Archive for April, 2010
Posted on April 19, 2010 by jason
We had been sending occasional emails back and forth to Ane, Andres and Luca since October. We unknowingly met some of their friends while camping with Jim in Oregon and they contacted us through them. We figured we’d connect somewhere down the road.
A few days ago we heard they were close, so we decided to finally meet up at our place over the weekend. It’s a good thing we did.
I sent them some directions and we planned on meeting at the bus. I told them “You can’t miss it – it’s the only bright red bus in GTO.” Amazingly, they found it with no problem. Even more amazing was that they made Bode a vegan cake for his birthday – it was awesome!
We are always saying that the highlights of the trip aren’t the places we visit but the great people we meet. Once again, this is the case. Ane and Andres are great folks and it took less than 2 minutes for Bode and Luca to become best friends. They were inseparable all weekend.
The kids explored the city and we followed.
We heard about a star-gazing event outside of town, so later we went looking for the special Noche de las Estrellas bus to take us out to the mountains.
It was all set up for kids. First, there was excellent story-telling (Spanish, of course) from a costumed neanderthal with groovy musical accompaniment. Later, I tried to ignore the presentation on Einstein’s theory of relativity. We need to learn way more Spanish.
We were given star charts and were waiting for it to get completely dark so we could look through the 20 or so telescopes when a cold wind picked up and storm clouds started closing in. This is the danger of astronomy events, I suppose. Within 10 minutes, the sky was covered and it looked like a torrential downpour would begin any minute. The rest of the event was canceled, and the free bus that brought us out there wasn’t coming back any time soon.
Ane made the right call to hike up to the main road and flag down a bus. We finally caught one and made it back to town just in time for the weather to clear up. We sipped cheap wine on the veranda and looked up at a clear starry sky. At least we had some star charts.
Ane and Andres are interesting folks. She’s a master stone carver and he’s a furniture maker who both decided to take some time off and travel long-term. Luca is learning his third language at age 3. They left from Wisconsin in a ’75 VW Riviera pop-top and headed for the West Coast while we were going the other way. Not surprisingly, they have had a few mechanical problems along the way 
Unfortunately, they have some looming issues bigger than the VW. She’s a dual-US/German citizen but he is not, which is turning out to be a major issue for their trip. We continue to hear stories about complications non-US citizens have with the US immigration system and it truly seems ridiculous. Hopefully, it will all get sorted out soon and we can keep crossing paths as we head south.
We swapped stories and it seems like we’ve had some pretty similar experiences and have actually met some of the same people.
They met Jim and the Portland VW bus crowd, coincidentally sold a bike rack to our buddy Peter (maybe?) in San Francisco, met some folks in San Diego (?), ran into Fred in Baja – who all told them about the BodesWell family… again and again. It was a little strange to hear them recount all the people they had met and the times they had been told about us. Apparently, they were even mistaken for us a few times. We kinda feel bad… and weird. Sorry – small world.
Posted on April 17, 2010 by angela
Happy 5th Birthday, Bode!
Bode is laying in the bed next to me as I write this. Sprawled legs and arm wide, taking full advantage of the king size bed we have til next week. He seems so much bigger than when we left 8 months ago (has it really been that long?). Yet he still seems too young to send off to kindergarten, or to trust with any sort of sharp object.
He’s grown since the onset of the trip, not just physically (we’ll have to compare that on the old growth chart when we get back), but emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. He continually questions us, always surprises and never…never wants to sleep.
He’s often asked his favorite part of the trip, and I’m always amazed by his answers. There are many.
The Ghost Town named after him
Vegan donuts
Moe’s place
Visiting the place where they make the laws, Victoria BC
Anytime there was snow
Crazy Horse
Yo-yo and Wolfie’s house (he wants to move next door) because they have Lego Star Wars for Wii
The Empire State Building
Full Moon Camping
Seeing shooting stars
Video games with his cousins
Holidays with the family
Carnaval in La Paz, Baja California
Boogie Boarding in Sayulita
I was often asked if I thought he’d remember this trip, and yes, I don’t think he’ll ever forget it.
