travel blogger – Page 12 – Messy Suitcase Travel Blog

January 22, 2019

Discovering Leon, Mexico

Whoever heard of Leon? Hardly anyone outside of Mexico, I’d wager.

But when we were thwarted from reaching our destination, Tlaquepaque, by a government crackdown on fuel thieves that dried up all the gas stations, we decided to detour to the closest city on our route, Leon, and explore for a few days instead of worrying about gas. So we booked a tiny, pet-friendly two-bedroom apartment ($213 for a week) and set about researching Leon.

We knew nothing about this city, but Bob consulted Mr. Google and quickly Bob discovered that Leon is the fourth largest city in Mexico! The hotel we stayed in our first night while we grappled with how to deal with the gas problem, Hotel Soleil Business Class, was in a great location on a major thoroughfare directly across from a park and sports center, and right on the bus line.

I found a great little description at Trip101.com:

León is known as the“shoe capital of the world” and shopping for leather goods is one of the main attractions here. León has a long history as a center of the leather industry, offering shoes, boots, belts, jackets, and other leather accessories not only in Mexico, but around the world. It has first-class services and hotels making it one of the most important cities in Mexico along with León’s entertainment, restaurants, leisure activities, arts, and recreation. It is also considered one of the most environmentally friendly cities in Mexico and has a high number of cyclists, in part because of integrating a network of bike lanes into the public transportation system. In March 2012 it received an award as “City Water Champion,” due to great progress it has made in the areas of sanitation, wastewater reuse, and energy cogeneration from biogas.

While much of León is industrial, it is also a great little authentic Mexican city. There is a nice, large pedestrian area in the center, which comes to life at night with street sellers, music, and Mexican families just enjoying their city. Also, León is a great place to escape if you’re a budget traveler, unless you’re in the market for a lot of leather.

We discovered Leon has several notable cathedrals, an Arch of Triumph, a grand boulevard (think Champs Elysees, only smaller scale), and a charming historic center.

Arch of Triumph

So after settling ourselves and our cats into our new apartment and taking care of food shopping, we got up the second morning and called an Uber to take us to the Arco Triunfal de la Calzada de los Heroes (the Triumphal Arch of the Causeway of Heroes).

The lion on top represents the pride and symbol of the strength of the Leonian people. The leafy grand boulevard runs 500 meters and has bronze statues of eight heroes. We agreed it would be a fabulous place to run.

The Nativity Show

We then walked up the causeway toward the old city and, across the street from the Templo Expiatorio Diocesano del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Expiatory Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus), we stumbled upon the Muestra Nacimiento, or Nativity Show, a temporary display of Nativity scenes from around the world. Admission was free and it was closing the next day, so we went inside, where we were greeted by a smiling nun. This display was a feast! There were small, large and humongous dioramas from Italy, Spain, Germany, Russia, and all over Mexico. We loved it! Here are a few highlights:

Wooden carved nativity from Oberammergau, germany

Mexican style

The lighted sky bedazzled

Martyr’s Square and the Plaza

After visiting another amazing cathedral next to Pope Benedict Square, and wandering around the old streets in Centro Historico, we enjoyed take-out tacos and agua tamarinda (orange water; OMG, what a discovery, and the entire meal cost $2) in a shady plaza next to Martyr’s Square, the central plaza in the old city. We enjoyed awesome ice cream and wandered on to our next discovery of the day: Mercado Aldama.

Mercado Aldama

I daresay no other gringo has ever wandered into Mercado Aldama, a massive indoor marketplace in a huge industrial building just beyond the old city. And they are missing out! Everything was for sale in this bustling, authentically Mexican, three-story marketplace, from shoes to clothing to sombreros to every kind of food you could imagine (and some you wouldn’t want to imagine), traditional Mexican clothing, arts and crafts, housewares, utensils, fruits, meats (including intestines, hooves and other animal body parts I found quite unappealing but Mexicans apparently love) and much, much more! I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

Mmm, delicious

Please don’t eat me! he says

Baby Jesus come in a variety of sizes,
with long eyelashes as standard equipment

A kids’ booth

Countless super-cheap restaurants featured authentic cuisine

Frida Kahlo shows up on everything

Love Bridge

On the way home, we stopped at the Puente del Amor and secured a lock of love on the bridge. Watch for a future blog about the locks of love we have put in a number of cities and countries!

January 21, 2019

Crossing the Mexican Border

(A look back at the border crossing experience, or Why We Were Stuck in Laredo for Two Days)

I was a little concerned about crossing the Mexican border. I knew there were several things that needed to be done in order to successfully enter Mexico, and I wasn’t exactly sure how, or where, to do them. I was particularly worried that we didn’t have the documentation we would need for our relatively new car. Finally, I was concerned about how long the lines at the border, because we had nearly a 7-hour drive to our first stop, and we had been cautioned not to drive in Mexico after dark.

