mexicooo- part one.

mexico is wonderful!

in great contrast to my first two hours in tijuana, the remainder of mexico has been positively delightful : ) guaymas, a small, uneventful town in the desert of northern mexico, was extraordinarily hot. the first three days i didn't even sleep because the fan was simply recirculating the warmth. not to mention the fact that my taxi driver decided to warn me that i wasn't in the best part of town, so with every strange sound i heard i pulled out my one functioning headphone and listened closely with a wildly beating heart.... not so conducive to a good night's rest. the only thing that saved my sanity was going outside every once in awhile and catching some breeze and staring at the stars and lime and mango trees off the balcony.

went to san carlos- a stupid tourist town with nothing to do... which lead me to just walk and walk and walk in the blistering heat (i didn't see one other person walking in the 3 hours i was there) because i knew there was even less to do in guaymas.

but i was wrong! i returned to guaymas thinking that maybe i could get a bus to el fuerte that same day when, on my way to the internet, i was stopped by a 53-year old flamenco guitarist on a motorcycle that goes by the name of ramon. he asked where i was from and demanded that i come for a beer with him. i politely declined, multiple times, but since my mind was actually screaming "DRINKS WITH THE LOCALS, YOU IDIOT- OPORTUNIDAD MARAVILLOSO!" i eventually gave in. but on the condition that we don't take his motorcycle. so he took my hand and lead me to bar number one. it's like 12:30 in the afternoon and this zero-ambience concrete bar is packed. awesome. the beer bottles were brought in a tin bucket of ice that fit snugly into the hole in our table- that was really neat. too many other old men were hitting on me (in espanol muy rapido so i didn't even understand them), so ramon decided we should switch bars. number two had much more character and it had a mariachi band of sorts! ramon paid for them to play me two songs... we talked about the other women in the bar and it was then that i'm non-chalantly informed that the only other women in the bar are actually prostitutes.

"ah yes, all the girls are here for sex..."
"sex for money?!"
"yes, sex for money."
"well what about me?! do they think i'm a prostitute?!"
"nono, everyone knows foreign women drink and aren't prostitutes."

glad we cleared that up. it was at bar number two that i had to make the "no tocar, no besos" (no touching, no kisses) rule because ramon kept grabbing my hand and kissing it and it was weird and i told him that. so everytime he did it i yelled "nooooo tocar, no besos!"
i still had a hacking cough at this point and ramon felt that tequila was the only thing that could cure that.... so off to the next bar. bar number three was out of tequila so we got another beer instead. bar numero cuatro was a success- not only did i get a cup of good tequila, but we also met more friends and i got to see ramon play guitar. when we left this bar ramon snuck the tequila glass into my bag... "to remember!" he said. so on our way to the next bar with our new friends i finally started to feel the day's bars... at 5:00 in the afternoon the sun is still miigghhhttyy bright. bar number five was by far the best- by the end i was dancing on the stage with the two other guys and screaming into a karaoke microphone to bryan adams. soooooo much fun. we closed the bar. at 6:30. weird. ramon ended up randomly leaving us without a goodbye at the last bar. hm. i got my portrait drawn heh. after that we went for a $3 buffet and then they walked me to my hostel. awesome day. awesome people.

next stop: el fuerte, in the copper canyon of mexico. quiet adorable little colonial town. awesome people owned the hostel and i met a french guy by the name of xavier with whom i ventured to urique with! he was hilarious and we made fun of each other a lot and he spoke most of the spanish in our trip, but thank goodness i was around when we talked about fruits and vegetables... because i was up on my food vocabularly while he knew only meat. anyway, to get to urique we took the train, which is a famous route due to its extraordinary beauty, then we walked awhile and then hitched a couple different beautiful beautiful rides on hay and wet, uncomfortable metal, and then, while waiting next to a drug cartel, we finally caught the bus. when i sat down beside the very old lady she did a little prayer gesture when the bus started up and i got frightened. scariest ride of my life i think- even worse than india, but thankfully slower than india! when i looked out the window all i saw was.. down. it was also probably the most beautiful ride of my life- the sun was just setting and the mountains/canyons of urique dropped straight down and they were striped and coloured and bare and forested and... gorgeous. my damn camera was stuck in the bag in the back.

next morn i saw a donkey versus dog fight. we photocopied a photocopy of a photocopied shit map and headed out into the forest! on the road to the forest there were cacti hedges which i thought was SUPER cool, and we got a few rides, one of which was a 10-year old driver. i loved the ¨normal¨forest meets cacti pictures... interesting and unexpected mix! we had to get redirected a few times, but after a beautiful, extremely strenuous, and ridiculously hot hike we made it to los alisos by 3:30. xavier was so far ahead of me that when i came upon the indigenous raramuri woman with her children in my exhausted state, all i could think to say in spanish was ühhh... white man?¨. they lauhed and told me he was around the corner. this ¨village¨of one house and a mud hut ended up being the ¨village¨we were supposed to rest the first night. so we did! we bathed in the river and ate mangoes straight from the tree and talked to the owner and the others. it was awesome! sat in front of our mud hot, wrote in my journal and watched the sun go down behind the mountains before it started pouring. the owner´s warning of scorpions at night scared the crap out of me and when i finally DID get to sleep, i was just quickly awoken by nightmares of scorpions! psychological torture... fun.

