Our ADO Ride – Like a GIANT Grasshopper (ENLARGE Here)
Riding a bus in Mexico is adventuresome. Mexico has an excellent bus system with vehicles ranging from share a ride with chickens and goats to first cabin luxury buses with movies, bathrooms and sleepovers. Good planning will make your trip far more enjoyable. Taking a long trip for eight hours or more is like taking a Spanish language immersion course. So here are a few things to consider.
The larger better class buses tend to leave on time – so don’t be late. Our tickets were purchased in our names by a friend; at no time were we required to provide identification. There is a senior’s pass that anyone over 60 can obtain in Mexico (INAPAM card). The problem is you must also possess an FM3 so we are told – something I don’t currently have; therefore I won’t give you details other than to let you know those passes exist. I know people that have the pass. I had enquired as to whether I could have someone that has the pass purchase a ticket for me.
I can pass for my age – therefore I assume they won’t question my possessing the discounted ticket. But, I was warned this would not do; that you will be asked to verify your identification. As mentioned I didn’t have a discounted ticket, but I was never asked to produce ID – this leads me to believe I might try a discounted ticket at some future time – you will have to stay tuned for that.
There are no questions as to whether anyone asked you to carry an item for them like the airlines have been doing even prior to 911. What you will experience are these security details: they will search your carry on luggage. They may come around the bus as you are seated and take a video of your mug. If you are an hombre it is possible they will frisk you – pat you down. They seemed to really have it in for me on that issue. Upon boarding a bus at the border in Matamoras, a fellow walked up and down the aisles taking digital video of all riders – I was asked to remove my hat for the photo shoot.
There are usually two drivers that switch off – in our case every 12 hours. We had thought the first driver had been let off to go home only to see him again 12 hours later having breakfast with the other driver? As it turns out they have accommodations in a compartment below passenger deck where the luggage storage compartments are located. I am advised that they have television and a bed – all the comforts of home. I have a friend that is an ADO bus driver living here in the Hood. I am going to get more details about how this works.
When reservations are made you will have assigned seats. Here there is a tip or two. There are better seats, for example – if you are into the movies you might want to be in a seat where the smallish screen drops down. Seats 1 & 2 behind the driver are two that share space with a screen. We saw four different shows – two films (one in English with Spanish subtitles; the other in spoken Spanish) – two short segments.
During nearly all of the 17 hours the drivers had a radio going for their entertainment – the sound conflicts with the film soundtrack in seats 1 & 2, as well disturbing sleep if that is a priority. We boarded at 4 PM after a two day drive up the coast – sleep was indeed a priority. Our seats 7 & 8 were on the right side and second from the front, quite close to the driver’s area. Noise was a problem.
Riding above the wheels is probably less comfortable than the ride more to the middle. The buses ‘swim’ like a big boat Cadillac or Continental, only more so. I would guess there are those that require sea sick pills to tolerate the motion. Some of the lesser quality, usually the shorter rides, and smaller and older buses can really beat you up from the oft terrible Mexican roadways. We have been on a few buses that you would swear you were about to be impaled by something loose underneath the floor.
You might want to bring along a sleep mask or earplugs as well as water, snacks and a camera; perhaps something to read or listen to like an iPod (we brought ALL that stuff).
They do have a bathroom on these first class buses. I can’t speak to their quality as I avoided them so far. You should consider what you eat and drink in this regard. I doubt it would be much fun dealing with a stomach problem after grabbing something off a street vendor’s cart or drinking a lot of fluids. Either of those will certainly introduce you to the facilities. The bus seemed to stop every 2 hours which under normal condition and good planning should keep you from testing the waters or lack thereof in the bus restroom.
Tomorrow I am going to write about whom your fellow passengers might be and the bus station experience which is an adventure in travel in and of itself. Stay Tuned for that.
Wednesday Anita and I drove 640 miles to Matamoras with a friend. Thursday afternoon at 4 PM the two of us returned home on an ADO Bus; this a seventeen hour affair. In total from departure to return to our home here in Xico was two and a half days. 60 hours of jam packed experiences.
Why would we make such a trip you might ask? A life situation necessitated that our friend return to the States sans husband who had returned by plane a couple weeks earlier. It was decided she would be more comfortable with our assisting her in the drive up to the border – Wagon Masters that we are.
We wanted to test the waters of long distance bus riding here in Mexico as well. The last time I took a long bus ride was heading off to boot camp to Fort Ord, California back in ‘71 – it had been a while.
