Ruins by the Carribean

Tulum

The next day it was the trip to the Caribbean ruins of the Mayans in a place called Tulum.  My journey started in a Matador type van which had almost 14 people including me and the driver, out of which only 3 spoke English (the driver – very little, myself and one person from a family who were originally Mexicans but settled in U.S) and most of the time, the information that was given to the whole group was in Spanish. But I didn’t complain because I was able to understand it a bit and it was more of the journey to the place that was done in the van and no actual explanation about the place was given. They were discussion more political issues rather than the archeological ones. It was fine with me.

It was a very rainy day and I wasn’t sure how the trip would end up with all the rain and the wind. But thankfully when we landed, the rain had stopped except for a very slight drizzle. Then they regrouped based on the Spanish and English guides and I was assigned with the people of the other van (who were mainly Europeans and Americans, and I think I saw only Indo-American too.. if I am not wrong). The entrance to Tulum ruins was nothing to what I imagined. It was supposed to be near the Sea.. and I didn’t see Sea or water anywhere in the entrance. Then when we started going towards to entrance, the breeze told a different story. As and when we climbed those stairs, the view of the sea unfolded slowly and it was breath taking…. The color of the sea with all those Coral Reefs.. man!! Too good to be true..

The breeze was so much that it was literally pushing us away, but the places was beautiful.  I wish we had fewer crowds actually J to have the place for ourselves (or actually myself). The guide was explaining about the Mayans in general, and how they used to deform their heads in order to look beautiful (they considered being cross eyed to be a beauty and hence made the child to be subjected to some pressure on the heads to make them cross eyed). This place in particular was protected by a huge wall surrounding the whole area of their livelihood. The main ruin area was supposedly inhabited by the chiefs and kings and the rest of the lesser souls lived outside in small groups in other places. This was the sort of trade place and a port which was used to travel elsewhere in the Yucatan Peninsula. You can see the typical mayan architecture (no irons or any metals, just the stones or rather lime stones) with some temples, high places for Chieftains, and some Ceynotes (si-no-tes) , underground well also there. There were also huge temples and other places near the sea which served as the light house sort of thing during their times. It was also used to gauge the hour of the day with the light that passed through the window there. They had more common sense didn’t they ?

Ceynote

The lighthouse

The wall

Most of the structures are severely damaged, but you can still see how they managed to have a proper construction to obstruct the sea water coming in and also enough weeds nearby to handle the high water levels. With the cool breeze and the green-blue sea , the ruins or at-least what remained of it looked majestic. It started to drizzle again and we spent around 2.5-3 hrs totally there. Well I had enough time to take as many pictures as I wanted and to just stand by the ocean looking into the clear sea and the white sand. For people of their stature (they were short in stature) they did really think very big in their times, didn’t they. To live in harmony and peace with nature…What can I say.. I miss them J

After our time there, we regrouped in the exit and started our way to the beach nearby (in Tulum ruins, there was only one place where you can get to the water…the rest is protected..because those places are used by Turtles.. so you are not allowed to go there..) and we were there in that beach with the slight drizzling for almost more than an hour.. it was such a calm beach with no soul there.. even the people who came with us went to their vans sooner because of the rain / drizzle. I spent more than with the sea.. oh! I love beaches.. I just love watching the water come to you and the sound of the waves… It’s so peaceful. If you could get into that water, it would still be nice to go further because you could do that here.. get closer to the reefs..

After some time, we left to the inlands where they took us to a Mayan family (they have been there in the inlands.. almost in a secluded area for ages) and showed their way of living..I felt a little uncomfortable here because it was like invading their privacy. Mayans believed that the more children you have the more important you become (!!!whatever that meant to them) but in general, they have like 6-7 children min.. and in this family they had almost 6 girls and 5 boys or something like that. They had animals like spider monkey, deers, some sort of cats , 2/3 variety of birds , 2-3 dogs all part of their family. It was for general information about their style of life. After that it was lunch time in Coba.

Coba

Tulum served as a port city for this city called Coba, another mayan city which is in the inlands not far away from Tulum. It was like this, the players who won in city like Coba (in the ball game) got to play in the Big Ball Court in Chichen Itza (and if they won, join the Gods) That is how Coba is related to Chichen Itza. We had our lunch in a small but nice restaurant in the entrance of the city. It was situated between two big lakes. The restaurant was on the entrance of the lake I guess. It was a good view. The ruins are well covered with the forest out there. During the lunch the American – Spanish family talked to me and wondered if I was from India. They got excited when I said, I was. The lady liked Aamir and Shah Rukh Khan from Bollywood (of all the things that people know about India, Bollywood and Gandhi are the two top things) and the person was talking about the similarities of the mayan and Indian culture and civilization, how he encouraged his son to do a project on the main religions of India, how he liked Buddhism and Jainism etc etc..He also offered to translate things for me, but thankfully I was also put in the English group for the tours. So it was ok.

