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The Kallbriers and the Halls had a great idea (probably after too many drinks one night) for our mail order business, Great Outdoor Products. Since our worm inflator, the InjectAir, was not doing to well, we decided to write a travel book on Mexico. Made no difference to us that none of us could write. What we needed was to do some research. So off to travel Mexico by planes, trains, taxicabs and horse drawn carriages.
We decided to fly from San Francisco to Mexico City. From Mexico City we would head north taking ground transportation, mostly trains.
The Great Outdoor Products research team arrives in Mexico after a red-eye that entailed a stop-over in Guadalajara where we were obliged to de-board for customs. After an hour of so of being guarded by armed military personnel, we re-boarded the plane and took off for Mexico City.
Out first impressions were, 'this is not Mexico'. The hustle and bustle. The dirty air.
We checked into our hotel (I think the one that fell down a few years later in the Mexico City earthquake). After resting up, Ana decided to fix her hair for a night on the town. Too bad she got her hair caught in the hair dryer and practically ripped her scalp off.
We had a very entertaining dinner at Los Comerciales. Toilet paper rolls hung all over the restaurant for customer to start paper trains from table to table. The air was cracking from all the toilet paper spit wads being shot though straws into the numerous bug zappers. Kim and Ana reported there was a wooden Indian in the ladies room with a plank covering his privates. Somehow they wired the plank so any lady peeking would set off an alarm. A few red-faced women did try to sneak out of the bathroom. The highlight of the meal was when we told the waiter that it was Mike's birthday. They made a big deal of bringing him a cake and proceeded to shove his face in it. Sorry we missed the photo on the results.
Naturally, we had to take the obligatory photos of us standing in front of fountains and buildings. We also took photos of churches, landscapes, houses and pigs. Why? Anyway, I didn't scan them and they are gone forever now.
One of the things we did enjoy about Mexico City were the pyramids. It's a very steep climb up with narrow steps. The Aztecs apparently didn't believe in handrails.
The views were spectacular. Then we saw what looked like microbuses emptying out herds of ants. School kids! And everyone of them is running up the pyramid just to trip us up and send us tumbling down the jagged rocks to our end like an ancient sacrifice.
As you may have surmised, we did all survive the hordes unscathed and toured the rest of the grounds from less lofty heights.
Ana informed us that we couldn't come all the way to Mexico City and not go on the boat ride at Xochimilco. And so we went. It was a nice peaceful place.
Our next destination was Guadalajara via rail. Much nicer than Mexico City although still a large city.
This was going to be one of the travel tips in our book: DON'T EVER TAKE A HORSE CARRIAGE RIDE IN GUADALAJARA!!! I didn't have the heart to take a photo of the poor nag that had to pull us through the choking streets with smoking buses and speeding cars whizzing by us on both sides. Apparently the horse carriage lane is right down the middle of the road.
While we're discussing travel tips, here's another: DON'T EVER SIT ON A CONCRETE STEP WHILE SOMEONE IS SWEEPING!!! The poor guy sitting on the bottom step had all the dirt and dust swept right into him. Maybe he didn't mind, he didn't get up and move.
It wasn't all play. We did some serious research into which Mexican beer is the best. Our top pick was Bohemia. The worst was Carte Blanca. Please note, this is ongoing research so the final results are not yet available. Extensive time was also spent tasting different sweet breads.
The next leg was from Guadalajara to Tepic. We all did lots of work on our travel book. Although Steve and Mike needed to make several trips to the diner car to do more follow-up on the beer research.
The taxicab driver stopped so we could look at the eagle rock formation on the way to San Blas.
The hotel we stayed at in San Blas was one of the nicest places of the whole trip. Very clean and quiet. We really enjoyed the pool.
Not much has changes in San Blas.
Lunch is a lot of work in San Blas. You have to walk from palapa to palapa checking out all the fish on the smoker/bbq before deciding which you want to eat.
What a great way to spend the day on the beach. Ice cold cerveza only steps away.
We arrived back down at the plaza just in time to catch a parade. No parade is ever complete unless it has a staged motorcycle wreck.
It's not possible to visit San Blas without taking the Jungle Boat Ride up the estuary.
We spent a short time in Mazatlan but needed to head north soon. Time for another free travel tip, this time from Mike. Learn how to say "BANŐ" so it doesn't sound like a gringo saying "MENU" when in the hotel restaurant after dashing from the beach with the trots.
The train trip from Mazatlan to Navajoa was miserable. Steve was sunburned, the train A/C didn't work and the bedding was moldy.
We visited with some of Ana's relatives in Navajoa, Bacobampo and Obregon.
Made a side trip up to Alamos.
Ana's Leonilla let us use their trailer and car out on the beach at Huatobampo. What an adventure! That night while playing cards in the trailer, we noticed tiny noises. Then we saw darting shadows. Mice. That was enough for Kim and she called dibs on the back of the car. Mike and her made do and spent an uncomfortable night in the back of the tiny station wagon while Ana and Steve kept getting wakened by the pitter patter of tiny feet running across out blankets. During the night, the tide had come in and now the car was in the water. Fortunately the sand is pretty hard packed so it didn't sink up to it's axles.
We enjoyed the rest of the day waiting for Aunt Leonilla to come pick us up. Mike built a massive dike to protect us from further tides. Then while looking for the elusive congrejos that Ana swore ran up and down the beaches when she was a kid, Mike grabbed something while digging in the sand. "It's alive!", he yelled. "Don't let go!!", yelled back Steve bravely since it wasn't his arm in the hole. When the creature was finally dug out, Mike had kept a hold on a gunny sack. We were sportsmen and released it unharmed.
We did see some interesting wildlife though. Some dolphins came right into the surf either playing or eating.
The sun was now setting. The tide was coming back in. And there was no sign of Leonilla. What else could we do except drive the car back to Navajoa? We all piled in and immediately got stuck in the sand. Ana, Kim, Mike and Steve jump out and start pushing. When we are rolling a bit, Steve jumps in and hits the gas. Almost everyone else was able to jump in before we hit the dirt road and a solid surface. Driving this car was interesting. First off, we didn't really know where the hell we were going but off we went in a likely direction. Secondly, this car was a complete mystery. It would be running down the highway at 50 mph and stall out. Throw the automatic in neutral, hit the starter, the motor fired right away, put it in drive and continue on for a few more miles until it stalled again. When we came to a town with a stop sign, the procedure was to put it in neutral, gun the engine while breaking to a skidding stop, then dropping it into drive and hope it didn't stall. Successful less than 50% of the time. I don't believe I mentioned that this car apparently came without a muffling device of any kind. We must have sounded like the poor man's NASCAR. Thirdly, here we are, a bunch of gringos is a car we didn't own and couldn't keep running, it's late at night, we're making a huge racket, and we have an illegal handgun. Aunt Leonilla was kind enough to leave a gun in the glovebox just in case we had problems on the beach. We all had visions of spending a longer time in Mexico.......behind bars. We were happy to find the hotel we had stayed at a couple of nights before and got a couple of rooms and slept like babies. The trip home was forgettable after this excitement.