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Wednesday, February 9, 2011
My travels: This is the END...beautiful friends
My travels: This is the END...beautiful friends: "Hope you'll forgive my reckless appropriation of one of the Door's most famous song,no helicopters in sight and no napalm I promise this in ..."
This is the END...beautiful friends
Hope you'll forgive my reckless appropriation of one of the Door's most famous song,no helicopters in sight and no napalm I promise this in reference to Apocalypse Now for lurking film buffs out there.
I wanted to end with a few anecdotal comments. For instance I noticed that I haven't talked much about food in my blog entries. There's a very good reason for that. Neither of us are big fans of Mexican cuisine. This has caused a little bit of a problem in past trips but this time we managed okay, mostly stayed away from too many tacos and overly fried food seemed to ease the pain somewhat. It's not all bad. If you're going to have tacos "al pastor" with the meat spinning on a stick is the best. At least it's recognizable as meat whereas other times it's so chopped up it's dubious which part of the animal it actually came from. I don't mind the sausage tacos either. The sausage is mildly spicy and makes for a bit of a change. This time we stayed away from fish and shrimp tacos. The problem is they batter the fish and the shrimps so you're eating carbs upon carbs, and they're very hard to digest unless you follow the meal with an unhealthy dose of Coke, not the greatest combination in the world.
Breakfasts in Queretaro were the best. They always serve you a basket of sweet rolls, assorted pastries which can be croissants or something else. Depending on the restaurant you sometimes have to pay for the amount you consume prior to your actual breakfast but sometimes not.
It's the only place so far in Mexico where we've seen that being done.
In Mexico City they serve huge tacos which are called "huaraches" just like the famous shoes.
They're not so great but they're interesting to try ONCE.
Favorite local drinks have been "horchata" which is a rice milk beverage usually flavored with
either vanilla or cinnamon. They keep it ice cold in these huge glass containers. We've never gotten sick from drinking horchata. There's also "jamaica" which is red and made from hibiscus
flowers. It's also served from similar containers. I don't like it as much but it will refresh you in a pinch. We haven't had too many memorable meals as such. Ate lots of "camarones" and fish but there's not much variety in the way they're prepared and it doesn't matter whether you pay a lot or little it's pretty well the same. For a totally different taste you would have to go to really expensive "fusion type cuisine" restaurants and we're usually too cheap to do that.
Although we did splurge on that French restaurant in Puerto Vallarta.
Mexico is not just the Mexico of cruises, beaches, sun, beer and all inclusives. There are plenty of villages in the interior where people are clinging to a way of life which is slowly disappearing. Indigenous languages are being lost, whole populations migrate to cities where all they do is sell trinkets and crap that very few people want to buy anymore. I spoke to a vendor who makes his own stuff and he told me that a lot of the so-called cheaper variety "artesania" is now made in China. I don't find that hard to believe. From one end of Mexico to the other, regardless of what beach or square you're on it's the same mind numbingly bad stuff. There is still real "artesania" to be found for sure but you have to go into boutique stores more and more to find it. Everything is flattened out, that's the price of globalization when entire cultures can be ripped off and sold again at bargain basement prices. Okay Mexico is not there yet but it's coming.
Regardless of its flaws it's still a beautiful country in many ways and what really makes it so appealing are the people. Mexicans are friendly, fun loving and generous. They're also, for the most part, unfailingly polite. It's such a change from Canada where people rarely say hello to each other. We like that a lot. We're not sure when we'll be back. This is possibly the last time we drive to Mexico. We've done it twice now and it is very far away. Driving though gives way to new insights and absurd sights as well. In Queretaro at a stop a man had three things to sell: a huge calculator (China) a medium size globe (China) and a wooden coat rack (not sure where that came from but probably China too). You just never know when you might get the urge to buy one of those three things while waiting for a light to change.
In Mexico in addition to the usual windshield washer crews you can also find the dust removing crew. They have these big mops which they gently swipe over your car while you wait, not a very successful business and not much of a living but unfortunately too many people are stuck doing whatever it takes to rub two pesos together. It's sad,very sad to know that you could be back in 5 years and they might still be doing the same thing, hopelessly.
No shortage of babies in Mexico either although the educated class is sticking to the 2 or 3 rule which is great because it can't afford to have too many more people. I've also noticed that there seems to be a lot more girls than boys I think it's a worldwide trend not specific to here.
