Vacation is over (really?)

Was it not over like... two weeks ago?

Well, our vacation trip was over two weeks ago, but school vacation is finally over. Mediana and Pinka are back to school tomorrow. They are not so excited about it; in any case they are veterans of going back to school (Pinka goes to 3rd grade and Mediana to 6th grade), but in Mediana's case there are a couple of things that will happen this year to make it interesting.

1) This is her 10th and final year in this school; yes, she has attended since Nursery, until 6th grade all available grades there are in the school; so she is leaving. Going to Junior High, I think she is a little worried/excited over that. We are too. We already selected in which Jr. High we would like Mediana to be enrolled, so we have to be really careful not to miss the admission exam dates and all of the sort. In the other hand, we are sure it is going to be really emotional for her.

2) Will is going to be her teacher. Considering both my parents are teachers, and my mother taught me during 1st and 2nd grade I do not see anything strange about that. But in Mediana's case, is a little different. Because we are friends with him and Maria. I think she is getting more comfortable with the idea, but... at a times she looks unsure about it. I've told her there is nothing to worry about. We will behave and try not to be the overbearing parents with the addidional "complication" of being friends with the teacher. I know the feeling, but it was not a big problem for me. In any case I really believe it changes nothing. Work and life are two different things (what is what Will uses to say? "I work for a living, I do not live to work", this is it!).

So, not a big deal. The biggest deal of the vacation being over is that the practice books for both the kids did not arrive!! Bonita went to review the material on Thursday (for Mediana) and Friday and both days she ended up being the "bad" mother that did not take care of her children school requirements! On Thursday because she forgot ALL the books, the photographs and something else; and on Friday because the practice books were not here (they still are not here! I need to call the service department of the website where I bought them!) Big disappointment for all the other mothers! (Most of the mothers at the school are a little snob, and in some cases very! They look down on you when you are not "perfect"!).

In other vacation news, Pinka went to audition for a part in a Mexican movie. When Bonita asked her how it went, her answer was: "I will not repeat the audition, if you want to see what happened wait until I appear in the movie". Talk about self-confidence!!

Also, yesterday Mediana and Pinka restarted their art lessons (painting and drawing) on Saturday. Which means we will be stuck on that for the whole year; I do not really like the schedule, I rather take them on weekdays, but this is the schedule they like and in this particular case we prefer to go along with this. Maybe we will stop going to the US on weekends! (That could save some money, you know!).

And finally, I have been really busy at work. I was away two weeks; and even though I spend maybe 1 hour daily on the phone and another hour reading and answering some e-mails during the vacation, the amount of pending issues that were waiting for me was amazing. Not only that, but I had corporate visitors and a customer quarterly meeting to host. In a room with over 20 people and no air conditioning. Have I mentioned that I sweat? and not just sweat, but sweat a lot? My shirt ended stained and I had to change it. For some strange reason I had a spare at the office, so I did it; finally I got a pass, from both corporate and the customer. I have to go to Massachussetts on November, but it will be fine. So, I am back on track; this next week is end of the month, besides the shipping/production rush we have to reduce manpower. 5 people need to be let go (euphemism for firing them). Never a good thing. So, wish me luck.

See you around.

And to complete the full report...

Complaining was the last part of the vacation; actually I am wrong here, I am not taking into consideration some of the strange sights we were witness during the vacation; like the cross dressing guy we saw at the road between Santa Ana and Hermosillo; or when Pinka said that a kid was driving a motorcycle (with his mother on the back, or something like that); or the tropical storm in the middle of Baja that almost got us stuck in Ciudad Constitucion. So we had our share of adventures; actually I believe we should call all of the "annoying" things adventures (I know Bonita will disagree with that!).

1) The top carrier opened as soon as we came down "La Rumorosa" (very "curvy" road, the name refers to the noise the cars that falll downhill made): Bonita got three tequilas to overcome her desire to return to Tijuana immediately and I had to buy two straps to hold the thing together. We lost a child carrier, child shoes and the suit carrier that held my clothes got ripped apart (no damage to the clothes, fortunately).

2) We saw a "police scene" when driving out of Mexicali; two federal agents were shot by the "bad guys" (whoever those are).

3) We saw a guy walking on the road wearing a red dress and high heels while we were driving from Caborca to Hermosillo (I think that was the weirdest sight!)

4) We almost got stuck in Hermosillo while Bonita was talking with her cousins, the husband of the eldest cousin got drunk and I had to cook the "carne asada"; Bonita kept getting updated news (and a ton of memorabilia, pictures and the sort!) from the family before finally deciding to move to Ciudad Obregon.

