Mexico - Last Thoughts and Lessons Learned

Some final notes on our trip to Mexico

On food

• Street Food vs. Haute Cuisine - When in Mexico, stick to the unpretentious, cheap and always delicious food stands. $0.25 for a taco, $2.50 for a torta (sandwich), it's eating well on a budget. Our biggest disappointment, however, was the scarcity of fancier restaurants. We went to three of them. The ambiance in all of them was great, but the food was always disappointing. It's like they were trying very hard to cook some decent fancy food, but unfortunately, unsuccessfully. I would stick with the street food.

• Mysterious Meats - While in Mexico, you will see an array of leftover animal parts served for, guess what, your MEAL! Cabeza (head), pierna (leg), tripa (tripe), lengua (tongue); you name it; it's on the menu. Don't ask. Don't think about it. Just eat it. It's good, you'll see! Our last food adventure directed us to a very busy hole in the wall, where all of the sandwiches listed "pierna" as their main ingredient. All I knew was that "pierna" meant leg. Leg of what? I didn't know. I just ate it. And I liked it.
  

On New Skills

• Proudest Accomplishment - In the bathroom, learning how to squat with my backpack on, while holding a newspaper and bottle of water. In a swift move, rapidly raising my arm to go over my head, thereby unzipping the top pocket of my backpack to grab toilet paper from my private stash.

On Greedy Sunbathers

• Never Be One of Them - Greedy and careless sunbathing only leads to redness followed by itchiness, followed by bubbling, followed by peeling. It's just not worth it, man!

On Mexicans and Mexico

• Mexicans - Friendly, laid back and helpful.
  
• Mexico - Safe, fun and sunny! I would definitely come back.
  

Mexico Day 8 - A Long, Uncomfortable Ride

8pm. We were on a bus headed en route to Zihuateneo. It was an excruciating 8-hour bus ride. We have just spent too much time on the bus.

Not to mention the driver on this particular trip was a "loco" (CRAZY). Long-distance buses have a little red light that goes off every time the driver starts going to fast. Let's just say that for the duration of this trip the little red light was always ON, as a reminder that life is precious and it could end at any moment. We got to Ixtapa half an hour ahead of schedule (not an usual occurrence in this country), even though none of the passengers (except for Tim, who had carefully followed our trip on a map) knew that we had gotten there. The bus driver never announced our arrival at this main bus station, and several of us complained about this crazy driving and burning desire to get some--apparently in Mexico, bus drivers can bring along friends and family, and this driver decided bringing his gf was a good idea.

We took a cab to Troncones, a budding surfing town recommended by a couple of friends of ours. Tired and ready to rest, we aimlessly walked around trying to find a hotel. Those that were not booked were in pretty precarious condition. We settled on a so-called bungalow, which was at least right on the beach. Ok, so it had lizards crawling around. And ok, the bathroom was not so hot. But it was a room to sleep. I was kinda itching for a bit more glamour. Maybe the next day...

Mexico Day 7 - Tequila!

After much adventuring on our own, we decided it was time to leave the navigation up to somebody else and booked a guided tour of the town of Tequila.

The bus ride seemed to fly by compared to our previous 6-hr and 3-hr bus rides.

We went out to the agave plantation to see how the main ingredient in Tequila (in fact, "good" tequila should be 100% agave), and had a tour of the El Cuervo distillery.

Mexico Day 6 - The Touristy Non-Touristy Town of Guanajuato

Early on Wednesday morning, Diesel and I left early for the town of Guanajuato. Unlike the luxurious ETN bus, which transported us from Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara, the bus to Guanajuato was not as nice.

The first bad sign was being greeted into the bus by blaring opera music (from La Boheme, more specifically). I'm all for classy opera, but for goodness sake, not in a old bus with stained seats and a nasty bathroom!

