A Saturday Drive

On Saturday we braved the roads of Mexico to a small town about an hour away called Toscala (sp ?) The drive there was a winding rough road with several speed bumps that were so high the bottom of the car would scrape as we went over them. The town is famous for it onyx which is a rock that is like marble. You wouldn't believe some of the things the artists have carved out of rock. I took a few photos outside the store but was not allowed to take any inside.

We also went to a cathedral that they started to build in 1540. The Spanish government would not fund it after 1542 and it was only partically completed. Being inside the partially built ruins made me think of the book Pillars of the Earth. Ernesto was our tour guide. We went to a church next door but there was a service going on. We couldn't take photos there.

Enjoy the photos.

This is going through the front door.

The archways and coloumns are all on the inside where the gathering place would be.

This is one of the original doors.

This is taken inside the structure looking toward the door. Beautiful lines and architecture.

Look at how short the doors are! Yes, Wayne hates posing....can you tell.?

This the the spiral staircase going up the tower to the bell that normally would be rung regularly.

There are still crypts inside the open spaces that hold the priests that have passed away from that era.

This is the church that the service was being held.

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Wages

It is amazing how people get by here. There is a young man who works at the front desk at the hotel where we are staying. He works about 72 hours per week and makes 4000 pecos, that is just under $400.00 Canadian. A teacher makes 5000 pecos per month or less than $500.00. The average wage is $21.00 per day. Things are definitely less expensive here than in Turks and Caicos but I just don't know how anyone can get by on so little money. Rent takes more than half of the wages. Yet we see people driving around in expensive cars like Mercedes, BMW etc. I think there is a large gap between lower and upper classes here.

Dancing at the school

On Fridays, the children at the school do music, art, and chess. They have a man who comes in and teaches traditional dancing. Here are some photos of the kids dancing. Mary has been working on creating a program for a girl with downs syndrome. You should have seen her dancing. She just loves it.

Noise

If ever there was a place on earth that is the perfect example of noise pollution, it is Mexico. So far we have noticed:
- a dog that barks night and day which is just outside our hotel room
- cars driving past night and day
- horns blowing all the time
- a truck that drives up and down the street calling "gas" and playing music. They are selling propane tanks as large as a puebla man (five feet tall)
- being whisled out of parking stalls at the Walmart.When you go to back out of your parking stall a man runs up and blows a whistle to guide you out so there are no accidents. They will take your grocery cart back as well...but you have to tip him. That is how he makes a living.
- a truck driving down the road talking on a loud speaker because he wants to purchase your old metal and glass.
- While in the Walmart they have music playing loudly with advertising being shouted above the sound of the music
- in the hotel they may decide to have a party in the room next to you. There is no point in complaining as the culture here is that is ok. You put up with it and shut up.

This is so different than our neighbourhood in Calgary!

Driving

If you ever thought Calgary drivers are bad, go to Mexico! Here, there are no marked lanes to drive in. Often there will be four lanes of traffic all trying to squeese into two lanes. People blow their horns all the time. Today someone was stopping at a school to pick up their kid. They didn't pull over to the side of the road so traffic behind them could pass, they just stopped in the middle of the road until the kid got in the car. Meanwhile everyone behind them was blowing the horn and waving. No one uses signal lights, they just turn. And when there is no place to park on the side of the road, people just park on the sidewalk.

Trying to walk on the sidewalk is another nightmare. If there is not a car parked on the sidewalk it is probably because there is a big hole in the sidewalk. You have to keep your eyes on the ground in front of you all the time or risk spraining an ankle in a hole. And don't every walk in front of a car because they will run you over and it will be your fault. They don't charge you with jay walking here. If you are stupid enough to walk in front of a car you deserve to get hit.

I sent all our laundry out today to get it washed. The whole thing will be back tomorrow for 6.00. They pick it up and deliver it washed and folded.

It certainly is a different world here.

January 23

Yesterday we went shopping at the outdoor market. I bought some silver jewelery which is much cheaper here. Here is a photo of the people we know here. Ernesto owns the school we are volunteering and Wayne is the hairdresser we used to go to in Calgary. I had to get Wayne to dye my hair a darker color. Everyone was staring at me because of my height and blonde hair. Since I changed the color of my hair, they aren't staring at me as much. Blonde hair in southern Mexico is not very common.

Esnesto is an amazing tour guide. He has a degree in culture and language so knows a lot about his city and Mexico. We have seen some amazing catherdrals, churches, and museums. Enjoy the photos. Ernesto used to teach Spanish at the University of Calgary. We started our Spanish lessons today. It`s hard!

January 20th

Went to Wayne`s hair salon to get our hair done today. Mary and I both got a color, cut and pedicure. We managed to do our laundry while getting our hair done so that was a bonus. Here are some photos of the school from  yesterday.

We made it!

