The Adventures of Bexico, Bubba y Max: lunes, el 8 de octubre de 2012

Buenos noches…and if you are from Canada, Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I almost forgot it was Thanksgiving…sure could use a good turkey dinner con stuffing y gravy.

As for us, a good day in Huatulco, mixed day of sun and clouds, but not too hot.

Normal rutina, except for the 4am wake up call and then 3 hours of me and the lil’guy tossing and turning. Ugh….he had a GREAT sleep from 9pm to 4am…we are going to have to figure out why he awakes at 4am and then will not go back to sleep. Doph.

As for the morning walk…it was the most work padre has ever had to do on a morning walk.

We decided to go sin sling and that meant we go slower with the lil’guy not wanting you to hold his hand anymore, and then stopping to touch and look at everything!!

We walked a few feet, then I hoofed him for a few more and then back to letting the lil’guy walk solito.

I had the sling on, for the return trip, and was lugging the camera and trying to assist our lil’walker. That was the “work” part.

At the kiosko, it was all about going up and down the escalera. Up, down, up, down…maybe 50 times? Hey…he’s just a lil’guy.

Due to the slow walk and the escalera, we arrived home much later then expected…can you say 11am nap? Wow.

Up at 1230pm’ish and after some puttering around, including reinstalling Max’s silla in the camioneta, it was off to el gimnasio.

Took the wheels as it was late, and the truck needed a good wash in and out.

Dropped the truck off at the “auto-lavado” and was told it would be ready in an hour. Ahhhh Mexico. Can you say 90 minutes later? Ja ja ja

But it is only a 2 minute walk to el gimnasio where I had a so so workout, but did get to see Yeu and catch up with him.

As for the truck wash, it must have been bring your parents to work day. Huh? The young guy was there, but so was a 45 year old hombre and a 60 year old senora…all working on mi camioneta.

I sat down while waiting and the senora and I chatted. But the best part of the experience? With 10 more minutes to go on the truck, the 45 year old hombre comes over to me and asks me “¿es usted padre de Max?”…are you Max’s father?

Huh? I laughed out loud and said sí and asked how he knew Max. I guess he has seen us a lot around town, but one day I introduced Max to some peeps at a comedor economico and he was there…and remembered both me and Max’s name. Hilarious!!

$70 pesos for 90 minutes of cleaning, inside and out, and I was outta there.

At home, Max was already awake from his 2^nd nap…and was prowling around the casa con madre.

Too late for the playa, so off to the alberca where we had a fun time. During the afternoon pool time con madre, it was more about walking around the pool vs swimming. For the 2^nd visit, it was all about swimming and dunking!!

Then the pm rutina, which included a quick FT con the abuelos.

Max was well behaved (phew) and at 815pm he is on the first round of sleep and padre is about to go in and close the deal.

Back in a few minutes…fingers crossed!!

Ok…it wasn’t a few minutes. Yikes. Max just cannot fall asleep on his own. So I let him do his walking, a few hundred attempted head stands…and toss Pudge around.

But after 30 minutes, time for sleep lil’guy. We are on the “no-rocking” policy…but it isn’t needed anyway. I picked him up and held him, and he was asleep in 2 minutes. Doph.

We are going to work on that…stay tuned.

So, that was our day.

As for the trip I took over the weekend….read on.

Typical Mexicans…Tony arrives at the condo…with an amigo. Huh? I guess four of us are going to Istmos? Ja ja ja

We grabbed Carlos and off we went. Istmos is 250km away…but it took 3.5 hours. Doph.

So where did we go?

First off, click HERE if you want to read more about Istmos.

Then click HERE to see the map. Lagunas is located in the middle of the map and Huatulco is in the bottom left corner.

And once there we pit-stopped in Lagunas itself, and I discovered this town is all about Cruz Azul, the cemento planta that is located there.

Click HERE to read more about Cruz Azul.

So…Cruz Azul is the main employer of Lagunas and has supplied the town with most things it needs. There are the CA bus stops, water purification plant, hospital, campo de futbol y beisbol…and the town is spotless….limpio as they say en español.

For a closer view of Lagunas, click HERE.

There is an “A” in the middle of the map and if you look to the right of the “A”, you can see the campos and further right is the planta and the mountain they are removing to get the ingredients for the cemento.

The casa of Carlos’s familia is further up the road…to the left of the map. Only 20 tope to get to it…ugh.

Once in Lagunas, we did a quick walk and then off to the Cruz Azul Laguna to see the animales!! It was late and the light was fading, so not as many fotos as I would have like to take.

From there to the casa where we met the friendly padres and had some antojitos…snacks. It was 8pm and this turned into la cena…doph.

And what did Carlos’s madre make for us? Garnachas!! Click HERE to read more about them.

After the eats, off to a cantina…where Carlo’s knew everybody. Interesting system they use to keep track of your bill. It isn’t complicated at all.

