I have been home for a week. I always do this- when I haven't written in a long time I just put it off even more because I think I have sooo much to write- to catch up on...but I think if I just start..anywhere, the words will come....So...
We left on a Monday, the 27th of Oct and drove for 12 hours to get to Hermosillo, Sonora in the middle of the Sonoran desert.
The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which covers large parts of the Southwestern United States in Arizona and California, and of Northwestern Mexico in Sonora, Baja California and Baja California Sur. It is the hottest desert in North America, with an area of 280,000 square kilometers (110,000 sq mi). The western portion of the United States–Mexico border passes through the Sonoran Desert.
I don't like the desert, which I'm sure I have written before. I know I lived there for an entire year (ooops 11 months I mean) but I always knew I was just a couple of hours away from the Arizona border and then an airport and I could get to Calif...San Francisco. Not sure why that helped but it did. When I'm driving thru the desert I always feel like I can't breathe...like claustrophobia...same way I felt as a kid when we would drive thru the Nevada desert on our family camping vacations during the summer. (Which I loved by the way- we camped all over the northwestern states. sometimes in the desert but mostly in the woods and usually by water...lakes or rivers..) So driving for 12 hours the first day was ok with me because I wanted to get thru the desert. Of course to do that we had to drive all the 2nd day as well. I slept on and off during the trip both days. Poppi was determined to get to his destinations and so drove like a madman...making it 12 hours- ouch! Day 2 found us in Mazatlan so at least we were back at the ocean. But we got up before dawn on the third day and did it again!!! AArrgghh! I thought I had agreed to 2 long driving days and then a whole day in Mazatlan to relax and explore a little bit...but he had in his mind to to make it to Morelia as quickly as possible...and we did. I was pretty unhappy on day 3 and made my unhappiness well known...not our best day.
But....as it turned out it was a good thing. We saw Pablo, Everardo's brother Wednesday evening for dinner and they were so happy to see each other. We found a wonderful hotel in the historic city center that had inside parking. And the other thing was...well we ate good on the way down. I had made hard boiled eggs, we had bread and peanut butter, we had cheese and a huge bag of almonds. We had a bag of apples and a bag of dates. So we didn't eat a bunch a crap, no fast food, no heavy greasy crap....we drank lots of water and made lots of stops. I took tons of pictures. And another thing- really different for us as well. We took the libre roads instead of the cuotas. (Means we drove the free roads instead of the toll roads. People- including me- always say...well just stay on the cuitas and you will be fine...oh and don't drive at nite. Well we didn't drive at nite, except for a few late days where it got dark- I mean daylight savings time is over so it was dark by 6:30 or 7pm.
But the free roads were amazing! Yeah sometimes slow because you are behind a big truck or a line of big trucks, or maybe a line of old beater cars that just don't go so fast. Or the road is a mess, or under construction...or they have SO many topes (road speed bumps) that it takes you ten minutes to move thru a tiny town you coulda walked thru in ten minutes. But these roads lazily ramble thru hills and small villages. Many of these villages are barely that- because when the toll roads were built and these towns were bypassed, well it killed those towns. Nobody was stopping to buy gas, or food, or trinkets...nobody was staying in the town's one motel. So we saw so many different kinds of people, places, and things. We saw school kids everywhere! No matter how poor the town, the kids wear uniforms to school. People were smiling, some....other people looked tired, I took alot of pictures of people's faces....Mexico has so many old people, so many kids, so many in between. So many people. And food stands everywhere. Yeah we brought our own food in the truck as I wrote above- but we usually made one stop a day along a country road. I usually ate frijoles (beans)...and beans are protien and good for ya. Everardo tried whatever they said was best. I had lots of tastes of things...but most things were muy picoso (really spicy hot) ha ha. Now this is not only for the first 3 days, because really those days there was not too much to see on the free roads, but the other days....
One morning coming down a mountain very early, there were wisps of fog, gray skies, little spots of blue trying to fight for space....there was a forest on one side of us and a sweeping valley on the other. We had taken a side road some guys told us about- "turn by the big strawberry" ( it was a huge strawberry-like 3 stories tall), and this road would take us around the city coming up...Zamora I think....and it was kinda winding down this mountain..and the view was so pretty. We drove past a tiny hole in the wall stand where it looked like there was a line of clay pots, and then a couple of women wearing scarves around their heads and shoulders stirring something and possibly making tortillas....one of us remarked oh we shoulda stopped there for breakfast...and then we said- hey! So Poppi turned us around (on a scary corner- but they were all scary since you couldn't see around any of them ha ha), and we went back. Such a GREAT move! All those clay pots were filled with things like frijoles, rice, green salsa, chicarones, birria, toreznos,......and they had this coffee called Olla (Oye-ya), which has this kinda nutty taste. Poppi explained it to me, but I didn't get it ha ha....but it tasted heavenly...he said once people know about it, they always ask for it- he's right! There were 3 women, 2 of which were native Mexicans (Indians) and did not speak Spanish, the 3rd spoke Spanish, so she talked to us. My plate was eggs and beans and some fresh cheese, Everardo had the torenos and chicharones and beans. They made tortillas that were the best I think I ever tasted (usually I don't eat the tortillas just because I'm watching what I eat) We ate and ate...the women were gracious enough to let me hang over their shoulders and take pictures of them and everything. As I was watching one woman making tortillas I could hear slapping across the street. There was an old building there as well...the only 2 buildings on this mountain...anyway I thought it was an echo...ha ha it someone else inside that building must have been making tortillas...but as I write this I realize- wow those walls were paper thin! And it was cold up there on that mountain. Anyway it was a beautiful place, beautiful women, and a very beautiful experience.
