Last day in Mexico!

Can you tell I am excited to leave Mexico and get back to the States? We had a really fantastic trip, but I am looking forward to returning to the States, particularly after being here for Semana Santa. One thing both Luke and I are not looking forward to are the increased prices in the States and finding a job.

The buses keep rolling in to town. Today we got up and there was a car parked in front of the driveway/gate so we couldn't drive anywhere until Mom found the owner to move the car. Luckily they were staying at the bungalows a few doors down and they promptly moved their car. There are no parking signs in front of the house, but it's Mexico and anything goes here.............. Also, there was a tent set up in the street in front of the house and guys sleeping on the sidewalk right in front of our front door.

We drove over to La Penita today to go to the Tianguis, which was pretty crowded with Mexican tourists, and bought about 3 kilos of coffee (you can't beat $3 per pound) and 1 kilo of jamaica to bring back to the States. Wow, my backpack is 100% full, that stuff takes up alot of space. The tianguis wasn't too eventful, we got what we needed and got out of there quickly to get back to the house. However, we got stuck in the traffic jam of tourists heading south to Guayabitos from Guadalajara and the interstate. It took about 20 minutes or more to go 2 miles, usually it only takes about 5 minutes.

Tonight I went out to dinner at Ricardo's Pizza for pizza and calzones as my last meal in Mexico. Then we took a walk on the beach to see what the scene was like around 6pm and it was pretty busy still, many bands patrolling the beach looking for a paying customer to play for. Tomorrow I will get up and head back through the traffic jam to La Penita in order to catch the Pacifico bus back to Puerto Vallarta and catch my Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle. My friend Anne will be picking me up and we will head right to her home in Wenatchee, WA. Next week I head to Victor, Idaho, to visit my sister for 6 days, then to Boulder, CO to visit my brother. Luke and I meet up in Colorado on April 19 (finally!) where we will meet up with friends Adam and Mara for about 10 days.

It is back to Alaska in early May where we will have to find new jobs and move back into our house. I am looking forward to not living out of a backpack and getting the summer started! Perfect timing on our return date, we will make it there to see green up (spring). We'll probably post some Alaskan type blog entries when we return, and we will try to have a follow-up blog entry describing our culture shock returning to the states and reflections of the trip. We hope you enjoyed following our trip on this blog!

Hasta la vista!

The ugly side of Semana Santa

Okay, I admit, I dislike Semana Santa (Holy Week) and don't recommend spending time in a Latin American country during this week! Basically, Semana Santa entails alot of partying at the beach and drinking beer with friends and family. You wouldn't believe it but they come from all over Mexico here to Guayabitos for the inexpensive accommodations/restaurants and the beautiful beach. I met some people from Tijuana today and there are license plates from Mexico City, Guanajuato, Michoacan, etc. It really wouldn't be that bad here if they would simply turn down the volume! Today, really bad American 80's music was blasted in the morning, Mexican pop music in the afternoon, and now tonight (at 10pm) it is Mexican karaoke, with really bad singers, all of it blasting right into our house from the bungalow hotel across the street. Also, we don't have window glass over half the windows (only screens), so it is not possible to shut out the noise, we must just endure it. I have started singing along with some of the songs I recognize after hearing them at least 5 times during the day. I'll have to find a copy of the bootleg CD at the Tianguis to bring back to the States.

There at least 5 bands based a few blocks from our house and they do alot of practicing during the day (and night). Mom said she can hear their music playing during the middle of the night (2am and later). There are many people at the beach, but it is supposed to get really crowed Wednesday through Sunday. Thursday is Holy Thursday and Friday is Good Friday and Sunday is Easter, I am guessing the fireworks will start sometime soon and I am surprised to not have heard them yet. Buses and cars pull in really early in the morning, luckily I don't hear much because my room is in the interior and I have a fan going. I guarantee all this will get worse as the week goes on......

We took a walk to the beach today and hung out at Tequila Willies beach restaurant in order to chat with our friend Juana (who is the same age as me), who works there in the kitchen and she used to help my mom clean the house. We did get to enjoy some mariachi music, a band was playing for a family at the beach bar next door. Jauna's son, 5 year old Chuy, was there hanging out all day and her other kids, Alex (10 years) and Carolina (13) were walking the beach selling fake tattoos and hair braiding to the tourists. Alex is saving to buy a bicycle so we chipped in and each got a 5 peso temporary tattoo, that will supposedly last 2 weeks.

I asked Luke what he noticed the most when returning to the States (he is in Wisconsin visiting family) and he thought it was really quiet and clean and orderly in the States, way less chaotic..... The thing I look forward to most is the peace and quiet at our house in Alaska and being able to fall asleep without wearing earplugs each night (except when Luke has to get up early in the morning to watch the Packers on TV)!

Semana Santa begins

The buses began rolling in on Saturday morning, carrying Mexicans from faraway places such as Guadalajara, Mexico City, and more. Guayabitos is set up with lots of hotels, restaurants, beach shops, etc. and so tons of Mexicans like to vacation here during Christmas and Semana Santa. Apparently, the population goes from a few thousand to several tens of thousands overnight! Music is blasting from the hotel across the street today all day long, hopefully it gets turned off at night. Today we walked the beach and it wasn't too bad, there was still some beach spots available, but we were there during low tide, during high tide it is probably pretty packed. It will likely get worse the entire week, until Easter hits on Sunday, which will be the biggest day of all. Luckily I'll be gone by then! I am glad that my parents are moving to the nearby town of La Penita next month, so they don't have to be here again for the mayhem.

Last night we went over to some friends for a fish dinner (dorado, yum) and got to watch humpback whales playing and jumping out of the water from their rooftop through the binoculars. It was quite spectacular to see them leaping out of the water and crashing back down, creating a tremendous splash. They should be heading north now, like us, back to Alaska!

Last Thursday we hit the tianguis (not selling things - buying things) and I picked up some kitchen essentials and bootleg DVDs to bring back to the states. I decided we needed a good lime squeezer and a frijoles masher for making our own homemade refried beans. I am still considering getting a tortilla press, because it doesn't seem right to eat scrambled eggs without corn tortillas!

I did make it to the dentist Friday to get my cavities filled and was pretty impressed with the Mexican dentist. He didn't have to use novacaine and there was no pain at all, and it was very fast, less than 30 minutes in and out! I think you can't beat the prices down here either.

Well, this will be my last week here, I take off on Friday April 6 to visit friends and family in the lower 48 for a few weeks. Hopefully I'll have some more exciting things to post this week as Semana Santa progresses.