I can’t put the 60 hour experience to paper in maximum 1000 words and perhaps three or four pictures – no – there are stories to be told so all aboard for some in depth information about traveling from and to our tropical paradise here in Mexico. Stay Tuned!
On a number of occasions I have had conversations with fellow Bloggers about the worth of the Blogging effort. If you have been around here for any length of time you have read my reasons for being here – they haven’t changed a lot since the inception of this Blog in May of 2005.
Over to the left you will find a new link to John Wilpers Blog. He is a departure from Blog’s about Mexico specifically, but his mission and position with Global Post Enterprises is to incorporate within their news agency 350 Blogs written in English covering 53 nations internationally.
Back a couple weeks ago Lily Yuhas sent me a curious invitation in this Blogs comment section. At first I deleted it thinking it was yet another gimmick process to get a web site marketed or some promotional scheme.
Later I reread her comment. After researching just exactly what Global Post was expecting to be; further I checked out the credibility of their staff and cast of correspondents. I responded via private email to her. I was impressed enough to follow-up with the requested mission bio, photo and RSL link as well as making a recommendation of a fellow Blogger I thought capable (she asked).
Since that time I have been welcomed aboard by Global Post Enterprises as one of their 350 Bloggers. In a manner of speaking John is my new boss. I have been reading his Blog. I was intrigued by his Blog entries covering the six most common questions he gets from editors curious or nervous about incorporating bloggers in their newspapers and websites.
In part:
“1. Newspapers have built their credibility by offering their readers selection and intelligible conveyance of news and stories of importance. Now you say that to stay relevant, they should integrate third-party content [read Bloggers] to their online and print service. Do not they risk their credibility?
Not at all.
I am NOT advocating that newspapers open their websites and print products to ALL third-party content, only to the BEST third-party content. Newspapers must use the intelligence and judgment that has come to represent their brand and apply it to the process of selecting the highest-quality local blogs.
Newspapers have historically been the source of the very best information about what’s going on in their market. It used to be that newspapers were the ONLY source in their market for high-quality information.
That is no longer true.
With the advent of the Internet and, in particular, blogging, there are now countless sources of high-quality information written by authors more expert in their fields than the newspaper’s reporters. Now, knowledgeable people in their fields, from health, automobiles, and art to finance, travel, and any number of other topics, are writing beautifully and intelligently about issues and events in those fields.
When it comes to publishing bloggers, you and only you decide which blogs will appear in your newspaper and on your website. This is NOT an open invitation to ALL bloggers. This is an opportunity for you to find, “vet” and then aggregate the very best local bloggers.
By aggregating the best local bloggers on the theme-appropriate pages of your website and newspaper (sports, fashion, business, sports, etc), you increasingly become THE source for all the best local information, whether you have created it or not. You save your readers the headache of having to search in multiple places for information they can now get in one place: your website and newspaper.
You instantly increase your reach, relevance and, if you monetize those pages, your revenue.”
You can read all six questions and answers via several Blog entries starting here.
Over the course of nearly four year of Blogging, more than 800 entries, nearly one entry every other day, words totaling the equivalent of 7 average books; I have come to realize there is a power to these electronic words. Sometime emotions can run high and people even run scared. Also good things happen like the current effort being made on behalf of the poor people we live amongst (thank you Wayne and many others for Project Warm Hands).
As Lily Luhas stated to us Bloggers – “What do you have to do?
Virtually nothing, other than to keep writing great stuff regularly.”
I don’t intend to change anything here other than perhaps legitimatize any photos or artwork other than my own and maybe check my sources a bit more carefully.
I hope Global Post has great success. Per Ms. Luhas request for 300-500 words describing my mission of this Blog I opened with, “Mission of my Blog: World peace, environmental awareness, and a greater understanding of Mexico and its people.”
And then a bit more realistically wrote, “On a lesser ambitious note I hope to depict the differences and similarities of the lives of the Mexican people as compared to reader’s lives; to provide information about the process of living in Mexico.”
Most of you who read here regularly know I am a bit verbose. I limit myself to entries no more than a thousand words; and most often meet that self-inflicted limitation. My mission statement requested to be 300-500 words for the Global Post editorial board was exactly 500 words – I bet you aren’t surprised Tune in to the Global Post in January and by all means – Stay Tuned here!