The entrance in Coba was again covered with forest like trees so that you wouldn’t know what to expect from it. But when you get inside you see these huge pyramids which served as temples and the shorter version of the temples you see in Chichen Itza. But it is more damaged here and restoration is difficult because of the dense trees surrounding it. They also have this ball court and keynotes. Apart from that they have the stone slabs (like our Kalvettu) which tell you the story of the ruler(s) and what they did. Sadly most of them are in very bad shape. In fact, all these places were painted beautifully in red color (color of the sun and the blood..which they considered to be pure) and over the period of time, the paint has faded. They used some sort of natural dye to color the buildings. We went around the ruins.. saw the smaller court and the guide again explained how they used their hips (shakira style…trust me ..he demonstrated it to us J) to hit the ball. He also told that all people of the mayan line, have a mark at the end of their spinal line during the child birth (a round scar like thing) which fades over time. His daughter had one it seems. He was like.. that is our trade mark :D

Then he asked us to take a tricycle or a bicycle to travel inlands (for almost 15-20 mins) to see a main pyramid, called the Nohoch Mul which is open to all to climb and suggested us to climb to get a view of the jungle from the top. I was super excited. I took the tricycle, because with the camera and handbag I cannot do the bicycle. It costs 100 MXN and it would take me there faster.. On the way you see the observatory building and other smaller temples. But nothing prepared me for what I saw in Nohoch Mul.. I really cursed !! what was I thinking.. How can I climb this pyramid… I really wanted to, but there was only one problem, there were no proper stairs !!! and there was nothing to hold on except a piece of rope they have kept there. It was so huge.. I tried to climb..but after 20 stairs or so.. really panicked and said a word of sorry to God and climbed back down

You see the pictures… 

I know people were climbing..but most of them weren’t afraid of heights and almost none of them had a bigger camera.. and/or a handbag. I really felt very bad.. if only someone I know was there with me to just hold my things.. I could have tried a little more. You cannot even go around this pyramid, the other sides are all covered with trees. Trees actually have grown from inside this pyramid.

I stayed a little while and then came back to the main entrance, went around for a while and it was time for our journey back . Overall it was a nice journey.. somehow I felt that Coba didn’t impress me as much as Chichen Itza or Tulum did, but it is still a place to visit if you want to climb a pyramid :D , which I obviously missed.

It was almost 6 pm by the time we regrouped and started our way back to the hotel. I came back at around 7.30 pm and after that it started to rain like anything. My plans of going to the beach got ruined, but I went to get myself some coffee and French fries.

The next day my trip back to Guadalajara was scheduled for 12 pm flight and since it was still raining, I skipped my plans for the beach and went ahead for the ADO bus to Cancun airport and was in the airport by 10.30 am

Overall, I was pretty satisfied and happy with my trip to the Mayan places. It was planned in a day but it was planned well. I covered the important place.. the Chichen Itza. I would suggest it for anyone who visits Mexico (me-hi-co) to visit this place atleast once. And do not have any presumptions about the Mayans just as they show in the Apocalypto… There is more to these people than what you see in the movies.

Trip to the Mayan Lands

When we had been to Tlaquepaque, we saw the Mayan Calendar and other Mayan arts displayed and obviously I bought one for my souvenir. That is when I was introduced to this place called Chichen-Itza (remember not Chicken Itza… Chichen Itza.. trust me, people misspell it a lot) and how these were the Mayan places and has the prominent Mayan temples and pyramids still in place and restored. That was enough to get me excited and I decided to make a trip to this place which is in the east coast of Mexico (Me-hi-co). I was supposed to be there on the last weekend of my stay but due to the unavailability of the tickets, I had to prepone my trip to the current weekend so as to not miss the trip to this place, which has found its way in the new 7 world wonders.  I got my tickets done, tours booked and ready to go.

Cancun-Playa Del Carmen

I had to choice of Cancun or Merida for my flight and chose Cancun as I had booked a hotel in Playa del Carmen, 2 blocks from the beach. Merida is more inland and very dry area. The flight was late by half an hour or so during take off and almost an hour late when landing. During the flight, I saw almost 2 or 3 very high mountains which looked like yester year Volcanoes. They were very very huge and towered above the clouds visible from the flight. It was exciting to see them actually. There were more mountains within an hours flight from Guadalajara (Gwa-dala-hara) but not much when you cross them. I guess when you cross Merida, you enter the flat surface. While nearing Cancun, I saw that the whole land was almost flat , with greener patches around having roads connecting very distant places which felt like white patch lands, and no mountains or rivers anywhere nearby. Then we crossed a bay area sort of thing to actually land in Cancun. In Cancun, I was almost the only person who was subjected to checks by the officials, and they held me for almost 15-20 mins asking every details and where I was from and they were surprised when I said that I was from India. After that answer the following conversation happened, “Does your husband live here in Cancun?” (Oh!! What the heck…) “Nope. I came here for Chichen Itza”. “Oh.. Chichen Itza. Hmm.. Have a good trip..”. “Gracias”. I came out, took the ADO bus to Playa Del Carmen (almost an hour from Cancun Aeropuerto) for 110 Mxn.  They dropped me @ Playa Del Carmen ADO Bus station @ 8.45 pm and since I wasn’t sure of the hotel location and it was very dark outside, so I took the taxi for 25 Mxn to my hotel 2 blocks away.

