April 20 to 25, 2004

Tuesday April 20th, 2004

We are welcomed into my uncle’s house by uncle Eduardo and aunt Mari-Elena. My Cousin Samanta is sound asleep and we soon join her in the wonderful world of dreams.

We begin to hang out, something that we have mostly eliminated from our repertoire, very good this hanging out thing.

There is an ever recurring theme to this voyage. A theme that recurs so often that it could almost be called “the theme”. Things have such a way for happening differently than we’d thought that it’s almost not worth thinking about how things might happen. Plans change themselves without thinking to let us know first. The current example being how we arrive in Mexico City with the idea that we would stay a week. After sleeping through the most part of that week we decide that a good two weeks more are in order.

Friday
We get the chance to party hard before Casey leaves, takin’ it out to a bar where we drink, dance, and have wild peanut fights. Casey leaves for Canada on a rainy Saturday. It was excellent to hear someone say “me three” to close our decision making processes.

Sunday April 25th, 2004
Barbacoa

Very early in the morning we head out of the city to my aunt Martha and uncle Aurelio’s place. A party of eight, we arrive at the Barbacoa spot. Three men are scraping the remnants of a fire of a pile of cactus leaves, cooling everything down with sprays of water. They then peel the leaves off one by one until the meat of five sheep that has been cooking here all night becomes visible. It is the most succulent meat I’ve ever tasted, falling off the bones and melting in your mouth. Oh, did I happen to mention I’m no longer a vegetarian? It was impossible to nourish ourselves properly in the ever changing conditions and we had to start eating animals way back in cold Oregon. After the feast we headed off to my uncle Fernando’s house where we spent some time with aunt Letty, and cousins Rodrigo and Annel.

Our daily life at my uncle’s house is alarmingly different from life on the road. Besides the obvious sleeping in a bed instead of a tent and such things there is the fact that we now have a maid. Every morning Laura asks us what we want for breakfast and proceeds to cook it for us (unheard of). She also does all the domestic chores and I must admit, this lifestyle makes me feel bad. I have a hard time believing that I deserve to have someone serving me (but I do appreciate).

We make a brief visit to the botanical gardens in the University of Mexico UNAM. It is beautiful and very big. Walking around the elaborate gardens and ponds we are almost convinced that we could live in this city. We haven’t forgotten however, how the pollution here has our throats all dried out.

During the week we go downtown with Samanta’s boyfriend Paco. We’re on a quest for the perfect semi-slick bike tires. About 15 stores are visited along a single street that claims to be the “bicycle department” of the city. We find pretty much what we need and settle for the ‘almost excellent’. Before heading home we swing by the post office palace (yes that’s the real name). It’s a grand old building with ornate metalwork and extremely high ceilings. It’s hard to believe that it’s a functioning post office. All the old buildings in this section of downtown are sunken or on a weird angle. Think leaning tower of Pisa but all over the place.