I had read that most Americans heading to the Guadalajara area from the eastern US used one of the Laredo, Texas, border crossings. Many used the somewhat out-of-the-way Colombia Bridge crossing, which doesn’t have as much traffic as some of the others. It is not a 24-hour crossing, so our plan was to get there when it opened at 8AM.

The First Attempt

We arrived at the border at 8:15 AM, paid $3.50 USD to cross the bridge and we were in Mexico – almost. I had found very little information on the layout of the border crossing, but I knew we needed to visit Immigration and the Banerjcito (the import office) so we could temporarily import our car, which is a requirement if you want to take your car past the “free zone” the first 20 km or so inside Mexico. Therefore, I was ecstatic when I immediately saw the Banerjcito and an empty parking lot.

Empty parking lot

We took our paperwork and went directly to the window inside. I knew they needed the car registration and/or car title. What I was concerned about, though, was that we only had a temporary vehicle registration paper from Vermont.

Getting rejected at the window

Here’s why: Our car was totaled in August and we had to get a new (used) vehicle less than a month before leaving Colorado. Our Colorado paperwork had not yet been processed by the time we left in September. In fact, the processing was so slow that we had to get the car dealership to send it to Lisa’s brother in Virginia, where we parked our car during our European trip, and it took so long that we needed an extension. We needed that paperwork so we could either fly back to Colorado to process it at DMV, or ask someone to perform the unenviable task of going to DMV for us.

Our second option was to register the car in Vermont, where we own a couple of vacation rental properties and where we were staying for a month.

We decided to go the Vermont route for convenience sake, in early December. Unfortunately, only after they took my Colorado title did I find out that it would take them 4-6 weeks to process the paperwork and issue our car registration document. We had over 5 weeks, so I thought we were still in good shape. When it didn’t arrive, I was concerned but was still hopeful that Mexico would accept our temporary registration.

They didn’t!

Rejected at the Border: Now What?

We turned around, crossed the bridge back into the US and cleared US customs. We had been in Mexico, but not really. We left thinking we were at the mercy of the Vermont DMV, something you don’t want to be. We decided to take a chance and call, and learned that our registration had been sent to our Colorado mailing address, but the address they used didn’t include our box number, so it was returned, where it was just sitting in our file. It would have to be resent. Could it be emailed? We don’t do that, said the man in the DMV office. FedExed? We don’t do that, droned the man in the DMV office.

So what could we do for the next week while we waited for the registration to be snail mailed to our Colorado address, processed by our traveling mailbox, and then mailed to us? And where would it be mailed to, anyway? We had checked out of our hotel and our truck doesn’t have a mailbox.

Regrouping at McDonald’s

We went back to Laredo and regrouped at a McDonald’s, sitting in a corner booth with coffee and a computer. connected to the free Wifi. Looking out the window, we noticed a UPS Store across the parking lot. We dashed over, had a chat with the counter worker, and found out we could use their address to accept a Fed Ex. Newly energized, we returned to McD’s. While Lisa went online looking for a pet-friendly place to stay for a couple nights, I pulled out a cellphone and called Vermont DMV again, this time determined to talk with a supervisor.

Working in McD’s on lodging and getting that registration

However, a kind woman named Diane Hedding answered and immediately offered to help us. All we needed to do was to send her a prepaid shipping label and she would personally take our registration to the mail center and Fed-Ex it to us. She gave us her personal email address, and then sent us a note when she dropped off the package. We found a Laredo Airbnb for the next couple nights and waited for our package to arrive.

The Second Attempt

At 10:30 AM on Saturday, Jan. 11, we had our registration in hand!

Registration!

We moved out of the apartment, packed up cats and luggage, and headed to the border. After paying another $3.50 to cross the Colombia Bridge, we confidently walked up to the Banjercito window. Just one person was in front of us, and the woman at the counter remembered us! This time they told us we needed to go to Immigration first, as they needed our immigration form to process the import.

Bob filling out the paperwork

Lisa filling forms

Lexie, too

We went over to Immigration, again no line, filled out the forms, showed them our Mexican Temporary Resident visas in our passports, and were processed. The immigration form was the same one was had always gotten when flying into Mexico, but there were several boxes that needed to be properly checked. This was done and we were now on a 30-day clock to get into Mexico, get to an in-country immigration office and finish up our Temporary Resident visa requirements.

Back to the Banjercito, still no line, they processed our paperwork, took a $400 deposit, (which will be returned when we take the car out of the country), gave us a sticker for our car and allowed us to proceed.

