Weather Helmed

– As soon as we pulled into the La Cruz Marina last week, we started hearing this weird crackling noise, almost like it was starting to rain.  As we lay in bed that night, we realized it was thousands of tiny sea monsters either 1) eating away at stuff growing on our hull and/or 2) attaching themselves to the boat with a relatively loud sucking sound.  So, everyday, we listen, non-stop, to snap-crackle-pop rice krispies.

– Mexico is not cheap.  TACOS in Mexico are cheap, but that’s about it.  I’ve been hugely disappointed by how expensive things are here. I mean, yes, they’re slightly cheaper than the US, but I’ve spent my whole life hearing about how **cheap** things are in Mexico and now I’m here and I can’t find any cute sundresses under $20USD, I’ve spent way too much on stupid taxis (for grocery runs, etc), have been really shocked by some of the grocery store prices, and have yet to experience that “aieeeeee!!! I can’t believe I got this for that!” kind of cheap-o Mexico feeling.  People say we’re in the wrong place because we’re in the “touristy” part of Mexico.  But, really, where are you actually going to GO that isn’t touristy?  There’s a reason why people don’t go to middle-of-nowhere Mexico…  And, with a sailboat, we’re pretty limited in where we end up and, of course, where we end up is where all the beach resorts are and where there are tourists and lots of other cruisers and we get the Gringo prices and I end up with the feeling that the dollar, at it’s lame 1USD:11.8pesos exchange, isn’t really getting us that far.  Needless to say, I’m taco-ed out and Mexico’ed out and am ready to wake up in the beautiful South Pacific.

– On the bus the other day, I was in a horrible mood.  I was thinking about our temporary life here in La Cruz and initially became worried that I had lost my love of traveling. I found myself thinking, “It would be so much easier if they spoke english; their buses didn’t suck; it was cooler; I had a car; I didn’t have to interact with all these people…”  Aah!  I sounded so……. American.  BUT – then I recognized the DRASTIC difference between wandering around because you have nothing else to do and wandering around because you have a TASK to accomplish and projects to complete.  So, I reconciled my grumpiness with the fact that it’s really hard to get anything of significance done here when you are on a budget, on a timeline, and don’t really know where anything is that you need.  I DO like to travel, but I guess I prefer the traveling that doesn’t also coincide with WORK.

– When I look around La Cruz and see children walking barefoot on dirty, nasty dog and bug-infested, gnarly broken glassed cobble streets, I think, “Ugh. Why would you want to raise kids in this place?”  But then, at 9:00pm, a truck with tons of laughing kids in the back drives by on its way to the park for a local carnival where the kids will be eating cotton candy and jumping in the bounce house til 11 o’clock at night on a school night, and I think, “Hmm… maybe growing up in Mexico wouldn’t be so bad.”

– JUMEX is AWESOME and that Lala boxed milk…. well, I hope Fedex delivers.