I had always said Mexico was going to be my `holy shit' moment. The place we would realise exactly what we were letting ourselves in for over the next 7 months. Considering we nearly died while landing at Mexico City Airport, I wasn't far off the mark, and shit was proably the softest word I, Kim and all the other passengers on the plane said as our pilot navigated his way through an electrical storm to land our plane. We survived, obviously, but not without incidence as I had made extensive use of the provided sick bags - the seatbelt light was on so I had no choice ok! Kim was very impressed as he'd never actually seen anyone use the sick bag for their actual purpose. After clearing customs and bag check (and madly cewing mentos), we made our way to a taxi and began our trip to our hostel, the first thing we noticed was the massive number of police around. We knew they would be visable prior to arriving as the war on drugs steps up, but this was insane. As we came to over the next few days, you couldn't actually look in any direction without your eyes falling on either flashing blue and red lights, or a fully lock and loaded cop. In some ways it was comforting, help never far way, but it did make us wonder if we were going to get caught in the middle of a gun battle at some stage.
Our hostel had no record of our booking, but as I had printed the reservation docket they found some room for us, on the top floor of their massive hostel, a beautiful buildling built mostly from stone and with a winding staircase around a hollow centre, with each of the rooms off the staircase. Beautiful yes, loud- definetly, as we discovered as backpackers stayed up playing cards and drinking until 4am, every word floating into our room. Thankfully we had sleeping tablets and managed a fairly good nights sleep.
After breakfast the next day we decided to suss out bus destinations as we were both keen to get back to the coast asap. It took about five steps outside the hostel door for Lize to realise perhaps wearing short shorts was not such a good idea. Knowing her legs were perhaps her best asset, she wasn't surprised to see a few people glance her way but when we turned onto the main street it quickly became apparent that showing legs is not the done thing. Boobs appear fine as many mexican ladies certainly had theirs out and about, but legs, a no no. It eventually got a bit much so after booking our bus trip to the coast we headed back to get changed into long pants and were able to walk down the street without the eyes of mexico following. The rest of the day was spent walking the streets and basically trying not to look any mexicans in the eye - not the friendliest bunch.
It was a 6am start the next day make our bus to Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa - the first a small fishing village and the latter a resort town for rich americans. Catching the bus during the day turned out to be a good call as we could take in everything, the highway running through small towns basically the whole 9 hours. We were the only gringos on the bus, and made friends with a cute mexican kid who Kim played a few games of hide and seek with. Our first sight of water was some decent sized waves at the bottom of a cliff system running along the coast and we both rushed across the bus to check it out, very excited. We arrived in Ixtapa and caught a taxi to our hostel were we would spend two nights before heading to Zihuatanejo for five nights. Our hostel was being slightly elusive when man ran down and asked if I was Elissa? - Mexicans can't say the letter Z easily. He took us up a few flights of stairs and showed us our room, explaining we were the only guests booked in at that stage - thankfully because it was a smallish room, with three double beds and a bunk bed, a bathroom with barely any running water, no secure place to leave our things, no lock on the door and a tiny fan that wouldn't keep an ice block cold. Hummmm. We had no choice but to stay there but we were not impressed for $20 each a night - as it seemed this guy had just woken up and decided he wanted to convert his spare room into a dorm, and we later discovered this was basically the case and we were lucky he happened to be there, as many people had booked in the past and then been unable to find the unsigned hostel. Ixtap Hostel has been cained on hostelbookers review list. The location was pretty much all it had going for it, and within 20 minutes of arriving we were at the beach and in the water. Keen to feel salt on our skin again, and the pacific is a very salty sea so we were in heaven. The high rise resorts line the beach and there are only two access points for the plebs, so we snuck through one of the swanky resorts and before we even stepped foot on the sand we were offered fishing trips, weed and cocaine. It seems all the dudes who try and sell boat trips, pony rides etc to toursits, supplement their income by selling drugs on the side. dodgy as hell and we quickly learnt to avoid them or, if we couldn't, tell them we were flying out the next day, or Kim's favourite line which tended to work best, too late buddy, already sorted. As all the rich americans stay in the safety of their beach side pools, we were quite the attraction as we body surfed the waves in to the beach. Great fun and I overcame my fear of being dumped as we were in loving playing in the waves. Life continued on like this for the next two days, wake up early, swim, breakfast of cereal or fruit, swim, siesta during which we played cards or read, swim, beers on the beach, dinner, bed. On our last day in Ixtapa we were invited into the dolphinirum were you can swim with the dolphins. We pretended to be interested and got to spend 10 minutes watching 6 dolphins swimminig around, jumping etc. They were beautiful and we would have loved to swim with them, but knew it was out of our budget and were greatful for the oppourtunity to see them.
