05/05/08
We got up and left Guadalajara. It was a nice drive to Morelia but I was cashed by the time we got there having drove close to 20 hours in the past 3 days. Morelia has a very ugly outer city and Matt and I thought we'd only want to stay for a day, but when we discovered the city center we quickly changed our minds. We started at the cathedral and walked several blocks. We stopped on a park bench in the center to watch people pass. Matt noted, "Look at them. They're women and they're with children." We waited outside the cathedral to read and wait for Violetta, our host. She showed us around some more and we went to a fancy bar. As soon as we were alone Matt began telling me how much he loved her.
06/05/08
We woke up and Matt took another cold shower. It seems hot water is a luxury in Mexico. When he got out and dried off, he started itching his back which was irritated from sunburn. He kept complaining, and being extremely over dramatic - as is his fashion. "How can I go out or do anythign with this?" He kept scratching his back, ripping his clothes off, slamming doors, grabbing at his back, dancing in his underwear and wasting almost all of Violetta's lotion while I lied on the ground laughing and snapping pictures. We went to the grocery store for breakfast of doughnuts, bananas, and orchata then went downtown. We went to a museum with amazing engravings and woodprints. I snuck a few pictures while Matt distracted the gaurd.
We met up with Violetta after she got out of school at Casa de Cultura and went out to eat. Then we went to a market with dulces and artenesanias. We drove to another area west of the center so Violetta could go to her grandpa's house. After she left, Matt and I were exploring a park when Matt announced he had to pee and wondered down a main street. I saw him standing behind a car "making art with his prick" on the corner just as a cop was pulling down the adjacent street on a motorcycle. He began yelling that he was going to arrest Matt and he didn't care that people in France pee all up and down every street, because this is Mexico and people here don't do that (Yes, they do!). When I wondered up to see what was going on, the cop asked me, "Quieres ir con tu amigo?". I answered yes, not paying attention, I thought he had asked if I was with him. He had asked if I wanted to go with him, to jail. After a $35 bribe (Yes, that's $3.50 dollars) Matt and I were walking away with nothing more than a relatively cheap story. Matt complained of the cops, "I hate it. You have to fear the cops as much as the criminals. These cops rob me more than any criminal in my life.""
We walked to a nearby university with an alluring campus and decided to enter to read and maybe meet some students. We were the only white people and clearly didn't belong, so everyone had a strong reaction towards us one way or the other. The girls all seemed to take notice and the ones who didn't Matt complained, "I'm tired of all these girls pretending that they are not interested by me." He is genuinely cocky and I felt quite confident with him. "Look at them all. They can't help to look and admire us because we are so attractive and different," he'd say dead-seriously. The women on campus were all big-eyed and smiles. The guys were all defensive scowls. We left feeling like rockstars with Matt constantly pumping us up with lines like: "It's so fun to walk in this beautiful city and attract girls."
We met back up with Violetta and went to a pop art museum with a portrait photo exhibit of a collection of people who live on one of the most crime-ridden streets of Mexico City. Violetta took us to eat in a church basement which had a school cafeteria feel to it, but the food was good and cheap and the eight busboys couldn't take their eyes off my digital camera and lucha libre photos.
That night Violetta took us out to the highest altitude bar in Morelia located on top of the mountain. It was closed, so we continued on to a park with a view overlooking the city. The park was closed and gated, but we were hungry for adventure and felt they had no right to keep us out of the public park. Matt went to the left and I went to the right. I ducked under some barbed wire, went to the end of the fence and found a place we could swing around into the park. I went back to get Matt and Violetta. We were so excited and crazy with the view of the city and the lights in the night. We had the park to ourselves. We were running around. I was taking pictures of everything. We sat on the far edge of the park and took in the view. Violetta turned around facing the park, "Oh!". I turned and there's a security guard standing five feet behind us. He appeared without making any noise and we had no idea how long he had been standing there. He was wearing all black, including a black hat, and black tinted sunglasses and stood with his arms folded over his chest just under his square jaw and ultra-stern expression. He seems to take it as a personal insult that we would dare break into his park. He calls the cops. Three show up: a big, quiet guy, a buff woman, and a little guy who does all the negotiating. They are much more jovial about the whole thing than the security guard had been.
The little guy leader takes the three of us aside and runs us through the routine. First, he scares us, threatening that since Matt and I are foreigners we have to be treated differently - taken to customs. After letting this thought sit for a while, he begins joking with us. Calls me Jesus Cristo Superestrella. This whole time, the other two cops are gawking at the view, taking their phones out and snapping pictures - the same thing that got us in all this trouble. The leader suggests that there may be an easier way to handle this. He says they are hungry and could settle for some money for dinner. But they're really hungry. Just look at the big guy. He can eat a lot. We give them $200 and the female cop is practicing her English on me and they invite us out for drinks. The leader's been eying Violetta this whole time. We pass. They walk us to the front of the park, get in their car. Peel out backwards, up the hill while screaming like George of the Jungle on the loudspeaker. None of us can believe what just happened. We celebrated our victory at a lame sports bar.