Ok-so Morelia was fantastic- might be my new favorite city in Mexico! The elevation is a little over 6 thousand feet...and even that tends to give me a little headache for the first day, but it went away quick- but it might have just been 3 days of driving ha ha. We had one hotel for 2 nites and then another one for the next 3 nites. There was a wedding so the first place was booked after 2 nites. Our room was so big and so pretty...it was actually so big that the next morning I did my whole exercise dance routine on the tile floor while Everardo went to meet his brother! We were in the historic downtown so we could walk a couple of blocks and be in the big plaza...where people were walking, talking, having coffee; there were peaceful protesters marching for the missing students, there was Day of the Dead celebrations....but chatting with some people in a little sidewalk cafe, they told us that it's always that busy there- that there's always something going on. Our second hotel was really beautiful with a curving staircase lines with these beautiful tiles and a salon outside our room, for the upstairs guests, of which there were only about 6 rooms I think, and we never saw anyone up there (but did hear them coming up at nite). It was just around the corner from the first place, and we found a couple of other small plazas in that direction and went to one for breakfast the next day. On Sunday morning we went for a walk and saw that the main street (which is 2.5 lanes each way) was closed. I thought at first it was a marathon because I saw some runner going by, but then a man told us they closed it every Sunday for people to walk, skate, ride bicycles, etc. Then he told us we could rent bicycles....so we did! It was soooo fun! While riding we saw a big Day of the Dead celebration exhibit...so we turned in the bikes and walked back over there. It was the actual Day of the Dead and all the altars were so beautiful, I think I took about 500 pictures!
We spent the Friday before visiting Everardo's sister and taking flowers out to his mother's grave. We saw his nieces and his nephew and came back to her place to eat. I know he won't ever read this, so I will say....his sister's life, the struggles she must face, her life is hard. She lives in a tiny room...it's not 20 feet square....it has a bunk bed...a table and another single bed. The table is inbetween..and it's not a big table. There are some shelves and they are packed with stuff. Clothes, dishes...food. It's a room in a building that's some kind of side building of another house- that her ex inlaws and maybe her exhusband live in. 2 of her adult kids live in this room with her. I think there might be a small tv hooked up. The bathroom is out the door, across a patio and around the corner. I went and used it. Wow it was bad....a torn curtain, and an old toilet that I couldn't flush. I didn't see, but I don't think the area where the inlaws live is any better. She has a piece of land and I think she's building a house on it- but I also think this has been the plan for a few years. She has an old car that looks like she takes good care of it. His family is the horrific poverty we see in Mexico. But you know what? She is always smiling. She made us a nice meal that we all sat on the edges of the beds and shared. It was a kind of little meatball in soup and rice and salad. Really good. I only saw a hot plate but I think there's a stove outside. I was cold there, but they were not- so they were assimilated to the climate and I am not. Her children love her so much, I could see that in how sweet they are with her. The other daughter came by with her little girl who was so happy to see grandma and her aunts and uncles. I believe they all work; the son goes to university but not this semester because he said the teachers striking and now the protests for the missing students - well there was not too many days when school was happening, so he was taking the semester off.This was a tiny town, about an hour outside Morelia; Nieves had lived in Morelia and for a time in Mexico City, but she came back because she liked the small town much better. We drove another hour out to the town Everardo was born in and brought flowers, and Poppi and Nieves cleaned around her burial site, and Pablo and I talked. He has a son who died in a car accident last Feb, and he is still so sad- of course. His son was one month older than my younger daughter- not sure I would survive that. I asked him if we could visit his son's grave and we did that the next day. He and I cried together at both places....he is the sweetest man. I love both of them so much...I see they have the same sweetness as my Everardo.
When we went with Pablo, his daughter (my niece) met us there and I had not met her before (2 years ago when we were there I met Nieve's kids). All the cemeteries have so many flowers! As Poppi says- we Mexicans love our dead. The entire trip we drove by so many cemeteries, especially on the free roads...and they all had so many beautiful decorations. Well I have to go, so I will continue to tell about my trip soon- maybe tonite...viva
We left on a Monday, the 27th of Oct and drove for 12 hours to get to Hermosillo, Sonora in the middle of the Sonoran desert.
