- April 26, 2005: Onward to Oaxaca via bus!
- April 26 - 30, 2005: Oaxaca City
- April 30, 2005: Mexico City, Day 1
- May 1, 2005: Mexico City, Day 2, Banchi returns
- May 2, 2005: Mexico City, Day 3, we visit Abe's brother
- May 3, 2005: Mexico City, Day 4, back to Tio Jorge's
- May 4, 2005: Mexico City, the rest
- May 9, 2005: Morelia, here we come
April 26, 2005: Onward to Oaxaca via bus!
Once again the boat is in a marina. But this time we're leaving it for a road trip. They're so fun! Mexico has great bus lines, but when I first imagined taking buses for a road trip, I imagined the run-down chicken buses. Maybe it's from watching Romancing the Stone too often (remember the one? Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner. Towards the beginning of the movie, she takes a bus to find her sister in Columbia. It's a run-down chicken bus. Good movie.). The bus station in Huatulco is extremely small, but the buses coming and going were luxurious. The Greyhound Buses in the States have absolutely nothing compared to these buses. Abe and I decided they were German or Swedish models, tight turning radii, great seats, bathrooms you're not afraid to use, etc.
This was our bus. It's just as nice inside!
The road to Oaxaca the City is a curvy one. I thought being in the front seats of the bus would give us a bird's eye view of the travels. I was right. What I didn't count on was the driver. I'm not implying that he was a bad driver. He's just a driver used to each and every curve in that road, and it felt like we were on two wheels the entire time. We were completely safe, but the bird's eye view was a bit unnerving. What made it a bit worse was when I would look at the speedometer. "Oh my gosh, we're going 70 miles an hour around this curve. What the heck is he thinking?!?!" Oh, but wait. It's in kilometers per hour. "Oh my gosh, what are we doing going around this curve at 45 kilometers per hour?!?!" Seriously, it was very safe. Each bus has a "copilot" that is an electric tracking device to ensure that the drivers don't speed. It's equipped with a GPS and gives the driver an acceptable speed for that area (not necessarily lower or at the posted speed limit). It also indicates the driver's speed in relation. If his speed gets at or above the accepted limit the bus would kind of downshift. Abe calls it a passive breaking system. The result is that the bus would slow. When the drivers switched out, they would take a little cigarette lighter looking contraption out of the copilot. We think that the information would be downloaded after each driving shift as a record of the route. Kind of nifty. The buses even had movies. Some were in English, some in Spanish - most of them neither of us had ever heard of. But entertainment regardless. All in all a very nice way to travel! The landscape on the drive was gorgeous. We saw a bit of the coast of the Gulf of Tehuantepec showing us a little of what we'll be crossing by boat. Back to the top.
April 26 - 30, 2005: Oaxaca City
We're staying at a hotel recommended by the boat Carina. They'd just returned from Oaxaca and loved this small bed and breakfast. Hostal Aldama is a quaint, 5 room bed and breakfast, with great prices. The proprietor was such a joy to speak with. She fed us breakfast each morning, gave us hot chocolate each morning Mexican style - yummy! She even gave us some hints on what not to miss in her city.
The courtyard at the Hotel.
The 27th was spent walking around the city. We walked to a couple of the cathedrals, walked to the Zocalo (plaza), the museum holding many of the items from the Monte Alban ruins, played cribbage in a coffee shop while it rained, had a great dinner with Abe drooling over the Mole. No, not a rodent. Pronounced with a long o and long a. It's a sumptuous sauce made with chocolate, several chiles and 30 or so other ingredients. It takes all day to make the sauce and normally with served with chicken or pork. I've tried it and it just doesn't grab me. But Oaxaca is well-known for the green, red, black and other moles. We bought a Mexican gift for ourselves: a wool rug, hand woven. Our house, whenever we get back to land will be such an eclectic mix of stuff from all around the world. But then I've never been one to really be that good of a decorator so it doesn't matter if nothing matches!! We also visited the local library. This one was much larger than the one Mom and I visited in Zihuat, but still no novels. All nonfiction. It was in a beautiful building, though, with the standard courtyard, giving them room to grow.
