In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.
In this week’s Medium Cool, let’s talk about Mexico.
We’ve gone to the Mayan Riviera (to Akumal, an hour south of Cancun) several times over the last few years. Fabulous people, Mayan ruins, food, cenotes, and beaches. What experiences have you had in our neighboring country to the south, cultural and otherwise?
Omnes Omnibus
Guadalajara won’t do?
Baud
I can’t wait for Ted Cruz to show up to this thread.
lowtechcyclist
Oh, Mexico
never really been but I’d sure like to go
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: One of the great songs of all time
edit: I have been so sad about my sweet Tucker that I couldn’t bring myself to listen to music. Thanks for linking, you got me to listen to one of my favorite songs.
BGinCHI
@Baud: Dude never returns my calls.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: In before Baud and a Steely Dan reference?
10/10 No notes.
Suzanne
I miss Mexico. I miss Mexican food in the US, especially that delicious Norteño food.
scooter
Went to Baja this past January and had an awesome time- so low key, fantastic weather, whale sightings daily. Just stay away from the big towns down at the southern tip and head out to either the East or West Cape- can’t beat it for a quick (from LA) and easy vacation.
trollhattan
Have just had the gringo boarder town experiences, Rosarita Beach perhaps the high point and a tie between TJ and Mexicali for the other end of the spectrum. Favorite Mexican flick is “Y tu mama tambien.”
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: It is probably for the best.
BGinCHI
@scooter: This time in Akumal, I spent the week drinking Mexican wine. We rent a condo with a kitchen, so do a grocery run at the beginning. Some of the best wine is from the Guadalupe Valley, just inland from Ensenada.
I’m curious about that area in Baja. Anyone been? Worth a visit? Would love to have beach + wine area.
Mexican wine is very good, btw, and I’m a pretty serious wine person.
Omnes Omnibus
FWIW, I have never been to Mexico.
BGinCHI
@trollhattan: I’ve been to a bunch of those towns too: TJ, Matamoros, Ciudad Juarez, etc. All in the 80s, when I was young and extremely adventuresome. I had nothing but great experiences.
piratedan
just a brief note that Mexico, just like the US, is not one simple monolithic entity, they have their own issues with racism, regionalism and many of our problems as a society (i.e. drug use) have a boomerang effect for them.
It’s a beautiful place, has wonderful unique regional cultures and like most broadbrush strokes, something gets lost when we use them. I wonder at times if we finally find a way on how to deal with our issues with drug use if that will allow both countries to step out of the shadows that are so influential and detrimental.
BGinCHI
Anyone have experience in the Lake Patzcuaro area or in San Miguel de Allende?
I know a lot more about the latter, and that it’s a really popular destination for people from all over the world.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I think you can get cooties just from making the call, even if he doesn’t pick up.
WaterGirl
@piratedan: Holy shit, i googled “mexico images” so I could find an image for the post.
As I said, holy shit, it was a cesspool of racism, with about 99% of the images being the mexicanequivalent of fried chicken and watermelon.
Horrifying.
piratedan
@Suzanne: there are so many awesome happy meals that involve red chile beef and Superior
billcinsd
My Mexican experiences are solely at the Mexico City airport and were not good.
I was flying to Santiago and was supposed to have a DFW to Mexico City to Santiago leg. My plane left South Dakota 3 hours late and I missed the flight to MC. I rerouted through Miami but my luggage did not. I arrived Saturday night, my luggage arrived Thursday afternoon short two dress shirts. On the way back a found out one reason it took so long. I came back through Mexico City (and luckily the person who had sat next to me was willing to translate the baggage claim announcements). I had to personally take my luggage to the other terminal. I guess the fee for having some one do this was two pre-worn dress shirt.