Chichen Itza

The next day, my tour was supposed to start by 7.45 am and I reached the Gran Porto Real Hotel for my bus pickup. This hotel was an all inclusive hotel with a private beach , and other sports.. It was grand. Almost around 8.10 am I got my pick up van (who inevitably spelt my name wrong) and we went to get others so that we can be grouped in a bus. Thankfully in the other place, there was a gang of three women, two of them Australians (What is with the Australians and me.. Remember I had two Aussies along with me on my trip to Grand Canyon too..) and their friend who is a Mexican on the maternal side (she was my official translator) but lived in U.S . Later around 9 am or so we boarded out bus to Chichen Itza with our Guide who spoke both Spanish and English very well (along with Mayan language, which was his mother tongue)

The first place we stopped around was Valledolid (Va-ye-do-lid) which was a very small mexican town on the way to Chichen Itza. There was this church which was built using the stones from Chichen Itza. This town was a very important commercial place which helped in the development of Chichen Itza.  It was very small and was probably 4-5 blocks in size and then again travelled along the flat surface to a place near the Chichen Itza. In order to help the Mayans and the natives of Chichen Itza earn their living, Government has allotted specific places to have markets where they can sell their stuff to tourists. So almost all the tours that happen stops in any of their market of their choice. We spent around 1 hour there because it had too much stuff to check and buy (a good trap though J ). They make you a silver pendant with your name written in Mayan language with the border of your choice (you can have signs of fortune/knowledge/protection or combination around your name) . It was cool and they even accept credit cards (even though the network is really really slow). It’s almost a 2.5 hr journey from Playa del Carmen to Chichen Itza inlands. And it was terribly hot. Again after almost 1 hour we stopped for lunch @ 1 pm (this was part of the tour). This was a typical Mexican place amidst of a very small town in between. It was a buffet lunch and they had good options for vegetarians too. It was very nice. I liked the taco’s, the tortilla (tor-ti-ya) , fried beans, Mexican rice (just like the kerala rice) and nice desserts.  They also had some entertainment from the typical mayan families, who performed their dances for us. It was good. And people sitting near to me (from U.S ) were surprised to see that I was the lone Indian there and were enquiring about my trip. They were also surprised by my choice of drink.. the Jamaican (ha-mai-can)  flavored water . After the sumptuous meal , it was time to visit the pyramids. The guide warned us about the humidity and its effect on us.

 It was almost 2 pm when we had been there and you just cannot imagine how hot it was. We entered the Chichen Itza pyramid park (it was surrounded by the forest kind of trees that you cannot imagine what you would see inside). We separated into two groups, one with a Spanish guide and the other with the English guide (who came with us in the bus). He was a very nice guy, old and very informative. He had been part of the archaeological group there and had more insights to it. He does these tours very rarely say once a week or twice a month or so it seems. When he led us into the park in the entrance of the pyramids… it was .. what to say.. AWESOME!!!  To see it in pictures is one thing .. and to see it live before your eyes. It was Divine. It was very huge and magnificient….and we were pouring sweat.  We had to occasionally take place in the trees around so that he could explain us the intricate details of the pyramid. Like the following details

1. The uniqueness of the number of steps and the temple above the steps
2. The five symbols on the top of the temple above
3. The reason of having the 9 layers on each side of the steps with three step rectangle in it (all the above three represents the solar and lunar calendar of mayans)
4. The acoustical characteristics of the pyramid.. If you stand in the front of the steps and clap you will hear the echo which sounds like a bird and then you stand a little away from the steps and then clap, the sound of the bird still is audible to people before the pyramid, but not to the people standing away from the steps. We heard it live.. It was amazing how they could use these techniques when no technology was in place.
5. Why only two of the sides of the pyramid was restored and other two sides were left as is
6. How the pyramid forms the perfect circle and the impact of Equinox on the pyramids
7. Why they stopped the climbing of the stairs of the pyramid since 2005 and how much damage has already been done etc etc etc.. I guess you can learn more from the internet if you browse, but to see them in person is really something people.

There was one thing which the guide said which puzzled me though. He said, Mayans invented the concept of Zero. I remember studying that Indian’s invented it.  As and when the guide explained us the rituals and the beliefs of the Mayans, I felt that there were more like us in ancient times. Was there a possibility that there were two different civilizations which believed in the same thing (for e.g the belief of Solar and lunar cycles, the belief in God and having no Devil) Really intriguing. He also said how the Mayans believed in duality (man – woman, life – death, sun – moon etc..) they believed that moon was the feminine part and hence the moon’s cycle around the earth has the same days as the woman’s gestational period.. That was a very interesting observation. I never heard of that before or atleast thought of that similarity. Wow.. Mayans believed that Sun was the life giver and they prayed the Sun god. Everything for them revolved around the Sun.