5) The windshield got broken by a pebble very close to Los Mochis; this reduce our excitement of getting to Sinaloa.

6) We saw another "crime scene" after we passed Guasave; this time we did not investigate what happened!

7) We got to Mazatlan in the middle of "high season for Mexican tourists" and the hotel we wanted was full, so we decided to "see first" if the Aquamarina was OK and Bonita registered before I could tell her it was a bad idea. Of course everything was my fault, since it was the hotel my father use to take us when we were on vacation (25~30 years ago!).

8) In Guadalajara, we were hit with hail while returning to my aunt's home. My daughters had never seen hail. There is a video somewhere.


9) In San Juan de Los Lagos we saw this:


10) In Guanajuato we were approached by a kid that was a tourist guide; he took us to the Inquisicion Museum where we saw mummies, torture instruments and a chastity belt. Then the guide disappeared and we never saw him again (he migh be one mummy now!!)


11) In Dolores Hidalgo we mistaken the church where "El Cura Hidalgo" did not yell "Viva Mexico!!"


12) This was a common sight on the roads.



13) Everything was quiet until we got to the ferry. The ferry had a problem on one of the electricity generators and the trip was delayed 13 hours, we spend 24 hours on the ferry and we were really tired and hungry by the time we left. That's where I noticed my kids and my wife are a little spoiled, they could not eat the food that was given to us on the ferry! They wanted gourmet food! (I've learned to eat whatever is available, you never know when you will eat again!).


14) We could not find the hotel in Cabo San Lucas, when we finally did it was great; but for a while Bonita was getting mad at me.


15) While driving through the central part of Baja, we ran into a tropical storm at Ciudad Constitucion; I could not take pictures but Bonita was scared. Of course Pinka decided she needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the storm; we got drenched in rain while looking for a toilette!!



16) We got to Santa Rosalia to find a creepy hotel; Bonita still thinks it was the original of "Psycho". It looked OK at daylight! And of course it was also my fault because I did not know there were only 4 (or maybe 3) hotels in Santa Rosalia!

17) We went through 7 army "retenes" during the last two days of travel; I asked for a certificate of being verified because I was getting tired of opening the top carrier every freaking time!! Could they not see we were in family travel!

Anyway; we made it back safe and sound. We enjoyed ourselves tremendously (even if the pictures show different evidence!) Thank you for your patience and your attention.

See you around

Visiting family

Well, family is a huge deal in Mexico.

In the year I have been married, one of the differences I had had with my wife is how to manage the relationship with family. The best example is the following: in Bonita's family, when you go to a place where you have family, you go visit and that's it; in my family, when you go to a place where you have family you are EXPECTED to stay with them (provided there is enough space for all of you), and they will get offended if you don't.

So, imagine we were going on a vacation and were planning to visit 10 cities and in 8 of them you have family (one side or the other); what was going to be? Fortunately, Bonita's family wanted us to stay with them, so we crash with relatives at every opportunity.

That made the trip really interesting; because in Bonita's case, she had not been close to her family for more than 20 years. Imagine the conversations when you try to cramp all the important things you want to share with your cousins in one night!

In the other hand, my family is not so close to us (they are, but by phone, because of the distance, I am not sure I would not be overwhelmed with them if they were close in distance) but they like us to visit them. When in Guadalajara, we stayed at my aunt and uncle's house and they were delighted to have us there (I lived with them for 5 years, while in college and a little later), I believe my aunt really appreciates that I still visit them (instead of hating to be there because they mistreat me or something like that).

In any case, Mediana and Pinka had the opportunity to meet Bonita's side of the family (they did not meet them before) and also to meet some of my family for the nth time.

Everybody appreciated that; I am only waiting for Bonita to write about it.

See you around.

Intermission II (Back at school)

What was I doing yesterday at 11:00 am at Cal State San Marcos?


Attending the XII Anniversary party of the St0ne Brewery, of course!


And with the opportunity to try 10 different beers from the world with the souvenir glass you get with your ticket and the party after that at KC's house, it was a good place to be.

KC got me tickets to the party, but everyone of the people that was supposed to go, either cancelled or could not go (I still feel it for will, but we had a taste of the XI anniversary beer on Friday night).