SpaceUnit
Yesterday I found an order from TacoBell on my porch that was mistakenly delivered by UberEats.
piratedan
@WaterGirl: there’s a big difference in the regions…. Baja is mostly fishing and tourism, just like the Yucatan in many ways. Norteno refers mostly to the Sonoran/Sinaloa region (a lot of ranching and farming) and that has some significant differences from the urbanity of Mexico City. Is sure someone much more erudite and familiar with the multiple cultures could expand if desired.
RSA
I’ll tell you a story, with a tenuous literary connection. Decades ago my wife and I spent a couple of weeks traveling around Central America. One stop was in Antigua, an hour or so west of Guatemala City. We stayed in a hotel that had originally been the Convent of Santa Catalina; the rooms were spartan, converted nuns’ rooms, but we thought it was a charming place, with a courtyard and fountain, walking distance from some remarkable ruins.
A little while after our return, I picked up a collection of short stories by Italo Calvino, and I started “Under the Jaguar Sun”:
At first I wondered whether Calvino had moved “our” hotel from Guatemala to Mexico, but Google told me that there were actually two convents-of-St.-Catherine-turned-hotels. This is just the kind of thing that might pop up in a magical realism story, so I was happy to discover the coincidence.
Calvino would also have appreciated Wikipedia’s list of patronage for St. Catherine:
No special observations, but fun still.
Gin & Tonic
@BGinCHI: We were in San Miguel for a family event just before the pandemic. A beautiful little city, but an awful lot of expats. You can take that as a positive or a negative, your call.
Omnes Omnibus
Come a little bit closer…
Joax
After living in Oaxaca for the last fifteen years, all I can say besides that it is an incredibly rich and diverse place with really good food, is that it is the place where Mexicans come to find their roots and experience traditions that come from its 10,000 years of history. Plus Puerto Escondido and the hundreds of other beaches.
Omnes Omnibus
@SpaceUnit: I am not sure that counts.
Mike R
We went to akumal to dive the cenotes. We were very lucky as we were the only guests at the hotel. The managers an ex pat and her husband who was the dive master and instructor for cave diving even left for a couple of days. One night we were standing on our balcony looking out and thought we saw crabs all over the beach. Turned out the turtles were hatching, really cool. Some headed toward the lights of the buildings and highways so we spent a very entertaining couple of hours loading up little turtles and carrying them to the ocean.
On our first cenote dive we met our guide at the parking lot, he was wearing a farmer brown two piece wet suit and had a hood. Our first thought as we walked down a basically jungle path was wow this guy must be cold blooded. On arriving at the platform there were a group of kids diving and swimming and having a grand old time. The guide slowly donned his gear and my wife had her gear on and in the water with only a shorty wet suit 2mm. I asked her if the water was warm and she said oh yes come in. Well the water temperature was about 68 degrees and the air temp felt about 110, so that was quite a surprise. It is always an adventure when your pardoner is a joker. We had a great time love diving in Mexico.
oatler
There used to be tons of gold and green
Comin’ up here from Mexicoo-o-o-o
SpaceUnit
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sorry, that’s all I got.
BGinCHI
@Joax: I’ve been wondering how that city feels and am really keen to visit.
If you haven’t read Àlvaro Enrigue’s amazing novel Sudden Death, I highly recommend it. Hard to describe in full, but a fascinating, singular take on the history of Mexico just after Colonial contact.
There’s a lot in it about the Lake Patzcuaro area, which is why I asked about it above. Thinking about a visit there. And am curious about Michoacan in general.
BGinCHI
@Mike R: That sounds fabulous. I’m just a snorkeler.
ETA: We’ve been to several cenotes, all amazing. There’s nothing quite like that water.
Mike R
@BGinCHI: Just like swimming in a glass of gin. Totally amazing.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Embarrassingly, despite the fact that I am of partial Mexican heritage, and that I speak passable (but very Gringo) Spanish, I’ve only gone on a couple short excursions to Tijuana.
One was with my wife. The highlight was when we finally convinced a cab driver that we really did mean it when we said we wanted to go to a place away from the tourists. He took us to a restaurant called Carnitas Uruapán. The specialty was carnitas (grilled pork) either 1 lb or 2 lb. A party at the next table was having a birthday celebration and paid the Mariachi band for song after song all evening, so we got free entertainment. We were the only non-Mexicans in there. It was wonderful.
The other trip was alone, when I was working a job in San Diego and had one rare afternoon off from the grueling 7-day schedule. Met quite an interesting assortment of characters on that short trip.
mrmoshpotato
You boys like Mexico?!
Mike in NC
In 1981 my ship made a port call to Acapulco. It was meh. A few months later I walked across the border in San Diego and spent about ten minutes in Tijuana. That was plenty for me.
Mike R
@BGinCHI: Can’t recommend enough if you ever get the chance scuba is amazing. That first breath under water was the coolest thing ever. Snorkeling is a fine way to pass a day on a beach.
Suzanne
@piratedan: There is a small-but-growing Mexican community in PGH’s South Hills. Spawn the Younger speaks Spanish, and she has a new classmate from Mexico (I think from Chihuahua) this year. Some little racist white shithead in her class told him that he wasn’t allowed to play with him and the other boys “because you’re Mexican”. I hate this shit. It starts so young.
schrodingers_cat
I have been to Canada many times but never to Mexico. I want to go. It reminds me of Goa. If I do go, COVID permitting where should I go? I love seafood and beaches.
piratedan
@Suzanne: let me know if I have to make an emergency shipment of las palmas and herdez salsas and enchilada sauces to you :-) Could include some Hatch green chilis if there was a need :-)
Suzanne
@piratedan: Dude, we moved down the street from a Mexican grocery store. That was an essential!
I’ll totally take some Hatch chilies tho!!!
Brachiator
I have been to Mexico a number of times. Once, after a bank robbery in San Diego, we sneaked across the border and hid out in this little village. Wait, that was a movie I saw.
One memorable time in Mexico was a short Memorial Day weekend cruise to Ensenada with a newly divorced friend who wanted to shake off bad memories. Met a lot of fun people. It was noted by the crew that we all ate and drank more than average.
One of the best vacations was with my family at the resort hotel Las Hadas in Manzanillo. Beautiful rooms and great food, friendly staff. We spent some time in the city and had a wonderful breakfast at Hotel Colonial in the city center. The coffe con leche was delightful.
Walking around the city we came across a little shop where the owners were playing reggae music on the stereo, which suited the mood of the day.
Visited other places, but never have been to Mexico City, even though I know some people who live there.
Gin & Tonic
@Suzanne: Incidentally, I’d mentioned we were to have a reception at the Luis Barragán House in CDMX. That fell through – it is actually a private residence, but the residents had rented it out on occasion for private events. But it turns out that for whatever reason, this is no longer possible. So things had to be rearranged on short notice. Bummer.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Two of the characters: There were two guys, a Canadian and a Dutch guy traveling together. The Canadian was very wide eyed and just painfully obviously a naive tourist. The Dutch guy was very world weary. The Canadian would point and gasp with delight at someone in a costume. The Dutch guy would mutter things like “I’ve seen people stabbed for $5.”
I walked around with them for a little bit. They wanted to see “real Mexico” which is about two blocks away from the main tourist street.
We went into a bar and it was like a scene in a movie, with all conversations stopping and everybody staring at them. Then somebody saw me, said “oh, it’s Ok, they’re with you” and conversation resumed.
My ancestry is very mixed. East Coast people often see something Asian in me, but in TJ and San Diego I was universally taken for Mexican and frequently asked if I spoke English.
Anyway I parted ways with those guys but then met up with them again on the train back. They told me they’d gotten into trouble in a bar, maybe that one. A pretty young girl asked them, probably the Canadian, to buy her a drink. Which he did. Which was apparently the standard opening for then having sex, as she was a prostitute. The people in the bar got very upset with them for not wanting to follow through.
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: When is your DIL coming to the US?