We saw the great ball court there and the guide explained how the players used to hit the ball with their hips and the captains should try to score a goal by hitting the ball in the circle. Whoever scored first was the winner and the ball court in Chichen Itza is the biggest of all in the Mayan Civilization. The team which won in their respective places which were much smaller, like the ones in Coba etc, finally got to play here in Chichen Itza and the winning Captain offered himself to be sacrificed to enable him to join the gods. It was an honor for them to win and secure a place in the upper world. There were no human sacrifices that happened as depicted by many it seems. It was a voluntary thing for people, who took pride in offering the gods some of their blood (it can be a baby, virgin, a captain ..depends on the ritual) In this case, once the captain’s head was beheaded, it was stuck to a wooden rod and was placed in a mantel made for it specially and was there for Sun god. Once it became a skull (as a natural process), it was given back to the family who believed it as their god.

We could also see the circular columns which were built by them to count months and which were in perfect geometry too. It was really really amazing to see these. All these were built without the use of Iron or any other metal. All these areas were built with pure limestone available in that area. Seems like they found another pyramid inside of a the main pyramid, but when they tried to dig from the outside an d get in , it started to collapse, so no more excavations of any sort is allowed there by UNESCO.  It was also expected that there was a bigger temple which was either demolished or built over by Aztecs who conquered the Mayans and had their own set of Gods. They had lot of Gods and sub gods (like in Hinduism) whom they prayed.

It took almost 3 hours to see the place and understand each of them. You really have to have enough energy and may be 2 bottles of water to get you around the pyramid and the nearby temples.  Its very very humid here. Even though it rained cats and dogs in between, we were still sweating. It is also very sad that people who sell the crafts flock this place even inside the park and keep pestering you to buy things (just like we see in Mamallapuram or Hampi etc). The guide was saying that these people cause more damage to the structures there and hence the government is planning to use the military to evacuate them from there.

Also there used to be quite a lot of crowd during the equinox when the Sun almost creates a snake like shadow which looks like its crawling from above to the ground. Once he had explained the structures for almost 1.5 hours or so, he let us explore on our own. We found a few Iguanas which started coming out in more numbers slowly as it got hotter. There were also wells near by which was earlier used by the Mayans to store the rain water for their use. There are no rivers in this area remember. They had only Cenotes (Si-no-thes) which means underground well, which had fresh water in them and these were the ones used for their drinking purposes. Even now some of the Cenotes are still available but protected.

After what felt like a lifetime there, we proceeded to our bus as per our schedule @ 4.45 pm. Remember my official translator ? She was left behind because we couldn’t find here on time and the other place we had to go would close by 5.45 pm. So the Spanish guide stayed back to bring her there and we went ahead. It was a place called Ik-Kil (place of the winds) where they had a beautiful underground swimming place of natural water. This was a sort of a Cenote (not a divine one) . Naturally I didn’t get into the water and had my cup of Coffee and enjoyed the place. In all these places, there were birds chirping around and it was secluded and serene that it calms your nerves.

Oh  I was done with my trip.. I did what I came for here. I was there in Chichen Itza , watching the pyramid and said a small prayer and now I am ready to go back if I had to.  It was really amazing how travelling esp. travelling to places like these can give you immense satisfaction. Thank you God.  Again another trip of a Life time. I am not sure if I will come here again, but I am happy I did this trip.

Back to Playa del Carmen

We started our way back @ around 6.30 pm and reached our hotel by 9 pm again. And I went straight to bed I had to get ready for my Tulum and Coba trip the next day.

In whole the trip to Chichen Itza was a very very informative and a divine one. I felt like I had to learn a lot of things in life yet, other than my programming language. I wish I had another life to do that J

I should thank my friend who suggested this to me and I am glad I did this.

Short trips

Wow, its been almost two and a half week already in Guadalajara. I have been waiting to record my experiences, but was really very busy visiting places, sleeping, working and watching movies. Let me first start with the places I visited. Disclaimer again: might be a long post again

a. Downtown Guadalajara

During the first weekend I was here, I wasn't sure how to go about my trips to the nearby places, because language is an issue here. Not many people speak English and secondly, the food. Its a big problem because even the well known food chains have the menu's in spanish and spanish speaking people, so I would not have a clue of what I am ordering. But as per the "Moon Handbook's Guadalajara" the first place that you might want to visit is the Downtown area. So I decided to give it a shot and started to the downtown area in a taxi (Not that far away from where I stay) and got down near the Catedral. It looks amazing. The Plaza Liberación which is a plaza or a market sort of place next to the Catedral is very huge and isnt a multi-storeyed plaza we see in other places.