Happy Birthday kid, to know you is to love you.
With all my love,
Mom
Posted on April 16, 2010 by jason
I’m not sure what else to say about this city that hasn’t already been said.
Each day you can peel off a new layer and discover something new.
Each day everything just seems a little bit different than it was before.
All of our senses are happy here. There’s barely time for Spanish homework.
Posted on April 15, 2010 by jason
There is no lack of stimulus in this town – today we found a carnival.
It’s pretty much the same carnival fare you would find back in the US. Even the music is the same. For some reason they were blaring 80′s euro new-wave hits (Erasure, Fine Young Cannibals, Depeche Mode) and we just couldn’t get enough. And I just can’t get enough. And I just can’t get enough. And I just can’t get enough.
One ride in particular was worth watching for a little while – El Disco Fiebre. The ride itself is the usual giant centrifuge that makes people sick. The twist here is that the two yahoos that operate the ride actually get inside and do a whole routine in the middle of the thing while it’s spinning. They dance and taunt the single ladies to get up and do a jig with them while the ride is going. One guy jumps up in the air every now and then to the amazement of the crowd. Eventually, they become exhausted and have to sit down with the riders. Nobody on the ride really looked like they were having any fun, but people kept lining up since these guys were such a spectacle. OSHA representatives were not present.
Bode’s favorite ride seemed to be the Wacky Worm. The little roller coaster that looked suspiciously like the same one we rode at Carnaval in La Paz. No seat belts required. If your child is too small to sit on the ride, you can just hold him in your lap.
Also, if anyone is going to be in Fredericksburg, TX this weekend for the VW Texas Classic, please track down our buddy Wild Bill and tell him “Howdy” for us. He’s driving all the way from Pensacola in “Rusty,” the former rust-bucked we saw back in Florida. He’s been working on it over the winter and now the windshield is actually held in place by metal rather floating than silicone. We love the stripes, but without all the rust and the new paint we’re not sure what he’s going to call it now… Blacky? Stripey? Skunk Beard?
Posted on April 14, 2010 by jason
If the sight of actual dead people gives you the creeps, I suggest you click away right now. We’ll put the scarier stuff toward the end.
You probably already know from La Dia Los Muertes that the Mexican culture isn’t the least bit spooked by the idea of death and mortality. The Museo de las Momias is a bit extreme, but hey, Bode really wanted to go.
We had told Bode about this place a few weeks ago after reading about it and he’s been keen on going ever since. We’ve commented before on his nonchalant bluntness discussing death. A few days prior, he asked me when I was going to get so old that I die. “About 85… I don’t really know,” I guessed. He paused as if to make a mental note and continued on his merry way.
So the story goes, the proprietors had to dig up some graves and move the contents to make more room at the cemetery (or the families hadn’t paid up or something like that.) Much to everyone’s surprise, many of the corpses were mummified and extremely well-preserved by the minerals in the local soil. What to do with them? Open a local attraction and charge people to come see.
People are dying to get in. We stood in line for over an hour.
It’s sort of gruesome, sort of interesting, and sort of boring, actually. If you’ve seen one mummified dead guy, you’ve seen them all.
They have some stories to go along with the bodies. One guy was stabbed to death and you can see the wounds. A slashed throat. A drowning. It’s all here. One person was supposedly buried alive based on the position and expression on their face (and apparently this may have been common due to medical misdiagnosis.)
Some of these folks died over 150 years ago and some are still in “perfect” condition (no holes!) Some are not.
Posted on April 13, 2010 by jason
After camping in the same spot on the hillside above town for 8 nights (a record for us,) we found an apartment on the other side of town and have started attending a Spanish language school.
This is something we’ve been talking about for some time. Up until yesterday, we weren’t sure it would happen. This is a great town and we like the idea of becoming pseudo-locals and experiencing what it would be like to live here. After pounding the pavement, we finally found an apartment and haggled a deal at a local school.
