Weblog: Mexico: Back in Victoria

<< Previous Entry | Next Entry >>

Edward's wedding, Puebla, Lucha Libre, coming home, and leaving soon.

Edward's wedding was lovely. A short ceremony in front of a judge, followed by drinking, a great meal and talking at a lovely hotel in Atlixco, accompanied by a band that played harp, violin, and percussion. I didn't take any pictures because when around people I usually prefer to "be" there, not be behind a camera, but lots of others did and there will be pictures online before long.

The couple of days following the wedding were fairly lazy. The morning's were spent sitting in front of a small restaurant along Cholula's pretty zocalo. Both days we went into Puebla afterwards, just exploring, doing a bit of shopping, and... Lucha Libre!

I'd missed out on Lucha Libre (Mexican pro wrestling) in both La Paz and Mexico City because of scheduling, but Alex, Matt, Mei, and I got to see it one evening in Puebla. Just getting in was exciting, with a line of people all pushing to get to the ticket window. Mei (who is a rather petite Chinese girl) got right in the middle of things, pushed her way through, got our tickets, and pushed her way back out. Kind of strange that there was such a crowd, because it was mostly empty when we got in. At first it was sedate but as the hour approached 9pm the crowd started getting louder and banging on the front balcony wall (which was probably designed to be as noise making as possible). Finally the wrestlers came out, and it first, it wasn't all that impressive. Just some very fake looking wrestling. But as the fight went on it got better and better, with the wrestlers getting more and more acrobatic, the crowd getting more excited, and finally the match culminated in an amazingly choreographed two-on-two battle that was more like dance than fighting! I have no idea what the rules are, but I think it was all the more enjoyable for it. The second match was even better. First one team, with "Maniac Cop" (in a very tight spandex police uniform) and two other guys (one of whom had "USA" written on his ass), came out. Then the crowd went nuts as three clows came down the aisles, spraying confetti. At first I thought this was just a sideshow, but then they got into the ring! And then the best part, they took off their robes and each had a Disney character on his clothing (I'll bet their use wasn't licensed...). Sadly, we only got to see half of this battle before we had to leave (Ed was picking us up from the Zocalo at 10:30). It was all over much too quickly, but Lucha Libre is even better than I had imagined it. When we got outside, Alex bought himself a lucha mask. Mei shot some video of the wrestling, hopefully she can send that to me so I can post it here.

I also found a poncho for Steve C, and found vainilla and Oaxacan chocolate (for hot chocolate), so that, combined with seeing Lucha, meant I'd managed to get everything done that I wanted to before I left Mexico.

There were also some adventures with a rat at Ed's place. I walked to Tonantzintla from Cholula one evening and came home to find blood tracks on the floor and Pancho (one of Ed's house-mates) holding a broomstick. There is a rat living in the house that they've been trying to get rid of for some time. They have traps, but every time it gets trapped, it chews off whatever part of its body is caught (rats are amazing creatures). It's now three-legged and tail-less. I helped Pancho for a while move furniture and try to coax it out the door, but we reached a stalemate when it hid itself somewhere inside the couch, and there was nothing we could do to get it out. I was tired and went to sleep, but when the others (who'd stayed out in Cholula) got home late that night, they found Jeff (another house-mate) waving a broomstick at the couch. In the morning, the couch had been moved outside the house, and was still there by the time we left Mexico. Having the couch in front adds a touch of class to the spider-and-rat infested house surrounded by packs of dogs, don't you think?

On Tuesday night we all caught a bus back to Mexico City. A little tiny car next to the bus was weaving, and eventually I guess tried to merge in front of the bus, and clipped the front of the bus (I didn't see this part, it was on the other side). The bus lurched a little but the car spun and hit the median hard (this part I did see). The bus just kept going. Yikes. It took us a while to find the shuttle bus that would take us to the hotel we were staying at, but finally did, and got an all-too-brief 3 hours of sleep. Then, back to the airport at 4am, plane changes at SFO and Seattle, and too much immigration and customs. Why are Canadian customs and immigration always such assholes? Why do they always ask so many questions, when I'm Canadian and coming home? The Americans don't ask nearly as much and at least they're polite, sometimes downright friendly. When I finally got to Vancouver it took 2.5 hours to get from the airport to the ferry terminal, which caused me to miss the ferry I was aiming for. There's got to be something wrong with their bus system when I had to wait at Airport Station for over an hour, and two busses of the right route told me to get on the next one because they weren't going all the way to Ladner. Someone else had been waiting there for an hour longer than me! At least the bus driver in Ladner let me on with my expired transfer after I told him my story. I finally got home at 11 that night. Normally I'm fine with marathon travel, but I'm tired of flying and I'd been doing so much moving around in the last week that it's started to wear thin.

Being back in Canada was strange at first. I always have much more difficulty adapting to first-world conditions than I do to third-world conditions. It's perfectly normal to me that you don't drink tap water and throw toilet paper into the garbage, not the toilet. That makes sense. Why would you over-engineer a system so much that tap water is potable when most of it goes down the drain, and that the sewers can handle paper? Why would you eat terrible fast food at places like Burger King when there could be street vendors selling delicious tacos or noodles or idlis at a fraction of the price? But what really got me was the lack of eye contact, particularly from random people. I guess it's just something I got used to, and I probably got more of it in Mexico because of my appearance. The other thing I noticed is just how much here is owned by Americans. It's funny that American companies always caught my eye in Mexico and stood out, but it's always seemed so normal that everything in Canada is American, when it really is quite strange. But on Thursday I hopped onto my bike and cycled to some familiar places, heard the birds and looked at the cherry blossoms and blooming flowers, and it was felt good to be back.

Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of: Thumbnail of:

Comments

Posted on Mon, 22 Mar 2020 at Saanich, BC, CA (altitude 96m) (map/google earth)