It was a little difficult to get up on Saturday morning; the party session started at 11:15 am, in San Marcos and I had to get to KC house in Escondido at 10:00 am. After several false wake up calls I finally got up at 8, woke up Vicky, who accepted to join me (since she likes speciality beer too, unusual for a girl) and we left home around 9:00. Bonita, Mediana and Pinka were to go buy the school uniforms; the school decided to change the uniforms completely (a bummer because is Mediana's last year at this school) and we waited until the end of vacations to avoid buying the wrong sizes (they had grown so much since the end of the school year); anyhoo, they were going shopping, Vicky and me were going beer sampling (to avoid saying drinking!).

Got to KC's house on time, went to pick up Dave (a Londoner who lives closeby and works at the same place than KC) and went to take the train to the place (police were patrolling the university and after drinking, driving would have been dangerous!). We did not count it was a 15 minutes walk from the train station to the party site, but we got there at 11:00, waited 15 minutes in a really LONG line (I believe close to 1000 people got there before us) and 10 more minutes to get in and then we started the sampling; we had three hours to try 10 different (or same) beers, so we pace ourselves. Here is a list of what I had:

1) Green Flash West Coast IPA -> Good, hoppy beer.
2) Alesmith Brewery IPA -> Even better than Green Flash one.
3) Lost Abby Witch's Wit -> Terrible, terrible beer. Tasted like a Michelada gone really wrong. It's not even listed on their website.
4) Tijuana Morena -> Just to take out the taste of the previous one.
5) Duvel -> This was really good.
6) La Trappen Bockbier -> I have a fixation with Bock beers; from the Mexican Nochebuena (seasonal Christmas beer), I always try to taste them.
7) Stone Arrogant Bastard -> Needed to get back to something I knew.
8) Russian River Pliny the Elder -> Last year I had a Pliny the Younger, I remember it was better.
9) Stone XII Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout -> Bitter, chocolate-y, good enough.
10) Brouwerij Verhaeghe Vichte Pils -> First sample of the day, with the sun and the heat it was really good.
11) Pizza Port Carlsbad Chronic -> Amber Ale, from San Diego. It was OK.
12) Ommegang Three Philosophers -> The best of what I had today.

Ate half a hot-dog, half a tri-tip sandwich, Arrogant Bastard onion rings and tried the Napalm Beer Cheese Spread (from Mike, the St0ne "Cheesemaster") for second consecutive year, it is really good, I hope they decide to sell it.

So, a little bit tipsy we started our travel back to KC's home. 20 minutes walking this time (to the train station) and 15 minutes on the train made the trick. By the time we got to the Escondido Station everyone was feeling better (besides the sampling glass is a 4 ounces! not enough to get you really drunk).

At KC's home, the beer was waiting for us. Oaked Arrogant Bastard (bitter than the original one), a Stone Cal-Beli (never heard of it, but it was OK, like a Heifenweizen) and I also tried a little of Wells Bombardier (Premium Ale).

Food was there too; pulled pork sandwiches in Cuban style (with ham, cheese, mustard and a pickle) and sweet potato fries. Really good time. I hope next year there will not be something that prevents more people to attend.

See you around.

Intermission I (When time flies!)

Last Friday night we had visitors at home. They brought some snacks and we provided the drinks: beer, tequila, vodka, scotch and Coc@ Cola Light (Diet Coke).


Last time we met with them we stayed in a restaurant for almost 5 hours, way past the closing time of the place. This time, however we were meeting at our home, then there was no time limit. We ended up talking and laughing our way until 2 am, 7 hours this time.

Nobody noticed the time, it was until will started getting asleep (I had already went through that phase around 11:30 pm but recover) that he and maria decided to call it a night (they had to drive).

We talked about the holidays, our vacation, their adventure, families, youthful risk-taking, the jobs and rewards you get with them (sometimes) and every other theme available for conversation. We keep had a great time, similar to the previous time we met, and (hopefully) a preview of the next time we meet. I do not know how to end this post, in a similar fashion that we did not want the night to end last Friday.

See you around.

Eating...

After seeing this picture I was surprised at myself. What was I hiding below my shirt? Would that be the 15 pounds I gain during the vacation? But, but I was taking care of myself!!

In any case it was too late then. We ate as if there was no tomorrow. From the very beginning, here is a list of restaurants or interesting meals we had:

Mexicali: We went to the Cucap@ brewery and also to a 24 hours taco restaurant with A/C (required when you are at 100 degrees at 1 am)! Good beer, great tacos. Caborca: Roasted chicken Sinaloa style (even if we were in Sonora!)

Hermosillo: "Carne asada" with the family (and more beer!)