We caught a cab to Zihuatanejo, just 20 mins away and arrived at our hostel, thankful it existed and also had a kitchen as we were both itching for some proper meals minus beans and foreign objects. Angela's Hostel also had the bonus of being co-owned by a Canadian Gregg, a very helpful guy who we came to appreciate over the coming week. First stop was lunch and we discovered a taco stall just 200m from our hostel, 50cents each, fresh and delicious. Tacos are different to what we call a taco at home - they are basically a soft wrap - a tortilla, meat, some salsa and some radish. Simple and delicious. The girls at the stall stopped us just before we slathered the hottest chilli sauce on them and continued to laugh as Kim kept returning his plate for `one more gracious'.
Next stop was the market were we purchaed a kilo of fresh king prawns for $6 and vegies, eggs etc for $4. We avoided the red meat as it hangs up on big hooks, covered with flies, the blood dripping on the ground and sometimes, the head attached. no thanks. Mexicans also leave uncooked chicken out all day long, and upon asking Gregg about the risks of food posioning and salmonella, he said that it was all safe and word spread fairly quickly is someone was selling dodgy chicken. We still don't understand how it is safe, it literally sits out in the heat and again with flies on it, all day. We figured that it had to be safer than street stall chicken in Thailand and tried some, sure enough, still here today and no matter where you arem you really can't beat roast chicken and potatoes!
Over the week we enjoyed our beautiful room, two double beds, and treated ourselves to two nights in an air con room. We cooked each and every meal, and took advantage of free water at the hostel, all in all cheap week. The beach within walking distance of the hostel sold Coronans for $1 each and had free internet, albeit slow, so each evening we made our way towards happy hour, taking advantage of the cool sea breeze and all the action on the sand. Mexicans are never alone and Zihuatanejo is a family orientated place so we were always seeing people swimming with their kids, grandparents, sisters brothers etc. Each evening the whole family would make their way to the beach for swimming, fishing, body boarding and beers. It was great to watch and the best thing, everyone always smiled and greeted you with `Hola'. Our favourite pastime was when the fisherman would come into shore and give away all their small catches to whoever was nearby, and as the birds gathered above, the people would throw their fish up into the air as the giant albatross like birds would swoop down and make an impressive show of catching their dinner. Eventually some dirty looking pelicans would join in, but not being as agile as the other birds, had to be content to wait for people to take pity on them and throw them a fish. Was awesome to watch, fish falling out of the sky, kids throwing, birds diving! One night we came across a basketball game being played on the beach, the court outside under lights and literally just above the sand, with the teams warming up on the beach prior to the game. A massive crowd had gathered to cheer on the home team and kids and adults enjoyed popcorn and fairyfloss. The next night we discovered this court doubled as the town square and after fireworks alerted us to something going on, we came across the weekly sunday concert, at which locals play music, dance, make jokes, generally just providing a famiy outing for everyone to enjoy - life here is simple but fun and both kim and I believe it is the way it should be. Kim even provided a helping hand when they were taking down one of the big signposts, his muscles coming in handy!
By catching a bus from our street we could head to a beautiful beach, about a 10min ride and we decided to spend a day here, heading home for siesta and lunch. But when we arrived there was a strong seabreeze and it kept us cool, so we hired a beach umbrella, two lounges and prepared to pass the day reading, playing chess and enjoying the busy atmoshphere, people para sailing, sailing hobie cats and building sand castles. A 20 min stint in the sun each and we were burnt to a crisp. NOT AGAIN! Really an eye opener as to how strong the sun is here in Mexico. This is when the air con room came into play, as both were suffering and Kim had also come down with an ear infection that was to plauge him for several weeks.