Here in Mexico wood is a costly and curious material. There are two Spanish words for wood: leña and madera. Round these parts the word leña is pretty much used exclusively for firewood, madera for dimensional lumber.
Generally wood is used very sparingly as a building material. In this damp and humid region termites thrive and wood is very expensive. The poor Mexican heats his casa and fuels his cooking stove with leña. Most of this is limbs less than an inch (2.54 cm) in diameter.
A couple of years ago we bought some larger diameter firewood from our neighbor Jose Louis – still stashing some of it up at the Rancho. The other day I was startled to see a lovely stack of Mexican redwood at Silvano’s trout farm – so surprised I even took a photo.
Unlike a good Oregonian they still split wood into thin pieces
Anita and I have been looking for wood chairs for some time – they are available; we just haven’t seen any that really caught our eye. Now we have four chairs on loan from friends who are storing some things with us while they head back to the United States. Essentially I like these chairs. They are stout and pleasing to the eye and typical of Mexican craftsmanship. They are not something you would see in Fine Woodworking Magazine. You won’t find an ash plywood with cherry inlay curvaceous coffee table in any of the local muebles tiendas (furniture stores).
What they are is sturdy and pleasing to the eye from a distance. What is missing is attention to detail – the finish work. It is as if they stop each and every project about 80% into it. This goes for their finish work building practices generally as well as more specifically to fine furniture.
There is a small wood crafting shop at the edge of San Marcos where Anita and I first stopped to inquire about buying sawdust for our compost toilets (we prefer leaves). We did buy a couple large bags of unfinished wood sawdust; at the same time we made a new acquaintance in the proprietor of the shop. This fellow makes wood windows, chairs, rocking chairs, chests and bed frames mostly to order.
But, his finish work is much like our loaner chairs – about 80% completed and shy of the talents of woodworkers that discuss the best ways to cut rabbets and dadoes or good methods to make dovetails on a bandsaw, or the process of creating a cope and stick joint or how to get a perfect true oil finish – no these hombres are more likely to be discussing the grand kids and futball.
Joints just don’t quite fit like those made with thousands of dollars of electrical tools. If a pencil mark was required during the building process, it is apt to still be there under the varnish on the furniture in your living room years later. These craftsmen have their own slant on hand made.
Mark of a Craftsmen – Mexican Style
It is most likely that few will notice the finish/unfinished details – but, I will know they are there. Mexico is imperfect in so many ways; 80 % finished sort of speak. But there is a 110 % per cent life to be had down here rich, colorful, friendly and adventurous. You have to love it. Stay Tuned!
Last night as planned we attended a televised showing of a futball game at Vicente and Lidia’s casa. Even our amiga Bonnie was in attendance (for the first half).
A couple of days ago there was a headline about Mexico trying to avoid the unthinkable – that being not making the cut to participate in soccer’s World Cup next year. In the article that followed the headline a complex set of circumstances could equal elimination for Mexico. I still don’t know if all the factors equal the unthinkable – but it could be.
Two of the factors were Mexico would have to not score any goals in its game of last night where it was playing Honduras – that happened; Mexico lost 1-0 in a rain drenched 90 minutes. To really underscore the defeat the only goal of the game was scored in the 52 minute by a Mexican player that accidentally kicked a wet soccer ball into the net for Honduras – ouch.
Another part of the equation to elimination was that Jamaica had to beat Canada with a large number of goals (not sure what that number is). Jamaica defeated Canada 3-1 which I think was not enough to eliminate Mexico from the Cup – but we will have to see on that score.
An update this morning, according to Bonnie, Mexico is still in play for the Cup – Jamaica didn’t score enough goals – except to win.
I should add a disclaimer here that if you are from San Miguel Allende, Merida, Beverly Hills or our next-door neighbors stop reading now – the following will certainly grate on your sense of style and grace.
Prior to game time going in reverse direction, Vicente and I started tiling the floor of our 5’ by 7’ banos (bathroom). A couple of years ago we constructed this small room that will one day (soon I hope) house a shower, sink and compost toilet. The compost toilet is the easy part and has been in operation this year. It is little more than a medical toilet frame with a 5 gallon recycled lard bucket beneath.
I think it is higher tech than the BumperDumper that was recently profiled on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. There they attach a toilet seat to your vehicles bumper. The seat rests on a new (non-recycled) 5 gallon bucket that is to be lined with a kitchen waste basket plastic bag liner. This kind of disgusts me thinking that rather than turning and churning human waste into fine compost they are dumping these plastic bags in campground dumpsters across America – especially being a former dumpster diver.