I got down from my taxi and was taking in the beautiful Cathedral and the plaza square with the beautiful fountain. The day was very very hot and went around the square to take some snaps and to think of what to do next. That is when I saw the downtown tours in these buses. It costs 80 MXN and so I decided to take one. It starts every hour and so I was waiting for another 15 mins, which gave me time to take in what people around, were doing. It’s a sort of place where people hang out, even if its very hot just to spend time. Nice to have such places to spend time with friends (normal, girl/boy whatever) and family or even by yourself, rather than sitting outside of a mall entrance. And then it was time to board the bus. It had both Spanish and English commentary of the places it covers. It was good. It started from the Catedral and went around the whole of Guadalajara covering quite a lot of place (which I wouldn't have gone otherwise). Some of them include the Degallado Theatre, Chapultepec square and Independence Square showing us the important and historic buildings of the downtown area. It was almost for 1.5 hrs and I could see newly built streets and old ones too.  It was a good start for me atleast to get going out in the city. Of course I couldn’t have anything anywhere because I was not so confident of asking if the food had meat or to tell them that I am a vegetarian. So went to a super market, got some snacks, water and got a taxi (this was the only thing I was confident of) back to hotel. I couldn’t do any more experiment because I was already de-hydrated and would have fainted if I had roamed for a little more time. It was so so so hot here. After my stint with snow, this was unbearable for me atleast in the beginning. That was my first solo look @ the city’s downtown.  

b. Guachimontones

The next Saturday, my team mates and their friends decided to join me on my venture (if that would have happened) to a place called Guachimontones which they haven’t seen yet. It was almost an hour drive from Guadalajara and it was very hot and humid (nothing new here in this place :D). It was in the place called Teuchitlán which was a very small and cute Mexican town on the way. This is a little high up on a sort of a mound where the pyramids are present. My first encounter with the Mayan time pyramids. It is said that it was a very huge area where these pyramids and temples were there, but a lot has been already destroyed and they are trying to restore. We could see some excavations which is half way through. I don’t think they would do that in that hot weather. It was a very very dry place as you can see from the photos, but it was interesting to see how they had a pattern in building a temple to have a Central Pyramid surrounded with smaller ones like them.

You could also see the lake which was on the way from this place. There were no stalls or any shop of any kind, except for a few guides sitting to guide the foreign tourists for 100 pesos. I was wondering why they haven’t upgraded this place and made it a tourist spot yet. Well it might be done in a few years I think once they have got some more findings. Quite a few places around are private property and I think that might hamper the findings.

After our trip to Guachimontones, we decided to have lunch @ Goa restaurant near Chapultepec. It was really good. They enjoyed the Gajar Ka Halwa which I got for them to try it. They asked me for a few dishes and tried them too. It was almost authentic and I was glad to have rice and sabzi there after my week’s stint with Mexican food which was also very good. Then we were taking a stroll in the Chapultepec, just like the Brigade Road of Bangalore and R.S Puram of Coimbatore. It is a very rich area with beautiful stores and places to hang out with fountains and stuff. While on our way we were checking out some of the sculptures there which had young soldiers in it. My friends said that it was in remembrance of the young children who fought against the Spanish soldiers during the capture. The Spanish came to capture the castle thinking the King was there, but it was long ago converted to a School and these kids gathered and fought and got back their school. There is no proof for this act, but it’s been told and retold and they have sculptures to demonstrate them it seems.

While strolling, we saw a big group standing for something and police were there. Suddenly one guy got excited because he remembered reading a Nude Parade for a Green Earth (!!What the heck!!!) and wondered if it was that and got his camera ready. I was so scared for a second.. What.. Now I have to see this!!! Live!! Gosh.. Save me from that.. After a few mins.. everyone got a doubt about what it was because they saw some gay flags being waved. So the other guy checked his Twitter to see whats happening in the city at this second (!Wow!! .. I saw the real use of technology out there..) and he pronounced that it was the Gay Pride Parade that is happening out there in Guadalajara (because the Government didn’t give permission for a nude parade and that was happening elsewhere… Nice!!!) I don’t want to comment on that parade. I felt as it was a overdone a bit but they were making their point. It was ….what to say.. I felt sorry. For most of the people it was just news and a headline. You should have seen the way the press and TV were flocking them…

After that, we had some coffee and suddenly it began to rain (but not that much too really bring down the heat) and so we decided to go home. We went to this friends place, played Liar’s dice (which they taught me there and was something like a poker game they said. I wouldn’t know that anyway) and came back home by 10. Saturday went on well. The next day we had plans for Tlaquepaque.