Suzanne
@Gin & Tonic: Oh that sucks. That would have been incredible. I’ve never seen any of Barragán’s work in person and it is a deficiency.
Sure Lurkalot
First trip out of the country was to Puerto Vallarta. Since have been to Cabo, Ixtapa, La Paz, Cozumel, Akumal, Playa del Carmen, Zihuatanejo, some more than once. Easy to get to Mexico from Denver and my hubby was a diver so we went a lot.
First time to Cabo there were only 3 luxury hotels between the airport and Cabo, where there were just a couple of hotels and no fancy marina. First time to Akumal, there was very little development between Playa and Akumal and Akumal and Tulum. Of course, locals and expats would tell us about how great they were in the 60’s…
My favorite things about Mexico are the people, the food, diving/snorkeling, archaeological sites.
We also rented condos on Half Moon Bay in Akumal..and there’s so much to do…cenotes, Coba, Chichen Itza, the lagoon. Good restaurants too. Is the Buena Vida still there and hopping?
Another Scott
My first trip to TJ was a few stolen hours from a conference in San Diego in the late ’80s. Saw the donkey painted in stripes like zebra. Saw the really cheap (~ 15-foot diameter) satellite TV dish for sale. Saw the billboards for the bull fights and jai alai. It all seemed interesting but too fake to get a good feel for what “Mexico” was really like.
A few years ago I went to a conference in Cancun at a resort hotel. The drive through the jungle to get there was interesting, and I had hoped to get to see some of the local ruins but it didn’t happen. The resort was nice, but again was too obviously fake to get a feeling for the country and the people.
A colleague at the same conference had to wear golf shirts from the gift shop for 3-4 days because the airline lost his luggage. It eventually showed up.
The flight out of Cancun was interesting. The security woman at the airport found a pen knife in my brief case that I had forgotten to take out. It made it through DCA just fine; the Mexico security woman was very apologetic when she said she had to keep it. It actually gave me a good feeling that the people there take security seriously but aren’t stupidly militaristic about it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Suzanne
Not related to Mexico, but the Pritzker Prize (yes, those Pritzkers) was awarded for the first time to an African architect, Francis Kéré. His work is lovely and creative and shows how the best architecture is deeply rooted in context, while also of its time.
raven
I’ve camped and fished in Guaymas twice, the first time in the early 70’s and the second about 23 years ago. The first time we camped on the beach where they filmed “Catch 22”. MGM owned the property that included the buildings and the airstrip the built. The stories of the filming are nuts.
S. Cerevisiae
My college had a field station in Bahia Kino, Sonora on the Sea of Cortez. I was able to take several courses there and it was awesome. We would go into Old Kino and get wonderful fresh tortillas and fresh seafood right from the fisherman, the scallops were big enough to wrap in bacon and were so good. Saw many life birds including a mangrove warbler and Craveri’s Murrulet plus whales and orcas and snorkeling with sea lions and so much more. I hope to get back there again, I wonder how much it’s grown in the last 20 years.
UncleEbeneezer
Only been to Mexico twice. Once to Rosarita and once to Ensenada. Both were basically partying trips and mostly culture-free. Had a big trip to Merida (with tons of culture) planned for 2019 but our elderly doggy was in poor health and we worried about her dying while we were away so we cancelled. Then Covid hit so we never have gotten the chance, sadly.
VeniceRiley
Per CNN Clarence Thomas in hospital with “flu-like symptoms.” Can we be this lucky?