We started out early jumping on the scooter and heading up to the river in the outback. There we gathered some fine river rock in another of our recycled lard buckets. I explained to Vicente that if we were in the United States we would be going down to the local supplier and buying river rock for an exorbitant price rather than gathering it at rivers edge on a sunny morning just north of the Hood proper.
Anita washed the river rocks while we mixed the mud and started laying tiles. Because Vicente is working nights and he needed to get some sleep before the futball game at seven we laid only 20 of the 40 needed tiles and surrounded that 20 with the river rock border. I suggested to Anita that we call this our hippy bathroom – it has that 60’s Hippy flavor to it. We do plan to tile part way up the walls with an elegant green tile that Anita said might be too contrasting to the Hippy floor? I suggested we could put a shiny sealer on the floor to bring out the colors in the river rocks and perhaps the shine would help tie in the fancy green tile. We will have to see on that. I am advised by WordPress that this is my 800th Blog entry – a milestone of sorts – I suppose. Stay Tuned!
I grew up with the Beverley Hillbillies. I was a teenager when the show started back in 1962. I wasn’t the only one that liked the Clampett clan, it was the number one show on television the first two seasons . The show has new generations of fans as Classic TV continues the reruns 45 plus years later.
Jed, Granny, Jethro, Ellie May and Peal Bodine were quite a family. Bubblin’ crude, oil that is, black gold, Texas tea was discovered on their property in Bugtussle, Tennessee. They moved to Beverley Hills and the rest as they say is history.
I was raised in an upper middle class family, not too far up the road from Beverley Hills. And I was brought up hearing about Granny’s Possum shanks; Pickled hog jowls, Gizzards, Smoked crawdads, Southern-fried muskrat, Goat tripe, Stewed squirrel and Ham hocks and turnip greens, and of course cookin’ up some Coon stew – “Ewwww Doggies,” now that’s eatin’ – lessen you are one of them city slicker vegee-tarians – sorry Granny. So while I was brought up in L.A. I vicariously adopted some back hills culture just short of their culinary specialties. About as daring as I get is cilantro and chili seco in my scrambled eggs.
We now live in the outback of Ursulo Galvan in the Municipal of Xico where backwoods ways are dying hard. Take the other day for instance. There was a futball game coming in on the Camacho family’s tell-ee. We don’t have a TV over at our casita so now and again we watch something over there. Also the act of watching sports with mi amigos is a bonding agent. So far I am finding soccer (futball round these parts) a bit slow, perhaps on the line of America’s favorite pass time baseball. These sports give one time to chat during the long interludes between action. I should mention there is an important game between Honduras and Mexico tonight – whether or not Mexico remains in the next World Cup competition is in the balance for Mexico – you know where I will be tonight.
The friendly tequilas dull the senses enough to help a body become one with the languid games; the ongoing education from being immersed in a totally non-English speaking environment has its benefit; and the people are just down home friendly and nice.
If you haven’t yet spent any quality time in Mexico you should know that you will eat if you visit a Mexican family. No matter when you last ate or how little they have, there’s enough for you and yours. The Mexican people have to be one of the more gracious societies in this regard. To refuse eating is an insult.
Estaban, Lidia and Vicente’s 13 year old son, is a hunter gather by nature. The boy loves to hunt in the surrounding forest hills with his trusty dog Terry. I get a sense of his pride for providing food for the family. He is a bright boy who now owns a laptop computer (thank you Hollito) and excels in school. Mom and dad’s pride is required to bring in good grades before Estaban and Terry can set out for the hills. He hunts with some older fellas who have broadened his vocabulary with some words mom is not too keen on – there have been conversations.
During the slower moments, and again there are quite a few in the hour and a half plus futball game, Estaban often excitedly tells me about this adventure or that while hunting out in the woods. He is proud of the way Terry is learning and how he conducts himself on the hunting trips. There is one more experienced lead dog that apparently is passing on his expertise to the lesser experienced hounds like Terry.
So on this fine weekend afternoon as we chat and watch the game the meal is handmade tortillas bursting with dark, rich and tough mapache (that’s MA-PAW-CHEE); the other red meat – raccoon. This and armadillo carne are the main rewards from our hills. Fortunately our vegetarian character is well known here in meat lover’s land – so we are offered handmade tortillas filled with beans and queso – whew!
