Mazatlán, deer place/Los Mochis, a turtley place

THESE ARE BOTH MAZATLÁN. PRETTY SWEET, HUH? WE COULD ALL DEFINITELY COME BACK HERE. ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE INTO BUYING T-SHIRTS WITH SWORDFISH ON THEM. OR EATING BAKED POTATOES AND DIGGING IN THE SAND.

So we finally did the train thing! We road the famous Copper Canyon train this morning! Not for quite as long as we were planning though because an hour into the trip they made the announcement that progress was stopping there and then! No more! And to make it clear the train went backwards all the way back to Los Mochis effectively eraesing all the events of that morning. It was like in the twilight zone. All the people around me started walking backwards into the snack bar car and into their seats, Joel started talking backwards. When we got there we went backwards to the bus and un-ate our pancakes on it. Freaky.
Anyway there was a big ol' landslide across the tracks somewhere so now everybody's just got to take it easy and wait.
So it's funny being here because so many people stare so hard. I feel like I just walked into Black Rock and the locals are about to walk up to me and be like, "Whatreyew doin' here, stranger?"
So anyway hopefully the train will be on it's merry way tomorrow and we can all see canyons and waterfalls and trees and rocks and go home happy. I may have to drag Joel off though if he passes out from heat exhaustion. They literally keep the cabins so warm that my glasses fog up everytime I went back in from standing between cars. Which is the place to be, I tell you. Even just going through flat farmland was cool because you get to lean right out the train and just walk around. It was beauty. So I really hope that it gets fixed and we can go.

THIS IS ALSO MAZATLÁN. THAT'S THE HOUSE THAT I WOULD BUY FOR MOM AND DAD AND THEN ME AND JOEL ON MY BIRTHDAY. I INCLUDE THAT ONE NOT SO MUCH TO ADMIRE MY JUTTING HOLMLUND CHIN AND COMBOVER BUT TO POINT OUT THE GREAT PROGRESS BEING MADE BY JOEL'S CURLY SIDEBURN OVER HIS FACE.

Ahhh....Mazatlán.

Doesn't that sound like a great ad byline? I'm going to contact the beauraue of tourism here in Mexico, they can put it on all their posters and commercials and stuff. They can get the deep voiced guy who does all the spanish movie previews.
Man, I have some really good pictures that I want to put up, but I left the cord in the hotel room. So I'll have to put them up later. You'll all just have to wait. But we are in Mazatlán and I actually quite like it. There are herring skies everyday, it's hot but not too humid and there's a sea wind. One could swim if one ignored the trash on the lower parts of the beach. And also if one ignored the scary blue jellyfish washed up all over! Which apparently people do because I see quite a few swimmers.
Today is my birthday and Joel has been treating me real nice. I got juice and carrot bread for breakfast and then we went down to the rocky beach and watched the big spotty green crabs and enjoyed the wind. Now I am 23! That seems very old. I actually thought I was going to be 22 but then I remembered that beck cumple 21 this year! Also crazy!
So now we are going to go build a big sand castle because that's what I want to do on my birthday. And look for shells.
Next time I will have some pictures for sure.

"Vendamos" aqui "mofles" desde solo "$480"!

We "sell" "mufflers" here for only "$48"!
Well, it was some price like that. But a true sign that I saw coming into Guadalajara.
Guadalajara is not "nice". By which I mean I don't really like it at all.
The people are unfriendly and unhelpful, it's the dirtiest, smoggiest city I've ever been too and all the buildings are short and square.
I'm actually not sure what's so bad about it, it's just lots of little things. And there's nothing special here.
Guadalajara is not special.
HOWEVER. I do like the name of our hotel, which is HOTEL MEXICO 70 and I do like the nopal cactus that they make here. It's super good. Actually, all the breakfast food here is good. Guadalajara is the breakfast capital! The tortillas are good too. I also liked the park we visited today where the teens were lined up to get their quincieñera fotos taken. I have never seen so many fancy dresses all bunched together like that. Although they can't get too close together because the skirts all take up about a three yard radius. So that was fun to see.
Also they had an aviary so I got to go in and draw the fancy ducks and the big black swan and the parrots and things like that. Actually, I left and then came back in the exit and ended up face to face with the caretaker who told me that the aviary was closed. And maybe if I had come in the entrance I would have known that because it was locked. That was embarassing but then we were talking and he acutally let me stay in there all by myself while he went to go feed some other birds because I, unlike all the school children, who apparently run through, am quiet. And calm. and that's what the birds like. So anyway I got to stay and the huge swan snuck up behind me and made it's cute tiny honking noises while it watched me. It seemed a little lonely. But also happy.

