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Face masks, Para Llevar, Fahitas, Spice, Somero Police
Well how things can change in the space of a week, I left you in Caracas for a new adventure in Mexico and here I am heading home on Sunday after just one week!
Anyone let`s start at the very beginning...
So on the 26th Chris and I leave for Caracas airport a feat in itself as our taxi is stopped on the highway and we are told to hand our passports over to the police.. what seems like 10 mins later the taxi driver is allowed to drive us on.. he later tells us they were basically bribing him against his licene. Anyway we arrive at the airport, I have a spanish speaking airline taking me to Mexico City so when they charge me this massive airport tax and then say in broken english about an injection I am close to tears! After begrudgling handing over 200 Bolivars we queue and queue for security.
Finally after saying our goodbyes I board the plane for Mexico, I arrive three quite late (face masks start making their presence known!) and head for my stop over hotel by taxi, again this becomes a chore as the taxi driver gets lost and starts asking ME for directions! NO ENTIENDO!
Get to the hotel late but it is worth it as the room is amazing, so clean and with a ot showere too.. things I haven`t had in ages!
The next day I head on the metro for my Hostel, face masks again seem the in trend here! The hostel is based behind the Cathedral and the main plaza so sitting smugly until check in at the gorgeous hostel I have chosen for myself I start looking round and seeing a medical tent, press and the general quietness of the town.. mm I start to think!
At check in the mmm, turns into s***E! The receptionist informs me that Breakfast and Dinner (for which the cost of the bed includes) will now only be a boxed affair (this later turns out to be a boxed drink, banana and a snack bar), that all nightlife activities here are cancelled and that all day tours are too! He then tells me only 15 people our of a hostel of 200 beds are booked. After I dump my bags in the empty 6 dorm bed I head downstairs where two english speaking people are on the Intenet, we head off for dinner (stopping briefly to get a mask and be interviewed by a French Canadian TV show) where I have Fahitas (HOT HOT) - well you have to in Mexico don`t you?!
The next day myself and one other fellow captive explore the city..have one interviews with a Spanish American network (another Norweigian one we turned down - oh the fame!) when I say explore I mean walk around as all museums and public buildings are closed. For lunch I have some cakes from a local bakery in a plaza whilst attempting to slyly take a piccy of a policeman on a horse wearing a face mask and a yes you guessed it sombrero! He wasn`t happy about the piccy .. trying to take his hat off.. how dare he ruin my Kodak moment! After that we walk about a bit more before heading back to the Hostel, not before I have a taco from a street stall with chicharro - so HOT HOT . We meet up again a bit later to have some street food, I have a Quesa dilla which again burns my tongue.. OLD EL PASO this food isn`t! Evening consists of sitting on the terrace with the remaining residents.
Wednesday is spent on the internet, desperately searching for somewhere else to go, then the evening is spent eating Pot noodle with the two remaining english speakng girls on the terrace. All restaurants are now Para llevar and it seems the medical tent has run out of face masks!
Thursday I make the decision to head home, I didn`t want to but seeing the town so dead and empty and hearing about tourist flights being cancelled to Cancun and travellers leaving I feel what am I here for? I don`t want to travel round Mexico by myself, abd meeting this Swiss girl leaving on Friday and telling me how dead North Mexico was and that she spent days by herself I knew I had made the rights decison.. After changing my flights I head off o explore Zona Rosa and Paseo Reforma District .. absolutely beautiful and again I get stopped for an interview, though i turn it down as he wants me to speak (shock horro) Spanish to him! Head to a Handicraft market but it is really soul dstroying being the only one walking round there and being accosted everywhere with " Senorita, here here!". Ohg yeah I get stopped by an english speaking Jehovah Witness - they are everywhere! Dinner and Lunch are bought from a small shop and the night time is spent drinking Corona by myself on the empty terrace... I know I am such a victim!!
FRIDAY IS NOW HERE.. ONE DAY left in Mexico.Whilst I feel obviously dissappointed it has been incredible (is that the right word?) to be here with this all happening, it has made me realise how damaging the media can be first hand and also how friendly the Mexican people are and how safe it seems as well. I definitely will be back!
Quotes of the week:
"How do you feel about this situation?" TV REPORTER TO ME
Girl I met in the hostel: " No big deal, I am not worried." TV Reporter: " Why are you wearing a face mask then?"
" Agua Mineral" Chris`s response to what her name was in spanish.
Surprising things about Mexico:
- They do wear sombreros here!
- There is a 7 Eleven shop on every corner.
- Mexican food is very different to back home.
- Cornoa is popular here!
- Prices are good.. a McDonald`s (one of the only food outlets open) meal costs just one pound 50 and a coffee in a cafe costs 80 pence!
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