The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which covers large parts of the Southwestern United States in Arizona and California, and of Northwestern Mexico in Sonora, Baja California and Baja California Sur. It is the hottest desert in North America, with an area of 280,000 square kilometers (110,000 sq mi). The western portion of the United States–Mexico border passes through the Sonoran Desert.
I don't like the desert, which I'm sure I have written before. I know I lived there for an entire year (ooops 11 months I mean) but I always knew I was just a couple of hours away from the Arizona border and then an airport and I could get to Calif...San Francisco. Not sure why that helped but it did. When I'm driving thru the desert I always feel like I can't breathe...like claustrophobia...same way I felt as a kid when we would drive thru the Nevada desert on our family camping vacations during the summer. (Which I loved by the way- we camped all over the northwestern states. sometimes in the desert but mostly in the woods and usually by water...lakes or rivers..) So driving for 12 hours the first day was ok with me because I wanted to get thru the desert. Of course to do that we had to drive all the 2nd day as well. I slept on and off during the trip both days. Poppi was determined to get to his destinations and so drove like a madman...making it 12 hours- ouch! Day 2 found us in Mazatlan so at least we were back at the ocean. But we got up before dawn on the third day and did it again!!! AArrgghh! I thought I had agreed to 2 long driving days and then a whole day in Mazatlan to relax and explore a little bit...but he had in his mind to to make it to Morelia as quickly as possible...and we did. I was pretty unhappy on day 3 and made my unhappiness well known...not our best day.
But....as it turned out it was a good thing. We saw Pablo, Everardo's brother Wednesday evening for dinner and they were so happy to see each other. We found a wonderful hotel in the historic city center that had inside parking. And the other thing was...well we ate good on the way down. I had made hard boiled eggs, we had bread and peanut butter, we had cheese and a huge bag of almonds. We had a bag of apples and a bag of dates. So we didn't eat a bunch a crap, no fast food, no heavy greasy crap....we drank lots of water and made lots of stops. I took tons of pictures. And another thing- really different for us as well. We took the libre roads instead of the cuotas. (Means we drove the free roads instead of the toll roads. People- including me- always say...well just stay on the cuitas and you will be fine...oh and don't drive at nite. Well we didn't drive at nite, except for a few late days where it got dark- I mean daylight savings time is over so it was dark by 6:30 or 7pm.
But the free roads were amazing! Yeah sometimes slow because you are behind a big truck or a line of big trucks, or maybe a line of old beater cars that just don't go so fast. Or the road is a mess, or under construction...or they have SO many topes (road speed bumps) that it takes you ten minutes to move thru a tiny town you coulda walked thru in ten minutes. But these roads lazily ramble thru hills and small villages. Many of these villages are barely that- because when the toll roads were built and these towns were bypassed, well it killed those towns. Nobody was stopping to buy gas, or food, or trinkets...nobody was staying in the town's one motel. So we saw so many different kinds of people, places, and things. We saw school kids everywhere! No matter how poor the town, the kids wear uniforms to school. People were smiling, some....other people looked tired, I took alot of pictures of people's faces....Mexico has so many old people, so many kids, so many in between. So many people. And food stands everywhere. Yeah we brought our own food in the truck as I wrote above- but we usually made one stop a day along a country road. I usually ate frijoles (beans)...and beans are protien and good for ya. Everardo tried whatever they said was best. I had lots of tastes of things...but most things were muy picoso (really spicy hot) ha ha. Now this is not only for the first 3 days, because really those days there was not too much to see on the free roads, but the other days....
One morning coming down a mountain very early, there were wisps of fog, gray skies, little spots of blue trying to fight for space....there was a forest on one side of us and a sweeping valley on the other. We had taken a side road some guys told us about- "turn by the big strawberry" ( it was a huge strawberry-like 3 stories tall), and this road would take us around the city coming up...Zamora I think....and it was kinda winding down this mountain..and the view was so pretty. We drove past a tiny hole in the wall stand where it looked like there was a line of clay pots, and then a couple of women wearing scarves around their heads and shoulders stirring something and possibly making tortillas....one of us remarked oh we shoulda stopped there for breakfast...and then we said- hey! So Poppi turned us around (on a scary corner- but they were all scary since you couldn't see around any of them ha ha), and we went back. Such a GREAT move! All those clay pots were filled with things like frijoles, rice, green salsa, chicarones, birria, toreznos,......and they had this coffee called Olla (Oye-ya), which has this kinda nutty taste. Poppi explained it to me, but I didn't get it ha ha....but it tasted heavenly...he said once people know about it, they always ask for it- he's right! There were 3 women, 2 of which were native Mexicans (Indians) and did not speak Spanish, the 3rd spoke Spanish, so she talked to us. My plate was eggs and beans and some fresh cheese, Everardo had the torenos and chicharones and beans. They made tortillas that were the best I think I ever tasted (usually I don't eat the tortillas just because I'm watching what I eat) We ate and ate...the women were gracious enough to let me hang over their shoulders and take pictures of them and everything. As I was watching one woman making tortillas I could hear slapping across the street. There was an old building there as well...the only 2 buildings on this mountain...anyway I thought it was an echo...ha ha it someone else inside that building must have been making tortillas...but as I write this I realize- wow those walls were paper thin! And it was cold up there on that mountain. Anyway it was a beautiful place, beautiful women, and a very beautiful experience.