Like anywhere, there are multiple economies here. There are prices for people in a hurry, prices for foreigners, prices for locals, internet prices, newspaper prices, etc. After wasting a little bit of time on the internet (by gringos, for gringos) we scoured the newspapers. The papers could have landed us a great deal, but we’re not locals (making it a bit tougher) and we were looking for a short-term rental (a few weeks – even tougher.) Not much action on that front.
We decided to walk the back alleys of town and just look for Se Renta signs and knock on doors. Again, it was tough going. The best solution – just go ask shop owners if they have something or know someone. It turns out that just about anyone who owns a business also has an extra apartment or knows someone who does. After a couple days of asking around and some completely random pricing, we landed a nice studio apartment close to Centro for only a little more than it costs to camp. A major score, thanks to Angela’s persistence.
Over the last week, she also hit every school in town and even negotiated a two-week class with a private tutor for another steal. The Mexicans think the Norteamericanos have no patience (generally correct) and by showing tanenmos tiempo, we got everything we were looking for and at the right price.
Our first day of school was a bit of a shock to the system. Neither one of us have been in school in too many years to admit. We showed up clueless and without even a notepad or pen. Fortunately, we have a patient and pleasant teacher who conjugated verbs with us for three hours without appearing the least bit phased by our dumb questions. She assigned us lots of homework.
Bode’s in school too – that was part of the deal. He spent the day learning all sorts of stuff and doing projects. His teacher speaks no English, so we weren’t sure how he would handle it. After only one day, the teacher has insisted he’s a genius. He emerged with a clay diorama titled Mi familia that we had to carry all the way home (“Two hands, dad! Two hands!”) If he were really that gifted, he would have said “Dos manos, papa!”
We hit the Diego Rivera museum to round out the day. It’s a nice collection of diverse work – including a nude of Frida Kahlo that I’m not sure I wanted to see. We will not be bored here, no matter how long we stay.
Posted on April 11, 2010 by angela
We didn’t really mention it before, but we arrived in Guanajuato last week in the midst of Semana Santa. A very big deal here. The city was brimming with Mexican tourists, something we hadn’t encountered yet. Church bells rang all day and evening throughout the week.
Bode was very excited about Easter. For the last 3 years we’ve celebrated the day with the traditional egg hunt with our friends and neighbors. It’s a memory he really treasures, but one we wouldn’t be able to duplicate this year. But damned if I wasn’t going to give it a try. I’d been on the lookout for the plastic Easter eggs we normally fill with candy for a few weeks – to no avail. He’s allergic to the real eggs, so we decided we wouldn’t bother with trying to boil and dye some in the bus.
Easter in Mexico is a cross between religious piety and week long party. It is in no way a commercial business. There are no baskets stacked high in the drugstores, no chocolate bunnies, jelly beans and absolutely no Peeps.
As you can imagine, the explanation of how the Bunny doesn’t hide eggs in Mexico didn’t go over well. The kid wrote a note to the bunny. The rabbit listened, and hid books, candy in plastic bags and a new Don Quixote sword and shield around our old VW, and around the abandoned bus parked a few meters away from us (no plates, no VIN, the owner knows nothing, come get it.)
Bode was especially thrilled to receive a note back from the Easter Bunny. He wasn’t all that thrilled with the weird candy which included some candied mummies. The books and swords were a big hit. He ran down the cobblestones chasing windmills and fighting dragons all afternoon. The best part was I got to be the princess. I realized my ‘knights in shining armor’ story repertoire is limited, so if you know any good kid books about knights, let me know.
Jason spent the afternoon reading(!) and doing a few bus projects we’ve never had the time to complete (not engine related.) We recently broke the passenger seat with a cartoon-style Boing! and the 40 year-old broken spring poking out. It’s been fixed with bailing wire and a soda can.
Later, we put on our best clothes (still not good) and went to town. The tourists apparently make a quick exit on Easter Sunday and there was no one around – the party is already over. We found a restaurant in the main square, Jardin Union and had a fantastic meal in the now quiet town.
Happy (belated) Easter from Mexico!
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