Chapter 10. No to beer in Veracruz / Yes to beer in Guadalajara

Hi!

Hahahaha, our big houseparty of today was cancelled. The police heard about it and ceiled the house so that no one could get in or out. I bet that it was due to mordidas from the neighbours.. Well one day break doesn't do bad, I've slept an average of 5 hours in the last four days anyway.. In addition I can now write my last blog update until my trip to Asia!

But first about our trip to Veracruz! I enrolled into the capoeira group that the school arranges here at Tec. I found it really fun and decided to leave with them to a big capoeira event that was arranged by the Atitude Brazil Verazruz. I went with our capoeira teacher at Tec, el Bigode, and two other students. They all are super-cool guys and it was them that made the trip especially good! Capoeira has still a traditional ranking system of the teachers and there were various masters (mestres) and pre-masters (contra-mestres) of capoeira coming to the event and I was really eager to see them in action!

On the first day of arrival on Friday we already had one capoeira lesson of three hours. It went really good and the teachers really knew their thing. On the negative side, I could immediatly see the different atmosphere of the event compared to the capoeira classes in our school: The teachers spoke almost only portuguese, you weren't allowed to speak during the lessons and you couldn't go and drink water in the middle or in between classes. That was again some traditional thing of capoeira but to be honest I found it stupid, especially the drinking part. It resulted that I was so tired in the end and couldn't do too much dancing in the rueda, which is the traditional "fighting" circle where two people dance with each others.

Another thing that caught my eye was that the ranking system doesn't necessarily correspond with your skills. It is more about respect and knowing the right people, because only the people with higher rank can put your ranking higher and you have to build good relationships between many people just to maintain your status. For example, the wife of a master was pre-master and she couldn't honestly do too much more than I. Well, she was more of a dancer-capoeirista but still, you get the picture. I wasn't a huge fan of this traditional ranking system and would prefer more a skill-based system, but it's a traditional sport so I guess there is not too much to be changed.

Well anyway, we reserved a hotel for the first and second night in the centre of Xalapa. It turned out to be pretty good for the price (6e/person/night). On Saturday we had another 5 hour lesson of capoeira and on Sunday we had a little a performance for some audience in the same arena. The whole experience was really really good and I learned a lot of new capoeira moves. The only thing that I regret was that I was a bit of a wimp and didn't enter the rueda too often. It was partly because most people that entered had done it for years and the mestres wanted of course to show to the youngers who's the boss in the ring. But still, I should have showed them more!

I ran out of cash in Saturday evening because my trustful and generous (:D) moneylender, Paulina, forgot to withdraw me money on the previous night. This was a bit of a problem because my mexican buddies had about 500 pesos in their bank account so I had to actually spare money for the first time in Mexico so far. On Sunday evening we left to the city of Veracruz and slept in the house of a friend that I just met in the Capoeira event. He was a friend of my tricking friend in Guadalajara, but still... I love the Mexican hospitality! The staying in the house was a really fun experience, there was 4 dogs, a few birds and 3 chimpanzees living in the same house and as soon as I walked outside the room of my buddy, hell broke loose and they started to shout and bark as loud as they could.

On Monday morning Carlos had to go to school and we rest decided to go to a beach for the day. We even did some tricking there, here's a few pics of that!

Group foto at the rocks

My and Bigode doing some aerials

Pose!

Btwist close-up

Backflip to water :)

The others left on Monday afternoon, my flight back to Guadalajara wasn't until Tuesday evening. After many hours of continous begging (yes I know, embarrasing, but what can I do?), I could lend 500 pesos from my buddies, which would have to do it for the rest of the trip. This wasn't actually the easiest thing to do, because I had to reserver 350 pesos only for the taxi rides to the airport in Veracruz and in Guadalajara to my house. That left me 150 pesos money to spend (9 euros). The first day we went to a gimnastic hall which costed 60 pesos already. After breakfast on the next I had about 20 pesos left to spend for the whole day. Although we only went to a big shopping centre to hang out and tried to do some tricking in the blistering wind that was in Veracruz that day, the 20 pesos wasn't of course enough, t. I had to arrange a bit my taxi drive home, but eventually it all went good and I got home safely! Here's a few pics still from Veracruz.