The courtyard of the library.
The city reminded Abe of a number of European cities with the architecture and layout. It's beautiful. The cathedral in the center of town seems to have the most gold of any cathedral we've seen so far. Everything was gold-plated. It's hard to understand how a church that has so much money and wealth in land and gold, etc. can have the people it serves be so impoverished.
All the gold and wealth.
The 28th was a trip to the ruins of the Zapotec Indians. The Monte Alban ruins are huge. The Indians flattened the mountain top and the ruins align perfectly north to south. It's amazing what people could build and dream so long ago with none of the tools we know today. The pictures can't do it justice, but we tried. There were 24,000 people here at one time. We guess there's more that hasn't been uncovered, but what do we know! That evening we tried salsa dancing again. Abe has his work cut out for him in a partner that doesn't know how to follow. But I try.
The 29th we took a longer bus trip to another set of ruins much smaller than Monte Alban. Mitla was about an hour's ride outside of Oaxaca. The owner of the hotel suggested we stop to see the 2,000 year old Montezuma cypress tree, but we completely forgot. These ruins had a much more advanced style - in my mind - of stone work and building. They patterned the stone to make beautiful designs.
The intricate designs of the Mitla stones.
The tombs at Monte Alban were closed. At Mitla, we were able to get into two tomb chambers. Spooky, but then I'm easy to spook. Very neat to see. Back to the top.
April 30, 2005: Mexico City, Day 1
The last time Abe was in Mexico was 22 years ago. He immigrated with his father for the first time when he was 9. He returned to Mexico, and at 13, returned to the United States with his father and stepmother for good. The extended family on his father's side and his mother's family remained in Mexico, mostly in Mexico City. Abe's sister, technically half-sister, and therefore only had a phone number for an uncle from their father's side of the family. As Abe was the only of his mother's children in the United States, he had no information and no way to find any of her side of the family. We wanted to go visit Tio (Uncle) Jorge, Abe's father's brother and his family. But we also hoped to find somehow Abe's mother's side of the family and his brother.
We had talked with Tio Jorge a couple of times telling him we were heading to Mexico City and were welcomed to his home. Tio was a 3-star General in the Mexican Army and had spent time in the U.S. at various military schools. He and Abe had much to discuss! We met his wonderful and sweet wife, Tia Blanca, one of his children, Xitlali, and a couple of his grandchildren. Abe spoke to a couple of the other cousins on the phone that night, telling them of our travels and finding out what they were involved in. I was feeling a bit under pressure to understand Spanish other than my limited food-related terms. Yikes, I'm not ready for this! Tio Jorge and Xitlali spoke English and were kind enough to speak in my native tongue. I promise the next time we visit, I'll speak more Spanish! We were fed a scrumptious dinner and midnight snack. Back to the top.
May 1, 2005: Mexico City, Day 2, Banchi returns
Since planning this trip, we'd tried to figure different ways to find maternal family. Tio Jorge has a sister that used to be fairly close to Abe's mother, even after his parents divorced. The number Tio Jorge had for her wasn't working. (We were to have issues with phone numbers the entire time between Huatulco and Mexico City. There is no standard for length of numbers, and we had trouble determining how to dial long distance. Do you dial the extra 55 or 555? Leave it off? Very hard). The lady at the hotel in Oaxaca said you couldn't call information for Mexico City until you were IN Mexico City. We tried looking on the web for a white pages kind of thing for Mexico City. No white pages, just yellow pages. We still searched, using all sorts of variations on names, but the only name that came up was an uncle on his mother's side with a business address. Something about the address was familiar. After 20 years, Abe recognized the address as being where his aunt and cousins used to live. We thought we might just show up and see if the people living there were any relation at all. It was our last option. Abe was more attached to his maternal side of the family simply because he lived at his aunt's house for two years from 10 to 12 years old - his formative years. His aunt and uncle were like parents for that time, his cousins like siblings.
