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About to Hit the Road Again

Sunday, June 24th, 2007

Our faithful readers will have noticed that we haven’t been updating our blog very much lately.  We’ve been in Ajijic for nearly 6 weeks and have only posted a few blog entries.  The first week we were here we enrolled William and Julian in a pre-school here and we’ve had every morning (Monday – Friday from 8 AM – 1PM) without William and Julian.  It really hasn’t been for lack of time that we haven’t been writing blog entries – simply laziness.  It had been a long time since we have had so much “free” time and we’ve really enjoyed it.  The main thing we accomplished was to become totally addicted to the TV show House, MD.  We downloaded and watched all 3 seasons in less than 4 weeks.  That is a total of 70 episodes.  If you realize that we have been watching that much TV it is no wonder we have not had any time to write blog entries.  And even if we had gotten around to writing, what would we have written about other than Dr. House?  We haven’t been doing anything else except watching that show?

Traveling for 9 months is hard.  I know no one really has any sympathy for us, but we had heard it from other travelers early on in our trip – most travelers are tired of traveling around 7 or 8 months.  We needed these 6 weeks to decompress and muster up enough Wanderlust to get us through the last stretch (~3000 miles) back to Seattle.  Matthias said he’s not ready yet to hit the road.  I’m almost there, and I think my desire to again be in a familiar, comfortable place is what makes me ready to leave.  We are leaving for sure on Tuesday since we are meeting my parents in Disneyland in 3 weeks.  I think we’ve left ourselves enough time to take a nice leisurely trip up the Baja Peninsula and back into southern California.  The next time we travel like this (which we are definitely planning on doing again) we are thinking we will need to stay longer in fewer places and move around less.

William and Julian have been doing pretty well at their school.  They have definitely picked up a lot more Spanish in those 5 weeks.  They wear uniforms to school and have homework and I think they genuinely enjoy going to school there.  Last week William turned 5 and he celebrated his birthday at school with piñatas and cake. 

William's Birthday at School in Ajijic, Mexico    Pinata Time for William's Birthday

In Seattle full-time daycare costs around $1000/month per child.  Here we paid $170/month for both children.  (It was only half day, but still it is WAY cheaper than in the US.)  We also have a babysitter here who charges $2.00/hour.  By Mexican standards it is very expensive, but it is such a steal for us.  In one of the bars here we heard that a worker earns about ten dollars for a full shift (plus tips of course).  And apparently at this bar they are being paid twice the minimum wage.  When you hear these numbers about salaries here it is no wonder why there are a number of kids that don’t go to school.  Families either can’t afford to send their kids to school (due to the costs of supplies, uniforms and tuition) or they can’t afford to live if their kids don’t work.  Often during those hours when our kids are in school we have been visited by other kids selling stuff – bread, avocados, dried fish, flowers, etc.  Child labor is been commonplace in much of Central America as well.

Overall it has been a really great stay here.  The rainy season has also eventually started and we got to witness some amazing lightning storms and the thunder echoing and rumbling between the mountains around us.  In just a few weeks we’ll be back in the United States and Matthias and I are both very nervous about returning.  I’m starting to formulate some impressions and opinions about the things we’ve seen and experienced over the last 10 months and I have a feeling they will be magnified once we finally return to the US.  I promise that eventually we’ll write about it, but for now we’re still mulling it all over. 

After we leave Mexico we’ll have some time in California.  If you have any good advice about what to do or see in California please e-mail us some suggestions.  Neither of us has seen much of California and so far we are flying without a guide book. 

 

Guanajuato

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

The morning we were supposed to go to Guanajuato Matthias was still just tired of traveling and he decided he didn’t want to go.  In the end we decided to split up, he took Julian and William and I were off to Guanajuato.

Riding the bus is very exciting for a 4-year old.  There are lots of buttons and knobs to turn, there was a TV, they gave us free sandwiches, drinks and there was even a bathroom on the bus.  William took a backpack full of books, extra clothes and 3 pairs of shoes (something I didn’t notice until we were unpacking in Guanajuato).  The bus ride was 4 hours, a little too long for both of us, but we still had a great time and it was nice to be able to spend some time just him and I. 

 

In Guanajuato we found a room that was just a short 5 minute walk from the center of town.  It was a quiet neighborhood and the family that ran the place just loved William.  The wife of the family always asked William how he was doing “Como estas?”  And he would always answer “No muy bien” – “Not good!”  She thought that was really funny and asked him how he was every chance she got just to hear his response. 

On Sunday morning we were leaving our hotel to go have breakfast when we passed an older couple walking towards our hotel.  They stopped and were so interested in William and kept asking him “Como estas?  Como estas?  No muy bien?”  It turns out these were the parents of the couple that ran the hotel and they had already heard about William.  When they ran into us they knew it was us and just wanted to hear William say “No muy bien.”  After that, every time we saw them in the hotel the old man would jump out of his seat, run over to William and ask him “Como estas?”  Eventually William said his “No muy bien” and this nice man had such a smile on his face. 

The city of Guanajuato is probably the most beautiful city in Mexico.  It is located at the bottom of valley surrounded by mountains.  Most of the houses have been painted bright colors and it is quite a sight.  The streets wind up and around the mountainside on all sides.  There are narrow streets and alley ways all throughout the city.  Many of the buildings have wire balconies and it reminded me of Paris a lot.  It is also a very youthful city and the streets were filled with people well into the night.

Guanajuato from our hotel    Door and Window in Guanajuato

While in Guanajuato we really didn’t do too much.  We went to the famous mummy museum, rode the cable car up the side of the mountain, walked through town, went to a museum with an exhibition on miniatures and had great French toast breakfasts in a small café.  We only spent two nights and the day we left William and I had a long game of soccer in an old fountain (without water of course) while we were waiting for our bus to leave.  I think the best part of our two days there was spending a lot of time with William. 

We had a nice bus ride back to Guadalajara.  We got sandwiches, cookies and drinks in the bus again and had 4 hours of good conversation.  While we were waiting for Matthias and Julian to pick us up from the bus station William started singing at the top of his lungs “Yo soy una ventana!  Yo soy una lampa!”  In English that means “I am a window.  I am a lamp.”  I have no explanation for this other than he is 4 and a lot of fun.

The Old Riviera

Friday, June 8th, 2007
When you drive into Ajijic there is a sign that says “Riviera Alta.”  You might think it means the OLD Riviera since aside from the dozen Mexicans that live in this town all you see here ... [Continue reading this entry]