This Actually Happened

Yesterday, on the way to Chablekal, we had a conversation in the car that went almost exactly like this (don't really remember how we got on the subject):

Karina: "Oh! You know what I want to do when we get back to Utah? I want to go ice-skating. I haven't been since I lived in Spanish Fork. Do you know how long ago that was [Over fifteen years]?"

Justin: "Yeah! I haven't been for years either. I like ice-skating."

Karina: "We need to remember to go this winter, oh wait, we can just go to Seven Peaks whenever. We need to remember to go when we get back. I mostly just want to see if I can still do it."

Justin: "I like ice-skating."

Or something like that. Anyway, then Karina had the idea to stop at this HUGE mall (complete with a casino btw) later that night otw back to civilization, which was still open pretty late. This mall was great. There was a train ride, some guys painted up in orange mime (kinda like a Mexican Orange Man Group) ambiguously pitching cellphone plans, stores with interesting names, lotsa Mexicans, no Americans, a horse, a man on fire, a movie theater, and a guy getting stabbed with a trident!

A lot of the store's names are in English, which probably have a certain chicness to the non English speakers here (we imagine something akin to ritzy clothing stores in America with French names or something, sounding sophisticated on the tongue but probably translating to "Sour Meat."). Here's the one we liked the best. We're aware that we have these back home, it's just that seeing it out of context like this totally changed our interpretation, especially when considering that the non English speakers most likely don't get the "haha" word-play obvious to English speakers.



All of that came later though. The first little miracle was the best of all. After parking our clowncar and documenting the existence of the in-mall casino, we stepped through the soundless space doors of the mall's South facing entrance (true actually), wayfaring toward the mysterious North. As we rounded the first corner, the shroud of disbelief was lifted from our eyes. The heavens parted. Karina gasped-squealed, nearly wetting her bombachas. And, about 40 minutes later, after a much needed bathroom stop, buying some socks, and being sucked into a time-vortex pet store, this (you guessed it) is what we did...

Hallelujah!!!!



"Weeeeeeeeeeee!"



"Weeeeeeeeeeee!"



"Weeeeeeeeeeee!"



"Weeeeeeeeeeee!"



Some of the kids can really skate too, but one guy was having a little more trouble. Justin caught this snap of Karina as the determined skater biffed it face-first to Karina's right. The force of the man's impact on the ice (which muffled his cry of "No ultra vez! [Not again!]") startled Justin, causing him to accidently depress the camera button at that exact moment. In his alarm, Justin also wet his bombachas.


"Doh!"




THE FUN WAS ENDLESS


"I like ice-skating. Do you?"



"Yes, I also like ice-skating. I loves it!"



*ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*! *SWWWWWWIIIISSSSHHHHH*!



*ice-skates gliding on recently-zambonied-ice-sound*!




*singing*, *sighs*, *applause*, the end.






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Chupacabra!!

Architecture

Merida and the surrounding area is famous, in part, for its architecture and monuments. Much of the architecture is of a European hybrid style that is unique to this part of the world. Here's just a few of the shots that we've taken. Being around so much building-art is nice. If you're gonna build it, might as well make it pretty. Even many of the small, "common" residences on the regular streets are nice to look at.


This is one of the major monuments in Merida, set in the center of a roundabout in the middle of one of the largest roads in the city (much like the placement of other monuments in Merida). It depicts much of the history of Mexico, and, as you can see, is pretty neato-benito. Click the pics to zoom in for detail.



This guy is pretty serious.



This is the same image (in statue form) that is the Mexican coat of arms on the Mexican flag. There's a pretty cool history, legend, and symbolism surrounding it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_coat_of_arms
-The Tenochtitlan Legend.



The engraving right behind the above picture.



Karina. :)



Some European-looking architecture.



Some European-looking architecture.



This is the entranceway of a University that we passed. The slogan translates the same as "The Golden Rule."



As we were walking around, we were suddenly overcome by an overwhelming brain-numbness. We became docile and suggestible as most of our cerebral function ground to a halt. Wiping the drool from our mouths, a fleeting lightning-flash of situational awareness tingled in our minds' deeper recesses. Somehow (gracias a Dios), we mustered the composure to document the source of our mental debilitation, and quickly escort ourselves to safety.



This cute little church is a block and a half from our apartment in El Parque de Santa Maria. There are a bunch of little restaurants in the park where we eat almost every day. Karina has become addicted to Mexican sandwiches (Tortas) which she prefers in pork (cochinitas). Sadly (for her), the dominate Yucatan style of salsa is made from habenero (the third hottest chile in the world), not jalapeno or chile de arbol like other parts of mexico. She has been earning awesome girlfriend points by being a complete trooper and trying EVERYTHING though.



Same church a few minutes later.



Streets near our apartment. For sure, the only Dodge Viper we've seen out here which happened to show up in the frame. Makes the picture kinda weird. Most people drive VW bugs here and stuff. Karina took this one.



