Uncategorized – Page 3 – Messy Suitcase Travel Blog

April 27, 2019

Driving Our Car in Mexico, Part 1

Since we were moving to Mexico with three people, three cats
and three musical instruments, we wanted to take our Toyota Tacoma with us.
Many people just hop on a plane with a couple of suitcases, but we needed more
space. So before we left Colorado, we ordered a topper for the back of our 2012
Toyota Tacoma. When an accident totaled the truck, we replaced it with a newer
model that still fit the topper.

The car and all the stuff.

Car Rules in Mexico

There are strict rules surrounding the importation of
vehicles into Mexico. You’re OK if you only plan to take a vehicle within
Mexico’s Free Zone (Baja peninsula, large parts of Sonora and up to 20-26
kilometers from the border). However, if you want to go further than that, you
need to get a Temporary Import Permit(TIP). You can get this online or at the
Banjercito at the border crossing.

Unfortunately, due to a long delay in getting a title from
Colorado for the new truck, we didn’t have the title or registration when we
left. We eventually got the title, but we needed to have some physical presence
back in CO to get the registration document. So we changed plans. Since we were
going to be spending time at one of our vacation homes in Ludlow, VT, before
heading to Mexico, we decided to register the truck in Vermont, expecting to get
the plates and registration on the spot. It didn’t happen that way. Vermont
took our Colorado title away and told us that they would mail the new
registration and title. Unfortunately for us, they entered an incorrect address
into their system and these two documents ended up floating around the Postal
System for a long time. So we were forced to drive to the Mexican border with a
handwritten registration application from Vermont and hope for the best.

Turned Away at the Border

Alas, Mexican authorities wouldn’t let us enter with the
truck without a permanent Vermont registration. We turned around and
frantically called the Vermont DMV, trying to get a copy of the registration
that had never arrived. After getting a couple of robotic bureaucrats who
offered no assistance and told us they could not help, we were fortunate to
reach a helpful woman who told us that our registration had been returned. She
offered to FedEx a replacement to us that day. We therefore spent an additional
two days in Laredo, Texas, navigating this paperwork before heading back to the
Banjercito.

Trying Again

At the Banjercito, they remembered us and quickly processed
our paperwork. The cost ended up being about $1,150 MX pesos (about $40 US) for
the permit processing and another $7,800 MX pesos (about $400 US) for a
deposit, which we should get back when we return the Temporary Import Permit (TIP)
sticker upon crossing the border back into the U.S. We were told that our TIP
was tied to our Immigration permit, so it expired in 30 days. This meant that
we would have to get our TIP renewed when we got our Visas processed.

Bob putting the temporary sticker on the truck

We also had to get Mexican insurance for the truck, as American
insurers don’t insure vehicles in Mexico. We got ours through Sanborn’s, and canceled
our US car insurance.

To be continued …

April 22, 2019

Learning Spanish in Guadalajara, Part 2

There didn’t seem to be a lot of structure at Guadalajara Language Center, but somehow it
worked.!

We weren’t given books, the instructors had some notes and only occasionally
referred to a book they had. It seemed that there was some coordination between
the morning and afternoon instructors, but only in an overlap of general
concepts. It wasn’t a direct continuation of what had been previously taught. Each
week we could be in class with different people, so some weeks we were ahead of
the other people in the class and others we were slightly behind. You wouldn’t
expect it, but for some reason this organization worked. After a while, since
we were there so long, it seemed like we progressed and other students were
shoehorned into our classes.

Excellent instructors

I thought the instructors were very good. Classes combined
grammar with conversation, and content was flexible, sparked by what we did
last night, our weekend plans, the weather, Mexican traditions. Sometimes there
was a lesson on a specific subject, such as the simple past tense or personal
pronouns. But other days, the class might consist almost entirely of free-form
conversation, during which we learned a lot about the history and culture of
Mexico.

For most of our time at Guadalajara Language Center, we had
Monica for a teacher in the morning and Edith in the afternoon. Monica was a
raucous, loud, animated woman and an outstanding teacher. She was the kind of
woman you would want to hang out with at a party. Edith was tall and refined,
more reserved, but eventually revealed a wicked sense of humor.

Monica explaining pronouns

Edith watching a lively discussion

After four hours of Spanish every day, we were pretty tired.
Many other people who came down for two or three weeks spent additional time
studying, but we knew we had eight weeks of classes, so we didn’t feel like we
had to jam everything in. Besides, we wanted to also experience GDL and TLQ. In
fact, at the end of the first four weeks, we felt like we needed some time to
review everything we had learned so we took a week off. Lex, on the other hand, liked the school so
much that she continued for the full eight weeks, and then did two hours a day
for three more.