We took a bus and metro from the Tio Benja's house. We saw a lady outside the door at #631, and asked her if there were any Quintero Rojas' living in the complex. She knew one of the ladies living there was a Quintero. We weren't sure what we were getting into. I guess we have honest faces, because the lady at the door let us into the complex. We knocked on the door she directed us to, and a 8 year old boy answered the door. Abe asked if his mom was home (the Quintero one). "No, but my Dad is." Abe explained to the gentleman that his name was Abraham Quintero Oros, and before he could say anymore, the gentleman said, "BANCHI!!!" Banchi is what this side of the family always called Abe. Great, we found family! But who are you? This was the house of Rosa, Alejandro and their two kids, Abraham (named after Banchi), 12 years and Jair, 8 years. Abe hasn't seen these people in 22 years, which was a source of his dragging feet a little in going to visit. How would he be received? Would they welcome him back? It had been so long. We were welcomed so warmly, you can't imagine.
The next thing we know, phones are ringing all over and the word is spread that Banchi is here. Everyone thought Alejandro was joking. No one would believe him. It was Sunday, and most of the family got together then, anyway. We met Rosa, Tonio, Sergio, Irma, and their mother, Nena. All the spouses and kids were there too. What a great family! Time for me to try some more Spanish. But I just simply don't have the knowledge of grammar or vocabulary. I didn't understand much of what they were saying, but I could tell by the laughs and the smiles, though, that they were ecstatic that Banchi had returned. We stayed late laughing, playing cards, eating, eating and eating, catching up. We had planned on heading back to Tio Jorge's house, but as it was so late, Tia Nena (or Tia CC as we began to call her) offered her home to us. Back to the top.
May 2, 2005: Mexico City, Day 3, we visit Abe's brother
Abe had also lost contact with his brother over the years. Martin is 9 years younger than Abe, and was born right before Abe moved to the States. The cousins visited yesterday had phone numbers for Martin, and Abe was able to speak with him on the phone to set up a time to meet. We had been happy to learn that Martin now lived in Mexico. The last Abe knew, Martin was still in Veracruz. We knew the cousins would have his number and thought that once we got in touch with him that we would take a bus to Veracruz on our way back to Huatulco. But he came to us!
We met he and his wife, Patty, at a restaurant for coffee before heading to their house for dinner. She made us a delicious dinner. I'm not sure what it is about the food we've been eating - it's so very, very delicious. I need recipes! Abe and Martin spent the evening trying to catch up for lost time. It was great to sit back and watch these two talk about family, growing up in different places, politics - you name it. Patty is a pediatrician, and we talked (or tried to using sign language and my limited Spanish) about how I wanted to be a doctor at one time. I am certainly communicating. I'm just not sure exactly what I'm saying!
May 3, 2005: Mexico City, Day 4, back to Tio Jorge's
We were back at Tio Jorge's to visit with more cousins. It's so nice that so many of the cousins dropped what they were doing to make time to come visit or to call and talk with Abe. We had dinner with another daughter of Tio Jorge's and Tia Blanca's, Montserrat, and her children. Tio Jorge had been stationed in Cairo for some time and we fascinated by all the tales, what they liked, what they didn't. Unfortunately, one of their children (Roman) was in the hospital with a pending surgery that had everyone very concerned, understandably. We didn't want to stay any longer because we knew that we were taking time away from their son. If you ever want to try chilaquiles, by the way, go see Tia Blanca. Oh my gosh. They were so very yummy! Back to the top.
May 4, 2005: Mexico City, the rest
We spent the rest of our days in Mexico City with Abe's maternal side of the family. I'm learning more words and can surprisingly understand more than I imagined, and more than I could at the beginning of this trip. I understand Abe's Spanish the most, primarily because I am used to his tone, his inflections, his speech patterns. I have a little bit harder time with other people's speech. Partly because when they get excited they start talking Muy Rapido! They seem to appreciate my attempts at Spanish, and help me when they understand what I'm trying to say. It took me 4 or 5 times of being asked to finally understand, "Quantos hijos tienen?" How many kids do I have? the light finally came on. I get it! And I actually know the word for Zero. Cero, but it sounds almost the same! I can answer!
