterous enough to do all that praying, crossing, while driving and paying attention to possible head-on-coming traffic. Luckily we made it through to tell the tale. There were some moments when I was really worried, but truthfully they were mostly when my friend Cory was driving. I just have to be honest in my experience men drive like they are on a racetrack. It is a competition with everyone on the road. Only in this competition we had everything to lose. Imagine driving behind a giant 16 wheeler loaded down with rebar. There was a gang of vehicles behind us. At one point there was one car between us and the truck and a car from behind us tried to pass and couldn’t make it, sneaking in just behind the truck. Cory was cursing the entire time. First he was cursing about the guy trying to pass, “you are such a fucking idiot, you are going to get yourself killed…” etc. The next thing out of his mouth was, “Jesus, you dumb ass! You could have made it just then. Go, go, go.” Eventually we were behind the truck and Cory made his move. But not until after he was about to go and I had to yell, “No, don’t do it! Please, no!” I think Cory was annoyed. But I didn’t really care. Shortly after that he made his move. I squeezed my eyes closed and said a prayer. When in Mexico do as the Mexicans, right? Well, more or less.
We lived. Thank GOD!!

And that is only a small part of the learning regarding driving in Mexico….

When Caroline and I picked up the car at USave Car Rental, we were quite concerned about how jacked up the outside of car looked. It was keyed, scratched, dented, and dinged all the way around the outside. I took a bunch of photos on my cell phone. The man renting us the car lifted the felt covering the spare, showing us the spare and tools. That was meant to “prove” we had “seen” it. Have you ever even looked at the spare when renting a car in the United States?
Another interesting thing was that we were told there wasn’t an automatic economy car available for us. They agreed to give us an upgrade. Once we were ready to go, we were told that they would call us to exchange the car for an economy in a couple of days. In no uncertain terms, Caroline said, “Absolutely not. We will not be available for any exchange as we will be out of the area.”

Returning the car a week later was less than a smooth transition. The clerk was a different guy than the one who had rented it to us. He went out to look at the car. He walked all the way around it and checked every dent. Then he opened the trunk and looked at the spare. For some reason Ken said, “He is going to tell us there is a hole in the spare.” I wasn’t really paying attention, so I wasn’t understanding why he was saying that.
When the man returned, he called me to the counter and asked me how the trip went. I stated it was great, and that there no problems at all. A big smile on my face. We did have an excellent time and we thankfully had no issues with the car at all. He said, “Well there seems to be a problem with the spare tire.” We went out and looked at it and sure enough there was a giant split in the tire. The tire had obviously been in the wheel well for ages. It was dusty, red paint rubbed on it from the car, and it was obviously the spare and not a tire we had ruined and replaced with the spare.
He said he would speak to his supervisor. His argument was that it was obviously us because I had signed a paper stating that I had looked at the spare before I took off with the car. I explained that they had basically not even shown us the spare, lifting the felt and dropping it down again before we could really even look at it.
Furthermore, we would have called if something had happened to us. And furthermore, how could they have rented us a car with a screwed up spare?! We were livid. I was determined not to pay for it. It was really the principal of it all.
They did not care one bit. It was a busted tire and someone was going to have to pay for it one way or another. I honestly think he knew we didn’t do it but someone was going to have to pay for it. His manager felt the same way. She was really bitchy. She wouldn’t give us a copy of the contract. Eventually she gave me a photocopy of the original and gave me the yellow copy I had been carrying around. Interestingly the two looked very different, the original having check marks regarding what I was agreeing to having seen, whereas the yellow copy didn’t have those marks.

In any case, after at least 20 minutes of arguing with them the manager handed me the credit card receipt I had signed a week earlier at the airport, with a total that was 800 pesos more than what I had agreed to originally. I realized it was useless to try to continue arguing in my broken Spanish mixed with angry English. We left with a promised to refute the charges. I recently received my American Express bill. There were at least 800 more pesos added to the receipt she originally gave me. I will be refuting it as well as writing a nasty letter to National Car Rental who runs USave Car Rental.

The good lesson from this whole experience is pretty much: “Don’t bother renting a car in Mexico.” You might as well just take the bus. Buses in Mexico are reliable, cheap, and you can actually relax and read a book on the way to your destination. Sounds good to me.

The Beach

We are at the beach. It is calling now. In the middle of nowhere. Chacala. Will be back with good blogs tomorrow or Saturday.

Bien dia en la playa.

