Well here I am sat in the Grand Prix hotel in Mexico City with about 2 hours till we set off to get our flight to Lima. Seems like it was only yesterday we were arriving in Mexico.
I'll start with yesterday which was a day of two halves.......woke up in a lovely colonial hotel in Guadalajara , had a lovely buffet breakfast in the courtyard and then spent the morning , on my own, looking at some of the key old buildings. Chris has twisted his knee again and stayed in the hotel. We set off about 2 and got to Guadalajara airport in half an hour . Check-in was an absolute nightmare, we had to unlock our bags before check-in......mine has 2 compartments and 4 locks!! Then the "search" just was not worth the effort. Chris said I had my stroppy voice on.....too true. That was just the beginning, the flight was delayed by 2 hours-its only 50 mins to Mexico. There were announcements , with a rubbish PA, in the fastest Spanish you can imagine. No apology from the airline on the plane and the it took 45 mins to get to luggage. It was 10.30 by we got to the hotel and I had hoped we would have a meal and a beer HUH. Feel better with that off my chest.
We had a lovely last week in the laguna, a week past Sunday we had delicious lunch with Chris' Spanish teacher, his wife and Chuyleta. Then Tuesday we had lunch with Loretta, Chuyeta, Miguel, and Alma. We popped to Tepic on Wednesday for some last minute things. On Thursday at kinder Edith announced she had a new job and that kinder was closing temporarily...I'm not surprised, there are only 6 kids.
Thursday the children of the 3 laguna schools did their bit for Independence day. The usual Mexican organisation, start at 8 am.......the secondario teacher wandered over at 8.30-he is not a nice man. The kinder kids were so cute and they marched from to the new Malecon.
Chris was too ill to attend-I made some food on Thursday and we were both ill!! It tasted bitter and I hardly ate any.......Chris ate more so his stomach was worse. It meant I then had to do most of the cleaning in the house, luckily he had done all of the outdoor stuff previously. By Saturday the place was spotless. Uwe and Marlene returned Saturday and were pleased to see the animals were fit and well. We had de-camped into the trailer for two nights.
Chris barbecued and Lulu, the doctor, turned up so we all ate together. It was good to spend some time with them and hear about their trip. They are a lovely couple and had had a fabulous 3 weeks visiting friends in Canada.
Sunday we went up to SAMAO for mass but it wasn't on as there was an Independence Day parade which was good to see. The whole town had flags and bunting and Viva Mexico pictures!! We had a final lunch at Catalina, lovely sitting by the laguna. Then in no time it was Monday morning and we set off for Tepic ( 50 mins) to get the bus to Guadalajara ( 3 hours).
We had booked a hotel in the centro historico San Francisco Plaza a lovely old place with big rooms, lovely internal courtyards and nice staff. We had looked forward to a different meal, Lonely Planet suggested a Chinese. Big mistake, pretty mediocre buffet we had a set meal . Everything came together soup, very greasy spring rolls and rice and two dishes with more broccoli than even a broccoli lover could eat ( yup that's you Imogen) . There were no real flavours but we were hungry so we ate it.
So its off now on our proper travel which have two clouds looming over them. Chris' mum has been in hospital for a few weeks and last week was fitting and his sister was told it was only a matter of time. Thankfully she seems to be making some progress. If she passes away Chris will go home for the funeral, about a week. Second cloud is his knee, which at the minute will not get up Machu Pichu!! He might have to resort to the train.
South America here we come.............
Norma xx
I'll start with yesterday which was a day of two halves.......woke up in a lovely colonial hotel in Guadalajara , had a lovely buffet breakfast in the courtyard and then spent the morning , on my own, looking at some of the key old buildings. Chris has twisted his knee again and stayed in the hotel. We set off about 2 and got to Guadalajara airport in half an hour . Check-in was an absolute nightmare, we had to unlock our bags before check-in......mine has 2 compartments and 4 locks!! Then the "search" just was not worth the effort. Chris said I had my stroppy voice on.....too true. That was just the beginning, the flight was delayed by 2 hours-its only 50 mins to Mexico. There were announcements , with a rubbish PA, in the fastest Spanish you can imagine. No apology from the airline on the plane and the it took 45 mins to get to luggage. It was 10.30 by we got to the hotel and I had hoped we would have a meal and a beer HUH. Feel better with that off my chest.