After a three hour ride, we arrived in Guanajuato, an old subterranean Mexican town nestled in the mountains of the Sierra de Guanajuato. Surprisingly the city resembles old European cities with its buildings and square, but upon a closer look, one can see that the resemblance stops there. Guanajuato is, in fact, very Mexican.

We rode the city bus (40 cents!) up the hill to the supposedly very interesting Mummy Museum. The museum is quite a let down, but we were in no hurry. The rest of the time was spent strolling around and eating on the streets.

Mexico Day 5 - Guadalajara: Stroll Around the City The Revenge of the Burnt Skin

After a long bus ride, Diesel and I decided it was in order sleep in on Day 5. After a little working out, we headed out to the city center. Unfortunately, we forgot it was Monday, and for the most part the museums were closed.

Guadalajara is Mexico's second largest city, but despite its size, it still feels like a smaller city: safe, friendly and very Mexican (read: not very touristy). With no particular sightseeing attraction in mind, we lost ourselves in the city, enjoying the bustling streets and its people.

It was then that I realized. Bubbling. My skin was BUBBLING! After 4 hours of the unforgiving scorching sun of Mexico, my greediness finally got me what I deserved : my skin literally bubbly, nasty crusts of bumpy skin across my belly and around my neck. Disgusting, to say the least.

Mexico Day 4 - The Buses are NICE!

After packing our stuff and saying good-bye to our favorite taco stand in Sayulita, Diesel and I went en route to Guadalajara. We were going to take the luxury bus. And I´m talking LUXURY with huuuge comfy seats (only 3 seats per row), snacks and movies on board. Never did I think that traveling by bus could be so fabulous!

We arrived in Guadalajara an hour late (viva Mexico!), and went to our hotel. Not bad. Nice, clean with a pool and workout room. We ended up at a local eatery that was packed with soccer fans. Once again we got tacos (maybe tomorrow I´ll eat something other than tacos). We then walked around, went back to the hotel and got ready for round 2. The night was young, but the bars weren´t. Sunday night is a bit slow, even in the second biggest city in Mexico. We had drinks and chatted for another hour or so, and then headed home.

Diesel´s tummy is not doing so well. No tacos for him.

Mexico Day 3 - The Infamous Chinita

So yesterday I had a bit of an altercation with a local surfing instruction. Really, I did nothing bad, but the guy was a jerk.

Diesel and I went up to his shop to inquire about surfing classes. He mumbled something, and when Diesel asked him to please repeat, he condescendently repeated the price, very S-L-O-W-L-Y, as if he were a retard. I didn´t like that, so I told him he should be nicer to his clients. He was like: WHAT? I repeated and left. A few minutes later I see him charging to where we were, and I know he was going to bitch me out. There was a not so nice exchange of words on his part, as he blurted out all of the swear words he must have seen while watching Hollywood movies. There was the F word, the MF word. Nothing really made sense, and when he finally said I needed a man to protect me (don´t know where he got that from), I said I could defend myself thanks very much.

In this particular instance, those Asian kung-fu skills would have come very handy.

So today, when we went to a different surf shop ready to take a lesson, Sergio, our instructor, started giving us the first couple of tips. And there he was. The guy that bitched me out yesterday was walking in our direction. Sigh. But he went past us, and didn´t even direct a single foul word towards us.

Sergio took us out and I proceeded to chat with him. He told me he brother was also a surfing instructor, but he worked at the other shop. Uh-oh. I actually liked Sergio. Could it be that I had gotten into a fight with his brother the previous day? I decided to change the subject.

