The Storm

Well, we had our first major storm here in La Cruz two nights ago.... and it was definitely an experience to remember.  Not because of the affects of the storm, but mostly because of the hilarity that ensued in our house for 3-4 hours that night.  Please enjoy the tale of two gringos trying to survive their first Mexican summer.... 

I don't know why, but it almost always only rains at night here....occasionally in the evenings or very early mornings, but almost never during daylight hours.  And the rain is usually accompanied by thunder and lightning... Usually, storms aren't enough of a bother to keep us awake at night and it's become a pretty routine occurrence around here.  If it's raining really hard we close our north-facing windows and if the thunder and lightning look and sound like they're nearby we unplug our modem so it doesn't get fried (and yet we've still had to replace it 4-5 times this summer already!!) and the muddy streets are a major bummer, but overall...the storms are pretty harmless here. 

And then THE Storm happened.  For some dumb reason, I couldn't fall asleep that night and was lying in bed when I heard it start to rain pretty hard after midnight.  No big surprise, it's still the rainy season and September usually brings about 14 inches of rain on average.  (I literally just checked my phone to make sure that it's still September.  I have no clue.)  The wind picked up and our bedroom would light up at random due to flashes of lightning and I heard rumblings of thunder a ways off... Still no big deal, just another night.  

Ty says that he was once told that the seconds between a lightning strike and the following thunder indicates how far away the strike was.... "One-one thousand" being about a mile....so if you count to ten between lightning and thunder then the strike was about 10 miles away, for example.  I have no idea if that's true, and I'm too lazy to bother Googling it, but it seems pretty accurate.  

The rain and thunder got progressively louder until it woke Ty up... We closed the windows above our bed and Ty went to the kitchen to unplug the modem, because according to Ty's rule-of-thumb, the storm was passing right over us and it was gonna get ugly.  As he was coming back to our room and closed our bedroom door, lightning either struck our house or a nearby electrical line/pole because the light above our bed made a huge POP that sounded like glass shattering and I ducked thinking I was gonna feel glass rain down on top of me.  And Ty told me later that he felt like he got zapped while he had his hand on the metal door knob.  Immediately following the lightning, the LOUDEST, LONGEST, SCARIEST thunder to ever exist in the history of ever came down on us like a bomb exploding in our bedroom.  And then the most adorable thing in the history of ever happened...  

I proceed to watch a 39-year old man race across his bedroom, LEAP into bed and cling to his wife like a 4-year old clinging to a teddy bear because there was a monster under the bed.  And then I watched as he was immediately embarrassed for doing so.  It will forever be in my top ten favorite Ty moments.  Every time I've thought about it since, I get this doofy looking grin on my face.  Adorable, I tell you.  

The lightning struck our house, or very nearby, 3 more times that night and there were at least a dozen instances of the loudest, bone-rattling thunder imaginable and hours of clinging to each other like scared little kids in our bed.  Me squealing every time and sorta laugh-sobbing in hysterics, Ty burying his head under his pillow.... Both of us worrying that the vibrations from the thunder alone were gonna shatter our windows... It was very intense (and very hilarious) to say the least.  

During the storm, we noticed that Bloo was hunkered down in his bed and looked really frightened so I invited him up to snuggle with me...solely to make HIM feel safer.  It definitely wasn't for my sake.  Nope, not at all.  Bloo was to my left and Ty was to my right and together we "braved" the rest of the storm like the whitest, gringo-est, most adorable, scaredy cat little expat family you ever did see. 

Welp, that was our first major storm experience, and we hope it's the worst storm we see.... Ty is for sure gonna hate this post, but I'm okay with that.  Adios mi amigos! 

That's a Thing? -- Part 2

I wrote a post a couple months ago called, “That’s a Thing?” about things we were surprised to learn about our new life in Mexico.  I’m sure it’s no surprise since writing that post we’ve come across many other “things” so I think this topic may need to be a recurring one! 

More things we didn’t know are things:

• Apparently pointing in your spouse’s face is considered an angry gesture… Like, “You’re in trouble, mister!”  I found that out after I pointed in Ty’s face when I was trying to get him to admit to something when we were hanging out with some new Mexican friends… They explained when a wife points at her husband that usually means they’re in an argument, but because I was laughing/smiling/teasing Ty (duh) when I pointed at him, they understood that we were just playing around… Kinda funny, but it made me realize that I need to be more careful with gestures we see as “normal” so I don’t unintentionally offend anyone (more than I usually do.)

• Eggs are not refrigerated here.  When you buy them in the store they’re just in a normal aisle…not in the refrigerated section.  And if you buy them at one of the little tiendas in town, they’re usually just in a stack behind the counter and you tell the cashier how many you want and he puts them in a little bag for you.  You can buy just one egg if you want to.  For the first month or so, we were still storing eggs in our fridge when we brought them home, but Ty now insists on keeping them out on the counter like a real Mexican. 