Lex in class

Lots of work left to
do

Our official studies have ended. We’ve been exposed to the
grammar basics and have certainly expanded our vocabulary. We can get by. We
can understand the basics when speaking with Mexicans who speak clearly and not
too fast. We can have conversations with Uber drivers and market people. But we
know we have a lot more work to do. The Department of State’s Foreign Service
Institute’s School of Language Studies says that to obtain a Professional Working Proficiency (Speaking-3/Reading-3 on a scale of 1 – 5) takes anywhere
between 600-750 hours of classroom study. We have spent 160 hours in class so
far. Granted, we did come in with some basics, but probably at best we’re 1/3
of the way to where we want to be. We know what areas we need to address, and
we have found other resources to continue our study independently.

Our plan is to continue studying on our own and supplement
that with several sessions of conversation each week with private Spanish
tutors. As they say here in Mexico, “poco a poco” — or little by little!

All in all, we enjoyed our time at the school and found it
worthwhile. At some point in time, we will probably take some time to go back
to school, perhaps doing the monthlong summer program at the University of Guanajuato,
but not this year!

April 21, 2019

Learning Spanish in Guadalajara, Part 1

Our first priority in starting our life in Mexico was to learn
the Spanish language. If we are going to spend the next few years living in
countries where Spanish is the primary language spoken, we felt we needed to
get a good grasp of the language early on.

And while we had lived in Puerto Rico for a time in the
mid-90s and were not Spanish beginners, we knew that we had a long way to go
before we would feel comfortable with the language. We want to obtain a level
of proficiency so that we can develop friendships and truly feel part of Mexico
(and other Spanish speaking countries we choose to live in or visit). Knowing the language is also important
logistically, to allow us to navigate daily tasks such as asking where a
bathroom is and understand the answer, being able to order food at a street “puesto”
or in a restaurant, asking for directions, buying groceries, paying for items
at stores, going to the doctor’s office, and more.

Before we left the United States, we both studied Spanish independently,
using books we still had around, a CD series and an app called Duolingo, and we
decided to immerse ourselves in learning the language as soon as we arrived in Mexico.
We chose to attend a language school in Guadalajara (GDL), Mexico’s second
largest city, in the central region of Mexico. Like most Americans, we had
never been to the region, spending our previous trips on Mexican coasts for
beach vacations. This would give us an opportunity to begin our learning
process while exploring a new area.

Guadalajara Language
Center

We chose the Guadalajara Language Center (GLC), which is actually located in Tlaquepaque, a town at the southern edge of
Guadalajara known for its pottery and ceramics. In fact, our apartment is less
than quarter-mile from the city boundary and we routinely run in GDL. The school
offered several language programs, including an advertised CLEP prep class,
Lexie could take and get college credit for. We signed up for the immersion
program, where we would take 4 hours a day of classes for 8 weeks, Monday
through Friday. We took written placement exams and were a bit surprised that
we all tested higher than expected.

Once we arrived in Tlaquepaque, Lisa and I were ready to go
first thing Monday morning, while Lex decided to take a week off to recover
from the long trip from the east coast of the United States before starting.
The location of our apartment was perfect, just a seven-minute walk from the
school. Daily classes ran from 9 -11 AM and then 11:30 AM-1:30 PM, after which
we walked about 3 minutes to the Tlaquepaque main square to choose from the
food trucks and local eateries.

The school, run by an easygoing Dutchman named Wouter Stout
who is married to a Mexican woman, is located in an unassuming two-story blue
building on a street corner just two blocks from the Centro Historico. It
contains five small classrooms, a little kitchen for brewing coffee each day
for grateful students, a large hallway with a couple of computers for students’
use, and a larger gathering room with a couple of couches and chairs, and
Wouter’s desk in a corner.

Wouter and his dog, Estrella

Every week a new group of students arrives from all over the
world, though they seem to be clustered on the California coastline and western
Canada, probably because of easy flights to Guadalajara. Some stay for only a
week or two, some for the winter, so new placements need to be made every week,
and the first thing Wouter does on Mondays is assign students to classes based
on their tests and hope for the best. If it’s not a fit, changes can be made
after the first session on Monday. In the mornings we had one instructor and in
the afternoon a different instructor. Wouter also provides resources for doing
other activities to help discover the area, including organizing a weekly hike
into the Barranca (canyon), and providing students with info about Lucha Libre,
salsa and bachata dance lessons, a walking tour of Tlaquepaque, and more.

Lex with the GLC resident dog, Estrella (Star)

Ay, Caramba!

Our first day was rough. We were placed together, which was
fortunate, but in too high a level for our comprehension skills, and Spanish
words just flew over our heads. Fortunately, during the break adjustments were
made, and we were placed in an appropriate level class and could get down to
the business of learning.