Getting Through Customs

Next up was Customs. We knew, with our luck, we would get selected for a complete car search. And, true to form we were selected. They didn’t want to see the International Health Certificates we had for the cats, but they did question me several times regarding firearms, alcohol and cigarettes. Next, they looked at what we had in the car and decided to X-ray it, which was probably better than taking everything out. This required humans and cats to get out of the car. I drove the car over to the X-ray area, where I was escorted behind a barrier and a movable X-ray device transited the length of our car, scanning it thoroughly.

I drove back to where Lisa, Lexie and the cats were waiting, and in a couple of minutes, they told us we were good to go. After strapping the cats back in and getting our bearings, we crossed the border! Then we were officially off and driving in Mexico toward Tlaquepaque. It had taken us one and a half hours at the border crossing. That process would have taken much, much longer during busy season, so I felt extremely lucky that we were finally on our way!

WELCOME TO MEXICO!

January 16, 2019

Gas Crisis in Mexico

We didn’t make it to Tlaquepaque! We literally ran out of gas.

Well, we didn’t completely run out of gas, but we did get low enough on gas to not have enough make it to Tlaquepaque, and we couldn’t find any more.

Why No Gas?

Mexico has what are called huachicoleros, or gas thieves. The initial image that comes to mind is someone with a 5-gallon container and a hose that siphons gas out of cars. But in Mexico, the issue is far, far bigger, to the tune of $3B USD a year in stolen gas. And it’s not stolen from cars, it’s siphoned right out of the large gas pipelines that distribute the product from refineries to various points in the country.

The gas is stolen by the cartels in a very systematic, almost professional manner. Tapping these lines, with flammable gas running through them, is a dangerous process, and can only be done by extremely skilled people. The government says over 12,000 taps have been put into the gas distribution pipelines.

Sad, empty gas station

A Government Crackdown

This has been going on for years, but Mexico’s new, anti-corruption president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, took office last month and started cracking down. He decided to fight the huachicoleros by stopping the distribution of gas through the pipelines, identifying the taps and then more vigorously guarding those lines. The plan was to replace pipeline distribution with distribution by tanker truck.

Unfortunately, that distribution plan has failed to meet the needs of the population, leaving some areas, mostly central Mexico — where we are — with a gas shortage (actually a distribution shortage).

We knew about this 10 days ago before we left Pennsylvania. Fully aware that we were heading into the area hardest hit by the shortages, we thought that surely the kinks in the distribution system would be worked out by the time we got to Mexico, especially after we were delayed another two days at the border.

Our trip through northern Mexico was uneventful and there was plenty of gas. There was even plenty of gas in Matehuala, six hours in, where we stopped overnight and easily gassed up the next morning. We knew that one tank of gas wouldn’t get us to Tlaquepaque, so we wanted to go far enough before stopping to ensure we had enough in the tank to make it the rest of the way.

Unfortunately, when it came time to stop, first there weren’t any gas stations for miles, and then the next one we found didn’t have any gas. Its gas nozzles were just lying on the pavement, and a long line of cars idled a half mile back along the roadside. We drove 40 miles to the next town where there was a possibility of finding gas, but none of the five gas stations there had gas either.

Choosing a Detour

So we were faced with a decision, and discussed it while looking at a map of Mexico: continue on toward Tlaquepaque and hope we could find gas, or turn left and take a detour toward the closest city, Leon, where we could find pet-friendly lodging and hope to find gas. We chose the Leon option, not wanting to chance being stranded on a roadside with three cats.

We found the Hotel Soleil Business Class, an affordable, pet-friendly three-star hotel, and walked down the street to a gas station that didn’t have any gas. The attendant told us he wasn’t scheduled to get gas for 4 more days.

We knew we had a problem, so we went and booked a two-bedroom Airbnb apartment in Leon for a week iand decided to make lemonade out of lemons.

Making Lemonade

Leon wasn’t on our initial list of places to visit, but it has turned out to be a wonderful discovery! There’s lots to see and do here, the cats like the apartment, and we are really enjoying our stay.

Meanwhile, we’re monitoring the gas situation online. We have seen a few open gas stations with long lines, and have heard about people waiting four or six hours or more for gas, and then coming away with only a few pesos worth (because of 500-peso limits, about $28US), or not getting gas at all. We are not “line” people.

We are not getting in that line

At some point, when the situation improves, we’ll get in what should be shorter lines, only when we can get enough gas to make it all the way to Tlaquepaque. And then we’ll move on to our next adventure.

In the meantime, join us in exploring Leon!

January 15, 2019

Unemployment in Mexico

Lisa and I walked around the center of Leon yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Leon is not an American tourist destination. English signage was non-existent. Almost no one spoke English. But we thoroughly enjoyed the old town of Mexico’s fourth most populous city and got a very authentic Mexican experience.