I watch Vincente power down a huge raccoon cube filled tortilla almost in a single gulp. “Le gusta mapache hombre” I ask. With bright eyes and cheeks filled like a chipmunk heading home Vicente smiles and manages to blurt out a “Si!” Estaban the proud hunter gets a grin on his face like a butcher’s dog, as Jed Clampett would say.
Our friends here Bonnie and Charles who hail from Louisiana know about raccoon fixin’s – Bonnie even has a cooking tip or two. Preparing raccoon comes up in a lot of your wild game cookbooks. For me some days are better than others being a vegetarian – that afternoon was one of the better ones. Stay Tuned!
Most of the folks north of the border and a good many south are really tired of election campaigning. It has been great to not have a television connection here over the last few months. The last thing I remember watching was the Olympics in our rental casa in Capitan, New Mexico back in August – of course even then there were many, many campaign ads – actually I think this past election started two years ago. I must confess we did see some of the vice-presidential debate at a debate party hosted by Esther and Jim our next-door neighbors . But, there is one last election before year’s end.
On November 30th a high percentage of the voting populace of Ursulo Galvan will take a walk to the park in the center of the Hood. There at parks edge is the ‘salon’, a community building. This is the polling place where members of the community will have a one issue ballot presented to them – they will vote.
On December 12th one of the three ballot choices will take her place as reigning princess of Feliz Navidad events (Christmas activities). You might be thinking this is trivial – but let me assure you quite the contrary. A week ago there was a community dance introducing the candidates. There are campaign war chests filling from fund raisers – your donation kindly accepted. Last night there were two parade like activities promoting two of the candidates. Noise makers, honking horns, cow bells and joyful chants; you see it takes a lot of noise to get anyone’s attention in the Hood as the base level of activity is well beyond what we experience in the United States – unless you happen to live around Time Square. There will be more candidate caravans as the campaigning heats up near Election Day.
Saturday afternoon while I was tearing apart Scoot Azul I looked up to see three pretty young girls standing shyly at our property’s edge. Anita had just arrived from a trip to Xalapa with Bonnie. She patiently listened to a young beauty beseeching our votes. Yoliz (Yolanda) the niece of a friend of ours was decked out in her best Versace T-shirt. I had been taking photos of the deconstructed Scoot Azul. I grabbed the camera and started shooting like a dutiful reporter at a news worthy event. Only 15 days left before Election Day.
The candidates are Irene (EE-Rain-ee), Karin (CAR-In) and Yolanda. They are all lovely, talented and charming, so I am told. The three are the cream of the crop for the season. I have been amazed at the politics of it all. Like running for class president in the States, being selected could be very meaningful towards ones future (again so I am told).
Around Ursulo Galvan you will see colorful hand drawn signs on casas supporting their candidate. There is actually a huge printed color banner for Karin near the Iglesia (Church). Irene has been giving out yellow campaign T-shirts – no expense spared. Because of the strong family influences here the families of course support their own – but this is a very close knit community, family ties can cross party lines.
Here also there are backroom agreements where factions have committed to vote for a girl because her family had supported one of theirs in a previous election – these commitments are not taken lightly. I assume your ballot is private but be careful there may be a recount. An investigation of hanging chads might expose your particular vote. Here a promise is a promise – (so I am told).
I am trying to keep an open mind to all this, not being distracted by friends urgings, rather I will cast my vote strictly on the candidates physical attributes – no time for further research; there will be no debates. Anita has reminded me that there is personality and talent to consider – but I figure this girl will just be waving from a truck in a parade – how talented or charming must she be – it is about the looks (men can be so jaded). They’re so young I can hardly take the choosing for beauty seriously – after all there are no bad looking 16 year-olds, only some better looking. Aren’t I diplomatic? Hmmm what could I run for? Stay Tuned!
For those of you that think Mexico is nothing but cactus and tumble weeds. This photo is of the famous Cascada de Texelo. You can see it and the surrounding neighborhood in the film “Romancing the Stone.” They claimed, in the film. it was in Cartagena, Coumbia. I guess Michael Douglas and company felt safer and had to travel less distance coming here.
The local folklore has it that Arnold Schwarzenegger, before becoming the Governator, flew into Veracruz airport and then helicoptered into Ursulo Galvan (our Hood) while filming something (not a fan actually). He went back home to California every day – a daily commute of sorts.
Tune in to the Global Post in January and by all means – Stay Tuned here!