Cd. Obregon: Outside dinner in a food court style restaurant.

Los Mochis: Tortas "Don Lupito". Yummiest tortas ever!

Mazatlan: El Shrimp Bucket (enough said!) for dinner and Pura Vida for breakfast. Great places, both of them.

Tepic: Lunch of lamb in three different styles, Pinka complained but eventually hunger is worst.

Guadalajara: Dinner at "La mesa de los sabores" with my friends (with a chance to try the "Minerva" beer; some good, some so-so) and a GREAT lunch with my parents in "La Tequila" together with the fried worms.

Leon: Brazilian restaurant; similar to the one in Tijuana.

Guanajuato: Breakfast in the economic kitchen pictured here.

San Miguel de Allende: Small restaurant with great taste.

Queretaro: Room service (provided by Pinka's ordering skills!) and breakfast with Cori (Bonita's cousin)

Irapuato: Strawberries with cream (local produced) and a pork sandwich. We were pacing ourselves because of dinner with Bonita's cousin. The strawberries were GREAT.

Zamora: Pork fillet with vegetables and a creamy sauce, Caramelized pumpkin, uchepos (sweet corn tamales) and a shrimp soup to kill for! (I think I gain most of my weight here!)

Los Mochis: Breakfast at "La Fuente", best breakfast buffet if you ask Bonita; lunch to go by my sister (Bonita ate it all, and she did not want it at the beginning!!)

Ferry: cafeteria food is SO bad, so Bonita stole my lunch my sister packed for me!!

Cabo San Lucas: seafood at my brother's house, seafood as lunch in the hotel and seafood for dinner.

After that, nothing special to report; except for the liver and onions I had in San Quintin; really good.

So, in all, we kept eating at the same pace we do in Tijuana, but the variety and taste was in many cases much better. We enjoyed most of all.

See you around

Empty!!!

Guess what I'm doing now?

Driving...

Well, after a couple of days of my life I want back (I had some people visiting me at work and I really did not like spending that much time with them!), I finally have some time to write.

First of all: I like driving. Forecasting where I am going and seeing the scenary change slowly at first or surprisingly sometimes is something I really enjoy. I do not get bored, as I used to do when I was a child and my father did the driving on our vacations, now I enjoy most of it. But I have to recognize that people drive differently depending where in Mexico you are.

I've lived in Sinaloa, Guadalajara and Tijuana. I've drove in a lot of cities in Mexico; and basically there are four different styles of city driving:

1) Mexico City style: People sense and jump in front of you with just enough space to do it, but they're not hesitant and drive off like nothing happened. And usually, nothing happens. I am OK with it.

2) Small city/town style: People is very well educated, respect stop signs and walking people; if you are in a hurry, they would let you drive by, but you feel like you were rude and aggressive. Tijuana used to be like that. I really like this.

3) Tijuana style: People jump in front of you disregarding if there is enough space for you to brake or do whatever is necessary to avoid an accident; most of people just sees towards the front of the car, forgetting about whoever is approaching from the rear of the car, etc. It kind of works because most of people drive that way and they will be careful about what is going on in front of them. I do no like this kind of driving, but I am used to it.

4) Guadalajara style: People feel like they have to avoid driving like in Mexico City; then take great care not to cut in front of you or to do a sudden maneuver that will make you honk at them; however... they are extra hesitant and will stop in the middle of two lanes or at the entrance of the high speed part of the road to "let" you pass, but of course you cannot because they are blocking your path!!! Freaking people!! I hate this style of driving!!!

And of course I spent most of my time driving in Guadalajara...

Regarding driving on the road, I can tell you this. American people do not know how to drive in four lane roads. They do better in two lane roads, but that is because they do not have an option. Maybe I am generalizing, but every time I've been in California driving in four lane roads, all the people is trying to hog the left lane and they do not move! Even if you are right behind them at a higher speed; you would have to pass them through the right lane!! (Yes, I know that is OK in England, but California is NOT in England!).

So, in Mexico, whenever I encounter somebody with US plates (and most of the time somebody with California plates) they would be doing the same thing. Hogging the left lane and having me to pass them using the right lane.

Mexican drivers (in Central Mexico) are very sensitive to this kind of thing; they will be monitoring the rear view mirror when in the left lane, and would move right the moment they see you approaching them. I thank them!

Somebody told me yesterday about the difference between being a traveler and a tourist. I am a traveler, I like the change of scenary; the terrain and sky and road changes. The speed you have to have to let you take the whole experience. And I want to share a little of it in these pictures.

