My Mexican trip......a diary.....

I finally made it to Mexico....

Wednesday 10 Dec (Australian time/date)

Left Cairns without any incidents, arrived in Hong Kong at 8:30pm Wednesday night. Hong Kong, now there's a place......It is so geared for tourism, you just wouldn't believe. It doesn't matter that you are totally lost (HK International Airport is SOOO huge), the Chinese all know who you are and where you are going and what you are doing. There's always someone there to lead you to the correct shuttle bus and make sure you get off at the correct hotel. And your bags are waiting for you in your room.

HK really was an amazing place...friendly people (and always someone near you who could speak English and happy to help). the buildings all reach to the sky, and the whole city is high rise apartment buildings.....not just a few in a smallish area.....but the whole city. HK has changed so much from the images I had of her from many years ago. I walked all over Kowloon on my first day....and I'm still stiff and saw from doing that. And the Chinese are experts at separating you from your money. I thought I took enough HK dollars...but at the end of the first day I had to get more HK money.

Saturday 13 Dec (American time/date)

Arrived Los Angeles at 1:30pm...got to my Hotel 4:00pm...and promptly crashed. Spent all night in the plane and couldn't sleep properly. The "Pacific Route" as it's called flies north over Japan, then across the Allutian (SP) Islands, then down to San Fransisco. It was SOOO cold in the plane.

Anyway.....LA.....what can I say about it.....well, nothing. LA did not impress me at all. I was happy to travel on.

Back to LAX to check in for my flight to Mexico.

At this point I had to part company with Cathay Pacific and start flying Mexicana. But I must say, the Cathay Pacific girls were soooo nice and helpfull, always smiling no matter what.

Next stop......Mazatlan (Mexico) to clear Immigration. By this stage all my flying had been at night, and I was sick and tired of being freezing cold and not being able to sleep. Immigration at Mazatlan was a breeze. The Mexicans on the flight were given the third degree, but when it was my turn the immigration officer took one look at my passport and said "ahhh...Australian"....then waved me straight through and as I left he said "see...that was easy".

Having cleared Immigration I ducked outside the terminal for a quick smoke. That's when the reality of the Mexican drug wars hit me. I ran smack bang into 2 soldiers fully armed patrolling the terminal...and in the dark.....

Next stop Mexico City...at about 9:00am...but this is where I started getting into trouble......I had been into so many different time zones, crossed the International Date Line, and I didn't know if it was Martha or Tuesday. Anyway I thought I had like 4 hours to find my way to the departure point for the flight to Lazaro Cardenas. Boy, was I wrong. After spending 45 mins trying to find Terminal 2, I got there just as they were making final calls for the flight to Lazaro Cardenas. The time I had my watch set for (and which I thought was the correct time for Mexico City) was 2 hours out. I made it to the bus just in time.......talk about cutting it fine.

Now......Mexico City International Airport......Wow......That place is so huge they ran out of room to park the jets, so they park them wherever they can fit them and run passengers on buses to the aircraft. We landed at Terminal 1......and I had to get on a monorail train to get to the other side of the airport to Terminal 2.

Next stop Lazaro Cardenas....

Saturday 13 Dec, 12:30pm (correct Mexican time/date)

I finally made it. But the problems still existed. I checked my baggage in at Los Angeles, and they said my baggage would go straight to Lazaro Cardenas. Yeah right, I arrived a day before my baggage did. Good thing I packed a change of clothes in my cabin/hand luggage.

The second reality check about the Drug wars. The LZC terminal was swarming with fully armed soldiers and Federal Police.

Anyway...enough of the trip here.....Now the fun starts......

Zars had organised to take me to a party (beach party). I had such a good time. At one stage that buggar offered me a pickle to had with my food. Now I like pickles, but I could never look one in the eye again. That pickle was actually the second hottest chilli they have, and I took a big bite of it. Much to the howls of laughter from all the Mexicans.....they were all in on it and just waiting for my reaction. Boy, did I react. My mouth was totally on fire. Anyway I had a great night. All the Mexicans speak English, but have no one to practice their English on, so I was it for the night. And they asked Zars to make sure he brings me to another party on Tuesday night.

