Jon: We made it! It's a lot of work to reduce your life to a backpack and a small carry on bag, but if anything goes according to plan, that is how we might be living for the next two years! Getting through customs at PV airport was a breeze, getting through all the timeshare vultures was a little more challenging. They get pretty creative, they threw something little on the ground behind Michelle and told her she dropped something, a way to get her attention! Sneaky schemers! Then all the taxi drivers descend like vultures as well, the first guy quoted a ridiculous price, fortunately I already knew how much it was supposed to cost, and told him "not a chance". Then another guy came up with a lower price that was more like it should cost. It pays to do your research :). Speaking of which, Google maps with street view is incredible and very useful :).
We got to our hotel, its a tiny little room 4 floors up with no elevator :). Looks like a watermain is being repaired beside our hotel and jackhammers are being used constantly. There are no stop signs at most of the intersections in this part of town, but traffic flows. For dinner, we took our chances on street food :). So far so good, I had 3 big quesadillas for about $5. Most of the restaurants around here are "tourist priced" so finding a good street vendor took some looking. But this one had a constant stream of locals, and I got to try out my spanish. Its pretty limited, but its nice to be able to understand some of the chatter I'm hearing all around. We'll post more pictures soon!
Michelle: Mexico-oh-oh-oh!! The last 45mins of our flight the reality started to set in, this is no holiday to the beach for a week, this is the new chapter of our lives, this is REAL! The feelings it invoked; definitely excitement, a little apprehension, some amusement.... My thoughts kept asking if I was ready to do this; ready to live out of a backpack for the next couple of years; ready to live in countries with very different cultures; places where the language is garble to my ears as I don't understand it? My response was to desperately start trying to recall the few spanish words I do know- I would be capable of a very stilted awkward conversation at best and I wished I had gotten serious about Spanish lessons. They must have just been pre-landing nerves because within minutes I had a can-do attitude back in full force. Of course I can do this, with a little background in charades and a little bit of trial and error, I'll be set for survival. The great part is that we're easing ourselves into being immersed into Spanish by first coming here to PV- There are so many Americans here and so much has been Americanized that being here for a few days should take away some of the culture shock. Every sign has english, the people speak basic english- anyone with anything to do with time shares speak excellent english (however you want to avoid them- they see white tourists, wedding rings and they start drooling, right before your eyes you almost see the dollar signs swimming around their heads! :)
Our room is very brightly coloured and tiny but has everything we need. We have it all set, we've pulled the bed away from the wall, turned the mattress over and checked for bed bugs, taped the legs of the bed for any stray creepy crawlies (all from the advice of Jon's pest control Dad, thanks Dave)! Thank goodness this place seems to check out. I can't say I'm too keen on the alternative! Coming from cold Canada this morning was a little bit of a shock and so we have the fan cranked (air con cost more, so we'll have to suffer through it). Can't wait to climb into bed, it's been a very long, busy and draining couple of weeks!! We don't really know what's in store for us on our journey, but Mexico, WE'RE HERE!!!!
We got to our hotel, its a tiny little room 4 floors up with no elevator :). Looks like a watermain is being repaired beside our hotel and jackhammers are being used constantly. There are no stop signs at most of the intersections in this part of town, but traffic flows. For dinner, we took our chances on street food :). So far so good, I had 3 big quesadillas for about $5. Most of the restaurants around here are "tourist priced" so finding a good street vendor took some looking. But this one had a constant stream of locals, and I got to try out my spanish. Its pretty limited, but its nice to be able to understand some of the chatter I'm hearing all around. We'll post more pictures soon!
Michelle: Mexico-oh-oh-oh!! The last 45mins of our flight the reality started to set in, this is no holiday to the beach for a week, this is the new chapter of our lives, this is REAL! The feelings it invoked; definitely excitement, a little apprehension, some amusement.... My thoughts kept asking if I was ready to do this; ready to live out of a backpack for the next couple of years; ready to live in countries with very different cultures; places where the language is garble to my ears as I don't understand it? My response was to desperately start trying to recall the few spanish words I do know- I would be capable of a very stilted awkward conversation at best and I wished I had gotten serious about Spanish lessons. They must have just been pre-landing nerves because within minutes I had a can-do attitude back in full force. Of course I can do this, with a little background in charades and a little bit of trial and error, I'll be set for survival. The great part is that we're easing ourselves into being immersed into Spanish by first coming here to PV- There are so many Americans here and so much has been Americanized that being here for a few days should take away some of the culture shock. Every sign has english, the people speak basic english- anyone with anything to do with time shares speak excellent english (however you want to avoid them- they see white tourists, wedding rings and they start drooling, right before your eyes you almost see the dollar signs swimming around their heads! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment