Itinerant Fling

Merida Cathedral

After having so much fun with Gabriel and François in Guadalajara we took off for Merida. We’ve never heard about this city before, but has more than 1 million inhabitants and is located in the Yucatan Peninsula. We flew to Merida using Viva Aerobus and despite the crazy line at the check-in, it was a nice and cheap way to travel large distances in Mexico.

Ghost like Altar

We got in Merida on October 31st to stay for the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) that happens officially on November 2nd. But as we arrived, we learned that most of the festivities have already occurred with only one tiny festival remaining that same night in a place called Dizibilchaltun, 30 minutes north of the city.

Most of the people who choose to celebrate go to the cemeteries during the day and night, building altars with things the dead person liked: food, drinks (even alcoholic), toys, person objects, pictures of the dead and lots and lots of candles. The altars are quite pretty and Catrina, (for lack of better way of describing her) is the patron saint of this holiday although is just a skeleton. Imagine the Grateful Dead Skeleton but in a dress; she is everywhere in Mexico this time of the year.

Catrina

Merida is a cute town, but there is not much to do there and it was raining again quite a bit, so we headed to Chichen Itza. For those who don’t know this place, besides being a Unesco World Heritage Site, it was also chosen as one of the Seven New World Wonders. The Kukulkan pyramid is by far the most impressive building, but this place is packed with tourists even though it is low season. Our guide said that it was empty with probably around 2,000-3,000 people, but during high season this place sometimes has up to 10,000 tourists taking pictures and learning about this special place for the Mayas.

Kukulkan in Chichen Itza

We are now spending some time in the Riveiera Maya, just south of Cancun . Weather is great. To see more pics take a look at this link.

Saimos de Oaxaca e fizemos uma viagem meio louca de aviao com muita demora e estravio de um Ipad que demorou quase 10 horas.

Uma das dezenas de lojas em Tlaquepaque

Chegamos na segunda maior cidade desse pais cansados, mas com toda a parafernalia que trouxemos. Guadalajara tem 7 milhoes de habitantes e parecia muito com uma Fortaleza sem predios grandes. Por causa disso a cidade esta espalhada sobre uma grande area pra abrigar toda essa gente.

Ao chegarmos a cidade estava totalmente preparada pros Pan-americanos. Anuncios do evento por todos os lados e  podia-se ver delegaçoes de varios paises no meio da rua. A cidade da tequila, dos mariachis eh o retrato fiel do Mexico. Saimos do aeroporto e fomos a uma cidedezinha do lado chamada Tlaquepaque onde existe o melhor artesanato do Mexico. As lojas sao de dar inveja a qualquer loja do Soho em Nova Iorque. E o o lugar estava fervendo por causa dos jogos do Pan.

Orquestra no meio da praça. Dava arrepios!!!!!

Mae e irmao do Gabriel

Ficamos na casa da mae do Gabriel (nosso amigo que vive em Toronto) e foi um espetaculo. Nao ha nada melhor que conhecer a cidade com moradores locais. Por uma semana tivemos um dos melhores presentes: a hospitalidade mexicana.

Jogo do Pan. Um espetaculo!!!!!!!

Alem de visitar os pontos turisticos, fomos, eh claro, ver os jogos do Pan. Assistimos esgrima e um excelente jogo de volei entre Canada e EUA.

No dia seguinte viajamos a Puerto Vallarta, clique aqui. A viagem foi bem tranquila e demorou 5 horas cruzando montanhas e uma floresta tropical ate chegar no maior balneario do Pacifico mexicano.

Vallarta

Vallarta eh grande e esta crescendo bastante. Tem um calçadao enorme que lembra muito a Beira-Mar de Fortaleza. Com varias lojas, bares restaurantes com um estilo bem americano, pra agradar o turista de varios cruzeiros que abordam todos os dias no porto local.

Levamos conosco a mae do Gabriel, dona Raquel, e resolvemos ficar num hotel super conveniente , na beira da praia que vinha com tudo incluido. TUDO mesmo, comida e ate bebida, 24 horas por dia por 65 dolares/pessoa/dia. Uma pechincha! Mas a comida nao era das melhores e ficando num lugar desses voce tende a nao explorar muito a cidade.

Ficamos na praia por 4 dias e voltamos a Guadalajara pra no caminho ver uma procissao com os restos do Papa Joao Paulo II, que apesar de ser interessante, atrasou bastante nossa viagem. Ficamos mais duas noites em Guadalajara quando saimos pra noitada que por sinal eh muito legal.

Vamos falar depois sobre a comida no Mexico, pois achamos que merece um relato exclusivo. Um dos restaurantes que fomos em Vallarta foi um espetaculo, se chama : No way Jose. Se voce for em Vallarta, saia do seu hotel e faça uma merecida visita nesse restaurante.

Um obrigado muito especial ao Gabriel, sua mae e seu irmao e tantas outras pessoas tao legais que conhecemos em Guadalajara e Puerto Vallarta que fizeram essa parte da viagem ter um gosto bem especial.

Pra mais fotos dessa parte da jornada basta apertar no AQUI.

Em seguida a peninsula de Yucatan

We flew from Oaxaca to Guadalajara, to see the map click here.

Guadalajara is Mexico’s second largest city with 7 million inhabitants. The land of Tequila and Mariachis does not have tall buildings, so to contain this amount of people the city is sprawled-our over many miles and traffic was a little messy.