Interesting Classmates

During our eight weeks taking classes, we usually had just
one other person in our class, and at most a total of four. Since we often
shared stories from our lives in Spanish conversations, we got to know some of
those people fairly well. Everyone had an interesting story as to why they were
there. Aaron, from Napa Valley, was our classmate for several weeks. He worked
for a small vineyard and wanted to be able to communicate better with the
Mexican workers when he traveled. He also had financial incentive from his
company, so he immersed himself in and out of class, living in a homestay so he
could speak with his hosts in Spanish and enjoy home-cooked Mexican meals. Shireen,
from Boulder, CO, spent winters in an RV with her partner in a small beach
community called Guayabita on the west coast of Mexico. Jack, a gay librarian
from Vancouver, talked about the drag shows he attended at home and the Mexican
friends he partied with in Tlaquepaque. Eva was a retired English teacher who
spent several weeks in Mexico. David worked on a boat that took people on
National Geographic eco-tours from Alaska to South America. Francine, originally from Iran, was
a scientist-engineer studying Spanish between jobs. We met retirees and
backpackers, and a young Catholic couple with seven kids who were starting life
as missionaries in Ecuador.

Our buddy Eva

Find out more about our Spanish learning experience in Part
2!

April 18, 2019

Getting Our Mexican Temporary Resident (Residente Temporal) Visas – Part 2

Due to the gas crisis that was occurring in Mexico when we
arrived, we were delayed in the city of Leon for a week before finally arriving
in Guadalajara. Then we wanted to jump right in to language school, so it was
almost 3 weeks before we finally made it into the immigration office in
Guadalajara.

Step 3: Visit the
Immigration Office in Mexico

We found the Mexican Immigration page online, downloaded the
in-country immigration forms we needed, and filled them out. We dutifully made copies
of our passports and had more passport photos taken at a (rather pricey) photo
studio in Tlaquepaque. We then arrived at the Immigration office a few minutes
before it opened and showed the greeting staff the forms. They gave us a ticket
and showed us where to sit. We were quickly called up to a window and showed
the woman our paperwork (no English spoken there). She didn’t like my paperwork
since, as I had been warned at the Mexican Consulate in Denver, I needed to use
my full and complete name for everything. (Lisa, who had filled out the online forms,
had not been aware of this.) I was sent to a computer kiosk to refill it, not a
pleasant experience, as everything was in Spanish and a line was forming behind
me. Nonetheless, I was eventually successful. Lisa joined me in the line to
redo hers for another picky reason.

Back at the window, we were given another document that we
needed to immediately take to a bank, where we would pay approximately $200
each, obtain a receipt, and return to Immigration.

Step 4: Pay the Fee at
a Local Bank

We walked a few blocks to find a bank, took a number, and sat
in the waiting area. Mexico is basically a cash society, so people go to banks
with cash to pay their bills – water, electric, cable, phone, and, in our case,
Immigration payments. There’s almost always people waiting in the chairs. When
our number was called, we went to the window and showed the form we were given.
The Immigration woman told us that the receipt we got from the bank had to have
our names EXACTLY as they were on our passports. The bank’s system wouldn’t
allow the hyphen in Lisa’s last name (Hamm-Greenawalt), so she is Lisa Hamm
Greenawalt in Mexico.

Step 5: Back to
Immigration

Returning to the Immigration office, we waited until the
woman who had previously helped us was available, and gave her our receipt. She
took that, along with our copies and the Immigration permit we got at the
border, and told us that we would get an emailed approval in one or two weeks.

Lisa and Lexie got their emails in a week. We emailed it to
Lisa’s Mexican friend in Evergreen, Gabriela, to confirm that the dense
legalistic language in Spanish said we were approved. She said yes!

But mine didn’t arrive until a week later, causing a bit of anxiety.
We were each given an official Mexican identification number called a NUT, for
Numero Unico de Tramite.

But we weren’t finished.

Step 6: Photos and
Fingerprints

We now had to go back to the Immigration office again to get
our fingerprints taken and give them photos, since they deemed that photos we
had submitted earlier in the process were slightly too big. So we got a new set
of photos taken (in the designated “infantil” size), and scheduled to take
another morning off from language school to finish the process.

We again arrived at Immigration right before it opened, got
our tickets and were shown to a different set of seats. Lisa went to one window
and Lexie and I ended up going to another. They accepted Lisa’s photos and took
her fingerprints, giving her one small napkin to get the purple ink off her
fingertips. They also accepted Lexie’s photos, but not mine. They said the
white background, which looked pale gray, was too dark and I needed to get new
photos again.

First we went to the bathrooms to try to scrub the
fingerprint ink off our fingers! In the Men’s Room, a man sprayed my hands with
some solution and gave me paper towels, so I was fairly successful. Lisa and
Lexie didn’t get the same treatment in the Women’s Room so they had to work
harder, and Lexie’s fingerprints were purple for a day or two.

