Travels of the Bay family and the Yoda Van

Matthias and I agree on this – Taxco is one of the neatest cities we’ve seen in Mexico.  It did kind of suck that it took us so long to get there from Cuernavaca, but once we were there we were happy to be there.  We drove up through the mountains along long-windy roads and when we rounded the last corner Taxco appears in front of you.  The city is built into the mountain and reminded us on Monaco.  Instead of the typical grid-system the streets snake up and down the mountain.  All the buildings are painted white and red and you have some spectacular views of the surrounding mountains from the town.

When we first got there we drove through a lot of the town to find a parking garage.  Once we had parked we started wandering through the streets and peeked into a few churches.  We also stopped for lunch where we had the comida corrida.  (Comida corrida is a set meal that many restaurants offer.  It usually starts with soup and then is followed by a plate with rice, beans, maybe salad and one entrée.)  Matthias chose a pork chop that was really delicious and I ordered green enchiladas, which turned out to be the best green enchiladas I’ve ever had in my life.  We also had a really delicious home-made chicken soup.  It just couldn’t have been a nicer lunch. 

On the way home we decided to take the toll road for part of the way.  Luckily we were able to take just a small section that got us through the slowest section of road much faster.  We stopped for ice cream and then picked up our clothes from the laundry which had been folded so nicely and smelled so clean.  The day in Taxco and the drive home just went so smoothly and we all enjoyed it.

In Cuernavaca we had the number of a friend of a friend and got in touch with her.  We spent a very interesting evening with her and her daughter and her family.  It turns out Frances’ daughter had been to Seattle one Christmas to visit our friend Caroline.  Since Caroline and her family come over to our house for Christmas it was quite a coincidence when we realized that I had actually met Jade about 18 years ago.  They were a very interesting family and also world travelers.  Frances was born in the states and has lived there on and off, but she has lived in Mexico most of her life.  Jade was born in Mexico but also lived in Spain.  Her husband Vania was born in France, then lived in China and later moved to Mexico.  He has two native languages – Spanish and Russian (his mother was Russian) but also speaks amazing English and who knows how many other languages.  They have been thinking about doing a longer trip in South America and were very interested to hear our stories about traveling long-term with kids.  They let us stay in their guest room and we had a great Mexican dinner and a nice evening talking with them.

We spent 4 nights around Cuernavaca but it is time to move on.  Cuernavaca is just a bit south of our next destination – the largest city in the world: Mexico City.

On several occasions in this blog I have mentioned that I am getting tired of seeing more stuff. I have seen more things in the last 9 months that I ever will be able to process. And I am getting tired of packing in and packing out. I don’t want to go back to Seattle yet, but I don’t want to pack in and out for a while. And even though Mexico is a beautiful country, I am not interested anymore in “just another colonial town”. At this point of our trip we have seen so many colonial towns that to me they all start to be alike. A few pink and blue buildings, a nice city square (Zocalo), a few churches with a little bit of history. No thanks. I am done. I have seen too much in the last 9 months I want to rest and relax. That’s why I can’t wait to get to Ajijic (near Guadalajara) where we will be staying for 5 – 6 weeks. There is not a whole lot to see and do in Ajijic, but it will be home for over 1 month. We’ll have an apartment and will hopefully be able to send the kids to kindergarten there.

Allison is different. She wants to see it all. Maybe it’s because she keeps reading our travel guide while I am driving and knows a lot more than I do, or she has a better brain that can soak in many more things than my brain can, but she doesn’t seem to want to rest. Maybe she is afraid she is missing something. I really don’t know.

This has become an issue of many discussions for us. She wants to sightsee, I don’t. After a few very long days in the car I was glad to have a couple of days near Cuernavaca at the same place. We had a nice campsite and life was good again and when Allison said that there is a very nice colonial town less than 50 miles away I agreed that it could make a nice daytrip. Only after I noticed that the roads were so bad that the 45 miles would take us almost 2 hours in the car I was less excited. 2 hours to get there 2 hours to return to see a couple of pink churches!!! My mood started to get worse by the mile. But then a great thing happened. It turned out that Taxco wasn’t just another colonial town. It was just amazing and beautiful. I wish I had the words to describe Taxco, but I want to leave this up for Allison or a good travel guide. They have much better words than I do.  To me it was just what I needed. We were seeing something totally new, nothing at all like we have seen on our trip at all. And these moments are becoming rare, but when they do happen, they are all the more special. Thanks you again Taxco.