tequila!!

Yes, we made it to the town of Tequila, about 50 kms from Guadalajara. Beautiful situation surrounded by ranges and by farms growing blue agave. The town is still small, but thriving with a good tourist trade and from tequila. Jose Cuervo has a factory tour there, which showed us the barrels, vats and the bad smell, but also gave us a free margarita at the end. You will have to visit Connie.

which is tyce

One of the pictures is Tyce and one is of Jose's nephew Juan Pablo, who is 4 years old and might be even naughtier than Tyce. When I showed him the picture of Tyce and asked who it was, he said me.

spanish lesson 1 - greetings

mexicans part 2

There is a strong sense of identity in Mexico, with flags and symbols everywhere. There is also a strong security presence with security and police walking around with sawn off shotguns in the cities.
At 6 pm the soldiers are taking down this huge flag in the middle of Mexico Cityand they had to make sure no part touched the ground. There was a bit of a wind blowing so they had a hard time of it at first.
I suppose if you have such a big neighbor, you like to stand up for your own special character. I didn't expect it to be so obvious or so catchy. It feels good to be Mexicano, and since they are not so tall and fairly solid, I fit right in.

mexican army

the old and the new

Mexico City is a massive place about the same size as all of Tokyo. We stayed at the Guadelupe missionaries seminary on the south side, which meant about an hour and a half commutes to the places of interest. Metrobuses (bendy buses like in Brisbane) with dedicated stations and lanes are big both in Mexico City and Guadalajara. I use one to get to Spanish school and it is fast and reasonably cheap, only about 1 dollar Aus. Some of the buses are extra long with two bends in them. In Mexico after the pyramids we went to the Anthropology Museum. Thats where I got a real eye-opening into the rich and diverse history of Mexico. Alot of it is still being dug up, with new civilizations still being discovered. We did less than half of the museum that was plenty.

climbing pyramids

Mexico is an old country and has a long diverse history. We visited the pyramids outside of Mexico City at Teotihuacan, called the pyramids of the sun and the moon. There was major city here for 700 years from the time of Christ, before the Aztec or Maya. There were alot of civilizations that interacted with each other throughout central America.
The climb wasn't too bad, like walking up out of the subways. Still it a special feeling being on something so old that still has a kind of energy about it. My back had been aching sitting in the mini-van as we toured around, and either the climb or the special psychic power of the place made it feel better.

mexicans

With some of Jose's friends in San Juan.
As you can see there is a great variety in the looks of Mexicans. Where ever I go, I am spoken to in Spanish. I wear a baseball cap for the local soccer team and sunglasses and no one knows the difference until I open my mouth. In Japan where you always stand out, its a different feeling people thinking you are local. My Spanish is picking up and I can at least guess what people are saying to me even if I cant reply. Homework awaits, Leo

taxco, silver town

Taxco tumbles down the side of a mountain, near silver mines that have been dug for hundreds of years. The Spanish took over from the Aztecs, and fortunately as there has not been much growth in the last century, the old Spanish town still remains. There are alot of alleys and little plazas that look very inviting to explore. And as there are stairs everywhere, not so many cars. We were only there for three hours but felt I could spend a week there exploring, as well as checking out the silver shops.

valle de bravo

Up in the mountains two hours from Mexico city is the resort town of Valle de Bravo. Kind of like Queenstown, without the ski-fields, but probably more expensive real estate. It rained everyday, and with the aggies, NZ flax and toe-toe around the place it had a real NZ feel about it. Jose's friends own a restaurant next to the lake, so we where extremely well fed the couple of days we were there. The area is almost the opposite of Jalisco and what we ordinarily think about when we think about Mexico - green, wet, wealthy. Still I did have some tequila there.

travels in mexico

View mexico travels in a larger map

catch-up

Emma received a special hand made certificate for winning the guess-the-beads comp. from Eve. Ryan got his trip to the US, where his team won the top prize for the competition.
I am at language school, where I can finally have unlimited access to the web and can load up plenty. I may need more than two weeks to learn Spanish, but I can order food and drink and find a bus.

jalisco state

I thought Mexico in summer time was going to be hot, but I would just put up with it. Its not. Guadalajara is 1500 m. above sea level, that's the ski field on the mountain, while San Juan and Mexico city are over 2000 m., that's Fantham's peak. The night times are always cool, you need long sleeves and daytime is okay in the shade. Tokyo and Seoul are so much worse. This time of year is great and I have avoided the worse of Tokyo's summer. However as the air is thinner, I burn really quickly. I am learning to put on sunblock ever for short times.
Jalisco state is kind of the heartland of Mexico. The home of Tequila, mariachi and sombreros. It still has a strong country feel about it, and around San Juan, most of the men wear jeans, cowboy hats and drive utes. The women tend to wear clothes a size or two too small. There are plenty of kids around and after Japan, Mexico does feel like a young country. However that makes me feel old.

San Juan de los Lagos

Text for the photo below - a little late.
San Juan is Jose's hometown and down below you see him with his mother.
The cathedral in town is famous for a statue of Mary and has become a place of pilgrimage. We were there for the feast of the Assumption, which is held in the plaza in front of the cathedral. I concelebrated the mass and got well sunburnt. I did think I should wear a hat and forgot the sunscreen. About ten thousand people turned up. The next day we had a barbecue, where some of Jose's friends with families turned up. Even the kids speak Spanish!