Then we went in search of a nearby place to get photos taken,
found one a couple blocks away, and went back to the Immigration office with
the new pictures. Success!

Then they told us to
come back in a week for our Temporary Resident (Green) cards.

Step 7: Temporary
residents!

A week later we went back to the Immigration office a third
time. Once again, very efficiently, we got our numbers, got called to the final
issue and signed for our Green Cards.

Finally, six months after the first visit to the Denver
Consulate and 6 weeks after we crossed the border, we held our Mexican Green
Cards in our hot little hands! We were officially Temporary Residents of
Mexico.

Celebrating the success of the process and our new status as temporary Mexican residents!

April 16, 2019

Getting Our Mexican Temporary Resident (Residente Temporal) Visas – Part I

Whether you realize it or not, every time you visit Mexico you’re required to have a Visitor’s Permit or a Visa. Most people get a Visitor’s Permit, which is the form you fill out on the plane. Included in your ticket price is the $25 fee for this permit, which is valid for 180 days.

Since we planned on staying in Mexico for longer than 180 days, we had to obtain a Visa. We applied for a Temporary Resident (Residente Temporal) visa, which would allow us to stay in Mexico for 1 year (renewal for up to 4 years) and allow us to import our car (a blog post on that at a later time). This Visa requires that we meet certain asset/income requirements: have monthly income equal to 300 days of the Mexican minimum wage or $30,804MX or savings/investments equal to 5,000 days worth of the minimum wage or $513,400MX. The deciding factor for us was that because we wanted to import our car, because we were bringing the cats with us. So we decided on the Temporary Resident Visa instead of the Permanent Resident Visa, which would not allow us to import our car.

This ended up being a 7-step process for us.

Step 1: Denver

We started in the Mexican Consulate in Denver. We knew that once we the Visa was issued, we would have to cross into Mexico within 6 months. Since we knew that we would be traveling for several months, and to allow for any unforeseen issues, we thought that getting the Visas in August would be good for our planned January entry to Mexico. I had read about other people merely walking into consulates to start the process. Therefore, about a week before I wanted to go to the consulate, I went to check on the consulate hours so we could get there first thing in the morning. To my complete surprise, I discovered the Mexican Consulate in Denver only processed Visa applications by appointment. To make matters worse, they only had 3 available slots in mid-September, very close to when we were planning to leave Denver. They weren’t together, but we grabbed them, signing up online and printing the forms we needed for our appointments.

Lexie and I had our appointments on the same day. It was a bit of a culture shock at the consulate, as everyone spoke Spanish and we didn’t (yet). We were shown some chairs to sit in and watched the very orderly process of Mexicans taking care of their business at multiple bank teller-like windows. A woman came out and took Lexie and me into a back room. She couldn’t find my appointment and subsequently taught me a very valuable lesson – I needed to include my full name on everything Mexican. That includes my middle name, Keefer, and my suffix, III. She took my financial verification data and sent us back out to pay our $36 Visa fees while she found my appointment and verified the info I had given her. Because I had given my full name on the online form, she needed to create a completely new appointment with the full information. This made the process take longer than it should have. She was extraordinarily nice, and fortunately spoke English. We got our mug-shot photos taken and signed some unknown forms, then called back into the office 20 or so minutes later and given back our passports, which now had the Visas in them.

Lisa went to the consulate 10 days later and came home with her Visa. (Note that different Consulates have different procedures and requirements than what we experienced in Denver. Check your local Consulate!)

Step 2: Border Crossing

The second step of our process came when we crossed the border into Mexico in January. We knew we couldn’t get the normal tourist permit, which would invalidate our Visa. Therefore, we very carefully showed our Visas and made sure that our immigration form was marked accurately, giving us 30 days to visit the Immigration office in Guadalajara.

Lexie filling out her paperwork

This is the form we needed to have marked correctly

Next … Part 2, The Mexican part!

April 8, 2019

Guachimontones – the Round Ruins

Today we visited Guachimontones, one of only circular ruins in the world.

You’ve most likely heard of Tulum and Chichen Itza, but Guachimontones is unique and surely the most interesting place you’ve never heard of! Located just an hour outside Guadalajara, this prehispanic archeological site made for a wonderful day trip.

We dug out our hiking floppy hats and slathered on sunscreen, because we knew it would be an active day spent outside on a mountain top in relentless sun. Even so, since we got an early start, the weather was surprisingly pleasant.

We paid just 590 pesos apiece ($30) (plus lunch and tips) to be picked up at our home in Tlaquepaque and driven more than an hour northwest of the city, far into the countryside to the village of Teuchitlan, to experience the ruins and learn some history during a free guided tour (both Spanish and English versions are available).

We ended up getting a private tour because the bus was full, an added bonus! Our driver, Hector, spoke English well but agreed to speak Spanish during the ride up to help us practice.