Ok-so Morelia was fantastic- might be my new favorite city in Mexico! The elevation is a little over 6 thousand feet...and even that tends to give me a little headache for the first day, but it went away quick- but it might have just been 3 days of driving ha ha. We had one hotel for 2 nites and then another one for the next 3 nites. There was a wedding so the first place was booked after 2 nites. Our room was so big and so pretty...it was actually so big that the next morning I did my whole exercise dance routine on the tile floor while Everardo went to meet his brother! We were in the historic downtown so we could walk a couple of blocks and be in the big plaza...where people were walking, talking, having coffee; there were peaceful protesters marching for the missing students, there was Day of the Dead celebrations....but chatting with some people in a little sidewalk cafe, they told us that it's always that busy there- that there's always something going on. Our second hotel was really beautiful with a curving staircase lines with these beautiful tiles and a salon outside our room, for the upstairs guests, of which there were only about 6 rooms I think, and we never saw anyone up there (but did hear them coming up at nite). It was just around the corner from the first place, and we found a couple of other small plazas in that direction and went to one for breakfast the next day. On Sunday morning we went for a walk and saw that the main street (which is 2.5 lanes each way) was closed. I thought at first it was a marathon because I saw some runner going by, but then a man told us they closed it every Sunday for people to walk, skate, ride bicycles, etc. Then he told us we could rent bicycles....so we did! It was soooo fun! While riding we saw a big Day of the Dead celebration exhibit...so we turned in the bikes and walked back over there. It was the actual Day of the Dead and all the altars were so beautiful, I think I took about 500 pictures!
We spent the Friday before visiting Everardo's sister and taking flowers out to his mother's grave. We saw his nieces and his nephew and came back to her place to eat. I know he won't ever read this, so I will say....his sister's life, the struggles she must face, her life is hard. She lives in a tiny room...it's not 20 feet square....it has a bunk bed...a table and another single bed. The table is inbetween..and it's not a big table. There are some shelves and they are packed with stuff. Clothes, dishes...food. It's a room in a building that's some kind of side building of another house- that her ex inlaws and maybe her exhusband live in. 2 of her adult kids live in this room with her. I think there might be a small tv hooked up. The bathroom is out the door, across a patio and around the corner. I went and used it. Wow it was bad....a torn curtain, and an old toilet that I couldn't flush. I didn't see, but I don't think the area where the inlaws live is any better. She has a piece of land and I think she's building a house on it- but I also think this has been the plan for a few years. She has an old car that looks like she takes good care of it. His family is the horrific poverty we see in Mexico. But you know what? She is always smiling. She made us a nice meal that we all sat on the edges of the beds and shared. It was a kind of little meatball in soup and rice and salad. Really good. I only saw a hot plate but I think there's a stove outside. I was cold there, but they were not- so they were assimilated to the climate and I am not. Her children love her so much, I could see that in how sweet they are with her. The other daughter came by with her little girl who was so happy to see grandma and her aunts and uncles. I believe they all work; the son goes to university but not this semester because he said the teachers striking and now the protests for the missing students - well there was not too many days when school was happening, so he was taking the semester off.This was a tiny town, about an hour outside Morelia; Nieves had lived in Morelia and for a time in Mexico City, but she came back because she liked the small town much better. We drove another hour out to the town Everardo was born in and brought flowers, and Poppi and Nieves cleaned around her burial site, and Pablo and I talked. He has a son who died in a car accident last Feb, and he is still so sad- of course. His son was one month older than my younger daughter- not sure I would survive that. I asked him if we could visit his son's grave and we did that the next day. He and I cried together at both places....he is the sweetest man. I love both of them so much...I see they have the same sweetness as my Everardo.
When we went with Pablo, his daughter (my niece) met us there and I had not met her before (2 years ago when we were there I met Nieve's kids). All the cemeteries have so many flowers! As Poppi says- we Mexicans love our dead. The entire trip we drove by so many cemeteries, especially on the free roads...and they all had so many beautiful decorations. Well I have to go, so I will continue to tell about my trip soon- maybe tonite...viva
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