Anyway. Tomorrow on to Mazatlan where we will hopefully visit an island. Or maybe fit in some last boogie boarding because the trip is ALMOST OVER. THIS IS IT!

#3

(This is Guanajuato, where we are now. It is really lovely. And windy. It reminds me of a mix of Súria and Lisboa.)

Okay, number three is in regard to mom's question of why we went to Acapulco and what it is like to be traveling again instead of staying in one place.

We went to Acapulco because from Puerto Escondido it is an 18 hour bus ride to Mexico City. From Acapulco it is only a 6 hour bus ride.

Traveling again instead of staying in one place has it's ups and downs. I prefer to stay in one place because you can acutally get comfortable and stop spending all your time finding food and shelter and unpacking and packing your bag. No wonder nomads never had time for culture or civilization.*
But then again I like traveling because then things are always new and exciting and different and I don't get as grouchy. Plus you get to make more comparisons, which means you get to make more judgements and make up stereotypes!
In conclusion, doing both is important.

In reference to the book I've been reading, Trickster Makes This World, I have been thinking about the role of travel as dirtwork. That is, how traveling, or any experience at all really, effects a person's ideas of proper|improper. Any exposure to new ideas definitely can undermine or reinforce old cultural ideas. For example, staying in the hotel we're staying in reinforces my cultural belief that sinks and drains should be cleaned. However, eating in markets makes me question how expensive and complicated restaurants and food are in the US. It also makes me SO JEALOUS that we don't have any good buses in the US.


This is the theater we got to go see a free play in yesterday. I think we were the only people over 11 who were not chaperones. It was fun. Although the girls almost broke the door down when I was in the bathroom afterwards. I think they thought it was a friend because they were banging and like, "who's in there?" and i was like "Hey! Who do you think?" in a growly voice and then they thought I was a man.


*Which reminds me of a funny point. One day in Oaxaca my exchange buddy, Luis, brought in this book from the 60s that was called Questions Children Ask. We read about the sun and gravity and then we read about tattoos. Did you know that many tribes give themselves tattoos because to them it is beautiful? But did you know that there are also civilized people who have tattoos? And that is a direct quote.

#2

Which brings me to point #2, well first point #2a which is: Why Doesn't Latin America understand the " ?
I have to ask, is it grammatically proper to use "" if you are saying:
POR FAVOR "NO" TOCAR.
(please "don't" touch?)

or if the name of your restaurant is:
HOTEL "GRANADITAS"
(Hotel "pomegranite")

or:
BAR "RICAS TORTAS"
("Good sandwiches" bar)

?
?
?

I think maybe they are confusing "" with an underline.

Real point #2 is "why do I have this look on my face?"

#1

Alright. I'm going to address several different subjects on this post.
#1 I just read the email that Gramma Shareen sent out about earthquakes and it reminded me that in the airport on the way here we met the world's greatest saver-dog. Yes indeed! She was a little big eared thing, name Vicki if memory serves, and her trainer was taking her to California for something. But anyway she's one of those sniffer dogs who find people in crashes.
He was telling me she has worked all over the country and the world. She sniffed people out in the Oklahoma City bombing and in the 9-11 attacks and in earthquakes and a whole bunch of stuff. It was cool. Because she was so tiny and just chewing on this frisbee and bringing it over to me to pull on.
Anyway apparently you can teach any dog to sniff people out. You start by hiding in a sleeping bag and having your dog find you and try to dig you out. And then later they actually bury people (shallowly) and things like that. He said that you have to be careful though because the dogs get depressed if they find too many dead people. At the Twin Towers they would have agents and other live people hide in the rubble for every once in a while for the dogs to find so they wouldn't get too sad.
Anyway, so that was Vicki the famous life saving dog.
And these are some of the women of the revolution. The sign says so. "Mujeres de la Revolución". Six of them anyway. Who have apparently trapped six of the "Hombres de la Revolución" in a train car. Those were strange times...but colorful.