When we arrived, after driving through the village of Teuchitlan (where Hector said the main industry is sugar cane), we walked up to the Visitors Center and watched a short video in English that described Guachimontones. We learned that the site was constructed between 350 BC and 350 AD and served as the base for what is called the Teuchitlan tradition. The population reached about 40,000 people at its peak.

The people of the time, perceived through their own works

Beto shows us a social scene

We then set off with a guide named Ivan (and about 30 other people) to hike a quarter mile up a steep cobblestone road to the sacred grounds on the hilltop. There we found a series of temples built in concentric, stepped circular pyramids, each surrounded by a moat-like grass “patio,” which in turn was surrounded by about eight lower temple-like structures. The hill continued climbing, with more Guachimontones farther up.

Since we had chosen to take the Spanish tour instead of waiting an hour or two for the English one, we were a little at a loss to understand everything. Ivan said the central circular structure (the Guachi) is where the priests go, as well as people dressed in bird costumes, to appeal to the gods. , but we got to experience the music that they play during rituals (Bob was chosen as one of the musicians, with a drum that looked like a tambourine), learn a little bit of a dance, and climb to the top of an unexcavated “Guachi.”

There were also a number of ball fields where warriors competed with balls made out of animal skins, hitting them with their hips and shoulders Winners had the honor of having their skin cut open and pieces of precious black obsidian inserted inside, while losers could have their fingers or hands cut off. The “Messi” or “Ronaldo” (if you follow soccer) of the Teuchitlan world might have raised bumps of obsidian all up and down his arms! (We also learned that they wore little and woman tattooed their breasts, but that’s a story for another day.)

This ancient civilization thrived for about 700 years before being presumably wiped out by the Tequila volcano in about 350 A.D. The museum in the Visitors Center displayed incredible murals depicting life and events of the time, including the tragic volcano.

This picture from the Visitors center depicts the volcano

After the tour, which included some independent exploration, we headed with our driver Hector to the village by the lake below, where we dined in a lovely lakeside restaurant called Monte Carlo (the most expensive place we have eaten in Mexico, though lunch and drinks still came to only about $25).

Learn more about Guachimontones here.

March 22, 2019

Daily Life in Tlaquepaque

I know you think our life is so glamorous now because we live in Mexico, but actually, it’s just life, only with different people, language, transportation and especially food.

This is a Day in the Life in Tlaquepaque:

6: 45 AM: (Or earlier, if the cats are hungry.) Bob and Lisa get up. Shower. Make coffee. Eat breakfast. Do homework. Pack a snack (Lisa – tangerine, Bob – banana).

7:45 AM: Lexie gets up, showers, eats, and packs Goldfish or crackers.

8:45 AM: Walk 7 blocks to Guadalajara Language Center.

9-11 AM: Morning Spanish Class with Monica.

11-11:30 AM – Break. Eat snack. Bob goes walking and exploring; Lisa often talks with Aryk or chats with other students.

11:30 AM-1:30 PM – Afternoon class with Edith.

School’s Out!

1:30-2:30 PM – School’s out! Lunchtime. The three of us walk two blocks to Jardin Hidalgo, the plaza in the center of Tlaquepaque, to search for a lunch that is late for us but early for Mexicans, who eat lunch from 2-5 PM. We have favorite puestos, or food stands – the Elote Truck for Lisa and Lexie, where Lexie gets yellow corn on a cob on a stick with butter (25 pesos, $1.25) , and Lisa gets an elote/chayote (corn and a delicious type of squash) combo with cream, manchego cheese and salsa (20 pesos, $1). Bob goes off to get a lonche, a plain meat sandwich on extraordinarily delicious bread. Lisa and Bob enjoy raspadas, which are fruit in syrup with crushed ice, and we find a shady park bench to sit and enjoy our treats.

Pineapple Raspadas

Elote truck at night

Elote/Chayote with crema and queso

There’s also a taco place we love underneath the big enclosed marketplace, where Lexie enjoys tacos blanditos (plain beef taco made with two flour tortillas) and Lisa orders molitas (spicy beef abd melted cheese on a fried corn tortilla, with salsa, lime, and onions).

Molitas

Tacos blanditos

Or we go to Quarto Kilo, a delicious hamburger chain with freshly BBQed burgers and spicy fries.

After Lunch

3:30-Bedtime: After lunch, we might peruse art galleries, do work in a coffee shop, go for a hike with the school director, go to the gym for a workout, write a blog, practice our instruments, go for a run, take a walking tour of Tlaquepaque, clean the apartment, take cats to the vet, drop off or pick up laundry from the local laundromat, go to the Mercado to buy fresh meat, seafood, bread and produce, stop into a bakery for breakfast treats, visit a mini-supermarket for sundries, walk to Wal-Mart or Soriana for groceries, or just head home and watch movies.