While in the water, Sergio started telling me about his family and the other instructions. It was then that my curiosity got the best of me, and I just had to ask: "So you know the guy with the long hair?¨ "Yes," he said "we call him pecho (which literally means "breasts, bust"). I proceeded, "Did he mention maybe...a fight he had yesterday?" Sergio confirmed: "Yeah, he said he told US ("who´s US," I wondered) into an argument with two people..." "Well, that was me, " I confessed. I clarified that pecho had been very very rude, and the only thing I did was tell him to be nicer to his customers. Sergio seemed a bit amused, and I realized that besides having a dirty mouth, pecho also had a big mouth, and as a consequence of his big huge mouth, came the infamy that would follow me until I departed Sayulita. I would forever be known as "la chinita" (little Chinese girl) that had gotten into an altercation with pecho. Regretfully, my fellow Chinese girls (of which there was a considerable number in Sayulita) would also be the objects of whispers and gossip, as I believed no Mexican could tell us apart, and thus, all of us chinitas would forever live in the infamy of Sayulita´s history, only because of my heroic efforts in the fight for consumer rights.

Unfazed by my confession, Sergio said I was fine, that they were all "buena onda" and that if I wanted to talk to pecho, he would talk to me as if nothing had ever happened. Thanks, but no thanks.

Surfing was a lot of fun though. Since I´ve been condemned to no sun (thanks to my greediness the first day) and no more surfing (thanks to pecho´s big mouth), I was ready to leave and head out to Guadalajara.

Mexico Day 2 - Sayulita

We spent all day bathing in the sun. I was determined to get a tan. Unfortunately, my skin wasn´t in agreement with my vain decision. I got sunburnt. Bad. Sun poisoning actually. Still recovering but no sun and no beach for me.

An Ode to Doolittle

American Idol sucks. Melinda Doolittle is out because some teenage girl voted for Blake 200 times (which is not a made up story, as I heard said girl on the radio talking about voting for him till 3 in the morning!).

So here's an ode to the best singer this season: Melinda Doolittle. For a faithful American Idol fan that watched Melinda blossom from Ms Shy with a turtle posture to the new Tina Turner I'm completely disappointed. And yes, I'm pissed.

Follow the Pink-Eared Bunny OR Vancouver Half-Marathon

That's what I kept telling myself: "Follow the pink-eared bunny."

After a year-long hiatus from racing (due to a stressful job, wedding planning and let's face it, just plain LAZINESS), I decided it was time to do a race. The Vancouver Half has a nice course, the weather is good for running in May and it's only a 2.5 hr drive up to Canadaland.

It was an important race for a variety of reasons: the first time I run as Kelly Chow-Sale and the last time I run a race in the 25-29 age bracket. SAD!

Saturday went by fast, and on Sunday, our three alarms went off at 6am. I was ready. On the way to BC Arena, where the race started, I was joined by several runners, and I started getting really excited.

In the middle of the chaos, I spotted the 2-hour half-marathon pacer. He was a vision of Jesus himself: calm composure, long beard and a large group of followers. Unlike Jesus, he had a Garmin GPS watch and a very mismatched running outfit. I wasn't sure I could run it in 2, but that's always been A goal of mine (although I didn't know I was ready to actually attempt beating it).

I figured I'd follow the Pink-Eared bunny (as all of the Vancouver pacers wear cute little pink bunny ears) and see how it went. The first couple of miles I ran at about 8:30 min/mile, so I thought maybe I COULD do it.

But then I cramped it. And it didn't help that there was practically no food during the course. ONE miser power bar station. Some Canadian brand that was as hard as a brick. Then oranges. I kept hoping for gu. I remember at least two gu stations. No such luck. I ran the 13.1 miles pretty much on an empty stomach.

I was in serious pain, and I never felt that bad during a race. At one point I passed the bunny. I PASSED the bunny! I kept going on a runner's high or whatever you wanna call it.

And then it happened. It was inevitable. I lost sight of the bunny. I tried to catch up, but gave up and resigned to doing it in 2 hours at a later race. It was SAD. Not only that, my chronometer got all messed up because I pushed some random buttons and messed it up. So really I had no idea how close I was to my goal.

Still, I was happy.

Got home and found out I did it in 2:00:10. BARELY, but I did make it. Hooray for me! And watch out 30-35 yr-old bracket!