It’s hard to describe what my expectations were with regard to moving to Mexico, but I was completely surprised by one thing I noticed yesterday – the numerous signs on stores looking for workers. We must have passed at least 5 stores with “Help Wanted” signs. While America currently has low unemployment, I certainly didn’t expect Mexico to have the same. Yet, when I looked up unemployment statistics, I discovered that the Mexican national unemployment rate for the 3rd quarter 2018 was 3.5%.

Help Wanted: Cleaners

Healthy Employment Picture

I’m not going to try and make a direct comparison to the US unemployment rate, as they are most likely measured differently, but it does support my anecdotal evidence that employment is good in Mexico. (Wages are another thing though). Here in Leon, the rate is a bit higher at 4.5%, but it does look like jobs are available.

Even after having been in Mexico numerous times in the past, and not just in tourist spots, I wouldn’t have expected this. This just continues to reinforce to me that there is much I, and Americans in general, don’t really know about Mexico.

Help Wanted

Thriving Economy

I think people in the U.S. have the impression that Mexicans are lazy, that there is high unemployment in the country, and that the economy is poor. We experienced quite the opposite. In addition to the many Help Wanted signs, we were in a thriving business zone with hard-working professional people. Customer service was attentive, and we didn’t see a single empty business space or “For Rent” sign.

January 14, 2019

How to Road-Trip with Cats

We have taken our three cats — Ellie, Equinox and Kaylee — thousands of miles in a 2015 Toyota Tacoma over the past three months.

These are ordinary cats who hate going to the vet. Yet they have road-tripped successfully across the country from Colorado to Pennsylvania, then PA to Vermont, then VT back to PA, then the big one: PA to central Mexico.

The ultimate destination for this marathon road trip is Tlaquepaque, near Guadalajara, which is still 250 kms away from where we are right now. (We are waiting to finish the trip until the gas shortages resolve enough for us to get the gas we need to make the final journey.)

In the meantime, as we all roost at a sweet little AirBnB apartment in Leon, I’d like to share a few tips about traveling with cats.

Tips for Traveling With Cats

Advance preparation is key
Introduce your cats to their cages well in advance so they can form a positive relationship. We put the cat cages out in the family room two weeks before the trip and placed our cats’ food bowls inside at mealtime, to give them a positive association with the cages. When it was time to leave on the trip, they got in happily. (This only works once.)

Expect them to hate it
“Put me in a cage for 8 hours and I will sit and not complain,” said no cat, ever. Expect a lot of yowling and complaining. Expect them to have accidents and to occasionally vomit from the motion of the vehicle.

Visit the vet in advance
The vet gave us ideas for reducing cat anxiety, including kitty valium and anti-nausea drugs. The nausea stuff helped Equinox but the valium made it worse for Ellie. But we also made sure they were up-to-date on their shots and in good general health, and got their claws trimmed.

The cats with their favorite handler, Lexie

Keep your expectations low
Don’t expect your feline companions to travel as long as you can. After all, humans can stop every couple of hours to stretch their legs, have a snack, and use a bathroom. Even dogs can get out of the car to exercise a little and relieve themselves. But cats are stuck in a tiny cage for the duration. No bathroom breaks. No chance to stretch, or even stand up. So don’t expect them to last 12 hours a day just because you can.

We learned this the hard way on the first leg of our journey, Colorado to Pennsylvania. Bob was trying to power-drive across the United States and the cats let him know in no uncertain terms that any more than 10 hours on the road was decidedly NOT OK with them. First, Equinox had diarrhea just an hour and a half into the first leg of the trip, which was a portent of things to come. The next day, poor Ellie, a fastidiously private litter box user, let out a long, throaty, almost otherworldly groan of embarrassment as she peed in her cage after 10 hours on the road. Every day for the first four days, at least one cat vomited in a cage.

Kaylee, the scaredy-cat at home, turned out to be a natural traveler. She never cried, peed or pooped; she was a perfect little angel in the car. She just hid in hotel rooms. (More on that later.)

So we had a family meeting and agreed: 8-hour limit, if possible. That’s nice for humans, too, because perhaps we can get a run in after eight hours on the road, or do some yoga, or move in some way to compensate for all the hours sitting in the truck.

Be prepared on the road
Here’s our advice for some advance moves to make to ensure success on the road with your cats:

Multiple stops present multiple chances to escape, and nothing can ruin an adventure more than losing a precious furry part of your family. So get your cats chipped and register them.
Get them collars with tags that have your email and phone number on them,
Pack a kitty emergency kit that includes cleaning supplies, wipes, washcloths and towels.
Create a bag of basic necessities: wet and dry cat food (with plastic lids for cans and clips for the food bag), a bottle of water, cat litter, a litter box or two, litter box bags (expensive but essential for travel), pooper scooper,food bowls, a plastic Tupperware container for water, plastic spoons for scooping out food, kitty toys and a scratching post.