Getting claws trimmed

Salsa classes

GDL International Film Festival

Quiet Weekdays

School takes a lot out of us, so our weekdays are pretty quiet. In the evening we’ll eat out once or twice a week, or just pick up a pizza and bring it home. We might take a Salsa dance class (50 pesos), go into Guadalajara ($88 pesos on Uber) to walk around the Centro Historico or see a movie at the Cinemex, or hang out at home playing Pinochle or watching a couple of episodes of Gravity Falls on Netflix.

Gravity Falls

Transportation

Our truck sits idle in the driveway, as we walk everywhere in town and otherwise take Uber, which is dirt cheap in Mexico. Public buses are also close, so we don’t feel the need to drive.

Culture

We have had a chance to enjoy a variety of culture: Hospicio Cabanas (museum), Lucha Libre (wrestling), bullfighting, Atlas futbol, the Guadalajara International Film Festival, the Jalisco Symphony Orchestra, and lots of free mariachi music and Ballet Folclorico. We enjoyed the huge Guadalajara birthday celebration and the Herradura Tequila Train.

Getting culture in the city!

Cycling Sundays

On Sundays, Lisa and Bob hop on our road bikes and we ride 10-15 miles on the Via RecreActiva, which is basically major roads in Tlaquepaque and Guadalajara that are closed to traffic from 8 AM-2 PM so people can exercise. I call it obstacle cycling because of all the dogs, kids on big wheels, skateboarders and clueless novices we have to dodge around. Still, for hard-core cyclists like Bob and Lisa, it’s better than nothing.

Finding an inclusive church with English services within a reasonable distance has proved impossible, so my Sunday sermons are found online at Lisa’s pastor brother Peter Hamm’s YouTube page.

We’re planning to do a lot more exploring starting next week, when school is done, though Lexie will be continuing to study during the second session, and Bob and Lisa plan to keep studying every day. But otherwise, there are galleries to visit and sights to see!

February 26, 2019

Bullfighting in Mexico

In the interest of experiencing as much of Mexican culture as we can, Bob and I attended a bullfight recently at Plaza de Toros “Nuevo Progresso” in Guadalajara.

We had to experience it once. We left after one bullfight.

It started out fun

It started out fun. Upon arrival, outside the stadium, we encountered a carnival of food, drinks and booths selling cowboy hats, candy, hand fans, bullfighter-branded seat cushions, and nieve garrafa (ice cream made in a canister). The building itself resembled a small Roman coliseum, and was decorated with image upon image of famous matadors. There was matador art and metal bull sculptures, balloons and cotton candy and, of course, tequila and cervesas. I saw a young girl in a bright red, traditional ruffled costume. Women wore high heels and white embroidered tops. Men dressed nattily. We were underdressed in our chinos and jeans.

The sport’s Spanish origins were evident in a tent outside,
where paella and wine were served by waiters
in an elegant setting before the bullfight started.

Photos of famous matadors were mounted outside on the stadium walls

Once we got inside, we took our places on the concrete seats with an excellent view of the round stadium. The show began promptly at 4:30 PM with matadors in gaudy, glittery costumes parading around the ring to the blaring bullfighting music that I recognized from the opera “Carmen.” It was festive and colorful.

The big introduction

Prepping the ring like the infield of a baseball game

Introducing the bull

But that’s where the fun ended

This is how the “competition” went down: Five or six matadors essentially ganged up on the poor bull, making a mockery of the majestic animal while the crowd cheered. First they taunted him to get him confused and angry, waving bright pink capes to lure him toward them and then scampering behind barricades.

It was a dance, as the matador drew the bull closer

Once they got the bull good and mad, the main matador, a peacock of a man in sparkly gold with a sword and red cape, arrived, posing and preening to roars of the crowd. He then performed a number of moves to trick the bull and make himself look important, pausing to soak in the crowd’s approval. The people all around us cheered every time the bull was tricked. (We were rooting for the bull.)

Next, a rider on a horse in heavily padded protection trotted around the periphery of the ring, raised a long, decorated spear and stabbed the bull in the shoulder, then yelped triumphantly as the crowd screamed, “Ole!” Soon the matadors were also stabbing the bull with smaller decorated sticks, and as the blood streamed down the back of the bull, the crowd again shouted, “Ole!” (I am providing no pictures of this.)

In the end, the chief matador had the “privilege” of slaughtering the bull with a brutal stab of a shiny long sword, and after the cheering was over, the dead bull was dragged away behind two horses.

It was truly repugnant

Bob knew I would have trouble dealing with the blood in this sport, but even he was utterly disgusted. Long before the first fight was over, he told me he was ready to leave. The stadium was only about ten percent full, so obviously Mexicans aren’t that enamored of bullfighting anymore either.