No cars.



Some European-looking architecture. Someone's little castle house on Paseo Montejo.



Another house.



This style of arch is found all over this area. We photoed this one on a drive we took yesterday near some ruins we were scoping out (still closed). This little town where this and the following pictures were taken is called Chablekal.



Little church in Chablekal. On a Saturday, most of the churches we passed, even in the little towns, were full.



We passed this cool-looking derelict building, and I decided that I must climb up it using the corner bricks on the right-hand side of the shot.



Then Karina took this great picture of it from a little further back, just after sunset. This building was like 836,283 dirt roads into an uber-rural area, just sitting in the middle of nowhere for some reason. Oh, there was a drove of goats somewhere nearby. Their bleating, along with the clucks of chickens, told the tragic tale of the building's last occupants.

Louisa and Juan Filipe were lovers (apparently) united in their love for all goat-kind, torn by the greed of big city land prospectors. Having spent their life's sweat and savings on goat chow and shovels, they were forced to sell their goat sanctuary or let it go to waste. Now the goats' new masters only give the goats half their usual goat chow every other day, and every so often the new master's children poke the goats with sticks. Brother goats, sister goats, cousin goats, auntie goats, kids, and parent goats, half-starved, intentionally irritated from time to time by their should-be protectors, without warning, reason, or explanation.

"Who will remember the goats of Louisa? Who will remember the goats of Juan Filipe? Do you have any more goat chow?," they sing (in Spanish of course) into the fragrant night and into the empty walls of the desiccated farmhouse.

They say Juan Filipe and Louisa walk the streets of Chablekal at night, pinching pesos from the pockets of passers-by, sprinkling a mournful thoroughfare of goat chow behind them.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day Moms! All you Moms: Karina's Mom, Justin's Mom, Your Mom, allathem. That's it! Thank you for giving us birth into this crazy, awesome world!

If you're a TAEASGJ Fan, this is for you.

"Where's my little Chippy?"....







"Here Chip Chip!"....












"There's my Chippy."












*SCREECH*!!!!!







For those not yet enlightened... http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=8a25c3921663462a01166395123d005e

Catching Up

We're currently about five posts behind, but we'll be catching up shortly!

Oceanside City of Progreso

Progreso is the biggest beach city on this side of the peninsula. Here's some pics from when we chilled there two days ago. It was exciting for us because (sadly) it was the first time we had been to the ocean together <3


This pier is the longest in the world we're told. Over five miles long! It accepts cruise ships (which haven't been coming because of the flu thing until yesterday, we're told) and most of the freight for this side of Yucatan.



This is the street on which one is bombarded by vendors selling their wares, especially if you're the only Americans in the whole pinche city.



I folded.



I guess there was some fantastic postcardesque view that had me enthralled in the direction I was looking. Good thing I keep my eyes open or I might miss something breathtakingly beautiful...



This is when it's great to be the only tourists in Mexico. On this day at least, every shop, restaurant and bar was exactly this empty (unless we were in it). Here, a very cool bartender/restaurant proprietor named Luciano invited us to drinks, ceviche (Mexican sushi. Karina's first and the best I've ever had), sombreros for pictures, and, eventually (once the mood was right), novelty aprons complete with reproductive organs in just the right places. Incidently, Luciano's wife, Lousia, sells table cloths and clothes at the Plaza Americana near our apartment. He was very bored. Thank you flying-pig-flu!



Luciano had a Mexican and a Canadian flag displayed outside his place of business. Why not an American one? (more to come on that soon. We picked up a couple of newspapers...)



This picture makes me want to make babies. Yes, little Mexican/American/Argentine/Mediterranean/Scandinavian babies.



I warned you about the aprons.



Family-friendly version if you prefer.



The aprons made us RANDY!! (sorry Randy Paige)



sandy feet


J&K

The Release of Guillerma(o), The Sorely Misunderstood Arachnid. . .Thing

This is Guillerma.  Our second night here, upon going to the kitchen for some water, we found her hanging out.  At first I thought it was a cockroach, because lets face it, I've been to Mexico before.  As I got closer, it looked more like a spider to me.  Justin caught it in a tupperware container, he definitely deserves points for that.  After looking are her up close, we couldn't tell if she really was a spider.  I mentioned she almost looked like a lobster or crab, and Justin said it looked like a scorpion (he's so freaking smart).  I contacted a Zoologist friend to see if he could help us identify her.  This is what he said:

Nice find! Those are really cool creatures - a type of arachnid,
distinct from scorpions and spiders. They go by a number of names,
like tailless whip scorpion or amblypgygid. They are pretty shy and
can't hurt you in any way - no poison, weak pinch, etc. I've only
seen a couple of these in my whole life (in Costa Rica) so I'm excited
on your behalf! Thanks for thinking of me when you found it and it's
 really nice to hear from you. I hope your adventure is, well,
adventurous!