Carlos in front of his house

Street view in the city

There were a lot of funny-looking tourist busses in the centre of the city

Another street view

Cafe Barroquia - really big and famous cafeteria in the centre of Veracruz

I just put a little list of things that I hadn't done before the trip. 1. I haven't done sports for four straight days without hurting or straing my muscles 2. I have never slept with monkeys. 3. I haven't spoken only spanish for five days. 4. I have "never" traveled without having a single beer during the trip. Most of the points are of course pretty easily achievable, but especially the last makes me feel really proud of myself.

Alltogether the trip was simply AWESOME and I was one of my best experiences so far here in Mexico. I didn't learn that much during the event much I got to know a lot of new people and the capoeira culture and also saw some really beautiful places. Totally worth it!

After Veracruz it has been basically just that one Spanish exam. The rest of the time there has been a farewell party every single day (excluding today) and I can really feel it now when writing this blog update at 2am. The parties have been really fun and I already start to miss all the good friends that I made here in Guadalajara!!! Some of them have already left to their trips (mostly to Central America) and some will after this weekend or so. Luckily some will return for another semester to study here so I'll get to see them again! Although this time it will be a bit different, because I'll be only doing the internship and will come to school only for sports. But I don't want to think about those things just yet, now I'm concentrated on preparing and packing my stuff for traveling around the world.

That's basically all that has happened so far here in Guadalajara. I don't have the time or will to write about more things, but just in short: Diego had his birthday on the first of Dec and we are going to celebrate it tomorrow. We were paintballing yesterday with 10 people. It was awesome. I passed all my courses.

So, this is what has happened to Kalle in the first part of his journey. Let's pray for the ancient gods that his trip stays as successful also in the future and that his money doesn't run out before the end of the trip. The future episodes include a massive 3-day stay in Finland, almost a month in Thailand/Filippines/Singapore, returning on January to Mexico and traveling here for 3 more weeks and doing an internship in yet-not-decided company in Guadalajara. He is hoping to put the next blog update somewhere in South-east-asia, let us see.

But until that..

..Last greetings from Mexico!

Peace!

Avautumista

Joo

Tänään hajosi pää pariin asiaan ja päätän raapustaa tänne ennen kun unohdan ne.

1. No tengo cambio

Meksikossa ostoksilla - tai ylipäätään missä tahansa jossa valuutan kanssa on tekemisissä - joutuu kohtaamaan yleisen ja ERITTÄIN ärsyttävän ongelman. Mikään pienempi katukauppa ei nimittäin lähes poikkeuksetta omista yli 200 (12 euroa) vaihtorahaa ja suuremmissakin kaupoissa, kuten Oxxo, 7-eleven tai Bodega Aurrera (suomen K-market ja valintatalo - vastaavat tai hieman isommat) on ongelma älyttömän yleinen. Tänään esimerkiksi yritin tuloksetta maksaa 20 peson tacolautastani 100 peson setelillä. Tilanteen tekee erittäin tuskalliseksi se, että nostomaateista ei saa kuin 500 peson seteleitä (32 euroa joka on samalla meksikon suurin seteli), joilla maksaminen on joko a) käytännössä mahdotonta tai ainakin b) aiheuttaa paheksuvia katseita myyjäosapuolessa. Ja KAIKKEIN ärsyttävintä on se, että usein paikoissa on vaihtorahaa isollekin setelille, mutta siitä huolimatta seteli ei jostain syystä kelpaa. Ja kun tästä mainitsee myyjälle, niin vuorossa on tuijotuleikkiä hetken aikaa, jossa myyjät ovat alansa ammattilaisia.

On yksi selkeä syy siihen, miksi kaupat haluaa pitää niukkaa käsivarastoa: Ryöstöt. Kauppoja ryöstetään verrattain useasti ja koska kiinnijäämisprosentti on muutaman prosentin (!!!) luokkaa niin kaupat varautuvat mieluummin haitan minimointiin kun turvallisuuden parantamiseen. Pikkukaupoilla tilanne on tietenkin toinen, kun vaihdanta ei päivää kohden ole järin suuri. Homma on kyllä lähtenyt vähän näpeistä, jos K-marketin tasoisessa kaupassa pidetään alle 10 euroa vastaava määrä vaihtorahaa ja suurempien setelien ostosten tullessa joudutaan myymään ei-oota. Miten se mun mun vika jos automaatit ei anna pienempiä seteleitä? Helevetti.