The entire scene
(Note all the empty seats)

Some Facebook friends have criticized us for attending the bullfight, saying “nice people” wouldn’t condone a blood sport this way and that we were legitimizing it by our presence in the arena. This is my response: If you want to experience a culture and truly understand its people, you need to be open to witnessing their traditions without applying your own preconceived notions. Bullfighting has been going on in Mexico for almost 800 years, and 500 years in Spain before that. Going one time to bear witness is hardly supporting the sport, which would have occurred whether we were there or not. That bull was still going to end up on their dinner table later in the evening.

And walking out after one fight is NOT legitimizing it; quite the opposite. We came, we saw, we left. Then we shared our observations with others to provoke dialogue. If we had cheered for the matador and stayed for the whole thing, bought souvenirs and come back excited to see it again, THAT would supporting the sport.

Bullfighting and football

We asked our Spanish teacher about bullfighting. She said it is the sport of Mexico’s “elite,” and we realized it had, indeed, been a flashy sunglasses and designer shoe crowd in the stadium. Which begs the question: Why does a society’s blue bloods go in for a bloody sport like this? Then again, why do Americans tolerate football and cheer when we know the sport rattles the brains of most of its participants, shortens their lives and batters their bodies? How are we any different, really?

And while we’re on the subject, who are we to say bullfighting is worse than American football? Some would say supporting football is OK because players make the choice to play, knowing the potential consequences, whereas bulls have no choice — they’re bred to be slaughtered in public and humiliating fashion. I don’t know what the answer is. Just putting that out there for thought and discussion.

One thing I do know: This is an experience we will definitely not repeat.

The Selfie of the Day was very somber.
We took the shot and walked out.

February 25, 2019

Rain and Futbol

We’ve been in Tlaquepaque for five weeks now, and haven’t seen a drop of rain – until last night, after we decided to attend our first outdoor sporting event in Mexico.

The three of us decided to go to a Mexican futbol – Americans know it as soccer – game. Guadalajara hosts two teams that play in the top Mexican league, Liga MX. I initially wanted to go and see the better team, the Chivas, but it turns out that their stadium is pretty far away from our apartment, not near public transportation and difficult to get an Uber from after the game. So we decided to go see Atlas play. They play in an older stadium, Estadio Jalisco, and currently sit next to last in the league.

Buying Tickets

We started looking online for tickets and the site we went to told us that there were less than 4% of seats available for last night’s game, with the cheapest tickets being in the $40-$60 USD range. I found that hard to believe, so we asked the owner of the language school, and he told us that unless the game was against the Chivas, we could get cheaper tickets at the stadium.

We decided to get to the stadium an hour early so we could get our tickets and hopefully avoid the crowds. Unfortunately, after waiting nearly 15 minutes for our Uber driver, we arrived later than we wanted and crowds were forming. We managed to find the ticket kiosk, got into a line, and buy tickets for really good seats for just $12 each. When we got inside the stadium, we discovered that there wasn’t assigned seating, and that our tickets were good for a fairly large section of the stadium. So we found three seats and settled in to watch the game, which was set to begin at 9 PM. I’m not sure why there is a 9 PM start, but that seems to be the standard start time. A little late for me, but I can make a special occasion out of it.

It was only then we realized a second difference from US events – smoking was allowed in the stadium, which was pretty unpleasant for Lexie and Lisa. Lisa was prepared with ear plugs for Lexie as the noise was pretty loud before the game. The game started, with thousands of empty seats, so we learned never to trust that online ticket site again. The noise also subsided a bit as people and the PA system focused on the game.

The First Half

The game was as exciting as any US football game, with lots of running back and forth across the field. Vendors walked through the stands hawking cervesas (beer), donuts, palmitas (popcorn) and an assortment of Mexican snacks, and half the crowd wore bright red and black Atlas jerseys.

In the first half, Atlas didn’t convert on several good scoring opportunities, but the goalie made some impressive saves. As the half came to an end, Lisa noticed that a light rain had started. Rain? We hadn’t even seen rain before in Guadalajara. We were sitting under an upper deck, so we stayed dry, but we saw drops plop onto the heads of people sitting a couple rows in front of us.

The Second Half

The second half was still scoreless, and we kept rooting for Atlas to hold on and tie the game, although the Tigres had a couple of scoring opportunities. Regulation time ended with the game still tied, but a late, very questionable (at least in my mind), call resulted in a penalty kick for the Tigres, which they converted to a goal 3 minutes into the 4 minutes of injury time. Final score: 1-0. It was a disappointing loss for our new team.

Uber Adventures

It was still lightly raining when we left the stadium. We tried to beat the crowd and inevitable traffic jam by walking a few blocks before calling Uber. Our driver was just four minutes away, but after keeping us waiting 20 minutes, and giving us a thumbs up that he was still coming, he unceremoniously cancelled on us, leaving us wet on a street corner in what was now a big traffic jam.. (Anyone know how to give a bad rating to shithead Uber drivers who ditch you and leave you standing in the effing rain?) We walked a few blocks farther down to a main road where we waited for another driver, along with two other groups doing the same thing.

