Mexico. What can I say. This first week has been a mixture of emotions. The scenery has been out of this world: going between the hustle and bustle of the urban environment in Tijuana, to the dry and blisteringly heat of the desert between San Quintin and Guerrero Negro (literally and metaphorically) and then tropical oasis planted in the middleof deserts and giant magnesium chloride salt fields - this place has a lot of character.
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| A typical sight in Baja California, these things shoot up to 3 stories tall... Cactus (Cardon) |
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| Blistered skin... (this is with SPF30 on) |
But less about the place and more about some entertaining stories. Since leaving USA things definitely have got a bit more adventurous. I was surprised at just how easy it was to get into Mexico, I literally walked straight through the border and I genuinely had to ask somebody if I was in Mexico when I got to the other side. I have been told wicked stories about getting into the US from Mexico and cars being dismantled to get to the condensed mass of marijuana and cocaine concealed in the body of the cars. Therefore I was expecting the worst, but I found myself in Mexico without a leaving stamp from the US and without an entry stamp into Mexico and I was kind of suspicous. Speaking to a number of officials, I finally gathered from a few spanish words that I could pick out, that I had to make my way 5 miles up a hideous looking hill to a get a visa stamp. To cut a long story short, the Mexicans are not the most competent of drivers, the roads are ridiled with potholes to the point where you are lucky to find a line whereby your coccyx does not take an absolute beating; however, on the other hand, everyone was more than happy to encourage me on with a friendly peace sign and an acknowledgment in the form of a blast of the horn! All in all a nice welcome to Mexico, with a friendly feel to place; contradicting what most Americans had told me.
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| Some of the roads are a sore sight for a sore arse |
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| But some are too good to be true, without any traffic |
I have met some very interesting characters since entering Mexico and the person or people that top this list are those who I have met in ranches (similar to an English farm but in a desert with no greenery). These are normally tripped upon in the middle of desert with nobody within miles around, so a welcoming sight for tired legs. However (maybe I shouldn´t use this word), these people are slightly unorthodox. One of the funniest chaps I met was a fella called Santiago, whose response to ¨¿Puedo poner mi tienda de campaña en su jardin?" which roughly translates to "Can I pitch a tent in your garden?¨, was "Are you are friend of Bin Laden?", I am not entirely sure why he said this, maybe it was my uncanny resemblence or that fact that I had a dirty beard and was absolutely filthy down to the bone; it most probably appeared to him that I have just crawled out of a cave: anyways he invited me in warmly and made me a brisk coffee. It did not take me long to realise this chap was completely trolleyed and he persisted in calling me Bin Laden and laughing hysterically at every single word I said. 5 minutes later he was lighting up a spliff with his amigos and continued to drink a Tecate a local beer and he offered me both. I kindly picked the Tecate. Just as I thought this night could not get any stranger, what I could only describe as a farmyard of animals came to join us - including a chickens and roosters, multiple cats and kittens, dogs and puppys and I think at some point a fellow horse jumped in on the party (that last one was a lie). So I found myself in a room of Mexicans smoking and getting trolleyed with a farmyard of animals. The conversation was interesting and normally ending in everyone laughing for about 5 minutes, but hey ho. When I did eventually crawl into my tent, I drifted off feeling slightly strange: uncertain whether it was the fumes of the pot, the Tecate or what I had just witnessed...
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| Casually picking up a dozen hitch-hikers is a regular occurence in Mexico |
I have stayed at a handful of these ranches now and all as much as an interesting scene as the others. At one, the children of the ranch owner where the most enthusiasic children to learn english and I spent countless hours talking attempting to communicate with them some words in English, including teaching them some times tables, addition and subtraction. In return they taught me a lot of words in Spanish that I did not already know. One thing I did notice was there was nearly an aggresion between the brothers and sisters to impress me with their knowledge of English, but also how cruel they were to the fellow farm animals; chucking small boulders at the kittens, kicking the dogs and punching and shoving eachother for my attention. Again. It was quite surreal.
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| This man is living the dream |
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| The salt plains in Guerrero Negro at sunset |
The WarmsShowers hosts have also been incredibly generous too, albeit not quite as animated and strange. The great thing about staying with these families is that they open up about their culture and what they think of Mexico and what should be improved. I found out that the average daily salary for a working class man in Mexico was equivolent to 4.50 pounds for a 8 hour day; my hosts explained that this was just enough to feed your family for a day... They also explained that if you get into trouble with the police in Mexico, all you have to do is bribe them with the equivolent of 10 quid and they do not take you to prison to await trail and this is all down to the corrupt government. I have been told that there are no areas in Mexico that could be deemed dangerous to tourists, unless you get on the wrong side of the law. The drug fields are all grown in mountains, so there is little risk of tourists getting involved. Again I have to accredit a few names: Gabino, Lupito and family and Sara, Adolfo and family - these guys would genuinely give their shirt off their own back to me without a question asked. Their hospitality cannot be matched.
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| The whole familia - Gabino, Lupita and Estephanie (WarmShowers host) |
So now on to the bad things about Mexico; one of the bad things apart from the masses of dogs, I swear there is one queen dog churning out thousands of these things a day (similar to an ant colony) - they are literally on every corner of every street chasing me down. None of the bastards have got me yet, and slowly I feel this anger growing against them inside me; so watch this space, a new Mexican delicacy could be born. Another big problem is the addresses, houses numbers and street names in the place are completely omitted. I have no idea how mail seems to get to the receiver, because there is no way of knowing who lives where. So when I was looking for a host in Guerrero Negro I had to knock on about 5 doors to ask whether I was on the correct street, what makes this worse is I have got every dog swine barking my arse down from every other house. When I think I am on the correct street I am told to go three blocks across and take a left; and it goes round in a vicious cycle. People seem to know an address just looking at the name, correct me if I am wrong, but I am not sure this is the most effective method. After an hour and a half of hunting down every mud road within the proximity of Guerrero Negro, I was a broken man; fortunately an expat came out of his home and pointed me in the right direction and eventually I lay to rest in my tent in the garden. Bliss.
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| Another WS familia - Sara and her children at Guerrero Negro |
One of my routine updates is the old wildlife ticklist, so here goes: I got a chance to swim with dolphins in the sea at San Diego (well within 10 metres or so) people pay money for that shit, just head down to San Diego and hit the small beaches up; I witnessed Humpback Whales on the Pacific Coast, Vultures, Humming birds courting, all sorts of crazy birds of prey, a few more dead snakes, wild ponies, crazy little rodent thingy-me-bobs (yes. that is the scientific name) and much much more. PS it is damn difficult to get pictures of these cr animals so be patient with me. I did see them. I swear.
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| Another small dead snake |
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| Adultos - is the only decent photo I could get of any of the birds |
Till next time amigos :)
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