Ok, hi everyone, here is my blog about my trip... Yes, im sure it's gonna start out quite regularly and neat but im know as the trip goes on it's going to get a lot less regular and messy, but oh well i'll see how it goes.. I hope i can keep it going though..
So yeah, ive been in Mexico for three days and already its been amazing (even just walking around the streets is so interesting).. We leave for Chiapas, Mexico tommorrow morning bright and early!! Very exciting!
I'm going to try and write a little bit about each day more for myself than anyone else as i want to have a record of the trip that i can keep.. Read it if you like, don't worry i wont be offended if you can't be bothered or are not interested.. It's ok.. :)
Oh yeah and if its possible im gonna put up photos each time i write in here so if you look to the right of the screen towards the top (i think) you can see a link to the "Welcome to Mexico" photo album (just thought i'd throw that in there for those less techonogically inclined *cough* mum *cough*.. Hehe, just kidding mum! :)
The Flight to Mexico - Tuesday, 11th..... Hang on, no... Wednesday, 12th July, 2007
So yeah, my flight over was quite interesting... I actually ended up leaving a day late as STA Travel booked my flights too close together (i love you STA travel) and my first flight left late which meant i would have missed my next flight so all my flights were rebooked to the next day...
All up it took about 40 hours to get to Mexico.. The flight to Sydney went smooth and quick but then the flight to LA took aaaagggessss.. Although i got to watch a cool movie "Clubland" (i finally got to see it Soph!) it was awesome... 4.5 stars.. Plus i saw about 15 episodes of various shows such as Simpsons, The office (uk and usa version) and Family Guy... Even with all that TV it took ages.. Oh well i made it to LA without a hitch..
Then things went a bit wrong... After searching the LA airport for a while trying to find Mexicana airlines, i got told by them that because my ticket had pen marks on it (from when they changed my flight in adelaide) it was now invalid (I love you Adelaide airport staff).. They then told me to go and find Quantas who issued the ticket and get them to issue a new one.. Upon arriving at the Quantas desk i was informed that as it was currently about 2am in Australia they don't have any staff in the building.. Yay.. So then i asked someone else (AKA "The LAX Angel") to help me and she personally escorted me to two quantas staff that were hanging around the airport.. So finally my ticket was issued and i made it to the Gate in time for my flight..
So now at Mexico airport struggling with my 674 million kilogram backpack looking for a taxi rank having slept 2 to 3 hours in the last 40 hours, a mexican guy offered me a taxi.. After making sure he was a legit taxi driver we finally settled on 65 US dollars for the taxi to Yvonnes place.. This seemed ok i thought as i had seen on the net that a reasonable taxi trip cost around 45 US and Yvonnes place was quite a way out.. On the way the taxi guy got lost about three times, stopped twice to ask other taxis how to get there and spoke about 3 english words, but we finally got there after being in the taxi for about 70 or so minutes.. "He's done well and made an effort to get me here" i thought so i gave him a US$5 tip.. I later that night found out that it would usually cost about US$35 to get to her house from the airport... yay..
So the room that im staying in is very nice... Seperate from the house and with my own ensuite.. After i arrived at about 11pm we had a couple of beers and i was completely buggered so went to bed..
DAY ONE: Thursday, 13th July, 2007
After a lovely breakfast/lunch we left for town about 2pm (i needed my sleep!).. It was quite weird stepping onto the Mexico streets for the first time.. Even though Yvonne's place is quite a way outside of the city it still kinda feels like your in the middle of the city..
The zone that they live in, has fences all around it and a gate that a security guard needs to raise (if he knows who you are) in order for cars to get in.. I've seen nothing like it before.. And to get in or out of the zone by foot you need a key to open a gate... the zone is probably the size of one of those estates in Australia, its quite crazy.. However, maybe necessary.. about 50 meters down the road outside the zone a police officer with a machine gun on his shoulder stands there protecting the ATM.. Quite scary when i actually did need to use this ATM, i kept my hands out of my pockets and tryed to look as unnerved as possible... i think i did well just personally!
So we spent the rest of the day walking around the city, i went to get my brazil visa from the embassy which took about 30 mins to find only to find it's only open certain days, got lunch at a cool little restaurant and then went home..
The cars on the streets are insane... Me and Felix decided that people are either beeping just to say "im frustrated and i want you to know about it" or just to show that their horn is bigger than everyone elses.. it's crazy, they beep when there is absolutely no reason for beeping, it achieves nothing except to make everything completely frantic on the streets.. Cars could be sitting there completely banked up with nobody moving but you hear a beep every like 10 seconds... Soph would fit in great... Just kidding ;)
After we got home from town we went to this really cool bar.. they played cool music and i heard "Devil Inside" by INXS and was quite excited as it was Australian..
Alcohol is extremely cheap here if purchased from the supermarket.. yes the supermarket today we bought two six packs, one six pack of corona and one of another local beer and for both of them it cost us $9.70.. haha.. However, if bought at the bar, it's about $3 a bottle.. So the night out at the really cool bar cost me about $30 all up... not bad eh!
DAY TWO: Friday, 14th July, 2007
So day two started out pretty early at about 10am, well it was early compared to day one anway! The bulk of the day was taken up by a bus tour around the centre of the city.. This was awesome..
We stopped off in the markets which were absolutely completely crowded! People sell anything here! Thousands of little stalls selling everything from illegal DVD's, music, hats, shirts, superglue, jewelry, softdrink, food, bra's, and pretty much anything you can think of!! It was very interesting and fun.. I got a cool beanie with ear flaps for $3 and then stopped off at the americanised clothing otlet two streets away and bought a tshirt for $19..
The tour took us to a lot of places.. In the very centre of Mexico city is a huge area with nothing but a massive flag in the middle of the square, besides about 2 thousand people doing, well i don't know what they were doing acutally, just walking around.. We got stopped by a group of young students who were doing a documentary on the state of pollution and poverty in Mexico and we got interviewed by them for the documentary.. My mind had been thinking about the unbelievable difference in living conditions between the rich and the poor and it was kinda crazy to have people interview us about that very topic! I really didn't have much to say though.. I wish i had had more time to think about what to say..
The day ended with us stopping in at the bingo game that Yvonne's mum was at, which was very fun, but a quick way to lose $10! Having people call out number after number every 2 seconds in spanish and having to try to mark them off was quite difficult!!
DAY THREE: Saturday, 15th July, 2007
Today was pretty quiet.. Yvonne had school in the morning so me and Felix headed into the shopping mall to buy socks, a new prepaid sim card for my phone so i'm not paying $5690 per minute to call or SMS anybody, a map of Chiapas, some cheese for the pasta we had for lunch and i also bought myself another T-shirt from another americanised clothing shop.. i've kinda gone Tshirt buying crazy.. They are so cheap tho...
There was an awesome thunderstorm late this afternoon.. thunder that kept going for minutes.. it was really really cool... Until i realised that i had left my new shoes outside... I think they will survive!...
Ok, thats about it for now... Phew, that took a while, i don't think i'll be writing this much next time...
We are going to Chiapas tommorrow so you probably won't hear from me for a little bit, but when i get back i'll fill you all in on whats been happening
I hope everyone is well and happy.. Miss you all a lot
Love Chris xoxo