Mexico is another country altogether, I'm loving it....but I'll talk more on that later.

Now...for all you Aussies. If you ever believed we knew how to party, you ain't seen the real party animals yet. These Mexican blokes are amazing come any excuse for a party. And this was only day 1 in LZC.


piccie showing the tons of food they cook for the party. Mexicans reckon they need to have a lot of food in their guts before they get serious with the drinking.......mwhahaha


Franco & me....Franco doesn't speak English...but that didn't stop him claiming me. He insisted we both drink one to one all night.....and he could drink. I was happy to go with him.


A few of the troops and me (in the middle)


L to R......Zars, Abelardo, me, Saul......getting late and getting nice and drunk.

effing amazing....I want to hear more.
hehe!
you're so lucky. brilliant Al!

Alan Cullen wrote:Anyway.....LA.....what can I say about it.....well, nothing. LA did not impress me at all. I was happy to travel on.

We all feel the same way about L.A.

Alan Cullen wrote:Having cleared Immigration I ducked outside the terminal for a quick smoke. That's when the reality of the Mexican drug wars hit me. I ran smack bang into 2 soldiers fully armed patrolling the terminal...and in the dark.....
The second reality check about the Drug wars. The LZC terminal was swarming with fully armed soldiers and Federal Police.

Dude I told you about thre FEDERALIES, and you thought I was just Jerking your chain

. That pickle was actually the second hottest chilli they have, and I took a big bite of it.

ROFPMLMAO tell zars to get you a Habanero Glad you made it to civilization ok don't forget to post more piccies

I'm loving hearing about the Cullen's invasion.
I hope he posts back soon.

Good to see Rick got caught with that chilli too. It was a dirty low down trick to pull on a me.....but everyone had a good laugh at my expense.

Next party is Tuesday night. It's Zars work party, and a few of the troops from Saturday night's party have contacted Zars to make sure he brings me.

Oh and I will....

We are having a real good time....

I think that when the time comes that Alan has to return he will not want to.... hehehe

Cheers.

Alan Cullen wrote:Good to see Rick got caught with that chilli too.

Caught? Caught? I'm a Texan, We're nursed on peppers here Have fun at Saturdays parties .

Hey Alan i ALMOST FORGOT, tell Zars to have plenty of MENUDO ready for Sunday morning after your party Saturday. Not the band MENUDO, the Soup! I Promise that MENUDO is a merical hang over cure

Dude, you sure know how to tell a story man. Keep em comin'.!! Love the pickle part... been there...they got me too.

Menudo, I had forgot that dish, yeah we'll have menudo too. That is my purpose to make Alan have all our Mexican dishes. He's doing it good so far.

Invitations keep coming, right now we have a movie to see (Keanu Reeves' lastest movie) today, we have another party on the beach tomorrow, on Thursday we have a fancy dance with the coworkers (english teachers) of my wife and on Saturday we have 2 parties settled......

Zars, Seriously Menudo @ taqueria is Sunday Morning Pre-Church Ritual to sober up enough for mass in Tejas. But seriously ,Alan would be seriously Missing out if you didn't take him to your madre's or abuela's Casa for Christmass Tamales, or is that a Tajano thing? did you take him to mass yesterday?

I hope he doesnt get scooped up by the polizia, and have him sent to Prague for some underground Anarchy99 Covert Operations. Drink up Alan, and have some for all of us. I'm glad you're having an awesome time!!!

Rickard5 wrote:Zars, Seriously Menudo @ taqueria is Sunday Morning Pre-Church Ritual to sober up enough for mass in Tejas. But seriously ,Alan would be seriously Missing out if you didn't take him to your madre's or abuela's Casa for Christmass Tamales, or is that a Tajano thing? did you take him to mass yesterday?