Raven
We camped and fished as we nursed our 74 Chevy wagon down and back. We carried some great black hash and my shepherd collie Ralphie. In Sonora they set up these roadblock with soldiers sporting 30 cal machine guns, shiny nurses begin money and Federales who strut around with 9mm’s on their hips just wanting you to say some shit. Every time we got stopped the Feds would try to buy Ralphie, “Lassie’ Lassie bueno perro”! When we were packing up we decided we need to smoke all the hash (we thought it was pretty safe to carry when we were going south but not north) so we fired it all up and smoked it before we lit out. We hit the first roadblock in short order and I got out to talk to the Federale and my bride, buddy his lady and Ralphie stayed in the car. I was fine talking military talk to the cop but my crew was fucking terrified looking at all the guns and soldiers. After the dude was convinced we were clean he let us go and we headed north. My buddies girlfriend insisted we save money by putting PEMEX regular in the ride and, as we started to climb the mountains on the way to Nogales the car started banging and stuttering. One time it died and I’m rolling backwards trying to start it while Mexican trucks are bearing down on us. Somehow I nursed it back to Tucson where we diagnosed a blown piston. I’ll leave that disaster for some other time
zhena gogolia
Zero. Never been there.
Raven
@S. Cerevisiae: My second trip was south of there. We drove to Hermosillo. turned right and went through the desert to the water. There was nothing there so we had to have water and provisions. The fishing was great and we had a ball!
UncleEbeneezer
@VeniceRiley: Dear God that I don’t believe in…
Raven
@Mike in NC: Eat at the Blue Fox!
trollhattan
@VeniceRiley:
No, but we can dream. Covid has been very shabby WRT taking out the Trumps, Johnsons, Bolsonaros, etc. They all walk away.
Somebody put a pubic hair in Clarence’s IV bag.
WaterGirl
@Raven: I fixed your previous one, then saw that you had reposted. I will delete the first one.
Sure Lurkalot
Experiences:
We were in Cozumel for their Carnivale. We went downtown to the parade at 5, the route was packed and there was a wild and hokey Star Trek float, drag queens and mariachis. Continued on to the street fair with food stalls, copious tequila, dancing with the kids and locals until drunk and late. Cabbed back to the hotel…the late? It was 9 pm.
One trip, the pilot had to abort the landing because there was a burro on the runway.
Lucky to be in Zihuatanejo during turtle hatching among a rescue group and we got to release buckets of babies at sundown. Magical. On that trip, poor hubby threw out his back and Dr. Olivia Mendoza, called by the hotel, not only prescribed relaxants and pain meds but also made a house call. Another guest at the hotel was celebrating his anniversary…he was a guitarist for Rick Springfield and a Guitar Hero…took a shine to hubby and pumped him full of tequila every day.
The dive operator in La Paz was a bit scary. No true dive masters and small motorboats. One time out the boat need to be jumped AND WE STILL GOT ON IT FOR A 2 HOUR EACH WAY tour. On the way back, the driver says “jump in the ocean” in the middle of fucking nowhere. Giant manta rays, swimming and playing with us, one of the most magical experiences ever.
Raven
@WaterGirl: sorry
BGinCHI
@Sure Lurkalot: Yep. Ate there twice last week. We stay about a 5 minute walk north. Have you been to La Lunita? That’s the building where we rent.
Gin & Tonic
@schrodingers_cat: In about three weeks.
Gin & Tonic
@Raven: You’ve got a story for every place.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Raven’s like that Dos Equis guy. The most interesting man on this blog.
Raven
@Gin & Tonic: Here’s me and Ralphie on that first trip.
Sure Lurkalot
@Raven: You have the best stories, Raven.
ETA and pictures to prove.
Raven
@Raven: Second trip with a mess o grouper.
Raven
Me an my boy con Ceviche!
Sure Lurkalot
@BGinCHI: I’d have to check, but we were a 5 minute walk from Buena Vida too. One night we walked there and there was a huge rainstorm and the electricity went out. They managed to feed us well but the walk home was scary…before cellphones with flashlights and it was so freaking dark!
