Maximiliano

Heaven, we have arrived and thou art magnificent. It is about 7:00am local time here in Puerto Vallarta. I just woke up to the sound of thunder. There is a storm rolling across the bay here which is producing a good bit of lightning. Our Hotel is located right on the water with two incredible balconies that overlook our beach below and the entire bay. I wish that I were a better writer so I could more appropriately describe how awesome this place is. Haley found this place after many hours of pouring over the internet.

We are staying in a suite on the top floor of a hotel with only 7 rooms. As I said, it is right on the beach, though we do have to walk up and down about 5 flights of stairs to get there. They call the style of our hotel "Mexiterranean," which, while cheesy, is also appropriate. I think I'll just post pics so you can see for yourself how nice this place is. We were commenting on how in the states a place like this, on the beach, would probably easily go for over a thousand a night, but here it only cost about $180/night, shared between two couples.

Yesterday, after getting into town, we spent a couple hours at the beach in front of our house. It was Will and Paige's first time in the Pacific ocean - they weren't disappointed. after washing up in what has to be the nicest bathroom I have ever stepped foot into, we headed down to dinner. We went with the hotel's recommendation which was a little place about 10 minutes away, right on the beach. We watched an awesome sunset while eating shrimp tacos and Mahi filet. The food down here has yet to disappoint.

I'm kind of torn as to what we are gonna do here...part of me wants to go out and do all the activities we have planned and another part wants to stay here in the hotel all day. Today we booked a tour on a boat to take us out for some snorkeling. luckily it isn't until 2:00pm, so we will have the morning. We'll probably go into town and buy more stuff. Guadalajara ended up being expensive (and heavy), but I did get my tortilla press (solid mesquite) and a molcajete (mortar and pestle). I'll have to blog about guadalajara later.

Tour de Guanajuato, Part II

This morning I woke up around 6:30 to go out taking pictures. Normally I would be a little reserved about going out alone, but this city feels really safe. There is a lot more money here compared to many of the other cities we have traveled to. Guanajuato is where the richer Mexicans come to vacation and the city does a great job of attracting tourism by keeping things clean and safe. At first I was worried that with my absolute lack of directions I would get lost and not able to find my way back to our hotel. The city is a labyrinth of side streets and staircases that climb forever. If you are on foot, there are no dead ends, no matter what alley you go down. Each alley/street is either going up or down, with only a small part of the valley being flat, down by the city's main square.

I managed to get a couple tunnel shots off, and a couple other cool shots during the 1st hour, but overall I was disappointed with the pictures I took. I think I regressed in my photo skills while sticking my nose in medical books for the past 2 months. The second hour was a little better as I climbed up into some of back alleyways behind our hotel. For some of those people who live in some of those houses, the nearest road is probably a 5-10 minute walk through the skinny walkways between other people's houses.

After getting back to the hotel and washing up, we headed off to breakfast on one of the city squares. On the way down, we saw lots of people on bikes, but thought little of it. Then as we were eating, it seemed the entire city started to come out into the streets, and the number of bikers grew exponentially. by the time we were done, it was difficult to get out of the restaurant due to the crowds. We hung around to watch (to our disbelief) that they were setting up for a bike race through the city. Keep in mind the first two paragraphs of this post where I talked about how narrow the little alleyways were and how there are only limited roadways...

The first couple races were warm-up races for kids and other age groups. They went around the blocks a couple times, getting the crowds excited for the main attraction to come. It was cute, but the most excitement came when the adult that was showing the kids the route to take totally biffed it just after starting the race - please see the video in the previous post. When they let the main race group go, they released them in groups of about 30-40 bikers at 5 minute intervals. As far as we could tell, they probably let out about 200 bikers. After a good half hour or so, the first group of bikers they let out returned for the second lap. It was pretty fun as they whole town cheered on the bikers. It was kind of funny, because nobody really marked off the race route and nobody was keeping the route clear of pedestrians. We saw a good half dozen people almost get run over by bikers. It was funny watching the giant crowd boo at the people for getting in the way. 