October 27, 2009 - 42 Years

Well, I am now officially 42 years old. I can´t believe it.
It was a fabulous birthday and I couldn´t have been in a better place to celebrate. Caroline and Cory really made it special for the entire day they made it all about me. Unfortunately my sweetie Ken wasn´t here with me. Next year we will definitely be together! As it is he will be joining us on Friday. That is only 2.5 days away. I guess I can live with that. It really hit me that I missed him when we first arrived in Guadalajara and I realized that he wouldn´t get to see and experience this amazing city with us. On the other hand, I am certain he and I will come back here at some point and I can show him around...
In any case, yesterday was amazing. I started out the day with coffee, pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) and delicious yogurt with fruit, all in the comfort of our own home.
We headed out with full tummies for a day of exploring two little towns on the outskirts of the city... Tonala and Tlaquepaque. These two towns are known for handicrafts and excellent shopping. They also happen to be full of beautiful people. Their plazas and walking streets are very inviting. It actually made me want to stay there and skip the city. In any case, we all did very well with some early Christmas shopping and even shopping for a few birthdays coming up. We tried to find a glass blowing factory but didn´t find it due to very hard to read street signs. All the street names are on small tiles on the side of the buildings on the street corners. It is very difficult to spot them in a moving vehicle. If I had it to do over we would have taken a cab to the towns instead. Driving here is difficult at best. On the way back into the city we were stuck in a crazy traffic jam. At the heart of it was a car stuck to the side of a truck´s wheel well. I was just very gratefull that it wasn´t me. It seems that often there two lanes of cars for one physical lane which can create obvious problems!
When we returned to the hotel we were all starving. We cleaned up a little, put sweaters on... did I mention it is cold here, especially at night? ... and made a bee-line to our favorite La Chata. It was amazing again. And this time I had a margarita too! It seems that drinking really doesn´t agree with me. I was ready for bed an hour later. I guess a belly full of booze and good food will do that to a person.

After dinner we got on a horse drawn carriage and had a tour of Guadalajara. The horse, Vicente, was a caramel brown and of slight stature. He was carrying us in a white carriage with red trim and a glass window in the back with an etched image of Jesus. It was beautiful. I was reminded of my ride with my friend Tricia through New Orleans a couple years ago. The guide we had in New Orleans was like an encyclopedia of information on the city. Our ride last night wasn´t quite as exceptional for a few reasons: my Spanish isn´t so good that I would understand everything our driver had to say, and the traffic around us was so loud it was often very hard to hear. I was really impressed with Vicente and his seeming lack of fear. When we were finshed with the ride we all got pictures with Vicente and our driver. Funny I don´t remember his name. I got a little too close to Vicente´s face when he had his eye blinders on and he gave me a little head butt. I deserved it. He was much more gentle without his bridle and eye shades and even gave us a big smile with all of his teeth showing! I think he was really happy to have that thing off!

After a long day of celebrating my 42nd year I was really ready for some deep sleep. Apparently I slept through drag racing outside the hotel and throughout the streets of Guadalajara! That´s me, the deep sleeper. I guess it was screetching, sirens, whooshing down the street... but no crashes??

Now we are getting ready to leave this beautiful city and make our way back to the beach. We have in mind a few very small towns north of Puerto Vallarta.
I will be back with more adventures when I have access to another computer.
Mas tarde amigos.

My Annual Pilgrimage to Mexico

Livin* the dream in my favorite place on earth!
I arrived in Puerto Vallarta with my best friend Caroline yesterday afternoon after a hectic few days.
It is always good to lose your cash card the day before you are about to travel. People don{t really use traveler{s checks any more, and it would have been too late for that anyway. So, after a meltdown I tried to collect myself and worry about all the other craziness I needed to focus on. At least I didn{t forget to refill my prescriptions before my trip like last year!

Caroline and I arrived at Puerto Vallarta*s shiny new airport. The first thing you get to after immigration and customs (a green or red light determines whether or not they go through your luggage) is a room full of people trying to sell you trips, time shares and the like. It is swarming with young, good looking men and women who are determined to sell you whatever they have to offer. It is quite disconcerting.
We were approached again at the car rental place. He said we could get $150 off the rental car if we just went to a sales talk at some timeshare. No thanks.

Guess what I forgot?! My driver*s license. Duh. We worked it out, but still I could be really screwed if I get pulled over while driving. We have insurance up the ying yang, so I am not too worried. And money speaks all languages down here. Or so I have heard.

After a few beers and some delcious antojitos at the hotel restaurant and a dip in the pool, we headed out to gather our friend, Cory, who flew down from Canada. He had been traveling for over 12 hours and was really happy to see us.

Caroline was reading a newspaper on the way back to the hotel and found an interesting advertizement for a weightloss technique... give yourself salmonela and/or ecoli. Under the direction of a doctor you can shit your brains out, feel like complete crap and when you have lost enough weight the doctor will give you some medication to get rid of the parasites. That is if you don*t die first. Good times.