Raven
@Sure Lurkalot: God, the rest of that trip was insane. The car was blowed up and my boy had to go back to Champaign so I tried to fix it in the driveway of his house. I didn’t have a compression gauge so I ended up pulling the wrong head. Meanwhile my grandma was dying in LA so my mom said “you gotta get here”! My ex and I gathered our shit, grabbed Ralphie and headed to hitchhike. We got picked up by a trucker who had been burned by a dropped high pressure hose in Dallas the night before and needed someone to help keep him going. We were shooting the shit and he blew right through an Arizona Highway Partol check point. He had a sleeper cab so he told my wife to get under the blankets a keep still. You could see the weed and pills he had in the overhead AC unit but the cops missed them. I took Rallphie out to throw him the stick and I looked down and saw a sawed off 12 gauge shotgun on the ground and, like the fucking genius I am, I picked it up and waved it and said “look what I found”!! The cops both dropped down on me an I dropped the gun most rickey tic! They told me that I had to get out of the truck at the next overpass but the guy said “fuck them, they can’t tell me what to do”. We made it to LA right before grandma died but we missed the funeral because we got a “driveway” car back to Illinois and we had to go pick it up. THAT was another exciting story!
Almost Retired
@BGinCHI: I am a huge fan of the historic cities of Central Mexico. We parked ourselves for four nights in Patzcuaro, and used that as a base to explore the arts-oriented communities around the lake (and Janitzio in the middle of the lake), as well as Morelia. As to San Miguel de Allende, we did four nights in nearby Guanajuato (city), and did SdM as a day trip. Beautiful, but not as attractive or interesting as Guanajuato. Planning a trip to Zacatecas and Guadalajara next. No interest in the beach resorts, but I understand the appeal. CDMX is worth its own thread. It’s a quick and cheap flight from Los Angeles and I have a favorite neighborhood where I always stay (Condesa). Bummed I was too late to this thread to make the Steely Dan jokes!!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Mike R:
From 2014 to 2018, any time the wife was away on business for 2-3 weeks, I would go to Puerto Morelos as a base for a week and dive mostly cenotes (some reefs and wrecks, too). It was cheap, food was good, made good friends and had a great relationship with my cenote guide.
It is about 45 min south of Cancun airport, has great beaches, is a working fishing village, and I would spend maybe $1200 for the week.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Mike R:
Hells Bells, The Pit, Dos Ojos, Casa Cenote, some of the no names….
Steeplejack
My personal experience with Mexico is border towns in Texas. That started my love of Tex-Mex cuisine and, later, other Mexican cuisines. My father (Air Force doctor) got stationed at a small pilot training base outside Del Rio in 1964, and quite often we would cross over to Ciudad Acuña to eat at Mrs. Crosby’s, a famous restaurant that (I think) started as a speakeasy in the 1920s.
In the 1960s it was quite easy to cross the border back and forth, and among my other memories is wading and swimming in the Rio Grande when we would have cookouts at the small state park at Sycamore Creek (hardly more than what would be considered a rest stop today). We lived there when I was 12 to 15, and the Texas desert was great for my Boy Scout hiking/camping years.
My father had a very unconventional childhood, which he didn’t talk about much, and over the years we kids would learn about it in bits and pieces. One time our parents decided that we would eat at Los Alpes, a more upscale restaurant just outside Acuña. (Price was always a factor with three ravenous sons, and there might have been a slight rambunctious factor.)
We got there, it was very crowded, and the maître d’ approached with a look of pre-disappointment on his face. “Señor . . .”
And my father started talking to him in lengthy, apparently fluent Spanish. WTF?! I think it was just along the lines of “What’s the situation? Whatever you can do is cool,” but the maître d’ lit up. They talked back and forth, then the maître d’ snapped his fingers to someone in the back, and suddenly a table opened up. I always had the mental image of some obnoxious gringo drunks getting an unexpected bum’s rush out the back door. It was like a scene from an old movie.
My father and the maître d’, Memo—I still remember his name after all these years—became amiable acquaintances, and they would always talk for a bit when we would go to Los Alpes.