next morn a man with a mule had arrived to the ¨village¨. he was walking our way anyway so he took our packs on his mule for four hours. thank GOD because i don´t know if i would have made it without that animal! it got worse after that though... it was fine for awhile, but then we got lost again and ended up trying to scale a friggin cliffside and i was TERRIFIED. xavier was super far ahead of me so i just let the tears go... i was so very scared! it would have mmaaayybe been a different story if i wasn´t wearing a GIANT, extremely heavy backpack (as an indication for you, every male mexican that puts my bag on a bus or the back of a truck lets out a grunt and tells me i must be very strong!) and if the rocks of the cliff didn´t MOVE... but they did... and it was horrible. i ended up just sliding down half of it on my bum and then sitting on a rock surrounded by bushes, and here i remained, trying to get my act together. what was worse was that xavier yelled at me that we were going the wrong way and we´d have to head back. i could have killed him. but i got back up and we found a different, much less stressful route down the mountain! phew.

we ended up in the village of cerro colorado after that and we slept on the floor of the hallway of a random family! it was beautiful because it was my first night in mexico with serious air flow. also, we got fed, got a shower, had great conversation with the family and two other volunteers from chihuahua who were staying with them, and i got to make tortillas with the brother! who could ask for more? that night i awoke because i felt a quick blunt, moist pressure on my eye. flustered, i opened my eyes to be staring into those of a giant toad. i laughed.. so hard. i´ve been hopped on by a toad. or maybe it was a kiss.

day three of the trek was one of those ¨you have to laugh because if you take it seriously you´ll kill yourself¨kindof days. julia, the old grandmother of the house, told us it was a half hour to the main road, from which we could get a ride to batopilas. five hours later, after trekking through rivers and waterfalls, getting lost, and ending up on my hands n knees climbing under trees... we arrived in batopilas. no road. my feet hurt like hell being soaked and ripped apart by the trek. i was in such pain that i was in a euphoric mood. that trek bruised my shoulders because my pack was so heavy, plus i felt like it was going to break my collarbone and it restricted my airflow. my shit runners were so thin i could feet every rock on the path. i sweat so much it looked like i wet myself and my pigtails were faucets from which the sweat of my skull dripped. in conclusion... not incredibly pleasant. but it just makes the shower and beer and amazing enchilada and pitcher of fresh lemonade and clean clothes feel that much better. batopilas was dull, but it felt victorious. the hotel we stayed at had mango trees everywhere, ad when they hit the tin roofs they sounded like gunshots. it was entertaining.

next day was spent in its entirety waiting for a ride to creel. we had no desire to wake up at 4:00 in the morning for the bus, so this was the only option. after five hours and a game of rock paper scissors, we got a ride to guachochi, which was completely out of the way from creel, but at least we got out of the mountains. they people who gave us a ride were SUPER nice and the ascent out of the canyon was gorgeous. good tunes and good conversation. the beat of his bass was so strong it made me cough. in just 3 hours of driving there was a 20 degree temperature difference! unbelievable.
we arrived in guachochi at 10pm and by 11pm we were hunting the streets for vendors. found an awesome taco vendor who obviously couldn´t feed me meat tacos, but he gave me tacos of fillings! fried onions, cabbage, chilies, lime, salsa. hit the spot heh. then made me feel sick.

next stop was creel. a very touristy town, but a welcome change, and very cute nonetheless. met TONS of people in the hostel and had lots of fun with them. had my first ¨corn with cream and lime and chile¨concoction off the street... delicious. the next day i took a mountain bike and explored the surrounding countryside. saw lake arareko and its beautiful accompanying unique forest, then tons of rock formations with names like ¨valley of the erect penises-monks, valley of the frogs, and valley of the mushrooms¨. the formations were from volcanic eruptions that were than cracked by tectonic activity and then were shaped by water flow! they were gorgeous and the erect penises were extremely serene. loved it. the second night in creel was even more enjoyable than the first. it was a group of people who were all extremely non-judgemental and positive and fun and awesome and we went out for fruit shakes and beer (women and men, respectively) and had a grand time. good vibes. i bought earrings from a woman off the street that night... her sons were calling harry potter on the pay phone.

then took a bus to chihuahua. met one lady who asked me if i had kids. i laughed and said no, i´m only twenty-one. she just blinked and stared at me blankly like ¨your point?¨. sá different world. i also met a lovely lady and her son on the bus. she ended up helping me with my spanish, helping me find my next bus, and then giving me a ride to the centre of chihuahua! she was so sweet. the city was very nice, with a vegetarian restaurant (my GOD i was so excited to eat there... and it delivered- best veggie burger i´ve ever had) and a museo de la revolucion mexicana. the museum was a let-down. i wanted to learn about the revolution but it was just a collection of hats and guns and junk from people that were a part of the revolution. bboooo-ring. i walked back to the centro, past the quinta gamero (a palace built for a fiancee and then she fell in love and married the architect instead.. ouch.. but GORGEOUS and interesting architecture). i was only in chihuahua for 4 hours, then took a bus to zacatecas. there weren´t many people on the bus- maybe nine or so- but we were watching a movie called ¨little man¨or something with the wayans brothers, and at one point of the movie the ENTIRE bus was filled with laughter- like, three minutes, unstoppable, hysterical laughter.. i was crying... we had a moment! i felt like it brought the bus together hehe.

i´m so far behind that i´m going to stop now and post this, even though it´s not up to date. hope all is well,
mucho amor!