•  You know how you go to Fred Meyer or Safeway and there’s a bakery section?  And you can buy donuts or artisan bread or whatever?  Well, US bakeries have NOTHING on Mexico.  Here the bakery sections in large grocery stores (WalMart, Mega, Chedraui) are glorious, carb-filled playgrounds that I’d like to eat my way through.  There are trays and trays of the tastiest-looking pastries you’ve ever seen, bins full of freshly-baked bread, cakes, donuts, homemade ding dongs (!!!) croissants, bagels, cookies, cupcakes, muffins, everything.  After you do a fair amount of drooling, you grab a big, silver tray and a pair of tongs and you load up the tray with all of the things you’ll regret eating later, and then you take your tray up to the nice lady at the counter and she bags up your stuff and prints out a barcode sticker with the price (just like when you go to the deli counter and buy meat or salads or whatever) and then you put your pastry bag in your cart and whine at your husband to hurry up with the rest of the shopping because you have every intention of eating a donut as soon as you get in the car.  Also, donuts are basically like 10 cents here, so…I’m screwed.

• There are these little flying bugs (about an inch long) here that have NEON green eyes that GLOW IN THE DARK.  I wish that was an exaggeration, but it’s 100% true.  The first time we saw one, we were in bed in pitch blackness and we saw the bug’s eyes flying straight at us like a shooting star.  Ty let out a girly shriek and swatted him outta the air, causing him to smack into the concrete wall and fall to the floor.  As he was dying, we watched his creepy headlights go dim until they were all the way “off.”  Um, no thank you.

• While we’re on the subject of bugs, flies come in 4 sizes here, in case you were wondering.  There are little flies that like to follow the dogs around (gross), then there’s your standard black house fly like we’re all used to… And then there’s the grande fly that’s about the size of a nickel which causes you to go “Ugh!” while quickly shooing it away from your immediate area.  And then there’s the Big Nope Fly who is the size of a quarter and will cause you to slowly back out of whatever room he is currently occupying.  And if he wasn’t creepy enough already, he also has a giant, unicorn-like antennae on his forehead and sounds like a lawnmower when he buzzes past your ear at 20 miles per hour. 

• We received a couple pieces of mail from people in the states and based on the date stamp, it seems like it took about 5 weeks to get here.  Overall, the mail system is still a mystery to us though… Something that’s vastly different than back home are the utility bills here.  They aren’t mailed to you…someone literally comes around and sticks your water or electric bill into your gate or fence and you just have to hope you notice it, it doesn’t get blown away or rained on, etc.  After you get your water bill, you take it to the little city water office here in La Cruz to pay the balance.  To pay the electric bill, you drive to the CFE office in Bucerias and feed cash into an ATM-type machine.  Weird.

• Everything is a bottle opener in Mexico.  Everything.  We’ve have seen countless coke and beer bottles opened with machetes, other unopened bottles, shovels, candle holders, teeth, chairs, you name it…it’s a bottle opener.  The only time we’ve ever seen a Mexican use an actual opener…was to purposely use the wrong end of it to open a beer.  Much to everyone’s entertainment, Ty often tries to open bottles with random objects and usually fails miserably.  Our Mexican buddies get a good kick out of watching him try though… 

Welp, that's all I can think about right now... But stay tuned for the inevitable follow-up to my "That's a Thing?" series.  I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat! 

Guadalajara!

As I mentioned in my last post, we've been miserable for the last several weeks because of the heat, humidity and mosquitoes.  After Ty looked up the weather in Guadalajara and saw that it was in the 60s in the evenings and 70s during the day...we decided to get the hell outta town for a couple of days and find some relief.  So, we did the least amount of research possible (as per usual, because we're lazy) and booked transportation and a hotel room for the following week.  

We took the Vallarta Plus bus there for about 50 bucks per person round trip, and I'm so glad we did.  I would have been all kinds of stressed out had we decided to brave Guadalajara traffic and I'm sure we would have spent more time being lost in our car than actually seeing any sights.  The Vallarta Plus buses are more comfortable than any first class flights we've been on... The seats were big, comfy recliners with pop-up foot rests and lots of leg room.  Each person had their own personal TV complete with English and Spanish movies, games and music stations.  The buses also have free WiFi (that worked most of the trip) 2 bathrooms and it included a "sack lunch."  (The sack lunch was really just cheap, processed snacks...next time we'd bring our own food.) 

We had our buddy, Ernesto, drop us off at the Bucerias bus stop on Tuesday morning at about 8:45 for our 9:00 bus.  We checked in at the counter and got our tickets for the trip there as well as our return trip a few days later (we purchased our tickets online and took our printed confirmation in with us.)  Our bus was 30 minutes late, but we still made it to Guadalajara around 1:00-1:30.  

I guess this is where I should mention the downside to our bus ride.  For the first time in my entire life, I got super car sick.  A big stretch of the road to Guadalajara is through curvy mountain roads and when you're in a tall, lumbering, swaying bus that's constantly jostling your stomach...you start to feel a little queasy.  Let's just say it's a very good thing the bus had a bathroom on it, because yours truly puked her guts out after trying to keep it down for over an hour.  Imagine kneeling in an airplane bathroom while trying to aim your vomit into a tiny toilet during extreme turbulence.  It was like that.  The bus was swaying so hard I was literally crashing into the bathroom walls while trying to clean puke off my chin.  Awesome.  