After we sat down we peppered Dad with questions about how he knew Spanish. Turned out that at one point in his youth (probably early teens) he drove his older father around the country as he raised funds for a small college outside Nashville, and somehow they ended up living in Mexico for almost a year. Dad picked up a lot of Spanish and also his taste for very spicy food.
As I write this I am appalled at how few details I can pull together for this. How did they end up in Mexico? Where? And why did they stay? My father died in 2011, so I can’t ask him. And, as I said, he didn’t talk about his background much. Information usually came out in oddball situations like this. Or we would be driving somewhere on vacation and my father would say something like: “The old highway used to be over there; we broke down around here in 1940. It took us two days to get to San Antone.” Huh. End of story.
Anyway, I studied Spanish all through high school and even some in college. Never took the semester abroad to get fluent, but I could read it fairly well. Read a lot of Mexican authors in English and Spanish and books about Mexico. This thread makes me think of Malcolm Lowry’s novel Under the Volcano, which made me want to go to Cuernavaca someday. Still on the bucket list.
Anyway
I’ve long wanted to go to Mexico City and eat tacos. Maybe I can pull it off this year…
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: I still think Albert Finney in Under The Volcano is one of the most amazing acting performances I have ever seen.
MomSense
My former neighbor was a poet from Mexico. She really liked my kids. One time my middle son was talking to her and he said her eyes sort of rolled back in her head and she said something in Spanish in a creepy voice and he felt he had missed out on some kind of prophecy or fortune telling.
The last time I saw her she was outside banging on the gas meter next to her house. I ran over and in my terrible Spanish tried to stop her from blowing up her house and find out what was going on. She told me that if she didn’t get the water turned on the boys wouldn’t come and dance. I got her inside and she was telling me about her boyfriend (a painting of Jesus) and that she missed dancing with him. One of the other neighbors called her son while I danced with her.
Soon after her son moved her to an assisted living, but she gave me a book of her poems and made me promise to tell her boyfriend where to find her.
The book is Me Visto De Corazon. Adelaida died in 2017. She was born in Puerto Rico but her parents were both from Mexico. She and her husband were both professors.
Achrachno
Mexico is one of the most interesting and beautiful countries I’ve ever visited and I used to go there regularly — like up to 6 times in a year (1 year, usually only once or twice). But the places I most liked to go are mostly on the US Gov. “recommend you not go” list now — I spent most of my time in the mountains and back country of Sonora, Sinaloa and Durango, as well as a couple of months in Colima. And Baja CA of course. There have always been some issues but, up until the drug wars, I felt safer in Mexico than in many places here. But, I don’t go any more though I often think about it. I once drove all the way to the Yucatan from CA. That was a memorable and most enjoyable trip, but involved a bit too much driving. The people in the country are mostly friendly and helpful, but one has to be careful everywhere. Like here.
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
He was great. I have to admit I was a little prejudiced against the movie going in, because that novel was one of a few that in college I fantasized about making into a movie. (The other that I remember is Frederick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes.)
BGinCHI
@raven: WOW.
BGinCHI
@Raven: Also, wow.
BGinCHI
@Sure Lurkalot: The stars, though!
Dan B
@Suzanne: His work is elegant and shows the immense value of diverse cultures and views.
BGinCHI
@Almost Retired: Thanks!
Thinking of a Patzcuaro/SMdA trip soon.
Xavier
I don’t believe there’s a border in the world you can step over and get a bigger change of language and culture than the US-Mexico border. We’ve been to Baja and Sonora in our RV, great experiences and lovely people.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Xavier:
Except….
Cancun proper is just Miami where you can spend pesos. There’s also some big ass Home Depot in Playa Del Carmen.
Other thing I notice – most of the high schools in Quintana Roo have American football fields next to the soccer pitch.
Wag
I’ve been to Akumal many time over the past 25 years One of my favorite destinations Love the snorkeling at the lagoon and visiting the cenotes. Great food and friendly people. We’ve had excellent luck renting condos on Half Moon Bay.
also love the ruins Tulip, Coba, Chitzen Itza. Each special in their own way
@BGinCHI: La Lunita is excellent. We ate there and at Burma last year when we took the kids.
