Valentine's Day in Mexico. There were all sorts of flowers for sale on the street, and when I left the hotel early in the morning to make phone calls, there were men with flowers in the baskets of their bikes. Very charming. I guess people really do it up around here. All these girls between about 13 and 20 were walking around with flowers and plastic windowed pink and red boxes, stuffed animals, decorated bags. Very sweet. On the bus from Zihuatenejo to Cuernavaca, we saw the same thing. People kept saying happy day, in english. it was cute.
And we survived our first long bus ride. It was actaully very nice on a very nice mostly airconditioned bus (yet for some reason all of us still felt sick for a lot of it.) The timing was good though. We drove through all the little towns during the daytime, so we got to see the country. I'm afraid that describing it will just sounds silly, because it's exactly what you'd expect to see--old men in hammocks, little kids chasing dogs, little road side stands selling sweets. Each stop we made there would be a woman right outside the door selling enchiladas or empenadas. We stuck to the tortillas and bananas that we brought with us.
Cuernavaca is pretty nice. It's mostly just a big city. It's striking though how, here at least, commerce is a little different. Instead of the superstores with everything, there are lots of little stores that sell specific things. A store for dills. A store for clothes. A store for paper. A store for shoes. A farmacia just sells medicine. A food store mostly just sells food. Phoebe says it's a little like New York City. There are supermarkets too, to be sure, but there are fewer of them, and the ones that I've noticed are outside of the city.
Today we will get on a bus to go to Puebla, which is a colonial town. Or something like that. I've left it in the hands of Cheka and Phoebe to decide where we're going. I'm looking forward to getting to the orphanage. Travelling is nice, but it feels a little...useless, in a way.
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It's funny how in many ways commerce shapes our idea of a foreign place, or at least helps us focus on what's different from home. I remember my first trip to Canada; everything looked like any city I might visit, except that none of the chain stores had familiar names, brands, or logos. Almost like a different country.
I'm glad you enjoyed your bananas. The same place that makes the peanut butter with raisins also makes peanut butter with bananas. Earlier today I was walking around and wishing I had some. These are some very interesting comments I am putting on your blog.
Candy is cheap the day after Valentine's Day. That should be called the true Feliz Dia. -M.
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