Time to move on, hope you've enjoyed traveling with us, thanks for having stuck with it and having accompanied us on this journey, hasta luego amigos.
I wanted to end with a few anecdotal comments. For instance I noticed that I haven't talked much about food in my blog entries. There's a very good reason for that. Neither of us are big fans of Mexican cuisine. This has caused a little bit of a problem in past trips but this time we managed okay, mostly stayed away from too many tacos and overly fried food seemed to ease the pain somewhat. It's not all bad. If you're going to have tacos "al pastor" with the meat spinning on a stick is the best. At least it's recognizable as meat whereas other times it's so chopped up it's dubious which part of the animal it actually came from. I don't mind the sausage tacos either. The sausage is mildly spicy and makes for a bit of a change. This time we stayed away from fish and shrimp tacos. The problem is they batter the fish and the shrimps so you're eating carbs upon carbs, and they're very hard to digest unless you follow the meal with an unhealthy dose of Coke, not the greatest combination in the world.
Breakfasts in Queretaro were the best. They always serve you a basket of sweet rolls, assorted pastries which can be croissants or something else. Depending on the restaurant you sometimes have to pay for the amount you consume prior to your actual breakfast but sometimes not.
It's the only place so far in Mexico where we've seen that being done.
In Mexico City they serve huge tacos which are called "huaraches" just like the famous shoes.
They're not so great but they're interesting to try ONCE.
Favorite local drinks have been "horchata" which is a rice milk beverage usually flavored with
either vanilla or cinnamon. They keep it ice cold in these huge glass containers. We've never gotten sick from drinking horchata. There's also "jamaica" which is red and made from hibiscus
flowers. It's also served from similar containers. I don't like it as much but it will refresh you in a pinch. We haven't had too many memorable meals as such. Ate lots of "camarones" and fish but there's not much variety in the way they're prepared and it doesn't matter whether you pay a lot or little it's pretty well the same. For a totally different taste you would have to go to really expensive "fusion type cuisine" restaurants and we're usually too cheap to do that.
Although we did splurge on that French restaurant in Puerto Vallarta.
Mexico is not just the Mexico of cruises, beaches, sun, beer and all inclusives. There are plenty of villages in the interior where people are clinging to a way of life which is slowly disappearing. Indigenous languages are being lost, whole populations migrate to cities where all they do is sell trinkets and crap that very few people want to buy anymore. I spoke to a vendor who makes his own stuff and he told me that a lot of the so-called cheaper variety "artesania" is now made in China. I don't find that hard to believe. From one end of Mexico to the other, regardless of what beach or square you're on it's the same mind numbingly bad stuff. There is still real "artesania" to be found for sure but you have to go into boutique stores more and more to find it. Everything is flattened out, that's the price of globalization when entire cultures can be ripped off and sold again at bargain basement prices. Okay Mexico is not there yet but it's coming.
Regardless of its flaws it's still a beautiful country in many ways and what really makes it so appealing are the people. Mexicans are friendly, fun loving and generous. They're also, for the most part, unfailingly polite. It's such a change from Canada where people rarely say hello to each other. We like that a lot. We're not sure when we'll be back. This is possibly the last time we drive to Mexico. We've done it twice now and it is very far away. Driving though gives way to new insights and absurd sights as well. In Queretaro at a stop a man had three things to sell: a huge calculator (China) a medium size globe (China) and a wooden coat rack (not sure where that came from but probably China too). You just never know when you might get the urge to buy one of those three things while waiting for a light to change.
In Mexico in addition to the usual windshield washer crews you can also find the dust removing crew. They have these big mops which they gently swipe over your car while you wait, not a very successful business and not much of a living but unfortunately too many people are stuck doing whatever it takes to rub two pesos together. It's sad,very sad to know that you could be back in 5 years and they might still be doing the same thing, hopelessly.
No shortage of babies in Mexico either although the educated class is sticking to the 2 or 3 rule which is great because it can't afford to have too many more people. I've also noticed that there seems to be a lot more girls than boys I think it's a worldwide trend not specific to here.
Time to move on, hope you've enjoyed traveling with us, thanks for having stuck with it and having accompanied us on this journey, hasta luego amigos.
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