2. Mañana

Oon sopeutunut jo verrattain hyvin meksikolaisten aikarytmiin, eli tapaamiseen ei haittaa tulla 30 minuuttia tai vaikka tunnin myöhässä ja peruutuksia ei aina tarvitse ilmoittaa. Nyt on kuitenkin kärsivällisyys hieman koetuksella. Autoani on huoltanut perheen luottomekaanikko, Antonio eli "El otoño". Kutsuttaneen häntä syksyksi tästä lähtien siis. Vein autoni herran syksyn hoiviin kolme ja puoli viikkoa sitten ja siitä asti autoni on pitänyt olla valmis noin viisi kertaa. Neljännen kerran jälkeen sanoin syksylle että voi unohtaa muiden osien korjauksen, kunhan vain saisin käsijarrun toimimaan, jonka tämä itse oli viime korjauksen yhteydessä hajottanut. Homman piti olla valmis seuraavan päivänä eli kuusi päivää sitten, ja kun tänään tepastelin liikkeeseen hakemaan autoani, niin eiköhän jarrusta puuttunut vielä yksi pala, jota mies oli "etsimässä" para-aikaa. Siis mitä helvettiä? Miten voi korjauksen ammattilainen etsiä Meksikon yleisimmän auton jarrun osaa KOLME JA PUOLI VIIKKOA???? Edellisen osan, jonka korjausken piti kuulua samaan hommaan, etsimisessa meni myös pari viikkoa ja kun menin ihmetyksissäni kysymään toisesta mekaanikosta samaa osaa, niin osasivat sanoa samoin tein mistä kyseisen osan löytää. Liike sijaitsi 200 metriä herra syksyn korjauspajasta.

Aika siis mekaanikon vaihdolle. Tämä on jo pitänyt tehdä jo jokunen aika sitten, mutta on reissua ja muuta kiirettä pukannut päälle sillä vauhdilla, että ei autoasiaa ole jaksanut kummemmin miettiä. Nyt on allekirjoittaneella lisäksi enää muutama päivä Meksikossa, joten odotan että syksy pitää lupauksensa ja tuo auton omin päin talon eteen huomenna iltapäivällä. Saakon seistä siinä sitten pari kuukautta. Helevetti.

Chapter 9. Sobre el abuelo y Sayulita

Hiiiii!

The end of the first is approaching lightspeed and I felt the need to keep u guys updated of the things happened during the last weeks. I'll tell about our trip to Sayulita and talk a little about the life in the host family because of the recent occasions. I'll start with the latter one.

About three weeks ago the 85 year old grandfather of the family had a brain stroke. He was taken to the hospital immediatly and spent the first week there - accompanied all day and night long with many family members. It really showed my the power of the family once again, for exampe Susana was staying almost every night in the hospital nearby the granpa. Our schools stupid falta rules obliged her to do her normal work still and she was basically going without a rest all day long with a couple of hours of sleep. I felt a bit guilty to go partying and to a vacation to Puerto Vallarta when they spend all their time in the hospital, but then again, what could I have done..

After the first week the stroke had also an effect of my life. He moved to our house and they wanted him to have my room downstairs. I had to move upstairs to a guest room, which I shared the first week with diego because some of their cousins came to the house and took Diego's room. So my space practically reduced from 15 sqmeters to about 3 sqmeteres for some time, which wasn't of course the best thing but of course I understood the situation. The granpa's having some mental problems and depression so the home life has become a big more stressful.

I can't remember if I've told it already, but I'm moving to another place to stay in after my winter vacations. This was my plan all year long and this incident kind of only strengthened my plans. Well anyway, so far I've had an awesome time here with the family and I feel like owing them A LOT.