Eventually we tore ourselves from the crowd and did a little shopping. After dropping our recently purchased souvenirs off at the hotel, we headed out for lunch. As we started to walk down some remote/narrow alleyways, some of the people on the street were telling us to be careful because bikers were coming down the walkway. We looked at them in complete disbelief only to find ourselves moments later almost getting mowed down by bikers with full suspension bikes coming down a huge string of stairs that we were climbing. We were so surprised/bewildered/impressed/shocked all at the same time. I can't believe the route took them up and down those narrow alleyways through the city. As we continued to walk (much more cautiously this time) we came upon another set of stairs (not near as hard core as the first set, but still kind of crazy to ride your bike down) and waited for the bikers. This time, I was ready with our video camera and my D200. Previously, I posted some video of that second set of stairs.

ESPN needs to get on these Guanajuato bike races. They were awesome. In fact, I don't think there was any video coverage from any local news stations. I would think that in a city like this, with a bike race going through it, and being as hard core as the route is, they could really draw some serious worldwide attention. Will and I kept joking about coming back next year and entering the race. I guess the only thing that would hold me back was all the ambulances we heard throughout the city the entire day - after we climbed that first set of stairs, we heard someone biff it on their way down. We also saw a couple different guys who had bloody legs/arms.

We finally made it to lunch on the other side of town. We had to walk through a really busy  marketplace that made everyone a little uneasy. After lunch, we decided to walk/hike to a large statue on the hill called "El Pipila," which means "turkeycock" in Spanish. Turns out this statue was made in honor of a peasant who helped the Mexicans gain their independence by burning down the gates to the granary where the Spanish were holding out. The hike to the top of the hill/mountain that it was on was straight up a ton of little back alleys, which made for a good hike. The hike was worth it as the views of the city were spectacular. 

Haley keeps raving about Guanajuato and how she has a new favorite city - move over Charleston. I also like the city a lot. It has a nice charm to it and all the people are really friendly. I think it has to do with the city being so rich and accomodating to tourists.

Tour De Guanajuato

Here is some video of some  bike races that were going on today in Guanajuato...I'll have to post more later on how crazy these bikers were. Enjoy:

Endo from Rob Egbert on Vimeo.

Urban bike racing from Rob Egbert on Vimeo.

Observations

3 things to sum up the great city of Guanajuato: Hair gel, Making-out in the streets, and obsession with the dead.

Seriously, I'm not sure what the deal is with this place, but they LOVE their hair gel. I need to get some pics of some of the guys walking around here - Think vertical Mohawk, horizontal Mohawk, the combined vertical/horizontal Mohawk, the corn-row Mowhawk, the frosted, shaved side of head Mohawk, you get the picture. I can't imagine the amount of hair gel one must use to get their hair to do the things they get it to do, but they are masters of hair sculpting here in Guanajuato.

Making out in the streets: seriously, like everywhere. I don't know if this is a popular honeymoon spot, or just a good city to make out in - but people definitely take advantage of the make-out-ability of the place. Old, young, skinny, fat - you get the picture - all around you all the time there are people making out. If you ever visit Guanajuato, I would recommend staying out of dark alleyways at night - not because you will be in danger, but because you might walk up on something that would make you blush. If they are making out in the streets, I'll let you imagine what they are doing in the dark.

Obsession with the dead: We visited "El Museo de las Momias," or the Mummy museum today. Apparently the local cemetery got too full a while back and they started to dig up the bodies of people who's families never came to pay the "rent" or claim the bodies. The weather here is really dry and just the right temperature to preserve the bodies. Many of the bodies go back hundreds of years, and one body in the museum as recently as 1973. It was definitely kind of creepy, but at least this museum was tastefully put together...