Arlo

Pretty cool huh?!?!

He also mentioned in a comment that you can see one of these on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. So if it looks familiar to you (like it was to Justin) that is probably why.  Here is the link for that part in the movie:

• http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tL3dhdGNoP3Y9ejFBMDg4eFFpc0k=

For more info on Amblypgyids, go to:

• http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tL3dhdGNoP3Y9ejFBMDg4eFFpc0k=

The video above is Guillerma's release.  We hope she's doing well, we will miss her.

Justin & Karina

(posted by Karina)

Comments

Hey everyone! We stopped being retarded and figured out how to change the settings so that you don't have to register to comment! Comment away!!!!!

(btw, we have internet up and running in our condo now thanks to Daniel and Karina. We'll be posting most everyday from here on out)

Living Quarters, Transportation, Local Residents

Our apartment´s backyard.

View of backyard from our balcony.

Our golfcart car. Hauls butt actually.

Moon over Merida from our balcony. 12:30 a.m. 30 second exposure

Same shot with Karina. 15 second exposure.

Guillermo (Guillerma?).

Images

Having trouble uploading images at the moment. Hopefully we´ll get that resolved soon. Cool stuff otw if we do :)

For now, we´ll be putting some up on Karina´s facebook page. If you´re not her facebook friend, feel free to request an invite.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=728296501&ref=profile#/profile.php?id=652266864

(check out our "houseguest," Guillermo!)

Third¬world Country?

One of our reasons for wanting to travel (to Mexico included) is to get a better idea of where America fits in to the grand scheme of things globally. By "fits in," we mean how America is similar and different from other countries, culturally, religiously, economically, etc.

Most Americans consider or at least think of Mexico (or at least parts of Mexico) as a third¬world country. Under this consideration, we sought to uncover exactly why this is, why Mexico and Mexicans are poor (by assumptions based on American standards). We were thrilled upon arriving because we thought we had immmediately found the reason: $16.00 for a Coke!, $25.00 for a pack of smokes!, $400.00 to eat out!. Outrageous! Of course these people are broke, paying prices like those! We were quite mistaken.

Apparently, there´s this thing called an "exchange rate." Apparently, Mexicans have their own money too. A little ambitious for a "third¬world" country don´t you think? Well, ambitious or not, we were baffled to discover this, and equally baffled to discover what the nature of the "exchange rate" implies concerning how America "fits in" (*cough*) in the world. Turns out, things are cheap in Mexico.

Actually, as far as we can tell, Americans might be more broke on average than Mexicans are. As far as we can tell, it seems pretty easy and inexpensive to supply one´s self with the necessities down here. Even our brief interactions with government and military officials have seemed to be exceptionally organized, fair, friendly, and charged with genuine concern for the people. Of course, this is only after a few days observation and interaction, so we´ll keep posting and all, but as of right now, being in the third¬world feels like a hook¬up.

Like anywhere, there are some things not to like (like our first houseguest and having to place used bathroom tissue in a waste basket as oppossed to flushing it), but we think it´s a fair trade so far. Also, there are a lot of stray kitties, but it´s kinda like having free community pets :) And who doesn´t like kitties? (evil people, that´s who)

The "swine flu" is pretty much a joke too btw. Every local we have talked to is appalled by the media hype surrounding the "pandemic" and unilaterally attribute it to some kind of political agenda. Pretty much everything for Cinco de Mayo was cancelled yesterday, and most of the tourist areas are closed through Thursday. The people here are very upset about this, and we don´t blame them.

Well, we´re still working on getting our laptop working in our amazing condo (the lower floor of which we have been invited to use for free (including the pool) since there´s no one occupying it), that way we can post daily without having to pay a HORRENDOUS $12.00/hr. for internet use (less than an American dollar lol). Until then, peace out. ¬Justin and Karina

P.S. Mexican key¿¡çrds are wierd.

(posted by Justin)

We made it

We made it to Merida last night. Unfortunately, we don´t have internet working at our apartment, because my laptop sucks. Some kind of DNS and proxy problem I can´t figure out. I don´t know how often we´ll be able to post stuff... if at all. Anyway, it´s hot here, like in the high 80´s low 90´s, but extremely humid. After getting out of the shower, it feels like my hair never completely dries over the entire course of the day. We love you all. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Oh... I almost forgot, you guys are probably still worried about the swine flu... It´s starting to look like it´s completely political propaganda. It´s as apparent here as the chupa cabra. We did pass a toll/customs post on the way here where military guys (armed with fully automatic weapons) took our temperature with a handheld laser thingy though. I´m guessing they were checking to see if we had the ¨American¨ flu. Other than that, the people here seem more healthy than in the U.S. (with the exception of dental hygiene). Well I´m off to the market to get some food, adios!

K