Hahahaha, I remember a funny thing that has happened a few times both when being in Diego's car. They happened during the evening or night and I've both times felt asleep in the car, just to find myself waking up to the noise of people laughing and having 3 pair of eyes staring at me with an oddly grin. The thing was that I was having a sleep without noticing. In the dreams I was in the same car but in the dream the people were talking to me and asking some questions to which I of course responded. However, my responses didn't go unheard and my buddies could here everything that I was talking in the dream which of course didn't make any sense. One time for example I found myself talking about the prices of tacos, telling how much I have money and advising the route to a taco place, which later on blurred into reality when I found that my friends clearly weren't understanding a crap that I was saying.

Sayulita 12.-16.11.2010

Finally after many weeks of planning we got the chance to go Surfing in Sayulita, a small city nearby Puerto Vallarta in the west coast of Mexico.

Sayulita on a map

I was traveling with Niklas, a Finnish guy from Helsinki who is also studying at TEC. We left on Friday evening at 6pm and headed first in the centre bus station with 1 hour taxi ride. Later on we found out that the same bus stopped after an hour of driving to another bus station that was 10 minutes away from my house, wippieeeeee.

We arrived to Puerto Vallarta after some 4,5 hours of driving and didn't do too much anything but just have evening dinner and a couple of well deserved beers. We slept the first night in a place called Hotel Rosita, which was ok but still not that good so the next morning we decided to find another place to stay. We weren't sure about the hostel possibilities in Sayulita, so we decided to find a place in PV not to have to carry our bags the whole day there if we couldn't find a place to stay in. We found a much better place with the same price (12 euros per person) with 2 jacussis, king size bed, kitchen and a living room with about 45 square meters. We were really satisfied (in everything else than the super-slow breakfast) and would definetly go there again. Too bad I can't remember the name of it.. Here's a few pics of PV!

Typical street view in Puerto Vallarta

Icecream-time - all year long!

From the hotel window

Ready to go!

On our way to Sayulita

We left to Sayulita at about 1pm after the hotel episode and arrived there in an hour or so. There was a big flood katastrophe two months ago with various parts of the city destroyed and still there was a big river in the centre of the city that was created during the storm and was still quite big.

Somebody must've had a pleasant toilet experience

First we had a really good marico-tostada mix for 60 pesos (a bit less than 4 euros)! Afterwards we headed to the beach, which we heard was good for not that experienced surfers like ourselves. Here's a few pics of it.

Sayulita beach

Our surf-gear renting place!

As soon as we arrived to the beach we found out that we weren't the only ones from the in Sayulita in that weekend. We met at least ten more people in the first afternoon and another dozen more during the next few day. But what the hell, we were here to SURF and not socialize, so we grabbed two longboards for us and headed for the waves. The first moments went of course a bit scetchy finding the right technic, but pretty soon enough we got the hang of it and I successfully succeeded to ride a few waves to the end which was of course nice. I liked the beach a lot and the waves were certainly not too big for us. The only negative thing worth mentioning was the rock bottom in a pretty shallow water that was located of course where the better waves were. It wasn't a big problem and u just had to avoid avoided to crash head first in the shallow water.

The next day we headed again to Sayulita in the morning from Puerto Vallarta and this time decided to take our backpacks with us when informed that there would be room to stay in Sayulita. The hostel that we took in Sayulita had the same price than our Junior Suite room in Puerto Vallarta, but that's about the only thing that the rooms shared. It located 20 meters from the beach so once again we proved the fact of 3 of the most important things of a property: Location, location and location. This time we rented hard boards, because the 2 hour long surfing yesterday without shirts on soft board resulted that even taking a shower hurted like hell and our stomach and chest were full of red remarks. We went together with some other people from Guadalajara in that night and the next day consisted again of some surfing action and taking it easy in the beach. We headed home in monday night, but the memories of the trip were still strong on Tuesday, when I had to stay in the bed for basically whole day because my stomach was hurting. I think the reason for it was something that I ate in Sayulita in the last evening. Wednesday was still not 100%, but Thursday I was feeling normal again and could go back to the school and sport routines, wippiee!

I'll end my update here because my laptop battery is running out and I'm going to do some sports in the kampus area. I'll write one more update about my trip to Veracruz and Xalapa in the east coast of mexico and also add some stories about the last days of the first semester here in Guadalajara.

Hasta luego!