We had a wonderful dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in Puerto Vallarta. I think this is the 5th time I have been to Puerto Vallarta. I love it. Anyway, dinner was delicious, although Caroline and I didn*t eat much since we had already pigged out earlier. I will definitely be going back with Ken when he gets down here.

Walking back up the malecon (boardwalk) to the hotel was beautiful. It wasn*t too hot, and there was a nice breeze. And a ton of people everywhere. I am guessing they were all watching the soccer game earlier because when we arrived it was so empty I was a bit worried. Not to worry though, there were plenty of people roaming the streets, watching street clowns, artists, food vendors and crafts people do their things. We didn*t see many foreigners but plenty of Mexican*s. Puerto Vallarta is a common vacation destination for Mexicans from Guadalajara and Mexico City, among other places I am sure.

When we finally arrived back at the hotel we lounged by the pool for a while and then I made my way to the room so I would be ready for our big journey to Guadalajara in the morning. It felt great to shower and fall into a clean bed. Caroline and Cory apparently fell asleep by the pool. They didn*t get back to the room for at least a couple of hours. I am very happy I wasn*t drinking because I know I would have had a killer hangover this morning!

The drive to Guadalajara was uneventful... just the way I like it. We stopped in a tiny town for lunch and had very simple burritos and quesadillas. My burrito had refried beans and a mushroom concoction, no meat. It was pretty tasty.

We were probably on the road about 6 hours total. The toll road was about 2 hours. Thank god for the toll road. The free ones take forever.

Driving in Guadalajara is no joke. Not as bad as I imagine driving in Mexico City would be, but a bit scary none the less. Try finding a street sign with a truck or a bus bearing down on you. Fun. We actually found the hotel relatively easily as I had really studied the map at lunch. I was even able to park the car on the street in front of the hotel. Never mind that it was over a shit hole - literally. There are some really nasty smells in this city. The grate over the shit hole would not have kept me and my flip flops from falling through. Nice.

Our room is more like a condo. We have two bedrooms with two double beds each, a living/dining room area, a kitchen and two full bathrooms. No bathtubs though. Bathtubs are hard to find in Mexico. Sorry Ken.

After settling in a little we headed out for dinner at La Chata de Guadalajara. One of the best Mexican meals I have ever had. It is a bright, cheery place with yellow walls, yellow tablecloths, and lots of Mexican pottery and old photos of Guadalajara on the walls. There was an army of waiters ensuring we had everything we could possibly want and then some. It was a perfect eating experience. I had pozole of course!

We are wrapping up the evening with a concert (a Cuban salsa band) in one of the many plazas, a walk through the plaza where masons are chipping away at big blocks of stone, and an hour at the internet cafe. This is a perfect way to end an evening.

More later. Mas tarde.

Running

So, seeing as I couldn't sleep last night... I woke up at 2:15am and couldn't get back to sleep, try as I might... I got up at 3:15am. After folding laundry and tidying up, I decided I would go for a run. By the time I walked out the door it was about 4am. I ran straight from my house to Lake Merritt. This is a 6 mile run round trip. I am not fond of being outside alone in the dark in Oakland, but I was determined to not let that stop me. It took me about 11 minutes to do the first 1.5 miles. It is all down hill. As I arrived at the lake it was really dark. The lights strung around Lake Merritt are turned off at a certain time apparently. Not sure why I would have thought they would leave them on all night? That would be pretty wasteful. There was one lone light, a search light, like on a light house that moved in the same way. I found that a bit ironic - a light house on a small lake. A beacon. By then I had seen a few random people. One guy starting his shift at Safeway, another walking around the lake. Obviously nothing was open. It was dark. There was a bite of cold in the air. It felt good, refreshing. As I started clockwise around Lake Merritt at "the columns," I was a little concerned about how dark everything was. The sun really doesn't start to come up until at least 5am. There are a few spots on the far side of the lake that are REALLY dark and people could easily be lurking without being seen. But I wanted this run. I wanted to be brave. I had my music pumping. Loud. And then I saw it... one of many rats that crossed my path as I made my way around. Ew. Yuck. At one point, one actually came very close to running right over my foot! I am not really squeemish, but that was a bit much! There were so many rats out there I couldn't believe it. Running into their little dens to get away from the giant coming their way. I came around and was in the last stretch before going back up Grand Avenue, there was a cop car parked on the lawn, under a tree. As soon as I got a few feet from it, a bright search light flashed over me. If I hadn't been so much in my own world I would have waved! It did startle me and for a moment I thought they might come after me. I think the hours of the lake are sun up to 10pm or something. But they didn't. And I was back on my own, in the dark.
I made it home in 1 hour 11 minutes. That is a respectable time: 11:50 per mile. My ears were ringing. I guess I had my music up louder than I had thought.
Now I have to tell my running partner that I already went running today. I hope she doesn't get too upset. Now I am super tired. That is the problem with getting up long before the crack of dawn. You feel like crap most of the rest of the day. So far so good, but I expect I will crash at around 3pm or so.
So, I feel like I will be ready for the SF 1/2 Marathon we have been training for on 7/26/09. I am a bit anxious about how warm it is going to be, given it has been in the 80s the last couple of days! I hate running in the heat and would rather run in the rain any day. We will see.