After 10 Security checks and our bags torn apart, we finally made it to Mexico City. We then had a 2 hour bus ride to Puebla, had supper and then crashed at 9:30 p.m. It took us about 1 hour to get through immigration at the Miami airport and then another hour to find out where to go and to run through the building (cause it is so huge), up to the second floor only to have to catch the sky train to get to our gate. Very unnerving indeed! The airport in Miami is incredibley huge.

We had a lovely morning at the Canadian School.The kids did a performance for us. They sang and danced and we presented medals to some kids that got the best marks in Math. They sang the Mexican National Anthem in Spanish and and the the Canadian National Anthem in English. We sat in on an English class and they read to us and then asked us questions about Canada and things that we liked. Lois and I learned a lot about the kids too.

The Canadian dollar is 13 pesos equals 1 dollar so we are doing ok.

January 18th

We missed our plane yesterday morning. We thought we were supposed to leave this morning and at about lunch time Mary realized that we had missed the plane. American Airlines were great and booked us for today. We did have to change rooms though because it was going to be too much money to stay where we were, $361.00 for one night. Goodbye Turks and Caicos, hello Mexico City.

January 15th

Yesterday was a very lazy day after the day we spent on the boat. However, we did manage to go snorkeling for a few hours. I managed to get some terrible bites from bugs but Mary didn't get any. Have a look at these bites. Of course the taxi ride to the store would have been about $30.00 so I suffered through it. Today they are much better.

Here are some more photos from our day trip.

Here is a photo of Mary relaxing in our apartment.



Photos from yesterday

What day is it?

We have completely lost track of time and have no idea what day it is. I only know we have to leave on Wednesday and the alarm clock does not work.

Today was clearly one of the best days of my life. At 8:30 we were picked up on the beach by two extraordinary men who took us on the adventure of our lives. Normally there are up to 25 people on the boat. We had the luxury of being on a boat with only eight other people all women except the two tour guides.

First we stopped for snorkeling on the great barrier reef. It was amazing but I have to say the snorkeling right off the beach in front of the resort is equally as good. I stayed in the water the whole time we were there and was the last one to get into the boat. After that we went diving for conch which we were going to eat for lunch. I could see the conch but couldn't dive down far enough to get them so our tour guide got one for me. Mary had just as much trouble diving for the conch. There is so much salt in the water here floating is easy, diving is hard.

After we had our conch the captain of the boat took us diving for lobster in the coral. That was an adventure in itself. There was only three of us went diving for the lobster. The lobster here is very different than east coast Canada. They hide inside the coral and you have to search for them, then spear them. We found two very large lobster and two turtles.

We then moved on to Iguana Island which is home to 5000 Rock Iguana. Apparently this the only place in the world they are found. They were everywhere, but once you've  seen ne Iguana.......... They are small in comparison to some of the ones in Mexico.
Robin, one of our guides, took the conch out of the shell on the beach. I was expecting to be overrun with seagulls but there were not any to be found. Kwee, the captain of the boat, made us a salad with raw conch which was delicious, kinda like bar clams back home. Then he made us a lunch of lobster, chicken, potatoes and corn all barbaqued on a beach.

We moved on to shell beach which was covered with thousands of shells with amazing colors. Mary and I snorkeled for a long time for sand dollars and managed to find about 10. There were these two girls from New York City on the boat who picked up a bag of shells and left them on the boat, so Mary grabbed them.We will go through them tomorrow to see if there is anything worth keeping.

What a spectacular day!

Photos to follow after they are cropped and enhanced to make me look like a I have the figure of a 28 year old!

Lois and Mary

Snorkeling

We rented snorkeling gear today and went out to the reef which is just in front of the hotel. The people here claim that there is some of the best snorkeling in the world just off the beach in front of us. I absolutely couldn't believe what I saw when I got out to the reef which is just a few meters off shore. There is every kind of coral there you can imagine. The brain coral really does look like a photo of a brain. There is fan coral, finger coral, tube coral etc. And the fish are spectacular. I saw a flat fish laying in foot deep water and he was completely camaflouged into the color of the sand. There was every color of fish you could imagine all feeding off the coral. I saw a manatee or string ray, not sure what it was. I kept my distance from it. I probably spent two and a half hours swimming. The water is so salty here you just float on top with no effort at all. Mary and I were both saying how we wished we had an underwater camera. Well, when I took back the snorkeling gear they had underwater cameras for sale! So the next time I go snorkeling....which is tomorrow, I'm going to have some underwater photos. We are going to the great barrier reef tomorrow.

pics from TCI 11/01/12

These are pictures from the Marina. These luxury liners are incredible and there's  one with the Canadian flag. Another gorgeous day here and Lois and I are going to do some snorkeling (on our own) today. Tomorrow we go with the tour company.

Life at the marina. It's spectacular to see the condos with the Palm Trees and all the big liners out front. Opulence or what??

We rented a Kia Picante. Lots of leg room for Lois.