Virginia
As far as we are concerned, Mexico City is the greatest city in the world. We love it and are seriously thinking about moving there in a couple of years.
So many fine art museums. So much really fine food. So many flower stalls. So much beauty. Never been bombed. The architecture is old and fabulous. The people are really friendly and kind. Such great value dollar vs peso.
We are going again in two weeks. YaY!
J R in WV
We spent a week in the Sea of Cortez, and on the Pacific side of Baja California Sud, watching whales with a Lindblad National Geographic cruise. It was not like being on shore the whole time, but was wonderful as far as the sea went.
Whales put their noses on the Zodiak boats to look at us — I expected it to be like “Oh, there’s a spout over there, OH there’s another one…” nope. Whale calf nearly in the boat with you, big eye looking at you, one sneezed on our friend Mike, covered in Whale snot! Hilarious. Mom checked us out, then the calf comes over to meet today’s people…
NotMax
The time: 1961. The person: half-pint kid NotMax, who could at that time easily get violently airsick simply from looking at an airplane. The place: in the Mexico City airport at night during the return trip from Hell, after landing on flight #7 of the 9 it ended up taking to get from Brazil to NY (well, Newark). Probably 36 hours elapsed since initial take-off on flight #1.
Propped up against a column, sitting on the floor, looking exhausted, miserable and with a distinct green-tinged pallor, so much so that Mexican peasant women hawking their wares inside the airport were coming up to me and giving me coins.
NotMax
Mexican media?
On Netflix, Club de Cuervos (and its spinoff mini-series The Ballad of Hugo Sánchez which sits between seasons 3 and 4) is a hoot and a half. Bingeable? You betcha.
One caveat: while necessary to set up plot elements brought to the fore down the line, the frenetic opening scenes of the very first episode may be offputting to some. They are not indicative of the pace nor tenor of the content of the rest of the series.
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl: Glad I could help! Speaking just for myself, I don’t know what I’d do without music in the difficult times.
“Fire and Rain” has always been my favorite James Taylor song for times like that.
Paul in KY
Went to Cancun back in 19. Paradasio Resort. All inclusive. Had a wonderful week there. Went to Tulum. Very interesting. Was hot as balls that day (only shade inside the compound is ruins you can’t get close to or 3 small droopy trees). Probably only downer on that trip.
TCS
Moved to Baja Sur from Manhattan 11 years ago. I have a spot on the Sea of Cortez about halfway down the peninsula. Small town, population around 600. Beautiful place but, I do miss NYC when I am jonesing for pastrami or serious pizza.
Bill Dunlap
First, why are so many people posting here to say they’ve never been?
Second, so many stories. My folks retired to Oaxaca in the 1970s and I visited many times. Once, driving down to Merida in their Microbus, we made a stop at La Ventosa beach near the Tehuantepec isthmus. Driving down to the beach, I spotted something I couldn’t make out in the middle of the road. It looked like a midget in a shawl blowing his or her nose in a big white cloth. It turned out to be a woman facing away from me, bent over, having just peed or crapped in the road and cleaning herself up.
Another time visiting my mother after my father’s death, I took on a free-lance writing job for Variety to interview John Frankenheimer who was shooting The Burning Season near Vera Cruz. My main memory of that was John, trying to get the attention of a young Indian girl carrying a prop rifle as she walked away. She probably didn’t even speak Spanish, let alone English, nor understand filmmaking terminology, but John kept yelling at her, “Property, property.”
When my mother died some years later I had her cremated and left the ashes near an altar on the hilltop ruins of Monte Alban. Probably illegal. I wonder if some archaeologist ever found and analyzed them and thought he had a great discovery.
Also, the great mole in Oaxacan restaurants and the marimba band in the Zocalo. Wonderful people my parents befriended. So much to recall as I look back.