The Adventures of Bexico, Bubba y Max: jueves, el 3 de enero de 2013

Buenos tardes!!

The familia is working on siesta #2, so time for a quick update to the día.

I had a good sleep and Max slept in until 715am, so I took the AM rutina and all good. No leche fresca in Che, so pan Frances jueves for the boys.

Max likes his French toast, but seems to prefer the lil’omlette I make for him with the left over huevos.

Great walk overall…but padre pulled a doph…a real dumb-a** move.

Amy y Victor drove up while I was at Gabriel’s con Max and as per usual, I pass Max through the window of their Agua Vitel camioneta and today Amy decides to drive away con Max.

I should have said no because of the basic fact of no car seat….but I wasn’t thinking like a Canadian, but like a Mexican.

I let them drive away and told Amy to be back in un minuto…no mas, as I did not want Max to get upset.

The dumb-a** Amy is gone 5 or 6 minutes and meanwhile everyone at Gabriels is giving me the gears about passing Max to mis amigos.

Nunca, never, give your child to anyone is what I was told. This from a culture where cola for breakfast is ok and where 2 adultos y 3 niños riding on a scooter is not even given a second glance.

Amy returns and I gave both him and Victor a piece of my mind. Max was upset…hola…of course he would be. I have never seen mi hijo scared and today he was and for that I am pissed at the boys, but more upset that I put him in that situation.

Of course I get home and tell this all to Bex and she mentions the lack of car seat and I hadn’t even thought about that until she mentioned it. Padre malo.

It’s strange, on some things I am such a careful padre and then on others, I just didn’t think. It isn’t for lack of caring as I don’t even want to think about “what if’s”…just need to be more aware but not smothering.

I took the upset niño and we went straight to the arbol de Navidad and after a few minutos, the lil’trooper was back to his old self.

We played around the zocalo and then made our way to the kiosko where some niños were also playing.

They seemed to scatter as we approached and I saw they were with a large group of peeps, one big familia.

I spoke to the abuleo and he mentioned to his nietos that we were Americanos.

I have nothing against Americans, but they are not always received well in parts of the world. So I always make sure peeps know we are Canadian, not gringos, and that seems t change the whole temperature of the conversation.

Next thing I know we have the madres coming over to look at Max and I am showing off the Hecho en Mexico tattoo, only to meet a hermano that has one as well.

He laughed, liked mine better and gave Max and I the Mexican high 5 (knuckles) choque, or collison.

Madre y Max had a similar experience today at playa Chahue. They saw a family of Mexicans that had some funner toys and they seemed to be in no mood to let Max play with them.

En español, a 10 year old boy told his siblings that Max was a gringo. Madre overheard this and in her perfect español, told them no, they were Canadians and lived here in Huatulco.

After that, all was great and everyone got along well.

It dawns on us often any person with white skin and that speaks ingles, is looked at as a gringo. The issue here in Huatulco, is that I think most white people we meet, are Canadians.

So any bad experience a Mexican would have with a white skinned person, it would be with a Canadian and not an American.

I wonder what it is like to live in a country where the minimum wage is $8 CDN per day and you see peeps on vacation, drinking up a storm and acting accordingly after.

Hey, it is a vacation for most and I am not such a prude that I would not expect peeps to come to Mexico and not party. I think what happens sometimes is that peeps forget their surroundings and have not taken enough time to actually understand the culture and the peeps that live here.

Would you walk around Smalltown Canada or USA (other then Vegas) with a beer in your hand? I saw a hombre walking around with a niña and he had a glass of vino in his hand. Doph. And maybe put on a shirt? Or try to use a few words of español vs saying the words in ingles, just slower and louder.

Hey…Mexican have lot’s of their own problems…how about a few beheadings…but that doesn’t mean we cannot act accordingly when visiting a foreign country.

My favorite tourist story? I was working the restaurante on Robson Street in Vancouver and during the summer, there used to ba ton of tourists.

This one older lady has eaten her meal and when presented with her cheque, pulls out a US $20 and asks for her change in US currency. I guess she is headed home that day and did not want CDN dollars left over.

I politely explained that we do not carry US currency as this is Canada and actually by law, do not even have to accept US currency.

She was flabbergasted so I turned the conversation around by asking where she was from. It was some town on the East Coast and I asked her if I went to visit her town, would I be able to buy anything with Canadian dollars, let alone ask for my change in Canadian currency.

There was a very long pause, a terse “no” and she thanked me and left. Another satisfied customer!! Ja ja ja

Enough preaching and back to the day.

Max was a-ok after we left the zocalo and we headed home for the leche break and a siesta.

Madre took over after the siesta and padre had another siesta. Yup, I am still fighting the stomach bug and this tos, cough.

We are going to have to put some serious thought to moving as we think the smoke from downstairs might be playing havoc with our health…and that of the lil’guy. Not good mis amigos, not good.

So I lazed around this afternoon, watched the News from last night and pretty much did nothing. Madre y Max had a great time at playa Chahue and their alberca and that is the día so far.

Leftovers for la cena and I am out to grab some bollo para la cena and maybe for a Mojon torta para mañana!!

I will finish this update later…fotos to come as well.

Hasta pronto.

Hola hola!!

935pm and all is quiet in the casa. But wow, Max is thirsty tonight!! Maybe it was the chili he had para la cena?

As Max was asleep in siesta #2, I slipped out, grabbed some food and stopped in to say hola to Daniel. He is a smart fellow and I enjoy chatting him up. Today we talked about Max and the Vitel “incident” as well as the behaviour of Mexicans towards white skinned peeps and how tourists behave while away from home.

I headed home, to find my familia was on their own walk…and they too ended up chatting with Daniel.

I set up the PM rutina and soon the familia was home, we ate, we washed up the lil’guy, had a FT con mis padres and ta da…you are all caught up.

Some fotos?

Max, the fashionista, on his way to check out the alberca before our walk around town. Not the matching flower he has picked up.