Photos Finally

You have all been bugging me to upload my photos... Finally I did it! There is a short waiting period before they can be uploaded to the blog. You can access them using the link to Picasa.
I will probably also upload them to Facebook.
It was a great trip. I am really glad I went. And now I am looking forward to getting to Mexico again! In the meantime I am training for my next 1/2 marathon (San Francisco) and planning a bunch of camping trips.
Have a great summer!

Home Sweet Home

I arrived home on Thursday afternoon after some 48 hours of traveling. I pretty much lost track after the first 24, crossing time zones screwed me up. Sleeping in the Heathrow Airport didn't help. I was finally upgraded to business class on my flight to SFO. It took me to the last minute and lots of tears. I didn't mean to cry actually, and I wasn't doing it for pity, but I guess that was the effect. I was just beyond sanity at that point. I really just wanted to be home and I felt what they had put me through was completely unjust. I have more details of course, but will leave them for another time.
It is great to be home. Cuddles with Pearl and Ruby has been awesome.
So happy to be home!

Eating In Russia

I can’t speak for the rest of the country. I guess MacDonald’s, though they do have a presence, hasn’t really taken over the country with fast food. There are lines for MacDonald’s, especially in the center of town by the Kremlin. I can’t speak for the rest of the country. I guess MacDonald’s, though they do have a presence, hasn’t really taken over the country with fast food. There are lines for MacDonald’s, especially in the center of town by the Kremlin. Kentucky Fried Chicken has also made the trek here from the USA.
I don’t know how the prices compare because I tried to steer clear of the evils of fast food.
And why would you want to eat BAD American fast food when you can get delicious Russian fast food for less than half the price? Go figure. Russian fast food is bliny (thin crepes with different fillings), pelmeny (dumplings like wontons –also usually with meat filling), ice cream of all kinds (mostly the American Nestle sort, not like the delicious paletas in Mexico made from fresh fruit and cream), and various other finger foods. I guess hot dogs are pretty popular too, with ketchup of all things. The best way to ruin a hot dog is to put ketchup on it, in my opinion. Only mustard belongs on the dog. Oh, and sauerkraut if you are lucky enough to have it.
Russian food in restaurants… if you land in a good restaurant (don’t ever go to Yolkie Palkie) you are going to find the most amazing fish dishes, bliny, and the soup is to die for! I had fish soup on at least two occasions, both with sour cream, and what a treat. Even the soup at a bad restaurant is fairly decent. Mark had a disgusting cold soup at a café we went to a couple of times. It literally made me gag. He liked it. It was a beef broth that was really sour, and additionally so due to the sour cream in it, with green onions, slices of mystery meat, and maybe hard boiled egg? I had a delicious cream of mushroom soup.
At home – dinner with the family – was simple but good. Aunt Zhenya does very good appetizer things: Syrian marinated eggplant with cloves and vinegar and who knows what, a red sauce with garlic and red peppers to eat with bread or crackers, an amazing egg salad with a green onion like thing. Her main courses were much more simple (fish, chicken, turkey, green veggie, potatoes) and not how I would cook things (a little too cooked for me), but tasty none-the-less. And then dessert: home made cherry jam, different kinds of cookies, cream puffs, and tea of course.
I thought I could lose a little weight by walking all over hell and back and not eating too much junk. Wrong! The sweets were too enticing. Oh, not to mention the cheese with bread or crackers at every meal just about. I just couldn’t resist. Now when I get home I am going to have to cut out sugar altogether. I forgot my stevia and as a result had sugar with my tea every morning, afternoon and evening. I am also going to go through serious caffeine withdrawal. Hmm. Fun. Although I am looking forward to eating fruit and veggies at every meal with little else. There isn’t the same kind of variety as we have in California unless you want to pay out the nose.
There was a salad at every meal, which was very good. And I had bananas at breakfast with my oatmeal (what Aunt Rita calls “flakes.”) Rita also introduced me to what she called “curds.” I would say it is a cross between cottage cheese and ricotta with a bit of a yogurt sourness. I loved it. We ate it with flavored yogurt, the applesauce I made, and jam.