Nope that's not Tejano thing, it's mexican thing here we usually go to mass first and then go to have menudo or Barbacoa tacos. And he'll try all of the Mexican dishes leave it to me and if I can't make it there's no way he'll escape from my wife hahahaha

Zars Alan can't get away with out trying some Mole Poblano and Home Ground and Made Tortillas

You stay out of this Rick.....he's already caught me once.....I'll be vary wary of anything he offers me now

AWWW...c'mon...eat up now...
Pay later...LOL

Yeah Alan!! It only burns for a little bit

F you pcks.........

jimithing wrote:Yeah Alan!! It only burns for a little bit

Isn't that why Mexicans don't need colonoscipies?

Just to let you all know......If I'm not here for a while (like yesterday) it's because Zars shares the inet phone line with Claudia's brother, and also shares the modem. So when Clausia's brother is using the internet, we can't.

AWW man My Vacation ended this morning I'm back in the studio and starving, Good thing I made off with a pound of Coffee beans and Loaf of Pumpkin bread or I'd be starving right now

Check the piccies of the last party. https://s431.photobucket.com/albums/qq32/legionzars/Posada%20LCTPC/

We have a dance tonight and next Saturday we have 2 parties settled.

Alan found out the reason why we organize the parties every 2 days so you can recover from the last one.... right Alan? hehehe

Installment No. 2

I've been here 6 days now....2 parties down and many more to go, including one tonight.

Each day Claudia and I have been walking around town doing bits and pieces, and shopping of course (that's what women do, right?). I'm slowly getting my bearings and working out where I am.

Lazaro Cardenas is a rat warren....main streets everywhere, then in between them are the houses all coming off these little laneways just wide enough for one vehicle at a time. It's getting to know all these little laneways is the problem...where they go, where they end up.....

The public transport system here is chaotic, but organised in it's own way. Taxis, big buses, and combi buses. The combies are the complex ones. they are all white with a different coloured stripe down the side and across the front. Each colour goes a different circuit route around the city, and they come along every minute. Getting to know the colour codes is going to take me forever. These Mexicans were bought up here, so they understand them.

Zars has no hot water...so every morning it's about taking a deep breath and diving under the shower. Cold showers are probably doing me good. Deffo sobering me up after the party the night before.

It is winter here at the moment, but, like Cairns, the days are nice and hot. Evenings and early morning it's a bit cool.....but only track suit cool, so that's fine.

The women here.....so many of them are really drop dead gorgeous. I wanna take a dozen home with me. Mwhahaha.

I've become a bit of a novelty here....Mexicans here have never met an Australian before.....so they all want to meet me. I'm not really at all important, but it does make me feel good. Claudia's head teacher asked her if I would give a talk to a couple of hundred students at the university....don't know when, but I said that would be okay.

Mexican people are sooo friendly. All the blokes have this ritual and special way of shaking hands when they meet each other. Everyone who joins the group first goes around and shakes hands with everyone, whether they know you or not. Then it's into the party, and suddenly I am a long lost friend. The best part is they all look after me, and make sure I am joining into whatever mayhem is going on. It really is fun to party with them all. Some speak English, some don't. but language is no barrier here.

Now...Tuesday night's party......

Zars works at the port authority, so every year the port authority and all contractors associated with it have their Xmas party. It is HUGE, no expenses spared. And they have every little detail covered. The other night it was at some function centre on the beach way up north of here. Whatever you wanted to drink they had.....and loads of grog to boot. Waiters everywhere to get you drinks. The food menu was seafood, and it was delicious. As the night went on we all got drunker and drunker...obviously.

The entertainment went on for ages....then the fireworks was on, they even had one of those huge fireworks towers set up. Then the band and dancing started. The band was terrific...big band too.....one male and 2 female singers with it.

Zars took a LOT of piccies of the night.....way too many to include here. He set up a site somewhere to see the piccies if anyone wants.......

https://s431.photobucket.com/albums/qq32/legionzars/Posada%20LCTPC/

so Just ignore me...as the night progressed I just got worse and worse and uglier and uglier....whisky does that to a bloke.....I was drinking whisky all night.....and the bar staff didn't measure the shots.....they just upended the bottle untill they reckoned enough whisky was in the glass, then added the coke. Seriously, so many of my whiskies had more whisky in them than coke. No wonder I was in the condition I ended up in.