Luckily, I felt a little better after throwing up and the road flattened out for the remainder of the drive, and despite getting sick I would still take the bus again... I'd just be better prepared next time.  

The view from the bus.... I feel like all of our family and friends think we up and moved to the desert complete with rattlesnakes and tumbleweeds, but Mexico is greener than Seattle!!  

After arriving at the Zapopan bus station, we took a short cab ride to our lovely, 1920s mansion-turned hotel, Villa Ganz, which happened to be in the perfect location for out-of-towners on foot.  Our hotel was in the Americana Zone and was surrounded by tons of funky, hipster taverns and restaurants.  

Guadalajara isn't at all what I was expecting.  On Wednesday, we spent about 6 hours on foot with no real plans... I was surprised to find that major sections of the city could have been in any major city in the States.  Certain areas looked and felt like they could have been in Portland or Seattle to me.  Busy traffic, high-end cars, eco-friendly public transportation, wide sidewalks full of 30-something business professionals all staring down at their iPhones in a hurry to get somewhere... It was definitely not the slow-moving, laid back, somewhat gritty version Mexico we were used to.  

Unfortunately, because we ignorantly assumed Guadalajara wouldn't be much different than here, we didn't pack very well for this trip... We live on the beach and we spend all of our time on the Banderas Bay where it's 85+ degrees everyday and it's the only version of Mexico we knew...so we packed accordingly.  Imagine crowds of young, Mexican nationals in fashionable coats, boots and scarves...and then picture a tall, blonde gringo wearing a frat boy tank top, board shorts and flip flops walking among them.  We stood out a bit, to say the least.  Ty looked like he was ready to whoop it up at Spring Break 2016!  Next time, I will be packing a jacket, for sure.  I was pretty chilly most of the trip.  

Click here to be taken to a photo album of our walk around the city... I really love old buildings, ornate architecture, and history in general, so I was in heaven.

I especially enjoyed the juxtaposition of old and new... Considering the city was established in 1542, Guadalajara is a visually interesting mix of the colonial era and current day.

Really, the only definite plan we made before traveling to the city was to go to the giant market I had heard about previously... The Mercado Libertad - San Juan de Dios is the largest indoor market in Latin America.  It's hard to explain how massive it was... It's like Pike Place Market and Portland Saturday Market had like 10 kids and they all lived under one roof.  It's HUGE.  (According to Wikipedia it's over 430,000 square feet with nearly 3,000 vendor booths.)  As a person who kinda freaks out in small, crowded spaces, I did pretty well navigating the narrow corridors jam-packed with people and merchandise... Amazingly, we didn't even buy anything!  

From the third story, looking over the market.... 

Overall, we had a great time... We saw lots of interesting sights, ate lots of tasty food we had been missing from home, (first time eating sushi since leaving Seattle!) and we'd definitely go back again.     

Thankfully, I didn't get sick on the bus ride home, but the trek back to La Cruz wasn't without a new kind of drama.  After we got off the bus in Bucerias, we grabbed a taxi for the 10-minute drive home... Normally we'd take the bus coming home from Bucerias, because it costs like 10 cents, but we were tired and didn't want to wait... And as soon as we were about a block from home, I realized that I didn't have my laptop with me.  "Oh crap...I LEFT IT ON THE DAMN BUS!"  Of course, I immediately started to panic and freak out and act like the sky was falling, because duh.  Meanwhile, Ty was perfectly calm and level-headed and told me not to worry because it wouldn't solve anything.  Easier said than done for a crazy person. 

After we got home, I paced the house and whined about never seeing my computer ever again instead of actually doing something to find it.... While Ty cooly made a few phone calls, researched where the bus was heading, and figured out all the hows, whos and wheres of getting my computer back.  Within 2 hours of stepping off the bus, I had it back in my pouty, incapable little hands.  Crisis averted.

******************

Let me just interject here for one mushy minute about how awesome my husband is... I have a lot of talents, but basic adulting skills aren't among them.  Most people don't know that I'm actually really shy in most situations (probably because I tend to mask my discomfort with humor.)  I struggle with change; I don't like talking to strangers (not even cashiers, waiters, bank tellers, etc.)  I have social anxiety issues and don't like crowded/busy places; I'm easily overwhelmed or uncomfortable and/or nervous; and I tend to "shut down" when something is too far out of my comfort zone (like calling a Mexican bus company and trying to explain in really bad Spanish that I'm an idiot.) 

Ty is the total and complete opposite of me.  He is so....steady.  He's never worried or scared or stressed.  He doesn't get nervous or intimidated by new or stressful situations.  He just does what needs to be done as if he's done it 100 times before.  He rarely ever gets mad and never raises his voice, (even though I give him plenty of bratty reasons to.)  He's so patient and solid and I envy him....and I have no idea what I would do without his calming magic.  You know those big, inflatable cartoon-looking characters you see at car dealerships with the arms waving everywhere?  That's us.  Ty is the rock-solid base, and I'm the freak show flailing in the wind.  It's okay to be jealous... 


Welp, I guess that's all for today... We love and miss you all!   GO HAWKS!