We had a lovely last week in the laguna, a week past Sunday we had delicious lunch with Chris' Spanish teacher, his wife and Chuyleta. Then Tuesday we had lunch with Loretta, Chuyeta, Miguel, and Alma. We popped to Tepic on Wednesday for some last minute things. On Thursday at kinder Edith announced she had a new job and that kinder was closing temporarily...I'm not surprised, there are only 6 kids.
Thursday the children of the 3 laguna schools did their bit for Independence day. The usual Mexican organisation, start at 8 am.......the secondario teacher wandered over at 8.30-he is not a nice man. The kinder kids were so cute and they marched from to the new Malecon.
Chris was too ill to attend-I made some food on Thursday and we were both ill!! It tasted bitter and I hardly ate any.......Chris ate more so his stomach was worse. It meant I then had to do most of the cleaning in the house, luckily he had done all of the outdoor stuff previously. By Saturday the place was spotless. Uwe and Marlene returned Saturday and were pleased to see the animals were fit and well. We had de-camped into the trailer for two nights.
Chris barbecued and Lulu, the doctor, turned up so we all ate together. It was good to spend some time with them and hear about their trip. They are a lovely couple and had had a fabulous 3 weeks visiting friends in Canada.
Sunday we went up to SAMAO for mass but it wasn't on as there was an Independence Day parade which was good to see. The whole town had flags and bunting and Viva Mexico pictures!! We had a final lunch at Catalina, lovely sitting by the laguna. Then in no time it was Monday morning and we set off for Tepic ( 50 mins) to get the bus to Guadalajara ( 3 hours).
We had booked a hotel in the centro historico San Francisco Plaza a lovely old place with big rooms, lovely internal courtyards and nice staff. We had looked forward to a different meal, Lonely Planet suggested a Chinese. Big mistake, pretty mediocre buffet we had a set meal . Everything came together soup, very greasy spring rolls and rice and two dishes with more broccoli than even a broccoli lover could eat ( yup that's you Imogen) . There were no real flavours but we were hungry so we ate it.
So its off now on our proper travel which have two clouds looming over them. Chris' mum has been in hospital for a few weeks and last week was fitting and his sister was told it was only a matter of time. Thankfully she seems to be making some progress. If she passes away Chris will go home for the funeral, about a week. Second cloud is his knee, which at the minute will not get up Machu Pichu!! He might have to resort to the train.
South America here we come.............
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| Lunch with Pedro, Marie and Chuylet |
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| My patriotic Mexican flag toenails!! |
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| Kinder ninos getting ready to march |
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| Marching in SAMAO-the boy with the lovely smile is Chris' young student friend Jose |
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| Final lunch with Uwe and Marlene |
I'm sure you're glad to be (finally) on your way to Peru, but I can sense a certain part of you has enjoyed Mexico more than a little. Maybe now Britain's little foibles when it comes to travel and queueing don't seem so bad when you had travel troubles in Mexico. At least you know what the systems are like at home, but it's a whole different ball game in the southern hemisphere, isn't it? I'm sure things will seem better when Chris's knee starts to improve, and that maybe you get some more positive news about his Mum.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure darkest Peru is going to be a whole different ball game, and hopefully you'll manage to blog as often there as you have in Mexico.
I've enjoyed all you've had to report - it's obviously not as good as being there myself, but you've given a very good picture of life as the Mexicans know it. I'm sure you'll be spiritually all the richer for your experiences.
I'm off to Italy on Monday myself, but hope to catch up with you in about a fortnight when I get back. Kim x