Enchiladas verdes - Mexico 2005

Mexico City
Nov 3rd, 2005

The funny thing about these travel report snippets is that I think of something to tell during the day and forget what it was when I finally get online. Old age... <ouch, stop throwing things at me!> Anyway, I know I thought of something earlier today but now it´s gone.

It´s Thursday here, our almost last day. Tomorrow´s the final one, our plane leaves at 8.40 p.m., arriving in London 10 hours later. It´s gonna be a long night but I´m hoping that the plane is not too full so that we have three seats like on our way to Mexico. British Airways confirmed our flights yesterday and everything is good to go. Well, not everything: I still have to re-organise my suitcase. So does Silke.

I´m looking forward to coming home. It´s not that I want to leave though. It´s still as exciting as it was the first day we came here but I miss my own bed. My own bathroom. My computer with its fast connection as opposed to these snailslow machines down here.

We had a terrific day yesterday. As I had mentioned we met Sara, the Mexican lady and spent the day with her and her 19-year old son (cute, but way too young!). The Mexican clocks are definitely different because they arrived around 11.30 instead of 11.00. Of course, we terrible Germans sat on the edge of our beds by 10.30 already. They finally arrived and we spent some time looking at my photos. Of course, the screen on my camera is tiny and it´s no comparison to the real photos but they wanted to seem them. If I counted correctly, I took about 500 photos. I will select the best of the best for my photo album and website. Silke already requested a CD of all photos.

Anyway, Sara, her son and the two of us visited the archeological site of Temple Mayor, which is in the heart of Mexico City. The site is not complete yet and probably never will be because there is the "little" problem of the gigantic cathedral that is supposed to be on top of more archeological findings. And they can hardly tear down the cathedral, right? Speaking of which, I don´t know if I mentioned it in one of my first emails, the cathedral is so big and heavy that it is sinking into the uneven/unsteady ground. The last earthquake in 1985 did some damage too.

Truth to be told, we all did not really pay much attention to the archeological findings because we kept talking and talking about Mexico and Germany the whole time. Sara speaks very little English (as much as I speak Spanish and that is almost nothing) and her son translated a lot. Still, the communication was there and we enjoyed the company very much. Silke and I had missed the opportunity to speak to real Mexicans because we couldn´t speak much Spanish so our usual chat didn´t take place. However, yesterday we had the chance and we most definitely talked about everything that we did NOT talk about in the last four weeks.

In the afternoon Sara had an appointment with her brother and his family ad she asked us to tag along. It felt a bit strange first to just accompany them but according to her son it was ok - "they´ll just buy a bit more food." Her brother, Ruben, lives on the outskirts of Mexico City and we were worried that Sara would probably want to take us back to our hotel in the evening. It was such a long way and we felt already a bit uncomfortable. We learned then that it was her brotehr´s belated birthday party - and we were dressed as dumb tourists! Never mind, as it turned out. The lady of the house, Sara´s sister in law, greeted us at the door and soon we were introduced to the rest of the family. Sara´s sisters were there, three kids (all boys) and two big German Shepherd dogs.

We communicated in English/Spanish, some family members spoke English or they spoke Spanish and we replied in English. It was a riot and it did not feel awkward at all. They made us feel welcome right away. The house was not fancy or anything, colourful I´d say and most importanlty it was cozy. We were invited to a home-cooked dinner which was absolutely NOT spicy. Only when I mentioned that I kinda liked the chili, Sara´s brother called out to his wife in the kitchen and ... a plate of chili was placed on the table. We also had cake as desert and between all the eating and looking around in this Mexican home we *talked*. About cars, food, specialties of our countries, school, food and our trip. It was fabulous! We took some photos of us and the whole family (just like in the movies <g>.

Sara, who had to work today, suggested then to take us back to our hotel but Silke and I declined and asked her to just call us a taxi. Sara agreed only reluctantly because going through nightly Mexico City in a taxi is not a good idea (according to her and my travel book). Still, this was the easiest way for all of us. We said our good-byes - and received a "mi casa es su casa" from Sara´s brother as well as a big hug.

Sara did still not trust the taxi who collected us and asked for the man´s licence and everything. When she was satisfied that everything was in order, she gave me the phone number of her brother´s and asked me to call if anything happened *and* to email her as soon as I got to our hotel. She had even already paid the driver to take us downtown (and she refused to accept our money).

The ride back to our hotel was rather uneventful, not counting the fact that the police had closed off the area around the Zocálo and our driver had to do some Mexican Jedi driving to get us to our hotel, which is conveniently located *at* the Zocálo. We got a little taste how huge this place is because it took him more then 90 minutes to get around. In the end another fantastic day was over and we literally fell into bed.

Today we visited the Museum of Anthropology. It was worth the time though although now my feet hurt and I´m tired from all the input.

Oh! We also took the Metro, the underground, the tube, as means of transportation today. It was cheap, 2 pesos, and it was a lot of fun. A bit crowded in the end but cool.