They bring an empty caja (box) to your table and leave it on the floor. All the empty beer bottles you have consumed, go into the box. Any mixed drink glasses stay on your table until you ask for la cuenta, and then the masera tallies up the empty bottle and glasses and ta-da…your bill.

Already 4 of us in the camioneta and as we leave to go to another cantina…we end up with hombre #5…Carlos’s cousin (?)…who checks in at 120 kilos plus. Yikes…need to check the muelles!! Ja ja ja

Off to the next cantina where the cousin knows everybody. Small town mis amigos.

And then it was time for home and a pit stop for some street meat…a BBQ on the side of the road where we all ate burgers at 2 in the morning.

Typical situation…the wallets were VERY slow coming out, so Bubba picked up the tab. It is evident that these guys like to go out, but don’t have the funds to support the fun, and kinda wait to see who will claw together enough $$ for the bill.

Reminds me of Spicoli paying for the pizza. Ja ja ja

By 2am, Carlos has realized he has lost his Huatulo keys…casa y moto.

Mañana we will have to go back to the laguna to look for them…doph.

I was given a room for myself and it was lights out…and due to the early risings I have with Max, I was up and showered long before the gang.

A VERY slow start to the day…welcome to a domingo in Mexico. Desayunos at 9am turned into 1030am and that dictated how the day went.

An unexpected breakfast as I had mentioned to Carlos that bacon and eggs and toast would be a great desayunos, thinking we would hit up a comedor economico and have the crudo (hangover) desayunos.

Nope…part of the delay was Carlos off to the tienda de abarrotes to get huevos, tocino y pan tostado (a loaf of already toasted bread) for breakfast that his madre would cook up for us.

I felt a little bad as that was not the intention, but as the guest, Carlos said that was what I should have expected.

Ok, time to see some cascadas. The first stop was at a fresh water stream that seemed to come out from under a church. Huh?

Then it was off into the mountains…and I mean into the mountains. The road was ROUGH due to the rains and just where it was located. So rough that it was 4 wheel drive the whole way, with speeds of 10 km/hr.

Look at this screen shot. It shows the road leaving Santa Domingo Petapa and heading into the montaña. Yikes.

We passed some security and I asked what that was all about and the answer? Poachers. The guard stops peeps from poaching all the birds and monkeys. Who knew?

After an hour we get to some small cascadas and even high in the mountains in the middle of no where, Carlos’s brother knows the guy who drives by in another Nissan.

Here might be another example of some typical Mexican planning. Carlos knows I want to leave Lagunas at 2pm so we can be home at 6pm…I want to be there in time to make la cena and help get Max into bed.

We reach the small cascadas at almost noon and Carlos proceeds to tell me that it will be another hour to the larger waterfalls. Huh?

Let me figure this out. 1pm at the larger falls and then 2 hours back to the casa and then off to the laguna to look for keys? Leaving Lagunas at 330 or 4pm? Back into Huatulco at 730pm? Ah, no.

So it is agreed we turn around and off we go.

But now we are back at the casa by 1pm’ish and I am thinking we might get home early. Ah, no.

We all sit around in under the roof of this 100 year old garage, just chatting it up. I left and went off for a walk around the main section of town and came back to see everyone still chatting.

Some beverages were poured and I could not get an answer from Carlos as to what we were waiting for. But finally the answer…his madre had washed all his ropa and we were waiting for the viento to dry them all. Huh? Ja ja ja.

I might miss la cena con Max y madre due to Carlos’s wash?

And sure enough, our 2pm departure is now 245pm and we still have to look for his keys. I think Carlos felt bad, but it is also the Mexican way to “be tranquilo” and not to worry so much about these things called schedules and deadlines.

No luck finding the keys, but we made on last minute pit stop at the tienda where the boys had bought minutes for their cell phones…recarga as it is called.

And ta-da…the Gods were smiling on Carlos as his keys were there!!

As for the buying of minutes…typical amigos…when I ask to borrow a phone to let Bex know when we would be home, all 3 of them had no minutes left on their cells. Huh? What did they buy the day before…5 minutes each? lol

We boogied back to Huatulco and a 5 hour bus trip was a 3 hour and 15 minute ride in the camioneta.

Misc…

3 hours in a truck with 3 Mexicans is a great way to learn español…and to learn what all the road signs actually say!!

Tu tome, no maneje….you drink, don’t drive.

What is complicated about that sign, is that they are using the verbo tomar for “to drink”, vs what I am used to…beber. And they are using the verbo manejar for “to drive” vs conducir.

The boys said it is all about what the situation is. I would have said “tu bebes, no conduces”…oh well.

And bird species did I learn how to say in español? Correr Camino…literally Road Runner….or Runner Road. Ja ja ja

Ok, here are the fotos.

A main calle in Lagunas...very clean!! A quarry in the background.