Kaylee settling into a hotel room in Leon

Help them feel comfortable
Here’s what we did:

Lexie has a quilt the cats love. It went onto her bed first thing in each hotel room and gave them a sense of home.
We also threw out a couple of their favorite toys.
In the car, we made sure the music wasn’t too loud or jarring. They preferred Amazon Music’s soft pop station to rap, rock or even country.
We adjusted their food to minimize vomiting — just a little dry food first thing in the morning, and an anti-anxiety pill, if needed an hour before the trip.
Some cats like thundershirts to ease anxiety. Ellie likes to wear a harness.

Make sure they are secure
We initially had a vision of happy adventure cats wandering around the backseat, sleeping in our laps while tethered by harnesses to a cable Bob was going to run between the two front seats. But we discovered, after a little research, that that was a stupid and dangerous idea. Free-range cats can become like rockets in case of an accident.

So instead we bought two stackable, hard-plastic cat cages for Ellie and Equinox, who rode double-decker, Kaylee beside them in another cage. All were tightly secured by seatbelts to the back seat, and Lexie sat beside them murmuring words of comfort when needed.

Stacked cats

Expect resistance
Once the cats figure out that you will take them out of the car to stay in a hotel every night, and then put them back into the car the next morning to travel for another eight hours, they will try to thwart you. They will go into hiding as soon as you start re-packing your suitcases. In one hotel room, Kaylee found a spot deep inside the box springs of Lexie’s bed, and we had to disassemble the bed to root her out. In another, we came back from breakfast to find NO cats in the hotel room. They were all hiding deep in corners and crevices.

Can you find the two cats hiding in this picture?
(They are inside the trundle bed)
Note their favorite purple quilt, which was gifted to Lexie
from the Piecemakers at Evergreen Lutheran Church.

We finally learned to contain them early in the morning, before they could hide. In this photo, they are contained inside the shower in the Hotel Soleil in Leon.

Cats coralled into the shower at Hotel Soleil Business Class

Give them a break now and then
In the middle of our five-day trip to Mexico, we stopped in New Orleans for a short layover and rented an apartment with two bedrooms and lots of room to run around. They loved it!

Upon arrival, reward them
At each stop, the first priority was getting the cats out of the cages and giving them food and water immediately. Since they hadn’t had their usual half a can of wet food for breakfast, they would receive that right away, and then get the rest of the can at bedtime.

Find pet-friendly lodging
We found a website called Bring Fido that helps you find pet-friendly lodging (including in Mexico) and allows you to book through Booking.com. There are also certain hotel chains that are universally pet-friendly, including Days Inn (which also has laundry facilities), Super 8 (surprisingly nice for a budget chain), and TownPlace Suites by Marriott. For stays of more than one night, we would visit AirBnB or Homeaway and search for “pet-friendly” in the filters. Hotels usually charge an extra fee per day per pet and cap the number allowed at 2. If we were staying more than one night, renting an apartment was more economical and a lot more comfortable for everyone.

It gets easier
The initial three-person struggle to get each resisting, flailing cat into a cage became a two-person efficient system that became a one-person easily-managed task. A cat crying for 10 hours straight became crying half the time became crying just the first hour. Be patient. Traveling long hours in a car isn’t fun for anyone. Expect to be showered with affection in the hotel room, because they are so grateful to be out of the car and with you again.

Ellie still cries when she gets in the cage. But it doesn’t last the whole time anymore. Kaylee now sits like a Buddha watching the world go by out the front windshield, while Equinox, stomach calm from anti-nausea meds, just goes to sleep. We listen to more Ed Sheeran than we would like, and life on the road with cats is good.

The Buddha cat

January 11, 2019

36 Hours in New Orleans

After the first two days on the road headed for Mexico, we decided to give our cats a break from the car — and ourselves a chance to stretch our legs — and booked an apartment for a couple of nights in New Orleans.

We stayed in the lower level of a house we found on HomeAway.com – two large bedrooms and a spacious living/dining/kitchen — not far from Tulane University. It wasn’t cheap, but after two solid days of driving, we needed to spread out. The cats loved it! We did, too.

Traveling is exhausting, so we did not pack every minute in NOLA with activities. We wanted to experience the city, but we also needed some downtime.

The first thing Bob and I did after settling into our temporary home was to go for a run through the neighborhood, which was near Tulane University. It consisted of charming French colonial bungalows, though the roads were very slanted and there were a number of car-eating potholes. We later learned this neighborhood had been flooded by Hurricane Katrina 14 years ago.