We got up and left Guadalajara. It was a nice drive to Morelia but I was cashed by the time we got there having drove close to 20 hours in the past 3 days. Morelia has a very ugly outer city and Matt and I thought we'd only want to stay for a day, but when we discovered the city center we quickly changed our minds. We started at the cathedral and walked several blocks. We stopped on a park bench in the center to watch people pass. Matt noted, "Look at them. They're women and they're with children." We waited outside the cathedral to read and wait for Violetta, our host. She showed us around some more and we went to a fancy bar. As soon as we were alone Matt began telling me how much he loved her.
06/05/08
We woke up and Matt took another cold shower. It seems hot water is a luxury in Mexico. When he got out and dried off, he started itching his back which was irritated from sunburn. He kept complaining, and being extremely over dramatic - as is his fashion. "How can I go out or do anythign with this?" He kept scratching his back, ripping his clothes off, slamming doors, grabbing at his back, dancing in his underwear and wasting almost all of Violetta's lotion while I lied on the ground laughing and snapping pictures. We went to the grocery store for breakfast of doughnuts, bananas, and orchata then went downtown. We went to a museum with amazing engravings and woodprints. I snuck a few pictures while Matt distracted the gaurd.
We met up with Violetta after she got out of school at Casa de Cultura and went out to eat. Then we went to a market with dulces and artenesanias. We drove to another area west of the center so Violetta could go to her grandpa's house. After she left, Matt and I were exploring a park when Matt announced he had to pee and wondered down a main street. I saw him standing behind a car "making art with his prick" on the corner just as a cop was pulling down the adjacent street on a motorcycle. He began yelling that he was going to arrest Matt and he didn't care that people in France pee all up and down every street, because this is Mexico and people here don't do that (Yes, they do!). When I wondered up to see what was going on, the cop asked me, "Quieres ir con tu amigo?". I answered yes, not paying attention, I thought he had asked if I was with him. He had asked if I wanted to go with him, to jail. After a $35 bribe (Yes, that's $3.50 dollars) Matt and I were walking away with nothing more than a relatively cheap story. Matt complained of the cops, "I hate it. You have to fear the cops as much as the criminals. These cops rob me more than any criminal in my life.""
We walked to a nearby university with an alluring campus and decided to enter to read and maybe meet some students. We were the only white people and clearly didn't belong, so everyone had a strong reaction towards us one way or the other. The girls all seemed to take notice and the ones who didn't Matt complained, "I'm tired of all these girls pretending that they are not interested by me." He is genuinely cocky and I felt quite confident with him. "Look at them all. They can't help to look and admire us because we are so attractive and different," he'd say dead-seriously. The women on campus were all big-eyed and smiles. The guys were all defensive scowls. We left feeling like rockstars with Matt constantly pumping us up with lines like: "It's so fun to walk in this beautiful city and attract girls."
We met back up with Violetta and went to a pop art museum with a portrait photo exhibit of a collection of people who live on one of the most crime-ridden streets of Mexico City. Violetta took us to eat in a church basement which had a school cafeteria feel to it, but the food was good and cheap and the eight busboys couldn't take their eyes off my digital camera and lucha libre photos.
That night Violetta took us out to the highest altitude bar in Morelia located on top of the mountain. It was closed, so we continued on to a park with a view overlooking the city. The park was closed and gated, but we were hungry for adventure and felt they had no right to keep us out of the public park. Matt went to the left and I went to the right. I ducked under some barbed wire, went to the end of the fence and found a place we could swing around into the park. I went back to get Matt and Violetta. We were so excited and crazy with the view of the city and the lights in the night. We had the park to ourselves. We were running around. I was taking pictures of everything. We sat on the far edge of the park and took in the view. Violetta turned around facing the park, "Oh!". I turned and there's a security guard standing five feet behind us. He appeared without making any noise and we had no idea how long he had been standing there. He was wearing all black, including a black hat, and black tinted sunglasses and stood with his arms folded over his chest just under his square jaw and ultra-stern expression. He seems to take it as a personal insult that we would dare break into his park. He calls the cops. Three show up: a big, quiet guy, a buff woman, and a little guy who does all the negotiating. They are much more jovial about the whole thing than the security guard had been.
The little guy leader takes the three of us aside and runs us through the routine. First, he scares us, threatening that since Matt and I are foreigners we have to be treated differently - taken to customs. After letting this thought sit for a while, he begins joking with us. Calls me Jesus Cristo Superestrella. This whole time, the other two cops are gawking at the view, taking their phones out and snapping pictures - the same thing that got us in all this trouble. The leader suggests that there may be an easier way to handle this. He says they are hungry and could settle for some money for dinner. But they're really hungry. Just look at the big guy. He can eat a lot. We give them $200 and the female cop is practicing her English on me and they invite us out for drinks. The leader's been eying Violetta this whole time. We pass. They walk us to the front of the park, get in their car. Peel out backwards, up the hill while screaming like George of the Jungle on the loudspeaker. None of us can believe what just happened. We celebrated our victory at a lame sports bar.