I'm better at understanding conversations, now than I am with just one question directed at me. If I can listen to a conversation, I have more words, more information to figure out what's being discussed. If someone asks me a direct question, first of all, I get nervous. Did I understand correctly? Too, I only have a couple of words to use to figure out what's being asked. Though, I'm happy to report that my vocabulary now consists of food-related items as well as cards.
I even know a word that is good for cards AND for food: cuchara! Yes, we taught them to play Spoons! What a hoot. Spoons is a crazy game that moves fast, can be played by all, and the entire object is to not be the one without a spoon at the end. It can become a mad free-for-all grab once those spoons start to go. Tia CC had a little trouble with this game. She always seemed to be the one without at the end. So her loving children gave her the big honking spoon to grab that you can see in the family photo.
Look at that face on Jair (second from right at the table)! He's going
to have that spoon!!
Through the rest of the visit we saw a number of other cousins that we hadn't seen the first night. Abe was very excited about seeing Benja, the oldest cousin, closest to Abe in age. They were partners in crime for those blissful two years. I met all Tia's children except Martha who had just moved away from Mexico City. Each night we played cards, ate, stayed up late, caught up, ate,went touring a bit where the cousins thought we most needed to see, ate, and had a wonderful time. And ate. I understand now, why Abe is such a night person. His entire family, both sides, stay up until well past midnight. And then get up in the morning to go to school or to work, etc. I'm still recovering!
We also visited with a brother of Abe's mom, Uncle Pepe and his family. Warm welcomes throughout Mexico City for us. Back to the top.
May 9, 2005: Morelia, here we come
Abe here. While at uncle Jorge's house I had a chance to chat with several of my cousins. Bellatrix had been the last cousin to see me. While chatting she insisted that we visit her in Morelia. So we relented and agreed to visit her. It was a "short" five hour but ride in what would be the most luxurious bus we would ride. Bella took us to her home where my nice Bellatrix and nephew Horacio (who we had met in Mexico at my uncle Jorge's home) were waiting. My cousin cooked a great dinner and then we were off sightseeing. What we saw impressed us immediately. The City of Morelia is very clean and many of the building were built by the Spaniards. Having studied architecture, I can tell you I was very impressed by the city. We also had a sense of safety. The streets were well lit and had no sign of troublemakers. The five of us even visited an alley, supposedly for young lovers, late in the evening and it felt completely safe. The alley had a couple of fountains and I could see that it would be a great place to take some pictures or even do some drawings.
The next day my cousin took us to Patzcuaro, but being the 10th of May, Mother's Day in Mexico, the plaza was full with a party going on in the small town. We walked around visiting the small shops at the outer edge of the plaza. Absolutely awesome! We also bumped into one of our Ixtapa neighbors from the marina. What a small world.
My niece Bellatrix is a beautiful young lady who seems to have her priorities straight. She has met her future husband who was an exchange student from Belgium. But, she has not lost sight of the importance of finishing her education and also allowing Alex (boyfriend) to finish his education before the wedding. My nephew Horacio absolutely would love to do what Amy and I are doing/have done. In fact I think young Bella and Horacio would gladly go skydiving with us, or scuba diving, or flying, or snow skiing, or even cruising with us. Bella was willing to travel with us around the world. She said she does windows... Hmmmmm.
Young Bella took us to one of her favorite places in Morelia, the candy museum. They made candy in front of us and the place is full of old pictures of Morelia, and lots of candies, of course!
Here we are with the candy lady.
On Thursday we had to leave. The boat had been unattended in Huatulco for three weeks. We had planned to be gone for one week at most. But now it had been three weeks. We hated to end this road trip, but we started back to Huatulco. We left at 12:15 PM on Thursday and rode buses till 8 AM on Friday morning. We were tired and glad/sad to be back on the boat. I am writing this on Monday and we are still recovering from our trip. OH, BUT WHAT A GREAT TRIP! Back to the top.
