Last week was excellent! It included both Day of the worker and Cinco de Mayo, which led to a 5 day weekend and a work week of only Thursday and Friday. Taking advantage of the fact that Pako was, again, laid off from Sol, we decided to spend a couple of days in Acapulco with Pako’s Grandmother, Doña Tomasa. So Saturday, right after I finished at the Tech, Pako, Petra, Lorena, Tito, Tekila and I piled into the car and drove 4.5 hours. To get to Las Lomas de Chapultepec, which is wear Doña Tomasa actually resides, we had to drive through Acapulco proper and I was introduced to some seriously scary traffic. I would like to state for the record that I stand corrected: Zihua drivers are not crazy lunatics, but rather slightly sketchy drivers who have a low level of patience. Acapulco drivers are, without a doubt, totally obnoxious, dangerous, crazy lunatics! There was no respect for driving lanes, traffic lights, pedestrians; no use of blinkers, hand signals, brakes; altogether too much use of horns and hand signals; and finally, just a general disregard for the value of human life. I would take Zihua over Acapulco driving in a nano-second and state now, in writing, published to a possible infinity of readers, that I will NEVER drive in Acapulco. Never. I’d rather take a cab or a bus (not exactly a tranquil ride either, mind you), walk, bike, jump, skip, crawl… anything but drive!
On the drive in we stopped at a mall called “La Gran Plaza.” Nothing special, but man did it feel good to be back in a mall! I like malls. I am a fan. I didn’t even know I missed them until I set foot in one. Turns out, I do. Petra stayed outside with Teki, while the 4 ‘kids’ walked through the mall. We didn’t really see anything great, but it was nice just to enjoy the air conditioning and stretch our legs. Also, it helped my heart rate to return to normal after having survived my first dose of Acapulco traffic. After a short while, we left and ventured into traffic again. One the one, main road that goes through the tourist zone, La Costera, I saw no less than 5 McDonald’s, 3 Starbucks, 3 Burger Kings (which delivers… gross), 2 KFC’s, a Pizza Hut, a Dominos, an Office Max and an Office Depot. It was slightly like driving down a main road in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin.
We arrived and went directly to Doña Tomi’s house and gave her a big hug and she immediately served us dinner. Then we dropped the car off at Pako’s brother, Juan Pablo’s, house (better driveway area) and chatted with him and his wife, Roselia, a bit. Then it was back to Doña Tomi’s where we bedded down for the evening. Pako and I were given the guest room, Lorena and Tito were given Doña Tomi’s bed and Petra and her mom, against my strident but ignored protests, slept on a mat on the floor. Well, I’m not sure if they slept, but I sure the heck didn’t. See, the thing is, Doña Tomi has chickens. And roosters.
Roosters that like to crow at midnight, 4 am and 6am. There’s also the small matter of the house not having any real windows, just open areas in the cement. These open areas, as you can imagine, do very little to soften a rooster’s crow at 4 am. Needless to say, I found out on the first night that this vacation, what with the death treks through the traffic from hell and the roosters, was not meant to be a restful one. Side note, in Spanish, a rooster says ‘ki kiri ki’ rather than ‘cock a doodle do.’ Silly, mixed up, Spanish speaking roosters!About an hour after we showed up, a tiny woman walked in looking very much like she owned the place. She turned out to be Doña Tomi’s sister, Perfecta. She had come to visit from Carrizo, Oaxaca, a tiny pueblo with no access to a bus station. She and her granddaughter walked 5 hours just to get to a bus… 5 HOURS!!! That is crazy talk! But she did it and she didn’t seem too nonplussed about the whole situation, so who am I to get bent out of shape? She decided it was time for a visit and her granddaughter had a week long break from school and could accompany her so she packed her bag, walked 5 hours, took 3 buses, a van and a taxi and there she was! She looked just like Doña Tomi and had many of the same mannerisms, though it had been more than 50 years since they’d lived together. She was super affectionate and gave me about 15 hugs over the course of the 3 days that we were there. It was great to see Petra, Doña Tomi and Tia Perfecta interact because it seemed as though they’d lived together their whole lives, they were just in sync with each other.