c. Tlaquepaque

Tlaquepaque is again one or 1.5 hours roughly from Guadalajara. We were almost 9-10 people and in two cars. We started @ around 12.30 pm and were there by 1.30 or so. It’s a very cute typical Mexican town which is exclusively for shopping Mexican products at cheaper prices and to enjoy the Mariachi’s.  We went around the shops for a almost half an hour and then around 3 pm decided to get to the restaurant which has Mariachi live performances along with good food. The performances starts from 3.30 to 4 anytime and goes on for 1 hour. After that you have choices of asking the artists to play something exclusively for you too. Honestly, I was quite surprised with the Mariachi songs. They sounded very very familiar. It was like the songs you heard in the older, very older hindi movies. The use of guitar, trumpet sounded like them. It was nice.. except that I couldn’t understand the meaning of those songs. But it was good to hear them. My friend asked them, after their performances, to play for us near our table, a song named “Mexico Mexico… (Me-hi-co) .. “ which they all like and it was cool. I felt really special out there when those people sang for us. It was nice. I have got it recorded, but need to extract the song along from the video before I upload it here. After a leisure lunch and song sequence, we strolled again the lanes and bought a few items. Its amazing to see how two different countries, even though in the same plane in the globe but widely distant from each other, have almost the same kind of handicrafts and arts to thrive on. The pottery, the handicrafts , the people make here reminds you of the ones you see in India. Almost around 6 pm after the shops started closing one by one and we were exhausted with our purchases (not much,..but enough to carry back as souvenirs) we headed back to our homes to have a good night sleep.

The weekend went off very well for me with the help of my friends who helped me to see some of the real Mexican stuff out there in Jalisco state. Thank you Amigos!!!

The trip to Tlaquepaque and some discussions on Mayan Civilization tempted me for another trip, which is coming up in my next post. Keep watching..

My First Week in Guadalajara

Disclaimer: This post might be long....

When my manager informed me that I would have to travel to Mexico for a month I was very excited. Finally, I can learn a little more Spanish (as if I already knew it) and be in a new place where none of my team mates or even anyone else I know from my Indian division had been. After my trip to Oregon, I had only a few hours after the days work to get ready and by 10, I had only a couple of hours of sleep. I started to the aeropuerto (airport) by 3.30 am and reached there by 4 and was surprised to see that there was no one there @ the international departures. So I waited for another 15 mins and then asked a security guard over there and he guided me towards the domestic departures for United Airlines to LA. I was having trouble doing the checkin as it wasnt allowing me to do without a valid Mexican Visa and people with US visa can go to Mexico for a vist of 180 days. And they opened up the check in by 4.15 or so and there was a huge queue. And this big fat lady who allowed us in turns to the check in terminals would not hear me at all when I told her that I might need a manual check in. After three attempts, finally she heard me and then sent me to another queue for manual checkin. There was a big queue for that too and only one checkin personnel. One gentleman took almost 15 mins in order to get his additional baggages in. Thankfully, one more checkin personnel came and I got my check in done by 5.15 (remember 6 am was my flight) and then again going back to the Big queue for the security checks. Thank fully , it was all done by 5.40 and I got into the plane to LA. Almost slept for all of the trip (just one hour :D)) and got up just in time to click the aerial view of LA.

In LA, we moved to another gate (which was under construction) to board the international flight (Continental) flight to Guadalajara. There they took out my I94 (this actually got me worried a little bit) and I was again ready. But this time it stuck me that I am going to a place where they may or may not understand English. In the flight, most of them spoke Spanish. As part of the snacks that was provided .. they gave a cheese wrap sort of thing with egg omelete and I had to remove the omelete and eat the rest. I was damn hungry. There was an old couple who were besides me and while filling the immigration form they had some doubts and asked me in Espan(with ~)ol and all I could say to them was "Sorry". It was weird. All announcements were in Espanol and English. 

In the immigration , they dont ask you anything at all unless they get a suspicion and let me through. After getting my luggage, we had to go through the customs, who asked me how long was I staying there and why I have come.. and then let me through. I had earlier got an email from the manager in Mexico development center about how to take a taxi and I was going through the small airport (It very much looked like Coimbatore Airport, except a tad bigger.. ) insearch of the taxi stand and suddenly I hear my name being called. It was a tuesday and I was very very surprised to see my team mates out there calling me. Wow.. they were there to help me checkin to the hotel. They have always been this generous and welcoming everytime I have met them. I wasnt sure if it was in their nature, or if only these guys were like that. 

They helped me check in the hotel and took me to one of the restaurants in the same building of the hotel (Chopstix) for the lunch. The people out there spoke only spanish and they had nothing vegetarian. They were like..we have vegetables, what meat do you like it with.. What!! Dont these guys know who a vegetarian is !!! Gosh!!! this is going to be difficult , I thought. Well finally they managed to explain it to them and got me a vegetable noodles. It was good. After that they left for the office and I went to crash. I was very very tired. But had to check my mails, reply to them, do part of my work and then by 9 I slept off. It doesnt get dark till 8 here. The Sun is high and bright till 8 pm and it is bright by 6 am. They really really have less night hours. 