Yesterday, Claudia frowned at me and asked if I remembered what I did when I got home.....I couldn't remember a thing. Turns out I was well behaved and she was only joking.....but she made me worry for a while before she told me I didn't do anything.

Oh, and when it was time to come home, the port authority had organised all these buses to drive everyone home, they left the venue every half hour.

It was a great night.....I have never seen the likes of it in Australia....it was a real eye opener for me.

Alan Cullen wrote:The women here.....so many of them are really drop dead gorgeous. I wanna take a dozen home with me. Mwhahaha.

You of course know the Hispanic people are a deeply religious bunch, after all they name their children Jesus and find the Virgin Marry Everywhere, tortillas, cheese sandwiches, Under Bridges, Everywhere Man! infact God had originally Designed to have his only begotten son our Savior to be born in Old Mexico, being so close to Heaven (Tejas), but he had one Small problem in all of Old Mexico he couldn't find 3 wise men, or a Virgin
Alan Remember when we talked about being a Gringo down there Man, Just remember every one of those Women have a Padre, 6 hermano and a aabuela That will kick your @$$ for looking at them the wrong way

Alan Cullen wrote:I've become a bit of a novelty here....Mexicans here have never met an Australian before.....so they all want to meet me. I'm not really at all important, but it does make me feel good. Claudia's head teacher asked her if I would give a talk to a couple of hundred students at the university....don't know when, but I said that would be okay.

Well Alan we love you because you are quite a novelty here Everythingcadd.com
Dude Just Make Austraila sound better then the U.S. OK Now Alan do you remember that Pome Bloke that brought Rabbits to Australia? Now Think carefully, if you tell them you got yob (job) over there you'll be worse than that guy with the rabbits! and what ever you do don't ask them "¿Dónde está su cortacéspedes de césped?" but if you tell them you got a job you'll have to buy 10000 boxes of Chicklets, and they'll swim the river to Austraila.

Alan Cullen wrote:Mexican people are sooo friendly. All the blokes have this ritual and special way of shaking hands when they meet each other. Everyone who joins the group first goes around and shakes hands with everyone, whether they know you or not. Then it's into the party, and suddenly I am a long lost friend. The best part is they all look after me, and make sure I am joining into whatever mayhem is going on. It really is fun to party with them all. Some speak English, some don't. but language is no barrier here.

I especialy Loved the picture of you at the party:)



I'll tell you what man, Years ago some of Gringos got invited to a Low Rider car show to bring our Race cars, By some SERIOUS Hard Core Cholos man, and let me tell you what I've never had a better time hanging out with any one!!! YOu aught to got to Quinceañera Dude those are a F'n Party Like you've never seen before!

Alan Cullen wrote:so Just ignore me...as the night progressed I just got worse and worse and uglier and uglier....whisky does that to a bloke.....I was drinking whisky all night.....and the bar staff didn't measure the shots.....they just upended the bottle untill they reckoned enough whisky was in the glass, then added the coke. Seriously, so many of my whiskies had more whisky in them than coke. No wonder I was in the condition I ended up in.

From you piccies I didn't think it could get any uglierthan a night with ewe and Flossy! Dude you think you partied that night Just you wait till we get you to Boy's Town Man, we'll ween you off the leche materna and on to a Mans Drink like Mescal

Alan Cullen wrote:Yesterday, Claudia frowned at me and asked if I remembered what I did when I got home.....I couldn't remember a thing. Turns out I was well behaved and she was only joking.....but she made me worry for a while before she told me I didn't do anything.


It was a great night.....I have never seen the likes of it in Australia....it was a real eye opener for me.

Dude I envy you, Ask Claudia if I can come stay for a few weeks, I'll pull my weight and do chores

yeah make sure you do the washing up Cullen!
hehe!!
Again I'm loving these adventures.thankyou.

ps. what is that thing that looks like an electric pylon on the beach?