I loved it, with one exception; for some parts of the trip my kids were more interested in watching movies on the car DVD than in experimenting the whole traveling thing. I did not take that into account. In any case I am grateful for whatever they could see and appreciate, and hope we have the opportunity to repeat the experience.

See you around.

Driving, eating, visiting family and complaining...

... those were our vacations.

I am still trying to find a way to tell you all about them; the best way seems to be to post about each one of those activities and then allow the blog to take us wherever is necessary (to make it interesting).

In any case, I am doing a blow-by-blow account of the vacation on the Spanish version, I think I will do the same here. It will take a couple of days.

See you around.

When I was a child...

... by the way, I still am childish about some things; but I am straying. I liked photography a lot.

I got my first camera when I was 7 years old; one of those ugly K0dak cameras that used a 126 cartridge (not longer in existence, I believe). I also got a book on photography and I used to read and re-read it; until I learned most of what was there to learn. I never really got the hang of it; until my last year in Guadalajara, when I had the opportunity to use one very old Nik0n camera which had the same capabilities of a SLR camera, without being exactly an SLR (I do not know to this date how to call that camera, but you could change most of the settings; the only drawback was that you had to use the view finder, not the mirror). Until I bought an SLR camera (a Min0lta) for Vicky's photography lessons in high school I had not used a GOOD camera before. And of course with the digital cameras now available for "peanuts" I had to learn how to use one of those.

Anyway, we took more than 750 pictures during the last two weeks, and I had spend the "free" time I had today organizing them in some albums. Here is a sampler.

Sightseeing

Eating

I will also post the family pictures, but I will keep them private; if you want to see them, send me an email and I will answer back with the password.

See you around

The Eagle has landed!!

86+ hours driving and that many kilometers!!

Home sweet home!

So close now

Ensenada

Just because I said I missed them

1000+ miles of two way road...

Rise and shine!

Leaving Santa Rosalia on the last day of vacation

Right side of the road

Loreto again

Left side of the road

Getting to Loreto

Waiting for the rain to stop

In Cd. Constitucion (BCS)

Stopping for coffee on the road to Cd. Constitucion

Nice little shop, with wi-fi and great service!

Over there is the gulf of Cortez (La Paz)

Pacific Ocean

On the way back

After all...

This is worth it

Finally made it to Los Cabos

And my brother was waiting for us (we were starving, almost deciding who to eat first!) with shrimps, scallops and fish "chicharrones"

Finally!!!

We are getting into La Paz

I jinxed it...

10 minutes after my previous post we are stuck in the ferry; one of the generators failed and we are now looking to wait 12 hours for departure...

People are not happy!!

All aboard!!

Here we are in the ferry from Topolobampo to La Paz. We have waited for almost two hours and the thing does not move.

After 4300 Km on the road; and driving daily for at least 300 Km, I am ready for some rest. The travel time is 6 hours; so we will be getting into port at Pichilingue (which is where the docks for the ferry is located) around midnight. We already reserve a hotel there (nothing I know, but I heard several recommendations from some friends) and we have two nights at a promotional rate in Cabo San Lucas (50% discount a night in a “deluxe suite” whatever that is).

So the plan now is to get to La Paz, stay there for the night and leave “early” (our early on vacation have been around noon). Get to Cabo San Lucas with my brother and get something to eat (he’s a great cook!) before getting into the hotel. At night we want to go have dinner with my cousin Ingenua (who moved to San Jose del Cabo a year ago; and work as a buyer at one of the prettiest hotels there). Thursday will be to relax and then have dinner with my brother; finally on Friday we are to start to travel back.

I have tons of pictures and stories to share; I will be writing and preparing whatever I can during this next 6 hours and then I will post them during the night.

In the meantime; this is Topolobampo; and we are leaving port right now!

See you around.

Getting into the ferry...

And Pinka is wondering if the boat is like the "Titanic" or the "Poseidon"... I hope neither!!!

And is only 8:00 am!

In Los Mochis... Answering to (s)wine comment; 28 degreed was the lowest high we had had so far, the first four days (Baja California, Sonora and Sinaloa) temperature was not lower than 35!!! And no rain!!!

Back in Sinaloa

Going back

From Guadalajara to Sinaloa. A little more than 2000 miles!!

Return to Guadalajara

Under the rain (yes, I am obsessed with the rain!)

But now it's raining!!!

Not like in TJ!!!

San Miguel de Allende

This is beautiful!

Callejón del Beso