We got back to the apartment a bit before midnight, a little soggy, but having had an enjoyable evening. We’ll definitely do it again. Go, Atlas!

(Lisa’s note: Rooting for the Atlas is like rooting for the Mets. Most people root for the popular, winning Chivas, Guadalajara’s version of the Yankees. But we prefer the underdog!)

February 16, 2019

Settling into Tlaquepaque

Sorry for the long absence from blogging. We have been in Tlaquepaque for a month, and it’s about time we shared a little bit about our life here! We have been busy attending Guadalajara Language Center five days a week to learn Spanish, plus getting to know this magical village and neighboring Guadalajara and getting into the rhythm of life here.

Let’s start by talking about where we are living!

The cats were extremely relieved when we pulled into the driveway of our orange concrete house in Tlaquepaque, delayed a week and a half by border issues and then the gas shortage, and they were finally able to leave their traveling cages and settle in. There was no hiding upon arrival this time; somehow they knew they were finally home.

Tlaquepaque

Tlaquepaque (pronounced “tlah-kay-PAH-kay”) is a bustling, working-class village on the edge of Guadalajara, the second-largest city in Mexico. It has a population of 600,000 people is known for its ceramics and its artisans. The center is a lovely pedestrian area of shops, restaurants, food vendors, and galleries branching out from a central square, Plaza de Hidalgo. Branching out from the center, homes get smaller and smaller, and roads and sidewalks are narrow and cracked. Most of our neighbors are lower-middle class Mexicans, making their living doing laundry, vending water door to door, operating tiny corner stores, painting sacred statues, fabricating wood-and-leather chairs, or opening pop-up restaurants to sell pozole or tacos dorado.

The Mexican people are friendly and quick to smile. Their culture prides itself on always finding the bright side, despite adversity. Their homes are small but their smiles are big.

Our Mexican Home

Our house on Calle Jalisco is very simple, a two-story orange concrete house in a “coto” (small gated community) with a carport and a small patch of grass out front. We rented it directly from the school, two floors with four bedrooms a half mile the school and downtown Tlaquepaque, for $840 a month. It’s not fancy or luxurious; it’s very basic, and quite Mexican. It didn’t even have an oven, since most Mexicans just the stovetop, so our landlord Wouter allowed us to purchase a toaster oven so we could bake. It has patchy Wifi and a large flat-screen TV with Netflix. It needs a paint job badly, but it’s home.

The Upstairs

The master bedroom has a surprisingly comfortable king-sized bed and a little utility patio that lets light in — plus the sounds of roosters crowing, dogs barking and the nearby cathedral bells chiming every 15 minutes all night. (And for some reason it tolls 21 times each time.) All the noise kept me awake at first, but eventually I stopped hearing it, which reminded me of the 17th floor apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where Bob and I lived in the mid-1990s — at first we could hear the sounds of car horns and people yelling for a mile around, but eventually we didn’t notice them at all.

I was awakened one night by the sound of chaos in a nearby henhouse. I’m not sure if it was an animal thief or a human, since I heard no sound from the perpetrator. But the sound of raucous, terrified squawks that diminished one by one until he last one croaked its final appeal haunted me for days.

Lexie claimed a sunny bedroom with a queen-sized bed, and there’s a third room upstairs with two single beds that we use to store our home gym equipment. (We call it Aryk’s Room because that’s where they will live when they come home for spring break.) The second-floor landing is a large room of its own, with a zippered-fabric closet (two of the upstairs bedrooms have no closets), a loveseat and a little computer table. It’s a great space for me to do yoga (I get a new yoga session from Container Collective Yoga in my inbox every Monday, so I stay connected to Colorado whenever I practice.)

The Downstairs

Downstairs there is a fourth bedroom with a double bed, which we use as a music room and for bike storage. (We also call it Mal’s Room because it’s where Aryk’s partner Mal will stay when it comes to visit over Spring Break.) The white-tiled main living area has an open floor plan, with a weathered couch, a loveseat and a large chair providing plenty of living room seating. The kitchen is efficient and pretty, though we have yet to figure out how to get hot water out of the spigot, and we take our lives into our hands every time we light the over-enthusiastic gas range. There are three seats at the counter and a little table with four chairs.

All in all, though, it’s a cheap, comfortable base from which to embark on our first adventures in Mexico! It’s more basic that we are used to, but everyone else at the language school is staying in a hostel or with a Mexican family, and we like having our own place. It was large enough to host a Super Bowl Party! We will remain happily ensconced here through the end of April, though we do plan a beach vacation during Aryk’s break.