Back from our run, posing in front of our rental house

First, the French Quarter

After showering, we made a reservation at a restaurant called Oceana in the French Corner, near the corner of Bourbon Street and Conti. But when we stepped out of the Uber, we were immediately assaulted by a deafening cacophony of sound. To our left on Bourbon, a radio station DJ was blasting loud rock music. To our right, a bunch of kids were playing noisy percussion on Home Depot utility buckets. Lexie almost screamed from the shock. We tried to navigate past them to see what Bourbon Street had to offer, even sliding into a little outdoor terrace where a quartet was playing jazz, but the bombardment was too much for Lexie.

“This is the worst city I have ever been in!” she shouted over the melee, as we covered our ears and shot for the restaurant.

Oceana provided welcome refuge, as Bob and I happily slurped up our first Hurricanes and we enjoyed classic New Orleans cuisine — jambalaya, blackened catfish, jalapeno hush puppies, red beans and rice.

Drinking a Hurricane

Lisa’s dinner at Oceana

Then we retreated to our apartment to recover.

Second Day: A Fascinating Culture to Discover

The second day we spent much of the morning at home because a rock had hit our windshield the night before and we had to wait for the glass repairman to come fix it. That gave Lexie a chance to sleep late, Bob to get another run in and Lisa to do yoga. We enjoyed beignets for breakfast, a NOLA-style donut covered with confectioners sugar.

Windshield repaired, at 11 or so we set out to explore New Orleans by day. We liked it so much more! We started on the waterfront, where we saw the Mississippi Queen paddleboat and walked along the river, taking in the surprisingly industrial view.

Bob and Lexie in front of the Mississippi Queen

We enjoyed lunch on a balcony overlooking the Mississippi River, and then started wandering. We peeked into the St. Louis Cathedral, enjoyed some street jazz, and discovered the most incredible mask store, where a man was meticulously crafting a carnival mask out of leather. I would have loved to buy one to add to my mask collection!

The mask store window enticed us

The custom-made masks were truly incredible works of art

Voodoo in NoLa

We headed toward the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum. I have spent a bit of time in Haiti, including attending a voodoo festival, and we displayed a voodoo flag in our dining room back in Colorado, so I was curious to see how it differed in New Orleans.On the way we visited a vodoo store, which was full of fascinating items with interpretive labels, including books, voodoo dolls, herbs and medicines, and altars dedicated to various spirits and gods. I had a nice chat with the owner, the descendants of Haitians from Cap-Haitien, slaves and plantation owners, and I realized anew what a rich melange of races and backgrounds create the unique New Orleans character. Here are pics from the store:

Herbs and medicines

A voodoo flag

Voodoo dolls. (I left this photo large so you could read the labels and check out the dolls’ anatomy)

The Voodoo Museum offers “a casual and curious experience intended to preserve the legacy of New Orlean’s Voodoo history and culture while educating and entertaining visitors.” It’s only $7 to go in, and consists of a hallway and two rooms jam-packed with the mysteries, secrets, history and folklore of rituals, zombies, Voodoo Queens, altars and more.

Here are a few photos with explanations. I also recommend you peruse the museum’s wonderful website to see and learn more.

Marie Laveau, the mother of voodoo in New Orleans

A paiting of Marie Laveau

A voodoo altar

Cute, right?

Voodoo flag

Paying Homage to Louis Armstrong

Since Lexie and Bob both play the saxophone and Lisa adores jazz, we had to make a pilgrimage to Louis Armstrong Park/Congo Square, which celebrates music and is also a major NOLA gathering place for Native American and African music and culture.

Bob joins the jazz band

Satchmo

The Streetcar and Creole Creamery

We ended the day with a streetcar ride to the Eiffel Society so Bob and I could hang a Lock of Love in New Orleans on a fence in front of a restaurant transplanted from the top of the Eiffel Tower to New Orleans and reinvented as an event space.

New Orleans Streetcar

Lexie taking a ride

Our NOLA Lock of Love

Finally, we visited Creole Creamery, the best ice cream in town and the only one in the world that seems to truly understand me. Instead of having to pick one flavor, they offered four- and six-scoop samplers! Heaven. Their tagline is, “Eat ice cream. Be happy.”

The Four-Scoop Sampler

With an early start scheduled the next morning and ears still recovering from the Bourbon Street experience, we played a wicked game of Pinochle and hit the hay early. But we will be back; it was really just a taste! There are so many restaurants to eat in, we need to enjoy more jazz (we did see a street group outside the St. Louis Cathedral), tour the cemetery, visit the WWII Museum, take a riverboat ride, explore the bayous, and do so much more!

January 10, 2019

Crisis at the Border

Today we were supposed to enter Mexico. We didn’t.

Blame the U-Haul Driver

It all goes back to a U-Haul truck that caused a horrendous car accident for Bob and Lexie last August. It merged into their car on a highway when they were going 65 MPH, Lexie took evasive action to prevent impact but hit a car beside her, and in a blink of the eye, our 2013 Toyota Tacoma truck was totaled. We got a replacement (2015) truck as quickly as we could but couldn’t get it officially registered in Colorado before we left for our cross country trip in September. With a flight to Europe scheduled for Sept. 30, we had no wiggle room.