They do not have breakfast free here. We can either order them or take a buffet for 95 - 100 pesos (1 peso is almost 4.5 INR) I preferred to order in room because I can choose a vegetarian dish from the list (rather than going to the buffet and wondering which one is vegetarian and which one is not) and it still costs the same. 

Then I went down and asked the reception (recepción) for a taxi. They told me that it would be outside and when I went there, I saw one waiting and asked him if he was coming (obviously in English). He said something and it was completely incomprehensible to me and then he showed the way in. I told him the office address, actually I had it written down and showed him in writing. He shook his head (as if he understood me)  and took me through the up and down streets of Guadalajara to Zapopan (part of the Guadalajara Metropolitan Municipality) where the office was located. These guys had shown me the building from the hotel (even though it wasnt clearly visible) and I looked for the building name and finally got down in my office. Its a 7/8 floor building , out of which different floors were rented to different IT companies. This area looked very rich with all corporates having offices in huge towers (Torres). Thankfully one of my team mate had give me 100 Pesos the previous day and I gave that to the taxi fellow and he gave me back 20 pesos. I was like.. how much ? and he said something and gave me another 10 pesos.. I was like "What!!" then I tried again "How much" with some signs added to it. He said something in spanish and I just kept quite and walked out. Never mind ... He gave me 30 pesos back..that means its 70 from my hotel to office. Does it really cost that much ??? 

In the reception again they asked me for some ID card.. and they kept it with themselves. The building has its own ID card for the access and its own parking card (if you use ur car) and then we have to enable the access to our floor too... God.. how many access cards ...thala valikudhu.. We have to get the ID card from the reception when we leave the building without fail. I gave them my duplicate driving license I am using. I dont care even if its gets missed. The lady in the reception doesnt speak English.... Hmm... Finally I was in the office and everyone greeted me with so much happiness and gave me a place to start my work. I jumped into the work right away. 

The night mare came during the lunch. They dont have a cafetaria or anything in that building, so they go to the mall nearby and have lunch in the food court. So my team mates took me there and now comes the hard part. Apart from Salads, you have very less choices for vegetarian. These guys helped me get a vegetarian dish (I tried Enchilada Suizas, Chilequilas, Sopes for e.g. which are mexican) and a green salad without chicken (even salads have their own share of non-veg.. Murugaa!!!! ). I got to know how to ask for a taxi, how to pronounce the names of the hotel and the office buildings and the street names (Avenue is Avenida, Building is edificio, hotel is hotel but pronounces as o-tel ..h is silent) and inorder to ask for a taxi .. necesito un taxi de sitio por favor (I need a taxi, please). 

Here you can get a taxi near the malls, just like what we have for autos in India. They have meters but very few ask for a fixed rate (for e.g. when I travelled from Plaza Patria to my hotel, he asked me to give 30 pesos without the meter..) We should always ask for a receipt (Necesito un recibo, por favor - I need a receipt, please). For the rest of the three days I managed to go and come back in Taxi to and from my office. Very very less people speak english here. so now my sign language is coming into play when the talking becomes difficult. 

People in my office advised me to take a taxi instead of renting a car, as it was very very costly. Also they told me of some places to go when I was ready for the weekends.  These people out here in my office, have a unique way of saying hi as soon as they come to office. They punch their fists and give a huge hug and then shake hands (thankfully I am spared). Also they have their own natural water which tastes like juice. Every friday, they celebrate the birthdays of the people for that week. They play with darts and keep shooting darts at their friends around. One guy I knew from my California office, who was transferred here, saw me and came @ me (literally) and then at the last moment, held himself (he remembered I was Indian) and greeted me with a handshake.. and said "We guys always welcome with a hug.. I had to restrain myself a lot to not do that to you :) " I thanked him.. The Director here asked me if I was vegan. I said I am not a full vegan but almost a vegan. He was like.. you might have to struggle hard for your food .. I was like..yeah I know that :)

A few words about the city as a first look @ it. It was more or less like Bangalore, except for the right lane and left hand driving. We have the places like Kalasipalayam over here too.. even though not that untidy. We have areas which look very rich like the Zapopan area, the Avenida Americas etc. just like our Brigade road and M.G Road. And its very hot at this point of time of the year. Its like 40 degree celsius. Hot like in Coimbatore. And these people use metric system like we do. Not like the miles or gallons. All are in Kms and  liters (or litre) All the roads and routes are in Spanish..of course you can make out the names as they are pronounced the way they are written. 