After Zihuatanejo we headed to Puerto Escondido where we were to meet up with an old school friend of Lize's - Nick Balcombe and his GF Jess. We arrived at a hostel Tower Bridge to be told that the owner had gone to Mexico City on a family emergency. We picked our room, pool side and with kitchen and lounge @ $10 a night and headed to Mexican Pipe - a world famous surf break. Kim was in heaven, despite his ear infection keeping him out of the water. We checked it out, impressed at the wave and surfers, not to mention all the big cameras lining the shore, just waiting for that perfect shot. After a couple of hours we headed home and hit the hay, having caught the night bus and being fairly knackered we slept for a couple of hours before jumping up to meet hostel owner Steve who invited us and an english couple, Ella and mikey, to take in the European League Soccer Grand Final. We quickly caught on that Steve was slightly insane, a pom who migrated to start his hostel 4 years ago, in his mid 40s and likes to say the f word a LOT. His family emergency turning out to be his dog Blackie and while he took to kim and I, he could he heard calling out `Bloody Tasmanians' for the next few days, especially when we kept blocking the toilet, you can't flush the paper here, and had the occasional early night - then it was `Soft Bloody Tasmanians'. Kim and I organised a hostel bbq, we all headed to the market together and cooked up a feast for everyone of bbq prawns, steak (for those not put off at the sight of it) and char grilled vegies, potatos and salad. delicious. Lots of fishbowl cocktails came into play and we stayed up late swimming in the pool, playing cards and pool.
The next day we were picked up at 10m by our rental manager and taken to our first condo experience - a beautiful ground floor apartment, one of two overlooking the pool in the middle. We had the complex to ourselves, as it is low season here in Mexico. We flipped for rooms, one sweet king size bed, air con and ensuite, the other two singles and a fan, and we, calling `eagles', managed to score the deleuxe setup. A trip to the supermarket was great fun, and we stoked up on food and alcohol to keep us happy for the week. Was bizarre having a shopping bill that came to $2000 - peso that is, about $200 for a weeks worth of breakie, lunch, dinner, snacks and drinks, alcoholic and non. Our weeks was spent basically waking up, swimming, either at the pool or the nearby beach which we had to descend and then ascend 170 steps, breakfast, swim, read, lunch, swim, read, cards or chess, cocktail hour, dinner, movie, bed. Not bad life really. The boys invented tequila chess - you lose a major piece you take a shot, and while it took them a while to get through, they managegd a impressive game, especially considering the amount of tequila that was being consumed.
A few midnight swims in the pool, a few cocktails, a few coronas, at $3 a six pack we felt it would be un-Australian not to over indluge, and just for the record, lime juice is squeezed into the bottle, not the lime itself, or lemon as is more commonly used at home. We were laughed at the first time we put it in the bottle, they are big on recycling the bottles over here and you can make your six pack even cheaper by returning the bottles!
We also spent a day hiring longboards and played in the surf, it is harder than all the people here make it look, but great fun, mind you I did lose my bikini a few times! it was also on this great day that Lize got Kim to stalemate in chess - not long till she takes him now - stay tuned!
The following saturday we were agin picked up by pat and taken to our next condo, a beautifully stunning villa with three floors, and we occupied the second floor, which was itself two floors, top with air con bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and the lower level with open plan kitchen, lounge and patio. All the little touches have been thought of here, and there is a mexican flavour to the entire place - rugs, vases, cactus lamps, bright tiles etc. It is truly beautiful. The pool is shared by all three fllors, but there is only one other couple staying here at the moment, a lovely couple from Texas who have shared a few happy hours with us. After moving in we discovered a slight added bonus, we get a daily visit from two lovely girls who cook, clean, wash our dishes and generally do ALL the housework so we get to relax with a capital R. Kim is in heaven, he gets to use as many dishes as he likes and I don't nag him to clean up after himself!
The boys have been getting up every day to hit the beach and make the most of the awesome surf here. Sadly Kim had his toes rubbed pretty badly by his flippers, creating nasty sores on each of his toes and has been out of the water again, just as his ear infection finally csme right (after two trips to the doctor and 3 courses of antibiotics and drops). As I write this, sitting watching the waves smash onto the shore and drinking a cold beer, he is at home with a flu. Poor boy is costing us a fortune in medical bills and I think some vitamins and detox is in order to try and get him heathly again, as it will be go go go from here on for the next couple of months.
We have one more week in Puerto Escondido with Nick and Jess before we head to San Cristobel, where it will be somewhat cooler and slightly more old school Mexico. From here we head to the famous ruins of Tikal in Guatemala and onto Antigua where we will spend a week or two at Spanish School and Volcano surfing. Starting to miss Vegimite and my ugg boots.