The next museum was like a cheap Disney exhibit trying to scare little kids, only they used real bodies and then covered them in fake spider webs and cheesy lighting to try and make it creepy. I'm not sure what the thinking was on that, but I think dead people with their skeletons and eye sockets hanging off them is probably scary enough. The cool think about this museum was a bonafide chastity belt from the times of the inquisition - I'm not kidding - look at the picture. Those poor women.

Speaking of inquisition, our next stop was another cheesy museum (though it didn't need to be) of the torture chamber used during the inquisition to torture the accused. I guess there was some super perverted Catholic priest that was sent to Guanajuato to straighten things out - turns out this guy was one sick freak - all kinds of ways to twist certain parts of your body, dismember you, shove all kinds of spikes into you from all different directions, different ways to display what was left of you after they were done - you get the picture. Of course to cheese it up, they had all kinds of "special lighting," and our guide put on some kind of monk robes as he led us through the dungeon. C'mon guys, this was a torture chamber - already creepy enough without your cheesy music and fake cobwebs all over the place.

Lastly, we did get a chance to go to one of the mines. One of the reasons this city is so rich in colonial architecture is that for over 200 years, more than 40% of the worlds gold and silver came from the mines in the area. There is a labyrinth of underground tunnels that makes up the roads in the city as well as beautiful building abounding all over the hills in the area.

The city is rich with history, this being where Hidalgo beat back the Spaniards in Mexico's fight for independence. The city is also the birthplace of Diego Rivera and supposedly there is a cool museum, but we weren't able to find it.

Today was a really full day and we blew through a lot of money. I think tomorrow we are planning on just bumming around the city and maybe do a little hiking to see some of the city vistas.

Taco Time

Alright, so took the boards on Wednesday – glad to have that over with. Paced up our bags that night/Thursday morning, then headed to Haley’s parents place. It was really nice because they had the boat waiting and as soon as we pulled into town, they took us out to the lake for some wakeboarding. Turns out Haley is pretty good at wakeboarding – got up right away and didn’t biff it too hard. Then this morning, we got up at 4:00am to head to the airport. Haley’s parents were dropping off Haley’s sister and her family at the airport for a flight that left at 6:45am, so we went in with them, even though our flight didn’t leave until 9:45am. We are experienced at spending some quality time in airports.  

Then it was off to Mexico. Haley did an incredible job planning this entire trip, from the flights to the hotels, to checking the bus stations and taxis to get from city to city. She predicted that we would have enough time after we landed to get to the bus station by 2:00pm. Seeing as our plane didn’t land until 12:00pm, I was not as optimistic as her, but customs and documentation went really fast, we got our luggage really fast, we hailed a cab quickly, and as soon as we got to the bus station, we bought our tickets and loaded up on our bus that was already up and running. After 5 hours on a Mexican luxury bus, we almost didn’t want to leave it (no – really, those busses are quite nice – the chairs lean back to nearly horizontal and have this leg thing that comes down and allows you to lie almost flat – about as much let room as your bed). However, once we pulled into Juanajuato, our stomachs were growling for some Mexican food. We hopped a cab to our hotel (cost about $4 bucks for a ½ hour cab fare). We weren’t sure as to what to expect from our hotel, but Haley and Paige picked out an incredible bed and breakfast right in the middle of town. Turns out that we pretty much have the entire place to ourselves, and it is incredible. I’ll have to post some pictures. I’m really looking forward to exploring this city – there is a whole network of underground caves, a mummy museum, silver mines, as well as plenty of shopping to do (I think haley’s more excited for the latter).

Oh, for dinner we headed out and chose the first place we thought smelled good and had a bunch of tacos – you haven’t had good Mexican food until you have eaten it in Mexico. I also later bought a tamale off a street vendor. I feel I need to gain back all the weight I lost studying for the past two months (lost about 7lbs). I think after last night, I am off to a good start to gain it back.

Man, it’s good to be back in Mexico!