Design Shop with Lots O Lights

We started off by heading over to Tlaquepaque.  It’s a cute suburb/neighborhood of Guadalajara.  It has lots of designer shops and trendy restaurants.

Band Playing & Celebatrating!!!!!

The city was alive with lots of energy while we were there. The Pan American games were held here & lots of people were out & about.

Gabe's Mom & Brother With Marcelo

We stayed with Gabe’s mom & brother, both of who was very gracious & hospitable. We also went to see some fencing & got to see the Canadian vs USA men’s volleyball. It was tons o fun as the sets were quite close. Canadians were triumphant in the 5th set by 3 points.

Canucks vs Yankees

We drove to Puerto Vallarta, click here to see the route: beautiful drive through the mountains into a lush tropical forest as you get closer to the Pacific coast.

Puerto Vallarta View from the Boardwalk

PV is located in a large bay, surrounded by large green mountains. It is extremely hot during the day & is filled with several beach-lined hotels. Gabe’s mom traveled with us & we stayed 3 days at a super-convenient “all-inclusive” resort. These kinds of places have their good & bad points, but the main draw back is that as a tourist, you don’t explore the area as much.

Relaxing close to the beach

We went back to Guadalajara to stay two nights and bid a fond-farewell to Gabe & François. Our last night out in the city was amazing as we met a lot of people and stayed out dancing until the late morning and got to see the final leg of the Pan American Games’ Marathon. The runners are troopers and so are we.

The food on these legs of the trip has been especially good. Locals always know where to go. One really good, but slightly expensive restaurant in PV is worth mentioning: No Way José had amazing food & really good service.

Finally we would like to say MUCHAS GRACIAS to Gabriel and François, Gabriel’s mother and brother who received us sooooo well in GDL an so many people who showed us the city and places that made our visit to this area extra-special.

To see more pics of Guadalajara & Puerto Vallarta, click here.

Next up Yucatan Peninsula.

Depois de ter adorado a Cidade do Mexico, nos voamos em direçao ao sul do pais pra essa cidade que se chama Oaxaca, com François e Gabriel. Usamos uma companhia area bem barata chamada Viva Aerobus. Melhor que ir de onibus, apesar de ter que se acordar as 3:30 da manha.

Oaxaca eh bem maior do que eu imaginava. A cidade tem mais de 250.000 pessoas e fica num vale muito bonito, cercado pelas cadeias da Sierra Madre e das Montanhas Rochosas. Hoje a cidade tem uma mistura de predios modernos e coloniais, mas sua historia eh bem mais antiga e existem vestigios de civilizaçao desde antes de 1.500 AC. Ainda se ve ruinas de construçoes que os espanhois nao destruiram depois do “descobrimento”. No centro historico, que tambem eh Patrimonio da Humanidade pela Unesco, a arquitetura colonial lembra muito Antigua e as varias igrejas de pedra completam um cenario bem pitoresco.

The thickest tree in the world - 2000 years old

Algo que nos chamou a atençao em Oaxaca foi perceber que a cidade esta VIVA o tempo todo. Varias pessoas nas ruas e praças, gente vendendo de baloes a ceramicas, passando por todos os tipos de comida e ate gafanhotos. Muitos artistas de rua e varios mercados um perto do outro fazem a cidade ser cheia de cores, de sons e com um cheirinho de comida diferente a cada 10 passos que voce da.

Por falar em gafanhotos, esse foi meu almoço em um dos dias na cidade. Veio refogado com pimentao, tomate e cebola e nos comemos com guacamole  e enrolado numa tortilha. Voce pode ver o video aqui.

Nos visitamos as ruinas de Monte Alban e Mitla, que foram cidades indigenas construidas milhares de anos atras e comemos bastante da famosa cozinha de Oaxaca e seus famosos molhos tipo “mole” (com chocolate).

Na verdade nos queriamos passar mais alguns dias  em Oaxaca, mas temos que ir a Guadalajara, pois a familia do Gabriel e os jogos Pan Americanos estao esperando por nos.

Temos links das fotos de Oaxaca, mas outro dia baixei alguns videos da viagem. Espero que voces gostem.

After having a really good time in Mexico City we decided to fly to Oaxaca with François and Gabriel using this low budget airline called Viva Aerobus and although we had to wake up at 3:30 AM, it was well worth it.

Oaxaca is bigger than I thought. It has around 250 K people living in this city that is surrounded by the Sierra Madre and Rocky Mountains; Today the city ha a mix of colonial and modern buildings, but has history as far back as 1500 BC. We can still see some ruins the Spaniards did not destroy along with the beautiful colonial buildings and stone carved churches all over town.

The thickest tree in the world - 2000 years old

One aspect of Oaxaca impressed us: that the city seems always to be ALIVE. Tons of people on the street selling from food to balloons, to lottery tickets and grasshoppers. Also street artists and several vibrant markets really close to one another. The city is full of colors, sounds and every few steps you can smell a different spice in the air.

We visited the ruins of Monte Alban and Mitla, previous Zapoteca cities, and we ate the outstanding Oaxaqueña cuisine who is very known for its special “mole” sauces.

But the interesting part of this trip was eating grasshoppers, you can see a video right here.
 

We would love to spend a few more days in Oaxaca, but we have to go to Guadalajara, after all Gabriel moms and the Pan American games are awaiting for us.

If you care to see some more pics of Oaxaca, click here, and if you would like to see more  videos from our entire trip, not just Oaxcaca.