Moscow Style

Moscow women don’t eat, walk a lot and wear impossibly high heels. Actually, it is true, there are very few over weight people in general in Moscow & St. Petersburg. The women are fashionistas for the most part. They are skinny and have great style. I think they probably spend a ton of money on fashion. There are designer stores everywhere and they aren’t for the tourists for the most part. When I first arrived it was quite cold in Moscow and the uniform for most women was black shirt & jeans tucked into tall black, spiked heeled boots. Often the boots were platform with stiletto heels. I tried to imagine wearing something like that and got a foot ache just thinking about it. Then I pondered the idea of walking around in those on snow, ice and slush. Not my idea of a good time.
The other thing I saw a lot of is the recently deemed stylish shoe boot. A stiletto heeled shoe with a short boot-like upper bit. I know my friend Maeve hates that style, so every time I saw a pair I thought of her. I didn’t see one pair that would have been acceptable. As soon as the weather started getting warm (which was pretty much by the second or third day) people shed their boots for more comfortable walking wear, like stiletto (fuck me) pumps. It was particularly funny to see girls trying to walk on the cobblestone at the Red Square with those things on. Actually, many also opted for flats, fancy loafers, and even some sandals. It seemed that people were having a hard time believing that it was going to stay warm. Even when it was in the high 70s I saw lots of coats, scarves, and sweaters.
Men’s fashion was nothing to get excited about. Mostly men were non-descript and could have been from any country. There were lots of pointy-ish black dress shoes. I even saw one guy with white shoes. My mother always told me not to trust a man in white shoes. Take her advice. Gym shoes don’t count.

DIRT Russian Style

I have never experienced dirt like the dirt in Moscow and St. Petersburg. When I first arrived my Aunt Zhenya told me (translated by Mark), “We wash our hands before dinner here.” So, dutifully, I washed my hands. I didn’t really think much of it. I try to remember to do the same at home. But, as the days went by, I realized the washing the hands thing is no joke. Every time I washed my hands, especially after coming in from walking around town, taking the Metro, etc. I would have gray suds. To get clean would take a good 30 seconds of washing. I wonder if they get sick less there due to washing their hands more often? The benefit of dirt?
I started to see that my hands weren’t the only thing getting dirty. My clothes, my shoes, my purse (pretty much destroyed – I am hoping it can be washed, but with pink leather I have my doubts), my hair, my face. You get the idea.
This is part of why people take off their shoes when they come in the door. Every home has a collection of slippers for guests to wear when they come over. I really get it. Most days my shoes were covered in dirt and dust when I came home from sight-seeing. I was giving Galia a hard time in St. Petersburg because each time before leaving the apartment she would brush her shoes off. I would joke with her that they would just get dirty again. I couldn’t persuade her, so eventually I started doing it as well. It seemed like a good idea to maybe make my shoes last a little longer?
During the day my hair would eventually begin to feel like it was plastered with dirt. Nothing was clean on my body except maybe my feet, because they had been covered with socks and shoes most of the day. Every night when I showered, I could feel the dirt and grime slowly washing off me, layer by layer.
How is it that it is so dirty there? Why have I never noticed anything like it in Mexico or other places I have traveled? Having pondered this I came up with a couple of hypotheses… In Mexico I am usually not wearing nearly as many clothes. And the clothes that I am wearing are smaller, less fabric. The shoes I wear are mostly flip-flops and don’t collect as much dust and dirt. Most of the places I have visited have less industrial made filth as well as dirt created by autos. Room service can do wonders for dirt! Maybe it isn’t as dirty?

Russian Water

No, I am not talking about vodka. That is a whole different story.
The water in Moscow & St. Petersburg is incredibly “hard. ” I guess it is filled with minerals as well as chlorine and whatever else they add to it to make it potable. Still, people usually drink bottled water. We used a filter and it was fine, although bottled was definitely better. Never mind drinking the water, it’s the bathing and washing your hands constantly (see DIRT) that takes a toll. I have never used so much lotion and cream ever. I had no idea that I would need it as much as I did, so it’s a good thing I packed so much. I used it ALL. Literally I would wash my hands and once they were dry, I could feel them cracking. Drives me crazy. My hair felt coarse no matter how much conditioner I used. My legs would feel tight and itchy if I forgot the lotion after a shower. And my arms were pretty much constantly itchy – this is already an issue for me, so it was just exacerbated by the hard water.