Odds and ends

 -- A camouflage painted VW van with half a dozen surf boards strapped to the top just pulled into our cabanas. I think the expression “Surf the Revolution” is incredibly cool.

-- The automated announcement service at the Matehuala bus station sounded shockingly like a Spanish-speaking version of the insane computer in Portal. I kept imagining what it must have been saying: “The 11:45 bus to San Luis Potosi is now departing from gate 8. There will be cake aboard the bus. And we will not try to murder you at all. Instead we’ll simply try to drive you insane by making you watch a horrible D&D movie, dubbed into Spanish. For three hours.”

-- Horchata Tang -> surprisingly satisfying substitute for the real thing. Allen, take note in case you see it in some specialty section. Just don’t make it full strength.

-- Btw, I’ll mention again: getting a 20 liter water jug saves you a bunch of money over buying a bunch of pre-cooled 1.5 liter bottles. Petra says I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating. We can get a 20 liter jug for between 13 and 25 pesos plus bottle deposit, whereas a 1.5 liter water bottle costs usually 11 pesos each. If you buy a packet of Tang in one of about 20 flavors (about 4 pesos average per pack) you can easily flavor 6-8 liters. Now for the effort of carrying around a 45lb (20 kilo) jug a bit you can save lots of money over buying small bottles of water or soda. If you’re traveling mid- to long-term, take heed.

-- In Poza Rica, the oil-field city we couchsurfed in for a week, there was a café that served café petrolero – oilman’s coffee. And it was seriously dark, although Petra (the resident coffee expert) declared it not very strong. But the place had free refills and was open 24 hours. Still would blow the socks off, say, your average cup of coffee in Ohio.

-- In Puerto Escondido, we have iguanas. About six to ten of them would sun themselves in the morning on the edge of a wall under the kitchen, and one or two could usually be found roaming around during the afternoon. Also, multiple smaller lizards to be found in the toilet bowls. Friends from law school might remember why I find that a highly stressful situation.

-- A few weeks after we arrived in Mexico, I was interested to see that Mexico City (which is also what we in the US would call a state) legalized gay marriage. I don’t understand all the ins-and-outs of Mexican politics, but my first blush reaction is that when a country as traditionally Catholic starts to legalize gay marriage, even if only in parts of the country, that is a real sign of the times.

-- One of the other long-term residents of our cabanas asked to use our computer to check her internet, then offered us some bracelets in thanks (she and her boyfriend make jewelry to sell on the beaches). I asked Petra to pick out mine, and she chose one of knotted waxed thread in purple, black and ochre. Not my first choice, but I kind of liked it. Then I noticed it matched the floppy hat I got in Bangkok, a hat that Petra also picked out for me. I take it my fashion consultant has a preferred color-scheme in mind for me.

Travel-Trivia: Real de Catorce

Drinking Water Task
Filling the water bottles is definitely a task for two. We have noticed that from a certain size of bottles upwards the prize stays nearly the same (around 16 pesos); the bigger the better. And with Simeon and his water intake it becomes a task. The 20l bottle needs to be placed on a chair, one pouring and the other one catching the drops into our carry-around-bottles. At least the water puddle dries up very quickly - we are after all in the desert.

Mopping Men
Did I think Mexico could be a rather grungy place? Oh no; not where we have been so far. You can eat of the floors, which seem to be the center of the cleanliness. Hours are spent on re-cleaning the floor. It helps that the men here know how to use a mop properly themselves – all duties so far seem to be shared; except for cleaning the car: every day I see at least one man cleaning a car, not only Sundays (preferred car wash day in Germany).

Where To Keep Your Dog
Where do you keep your dog? On the roof of course! It is a bit haunting to me, hearing a dog bark just on top of my head – even if I might be at a safer distance to the dog than otherwise. There are not that many dogs just hanging around in the streets and I would say that the few are in general very well behaved; like the one that just sat patiently; waiting for the leftover chicken skin.

Yesterday we got drunk – if you don’t eat it works even better or faster or more.

Final Thoughts on Matehuala

The Rubber Band Technique
Right now I am craving for a hot fresh soy milk, from a market in Thailand – delicious, especially if you ask for less sugar. Today is the first time we bought a fluid in a plastic bag here, but they seem to use a different rubber band technique to keep the bag closed than in Thailand (both ways seal the bag, nothing escapes). It was freshly pressed orange juice, lots of vitamins but a bit sour. I tried several times to learn the Thai rubber band technique – it is so handy; if I only could remember…

Smells
Walking: All of a sudden there is an overwhelming flowery sweet smell in the air, it must come from behind that wall – maybe a great courtyard? A lot of times we follow the smells: good food, gardens or forests, the ocean (I loved the days where I could smell the sea in London; sea breezes are just special) - of course we try to avoid the stinkies.

How To Start The Day
The guy cleaning the rooms has chosen the breakfast music of the day: classical – sounds familiar? When I started helping out at the Mut Mee Guesthouse in Nongkhai, Thailand, there was an unwritten rule: start the day with some culture, classical music waving through the garden while the sun still tries to warm up the air, rising it to a the scorching heat (with all the concrete in town to help it along). It was amazing how I could feel the air getting cooler every single step approaching the garden from the Soi leading to the Mekong River. What a difference a few plants can make.

Pretty Frames Are The Decoration Of The Day

In our room in Matehuala I liked particularly “the mirror that has seen better times before” without the glass it is just a pretty frame. I could still make out that it must have been a mirror – just about. And the room actually had a window to the little courtyard and a door that you could just leave open as a big window. I could just not appreciate enough the fact that natural light was getting into our room. When I looked out the window I saw the top of the tree that is dominating the courtyard - like the hotel has been built around the tree. I always liked a pretty view and green is one of my favorites. I could hear the wind in the leaves, birds and a distant chatter of people.
Some of the roads there curve just to avoid taking down a tree in the middle of the city and a little cement-fence is built around it to protect it getting hit by cars.

A Stroll With Obstacles (Matehuala, Mexico)

Narrow spaces! Let me tell you about narrow spaces: you got to pay attention or you turn the next corner in the street and run into the next lamp post or other weird obstacle - like in a cartoon.

And high borders between the sidewalk and the road: if you hit that with your car (even an SUV), it’s not just meaning a flat tire, the whole front gets crushed. Climbing that down and up, every time you cross the street: it’s a full workout ;). In the US people actually did ask us repeatedly how we keep in shape...

We usually walk everywhere, unless we go for a special target or - for whatever reason - get too tired or lost; especially if we get distracted and just follow the music, but usually we are at least pretty good at retracing our steps.