"mucho gracias" ; "mama bichu"

day 2 and 3 in mexico have been great and even more antics from the locals to keep us entertained. yesterday was a recovery from the night before- 1st off check out is @ 2pm- the hotels in the US need to learn from the ones here. that woulda saved many "late checkout" calls after a show. this trip was not really planned out as far as places to stay and what to see. after taking a look @ the frommer and lonely planet we decided on a hotel with lions, yes lions. we are @ a place that is pretty much its own world behind the gate, like many houses in the area. a little money where we are and most places are compounds behind huge iron gates, as is our hotel. we arrive here and grab a few drinks. the wait staff was not too happy with that and the lost in translation conversation ended us up with some food that we didn't ask for yet we couldn't say no. after that we headed to the frida kahlo museum. we took the metro, i was kind of apprehensive @ 1st yet i am so glad to took it. it was pretty much like the NY subway but not as shady as far as staring @ the wall. there was lots of eye contact among the travelers and in a city of 22 million it was odd to see 2 families know each other and exchange hellos and goodbyes like they may have been related. after the incorrect map in the guide book we figured we could not find the museum and just took a walk around the area to see what was there. we happen to stumble across the street that led to the house. frida is a person i knew nothing about really. heard the name here and there but that's about it. julie is a huge fan and i am thankful for this. the art was very advanced as far as what it was. some 3d stuff with drop shadows in her drawings and stuff like that just seemed very advanced for its time, yet i am not an art guru so that means nothing. there were also many things that were kind of alex grey sorta, psychedelic inspired stuff. human heads on animals and things like that. they had her sketch books and it was like looking @ stuart's sketch books with lots of line drawings. i was very impressed. she was alive in an oppressed time for women in mexico and to make such a statement just kind of blows me away. after the museum we returned to the hotel for a meal and to hit the sack pretty early. this is where the fun began. we go to the restaurant with the lions and had the same server from earlier in the day. he asks us our drink order and he suggests a few beers and i told him to bring me his choice...wrong decision. he bring a corona. i tell him i can ge that @ any store by us and i want more a local beer, he returns with a negro modela. i return that b/c of the same situation and this must have made him mad. so i speak a very broken spanish and i mean more broken then hal the broken clown. this is where i became a real life chevy chase in european vacation when he is in france @ the restaurant. he brings me the dinner i ordered and i say gracias, his reply was mama bichu- being my dad knows every spanish profanity there is to man i knew this was not good yet i didn't know what it meant. (it means suck my dick). i was unsure of what i heard so i didn't say anything yet i mentioned it to jules. i order another been and same thing. i was more aww struck then anything. was this guy really saying this? it was kind of pissing me off but i did not want to cause a scene so i just let it go. i should have left his ti as "thanks suck my dick too" but i left him what he deserved and i hope is evening was a waste @ work, being we were the only people in the place.


most people wake up to the crow of a rooster- we wake up to the roar of a lion. this place is the circus we thought it to be. this morning we wake up and board a tour bus to Teotihuacán and the shrine to guadaloupe. the shrine was 1st and it was pretty much a group of churches where mexicans take a pilgrimage to to make sacrifice in exchange for good in their life. the oldest church is sinking like the leaning tower of pizza- so the mexicans have their leaning tower of tacos. they are installing a whole inner support system for this to keep it from sinking more, which is a whole engineering marvel in itself. the ride to the ruins was a sad one. we got to see the poverty stricken parts of mexico city. imagine the worst projects you have ever seen and then make it 10 times worse. houses with tarps as roofs and made of plywood and not much else. i have been asking myself "why do these people come to america, its not that bad here"- then i saw this and now i know why. i think the one thing i have gained out of this trip so far is the respect for the mexicans that have migrated to america in hopes for a better life. there are times in the past they have bothered me and i have made a comment here or there but now that i have seen what the come from and why and that gave me a whole new respect for these people. i would be the 1st one on my way if i was in their situation too. people may bitch(i am one of them) about free handouts in the US to them and some other people but really if anyone deserves them it's the mexicans. they have nothing here, they are not taking what they are given and throwing it away like others for the free ride, they are using our fucked up system to make something from nothing. is it right? maybe not 100%- is it wrong? not nearly as bad as the millionaire with kids on medicade or the family that has been on welfare for years with no ambition to find a job. this trip, mainly today has opened my eyes to this in a whole new way.

Teotihuacán is a city which contains the 3rd largest pyramid in the world. the 2nd is also in mexico- i find pretty fascinating being i always thought it would be in egypt. it also boggles my mind that chichin itsu is one of the "new 7 wonders" yet this place is way bigger. there are the pyramids of the sun and the moon. its kind of funny about them b/c when discovered the president of mexico took some engineers there to see how to excavate it the fastest. they had the brainy idea to use dynamite @ the top to blow all the growth off and what not- @ the same time they blew the top off the moon pyramid, so its missing th complete top 2 levels- i guess government engineering agencies are all fuck ups- ala army core of engineers . this place was ancient ruins means shakedown street. ruins to the left and the right with mexicans selling handmade crap all over on the "avenue of the dead"- all it needed was a few wooks slinging some t shirts and it woulda been perfect. to see something of this size made 2500 years ago, being so exact with strait lines and perfectly level platforms was just amazing. we saw how they used cactus as paper, the same thing used to make thread and then the evolution of tequila. we also saw how they did the carving of the decorative work and the statues and silver smithing- i asked about the crystal skulls and if they had anything of the sort with the aztecs but i got some blank stares and a "como" from the guide so i am going to guess no. we climbed to the top of both the sun and the moon and the views would have been great except the smog is outrageous. my nose has been on the "bleed" setting the entire time from it. this took up pretty much the entire day and kicked out ass- el leche is not el diablo b/c of her lack of sun screen till it was too late. one of the highlights of the day was watching a typical american family make the haul to the top. dad 150 lbs over weight filming the 2 loud mouth complaining kids ahead with the ragged out mom in the back just hating life panting like jenna jamison in a gang bang.

after returning to the hotel we plan the rest of th trip, reserve the hotels over the phone with the translator in 1 hand and the phone in the other. kind of funny in its own respect. we wanted to leave it @ "2 gringos need a room, see ya tomorrow"- so then off to dinner- we get a suggestion from the desk man about where to eat- he gets us a cab and we go to this place that was mcdonalds meets baja fresh. the food was outstanding. i had enchiladas with mola sauce. my mouth was loving it. mola is a blend of chilies with chocolate as a sweetener. we are going to peubla - which is renowned for this sauce and i can not wait. it was so good i wanted to take a bath in it. this was the 1st place we went where no one knew english but we go by. the waiter was so nice and there for our every need. i am not sure what the customary tipping is here but i have a feeling 20% is not the norm. after we left we went outside to wait for the cab and he wanted to give us free drinks on them and wanted to know when we would be back. this is our last day in mexico city till we go home and it was great. the city is great and the people are pretty much welcoming with a few acceptions along the way. the rest of the trip is going to be in the smaller pre colonial towns- which is where we expect to see the "real mexico"