Pako and Lorena had never met Perfecta, so it was quite serendipitous that we all decided to visit during the same week.Sunday and Monday were super shopping days. On Sunday Lore, Tito, Petra, Ximena (Pako’s niece), Pako and I set off for the markets of Acapulco, home to every pirated thing you could think of. I bought a pair of sandals for $50 pesos, which is roughly $4 USD. Lorena bought about 10 pairs. She is even more shoe-obsessed than me. The markets were pretty normal, a larger, cheaper version of what we have here in Zihua. We walked around for a bit and visited the church, which was pretty. Then Lore and Tito caught the bus home because Tito had to work the next day and the rest of us went on a site-seeing tour. Pako showed me where he lived and studied last year. Then we drove to a couple of places with panoramic views of the ocean and coastline.
It was really interesting to see where Pako had spent most of last year. Finally we all went home and ate dinner at Pako’s brother’s house with Roselia, his sister-in-law and Pakito (nephew).Monday, Pako and I rolled out of bed after a night of non-sleep due to the lovely crowing of the house roosters and pumped ourselves up for a marathon. We went to 4 malls. I do believe, even for me, that is a record. Luckily we started out the day with a trip to Starbucks!
Now, it’s interesting because in the States, I’m not a huge Starbucks fan. I’m a Caribou girl through and through (a MN-WI coffee chain), but man that overpriced ‘grande’ frappuccino sure did hit the spot! Even Pako enjoyed his overpriced cappuccino. So, properly caffeinated, we headed out into the awful Acapulco traffic and hit 4 malls in just under 6 hours. My favorite was Plaza Diana because it had a Bershka and a Zara, two stores that captured my heart in Spain and haven’t yet made their way to the Mall of America (YET being the operative word). We were so tired and hungry and I was so drunk on shopping that we decided to eat at Applebees (very authentic, I know). Pako ordered Tortilla Soup and said that it was the best soup had ever tasted. Then he ordered a New York Cheesecake and was a very happy camper. We ended the day by walking around the newest Acapulco mall, La Isla, which is a huge outdoor mall with many upscale boutiques and name brand stores. I went into the Coach store, just to salivate, and the prices were DOUBLE what they are in the States! As this mall was clearly geared towards a higher economic class, we did a quick tour and then took our tired, out-shopped bums home for the day. Petra wasn’t terribly pleased with us when we returned because we’d been gone all day, but when she saw that we had bought Tekila a new sweater, all was forgiven.We came back to Zihua on Tuesday and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow (which is a big deal when you’re me!). The next day was the 5th of May, Cinco de Mayo, so most schools had it off, but for some reason Montessori decided to hold classes. I decided to observe the holiday and abstained from going in to work. I spent the day lying around and unpacking and decompressing from a fun, but less than restful vacation. Thursday and Friday at school were normal days. Nothing special to report except that my students are comparing the book Blackbeard’s Treasure with the movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ so I got to spend a couple of enjoyable hours watching Johnny Depp as the world’s sexiest pirate. Saturday was my 2nd to last class at the Tech and next Saturday will be an hour long review and then a final quiz and that will be that. I’ll be sad to see the class end because I like the students and I like the curriculum, but I won’t be sad to stop waking up quite so early on Saturdays!
I would like to take a moment to mention that on April 28th a member of our Las Urracas family passed away. Fred was a long-time Las Urracas guest and a good friend to Pako and his family and many of the other Las Urracas-ers. He always made me smile, either with a sarcastic remark or a joke meant for Pako or at the expense of Canada. Without a doubt, his presence will be missed greatly and winters at Las Urracas will not be the same. His passing was sudden and reminds us all to tell everyone in our lives how much we appreciate them, so if you’re reading this it’s because your path has crossed mine and I want to let everyone know that I’m grateful for their presence in my life.
Today is Mother’s Day in the US and tomorrow is Mother’s Day here in Mexico. Happy day to all the Mothers and especially mine because she is a beautiful, smart, intelligent, caring woman and I love and appreciate her. Everyday should be her day!
Extra hugs and kisses to all the mothers out there! Until next week!
Leyah
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