The border building

We actually got into Mexico but had to turn around and go back out

Bob before the denial, still hopeful

So when we got to Vermont after the Europe trip, we registered the truck there (since we own property in the state), but had limited time to receive the permanent registration and tag stickers, and they hadn’t arrived by the time we had to set off for Mexico.

So we arrived at the Mexican border this morning hoping they would let us cross with the temporary paperwork, but despite our best efforts, and speaking with every single Mexican who worked there, it was a no go.

So what to do? We had a hotel and a house booked in Mexico and no way to get there.

Working on Plan B

We left the border dispirited, found a McDonald’s with Wifi back in Laredo, bought an order of hash browns for Lexie to rent a corner booth, and called Vermont DMV, only to discover they had screwed up our mailing address (omitting the box number to save space) and the paperwork we desperately needed had been returned to their office. The automobile title was still in the mail to our mailbox in Colorado, but also going to an incomplete address.

Working out PLan B logistics in Mickey D’s

We appealed to the young man on the phone to email a copy of the registration, but he said they “don’t do that.” We asked him to FedEx the registration to us in Laredo, but he said they “don’t do that.”

We started working on changing hotel dates (supposedly non-refundable) and trying to figure out where to sleep tonight. We saw a UPS Store across the parking lot and went in, asking if we could receive a Fed Ex there. The answer was yes! Bob got on the phone to DMV again, this time reaching a wonderful woman named Diane who was sympathetic to our plight and willing to go the extra miles to FedEx our paperwork from Montpelier to Texas, to arrive by 10 AM Thursday morning.

Finding Lodging

We thought about crossing the border on a temporary visa for a couple days and staying in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico — where AirBnB rates are one-third the cost of the U.S. side — but we were afraid we had too much stuff in our truck to clear customs successfully. We found an AirBnB two-bedroom rental in Laredo that allows pets and quickly booked it, then hung out over a long lunch killing time till we could get in.

Our rental for two nights

So that’s where we are tonight — hoping our paperwork truly arrives tomorrow, and then hoping the registration will be sufficient to get our vehicle into Mexico, since it could be a couple weeks before we get the title sorted. The other consideration is that we only have ten days since getting the cats’ international health certificates to enter Mexico, and we only have three days left or we will have to find a new vet and pay for the process again!

Try, Try Again

If all goes well, we plan to try again on Friday to drive our vehicle into Mexico.

We’ll keep you posted!

January 4, 2019

Europe In Pictures

Before we leave for Mexico, we wanted to share some of the best pictures from our trip to Europe.

Visiting six countries in five weeks, we saw some spectacular sights: Ancient ruins, mammoth rocks, jaw-dropping waterfalls, amazing architecture, turquoise seas, fiery sunsets and too much more to list!

Let’s let pictures tell the story:

Germany

Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall, Hamburg

St. Michael the Archangel Church, Hamburg

England

London Eye

Kensington Gardens

Kensington Palace

Spain

Gaudi rooftop

Montserrat

Greece

Temple of Zeus

Poros Island

Italy

Palatine Hill from Coloseo

Capri

Solofra countryside

Iceland

Skalatjorn Homestay, Iceland

Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavik

Thingvellir National Park, Iceland

Skogafoss Waterfall, Iceland

Dryholaey Nature Preserve, Iceland

January 2, 2019

The HoHos (Hop-on, Hop-off Buses)

(We leave for Mexico soon, so we have to quickly churn out some of the European blogs we have in the can.)

One of the things we did in almost every city we visited in Europe was to take one of the Hop-on, Hop-off (hoHo) buses. We did it in Barcelona, London and Athens. I had a great time on them. Here’s the story!

Barcelona

In Barcelona, there were several routes to choose from. We all took Route 1, which took us through the downtown area and along the gorgeous port area and waterfront. We got off to look around at the unexpectedly beautiful Playa on a 75-degree day when we wished we had swimsuits on, and then at the world-famous Sagrada Familia, a strikingly original cathedral designed by Antonin Gaudi, for exploration and lunch.

View of the playa from the Barcelona HoHo

When we got back to the starting point we walked with Lexie back to our apartment to give her a little break, and Lisa and I went back and took Route 2, which took us up onto the mountain, past the Olympic facilities, and then stopping at a Decathlon store for a little shopping before finishing well after dark.

We thought the HoHo buses were a great way to get an overall orientation of Barcelona, since we only had a couple of days. They allowed us to pick and choose where we would get off, and gave us ideas for what we wanted to explore in future days.