Sunday I tried to walk around near my hotel to see what else was there in the same lane and I saw a Ganesh Casino (Ganesh in a Casino!!! whoever thought of that combination!!) and a Starbucks coffee shop. So I got in to grab a coffee and a cake and panini.. But I wasnt sure if that was vegetarian and to my horror the guys there didnt speak english (oh my god!!!). So I showed him what I want and was asking  (or trying to) for the contents in a Panini. In one case, he read me everything and I didnt get one ingredient..and both of the guys couldnt translate it in English and finally the other guy drew me a picture of it. It was a lamb!!! Gosh!!! I said ..no that is not vegetarian.. give me a cake and a coffee.. He was like confused.. And then slowly tried his english.. God it was funny... Similarly in the Plaza Patria, where I got a watch and a headset, they all spoke Spanish and I had to say a few words that I knew and then use the sign language or tell them "No Hable Espanol" (no speak spanish) but I managed to get around, buy what I need and be back at the hotel too. But its terribly hot to roam around. For food I managed to get some potato wedges from McDonalds (that is the only item I knew didnt have non-veg and the girls out there also didnt speak english.. ) 

This town has a lot way to go to accept people from around the world. Even the international brands have people who can only speak spanish in their stores. That is difficult atleast for me in my first week. Let me see how much I am start learning spanish and use it too. 

On Saturday, I managed to go to Downtown Guadalajara to the Catedral de Guadalajara. That comes up in my next post.. This is already too long.. But I guess there are more funny incidents coming up my way.  Stay tuned. :D

Rogue River Rafting

On Sunday, we started from Klamath Falls and it was decided that I wouldnt drive because we were already 0.5 hrs late. We were supposed to be in Grants Pass by 9.30 and we were sipping our coffee and waiting for our sandwich by 7.30 in a Starbucks counter near our hotel. The other guy took over the driving and he was very quick except while driving in the city areas where there were speed limits enforced. As and when we progressed we had to drive through mountains. In some places it was raining and slowly, it started snowing. This reduced our speed. And in a summit, it was heavily snowing and the roads were skidding. Even though one part of me was enjoying it, I wanted us to go through it faster and come out of it. Because we couldnt see a car or anyone in sight and if stuck we wouldnt know what to do. The guy who was driving was enjoying it. My manager looked concerned but, as usual, he was confident that this will pass. I was the only one who was little panicky. It was really very heavy snow that was happening. And slowly after we started our descent, it was getting better and it was becoming more colorful. And our time was passing by. The guy did his best to keep up. We called them up as soon as we hit the plains (or it might have been the valley) and they informed that they usually dont wait. We almost didnt make it. But we entered the Hellgate Excursions in Grants pass at exactly 9.44 am. And myself and my manager rushed in to inform them of our arrival while the guy went to park the sedan. Thankfully, they were waiting and that one minute mattered a lot. They gave us our tickets and took us to the boat.

It was so beautiful place. We didnt expect to see this. And it was so cold. I forgot to get my jacket which I had got the other day and used an older one which didnt prevent the wind and as usual I had my slippers on. Boy ! the winds cut through me like a knife. People were waiting for us in the boat and as soon as we got in , it started its journey. We went through the course of the river (Rogue River). This year the snowfall has been high and hence the water level was more and the places where we had class 2 rapids, we would see a class 3 this year. And above all, it started raining from time to time, even though it was just drizzling. But it was a beautiful ride.

We passed through many creeks and at times it rained and at times bright sunlight shown. It was such a wonderful ride. I guess pictures will tell more than me.

After say almost 3.5 hrs we came back for our lunch to a place called Galice where they had very cute plate of sauces and pepper and salt... It was very very cute place. We had our lunch leisurely taking in the sun and the beautiful scenery around.

After our good lunch, we started back to the source. I should tell you about the kind of rapids that we faced during this trip. Most of them were class 1 , 2 and 3 in this river. The jet board excursion was till the place where the class 3 rapids ends. After that only class 4 and 5 (which eventually ended in a water fall) was there and we need to get special permissions for that to venture out there. Well I wasnt sad about it. These rapids, the class 3 ones were especially wild for us. The water that came on us cut us like cold knives. It was really really cold out there. But it was fun. Even the captain who was driving it made some fun with the water and made most of the people in the first two rows completely wet :) We were in the fourth. Thankfully. After we came back, we saw that there was a competition going on with the short boats.

It was cool. It was already 3.30 or so and after checking out for some souvenirs we started back to our place, Belmont, CA. On the way checked out Best Buy near by and I ended up buying a WII gaming console :), my manager a Digital camera, and the other guy, a camcorder. This state Oregon doesnt have tax right, so it came out cheaper. It was cool. While driving back, I opted to do that, because these guys have been driving for most of the time and were constantly on some topic for discussion. But I didnt realize that we have to cross the mountain ranges. While going on steeper ones, my speed dipped to 40 mph. It became so obvious that my manager questioned on why I reduced the speed and that I might block the traffic which might not be good. I tried to manage , but the fear got the better of me and I confessed to him that due to the fear of heights I was driving slower. Next thing was obvious. He took it over and I got it back from him only when we were in the plains and there were no mountains around. We reached our hotel by 1 am , after our brief stop over for dinner.

Even though the two days was unplanned with respect to my standards, it was just plain fun and experiencing snow was so beautiful. Hey Hey Hey !!! I touched snow in my life :D It was worth the trip....