Mexico Day 2

Yes, I am writing this on Day 3 but that's because Day 2 was a whirlwind. Got to the office at 8:30. Sam and Michael got to the office about 4:30. We left the office about 8 pm, went back to the hotel, and had dinner. I was just exhausted - far too exhausted to try to post a blog entry.

Impressions so far:

The hotel is NOT a Mexico experience. Even the Mexican restaurant in the hotel is "Americaned-up" because most of the people who stay in the hotel are American.

Almost everyone speaks English to a degree. I've hardly been able to practice the little Spanish I have learned. Maybe this is for the best. What I've realized as I've done the Spanish lessons is that I really do know a whole bunch of Spanish words but I have no idea how to put them together into a sentence.

Jorge picked me up at the hotel Monday morning and drove me to the office. As the crow flies it is only about a mile but the roads are such that we had to take the long way around through some very pot-hole covered streets. The buildings are so colorful, painted in blues, greens, oranges, pinks, purples. It's a feast for the eyes. Stray dogs wander the streets and on every corner it seems there is a food cart or fruit vendor. I managed to take a couple of photos out the car window.

Driving here is enough to take your breath away. Everyone pretty much does exactly what they want and there don't seem to be any rules of the road. Hmm. On second thought it isn't too much different from Atlanta driving. But seriously, it scares the life out of me and I try not to show it so I don't offend Jorge or Jorge (there are two).

I learned something very important yesterday. Jorge was to pick me up at 8:15 so at 7:30 I went to the cafe and had coffee for breakfast. At about 12 noon I started looking around wondering what the lunch plans were. I was very hungry. At 1 pm I wondered what the deal was. Not a single person had made a move to go to lunch. I am now ravenous. I got on the internet and did a search for Mexico meal times and learned that lunch is the biggest meal of the day and takes place sometime between 2 and 4 pm and it lasts a couple of hours. True to my research the 2 Jorges came to me at about 2:20 and said "Let's go have lunch." We went out and had a nice 90 minute feast and then dropped by the hotel to pick up Sam and Michael. Needless to say this morning I had a hearty breakfast. Right now it's almost 3 pm and no one has made a move so I'm glad I did that!

Other than that I can report that I have been suffering from burning, red eyes and a runny nose since I arrived. I think it's the pollution, which is far more severe than Tokyo.

More to report either later tonight or tomorrow . . .