London

In London, Lexie and I again took the HoHo while Lisa went to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter studio. We started on top of the double-decker bus, as that always gives the best views, but it was just a little chilly for that and we eventually moved down inside. Since we had already been to the London Eye and were planning on doing something the following day with Lisa, Lexie and I essentially used the HoHo as a HoSo (Hop-on, Stay-on). We did get off in some now-forgotten neighborhood to have delicious fish and chips for lunch, and eventually got off at Buckingham Palace to walk around a bit.

Grand view from the top of the London HoHo

The London routes are pretty long and the literature told us that the routes would take over 4 hours in total, but by now it was getting close to 5:30. We were planning on staying on for another 15 minutes or so to meet up with Lisa in Trafalgar Square, but we were unceremoniously booted off the bus at Green Park and were told that the buses stopped running at that time. This was quite the shock to us since we had only days earlier ridden the Barcelona buses to well past 8 PM. Nonetheless, we were off the bus, and at rush hour, forcing Lexie and me to take a long walk to Trafalgar Square, essentially ruining our nice relaxing day of butt sitting and sightseeing. Nowhere in the literature did it mention the early stopping time, again a contrast with the Barcelona buses. I was quite mad, but there wasn’t anything we could do (except warn you!).

No HoHo in Rome

Rome has HoHos and it was our plan to take them. However, once we got there, examined their routes and did some research, we realized that they weren’t as convenient as Barcelona and London and didn’t get as close to some of the major tourist destinations as we would have liked due to city congestion and restrictions. Instead, we took the Metro and walked. Other than the information we might have heard during the tour, we don’t feel like we really missed out on anything.

Athens

The HoHo was just a block from our hotel in Athens, so we hopped on again the first day and got a great overview of the city. We saw some places we wanted to get off and visit in more depth. After going around the route, Lexie returned to the room and Lisa and I went around again so we could get off at the Olympic Stadium and walk to the Temple of Zeus, where we got some excellent sunset pictures. We finally made our way back to the hotel by walking through the Plaka, an old neighborhood with excellent shopping.

Rushing by Hadrian’s Arch on the Athens HoHo

The next day we used the HoHo as transportation to get us to the National Archaeological Museum. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world and contains the richest collection of artifacts from Greek antiquity worldwide. Given its reputation, we were surprised at how few people were actually in the museum. We stayed for several hours before getting tired and hungry and recatching the HoHo to get us back to our hotel.

What’s not to like?

In summary, we loved the HoHos. Sure, they’re touristy. But they are also a great way to get around, get an overview of a new city and get an idea of places you’d like to go back to and spend more time getting to know.

December 22, 2018

Mexico Visa Day

(Written in September 2018)

Today, Lexie and I got our Mexican Visas. Normally, when you go to Mexico on vacation, you automatically receive a visa that is good for 180 days. Since we will be staying longer than that, we needed to get a Temporary Resident Visa that is good for 1 year and renewable for up to 4 years.

To receive that visa, we needed to make copies of birth certificates and passports, create a letter in Spanish detailing our Mexican address, get passport photos, and have documentation that proves that we can financially support ourselves when we get there.

Once you get the visa in the US from a Mexican consulate, you have 6 months to enter Mexico and then another 30 days to finish up the requirements in Mexico.

Since I had read about other people going to their local consulate and getting their visa, I began the process in August, five months before our scheduled arrival in Mexico, and blocked off a day to spend waiting in an endless line waiting to be processed.

When I researched our local Denver consulate, I discovered that they only processed visas by appointment and that the only appointments available before we left were in September, during the week we were planning on packing and moving. The only other alternative was to wait until we were back east and then spend a day traveling to the consulate in Philadelphia and waiting in an endless line there. We decided to get the appointment in Denver. They had 2 appointments available one day and then another 3 days later. We took them.

The process was very smooth and organized. They took Lexie’s and my documentation, we paid our fee, got photographed and finger printed and got our visas.

It did take a bit longer than it should have because of a mistake I made when signing up for the appointments. I’m pretty loose with my name. I almost never use my middle name or initial and rarely use the suffix. Because I only used my first and last name when signing up for the appointment online, when they took my passport they couldn’t find me in their system because the Robert Greenawalt who signed up was not the same person whose passport they had, which also had a middle name and III at the end. After they informed me that I always had to use my full name when in Mexico, the consulate person re-entered my name and got us our visas. Total time was 3 ½ hours, including driving and a stop to get Lexie’s passport photo. Not bad!

Lexie and I are ready to go. Lisa will get hers in a few days.

(Postscript: Thanks to Bob’s experience, Lisa had her middle name on all paperwork and the process took less than an hour. She notes that they do their best to make you look as unattractive as possible in the photo. Remove glasses. Push hair behind ears and off forehead. Don’t smile. Consequently, this is the mug shot to end all mug shots.)