La Huacana

Like I said in the previous post, I woke up and felt great. I guess something inside myself changed overnight and I was able to just take everything in and was ready to experience this country! The first thing I did when I woke up was look around at the house and see it in the daylight. It looked much different and there were palm trees and flowered plants everywhere! It was beautiful! The next thing I did was take a shower...this was an interesting experience. There is running water at the house but there is no hot water so Doña Sofia boiled water for me on the stove and poured it into a large plastic bucket. The shower only had a curtain and was "outside." I got into the shower and had to take water and pour it over me from a cup, needless to say this proved itself difficult when washing out my hair, not to mention that I was so paranoid the curtain would blow open that I had one hand on it at all times =0) ! After this interesting experience, we ate some breakfast. We had chocolaté with pan dulce (sweet bread). You dip the pan into the chocolaté , it was very delicious. I have had similar things at Ulises's house in the US before though so it wasn't too surprising. The bread did taste way better though! Everything is fresh!
After breakfast we just hung around the house because we were tired and we were unpacking and things. I was slightly disappointed because I was so anxious to look around the town. We ended up leaving the house eventually to go to the store on the corner (the one that is apart of his house) and got some snacks. We went over to a family friend's house and got Popsicles. I got a vanilla one; they are made with milk and are all homemade. It was delicious (of course at the time I wasn't even thinking that they had water in them as well and I wasn't supposed to drink the water!) I also got incognito doritos, which are a flavor only available in Mexico, they were the best flavor I have ever had! The chips and sodas taste way different there too, the chips are made with a different blend of corn and all of the factories that make them are in Mexico so the chips are fresh. The cokes are made with a more pure form of sugar and so they are less carbonated and taste way way better than the ones here. We didn't get to try anything else that was too different yet because we were all trying to ease into the change in food. They told me if I started eating too much that I would be sick. The first picture is of the lot that his house is on. The house that is actually pictured in the corner is where the woman and her daughter stay as well as where the convenience store is. The next picture is of the courtyard to the house.

The First Night

We had already been in the car for over 15 hours and I was ready to get there and go to sleep! We passed Ario and I was told it would only be about an hour until we got to La Huacana. La Huacana sits at the bottom of a mountain so it was going to be a bumpy drive. Let me just say that the roads on this mountain are paved BUT there is no railing to prevent your car from flying off of it, the roads are narrow, and the people drive like maniacs! They speed around the corners and if you are going to slow they will just pass around you on a blind curve. People would even speed around you when another car was less than 200 feet away, it was insane!!! My heart was beating so fast. Oh, and it was raining and pitch black also!

The trip down the mountain was very scary and my ears were popping so badly. Then I started feeling sick (I get motion sickness in the car sometimes) so I had to lay down in the back.

I think this was actually better than looking out the window because I don't like heights either!! We finally got to his town and it was probably 2 or 3 in the morning. We were greeted by Doña Alejandra and Ulises's Grandma. They were very enthusiastic in meeting everyone and when they saw me Doña Alejandra jumped up and gave me a huge hug. His Grandma Doña Noni also gave me an instant hug while she said things in Spanish to me. They told me that they had both said I was very pretty.

We actually were staying at the house that Ulises grew up in and his grandma owns the property. The houses are set up in Mexico by square lots. So, Doña Noni owns the whole square lot. There is a brick wall that surrounds the lot and in the lot there are two houses and a shop. Ulises's house is on one side and his Grandma and another woman and her child live in the other house on the lot. His Grandma also owns the shop, which sells convenience store type things.

The two of them left to go to their rooms and we loaded in the luggage. I walked around the house looking at everything, it was so different that I didn't even register it was a house. I started getting extreme culture shock and had to sit down to realize where I was. When we went to sleep that night I cried because I was so overwhelmed, I wasn't sure if I could handle it. But, I talked myself through it and decided to make this an awesome experience. I really had to forget about how I live and my routines and learn all over again. I woke up the next morning and I felt great and excited about this trip.

On the Road to La Huacana

I forgot to say that we ate at a restaurant (one that the family goes to every time they come to Mexico) It was my first real Mexican meal and I ate Tacos de Pollo and strangely enough, the meal came with french fries covered in Mexican queso. It was very delicious but very odd that my first meal in Mexico had french fries with it!


Once we got past the Northern part of Mexico and really started getting into the central and southern parts the landscape and scenery really changed. The vegetation started getting thicker and more tropical, and the highways became more packed. We also started seeing some cities instead of just random houses on the side of the highway. The first city we had to go into was Queretaro. The road that we had to take took us straight into the middle of the city. As we traveled into the city there were cars and people everywhere going about their day. There were tons of cafes and restaurants, movie theaters, and shopping centers. Then, we got to the middle of the city and took a wrong turn...
This was when it got scary. People in Mexico are INSANE drivers and they are very reckless. They would cut in front of you, turn into you, honk their horns constantly, and speed like crazy! We got lost and went straight instead of exiting where we were supposed to go so we ended up in the heart of the city. We went into a tunnel once and turned on the wrong side of the road because there were 3 city buses next to us and they seemed like they were trying to hit us. So, we were stuck in the tunnel with buses and various cars honking at us. The buses are the WORST drivers and they will just hit you, its like they don't care. We almost got in a wreck probably about 4 times, and I don't mean it just might have been a wreck, it would have been one, I am talking like an inch away. The picture that I posted below this is a picture right before our first almost wreck with the bus. You can see the buses ahead of us...So, like I said we were lost. Somehow we made it back to the right exit and Ulises's dad started second guessing himself and decided not to take it. Everyone sighed and said "you should have taken that exit!" He was sure that wasn't it though. So, we found ourselves yet again in the same part of the city, in the middle with all of the crazed drivers. It was very neat to get to see the city, but at the same time we were lost. We yet again almost got in some wrecks and eventually made it to the same exit again. His dad started saying he wasn't going to take it because he didn't think it was the right one and everyone started yelling "take it!" He continued second guessing and almost didn't take the exit again! But, everyone kept yelling and he swerved over to take it right before it was too late. I will post some pics of Queretaro, it was a very pretty city! There were many very nice things there as well as some modern features. One of the first things downtown that I saw was unfortunately McDonalds.










Once we made it out of Queretaro we eventually made it into another smaller city. Ulises told me this city was very large but it was more suburban than Queretaro, he also told me this city was much larger than La Huacana but it looked similar. We got lost in this city too. We spent much more time in this city than we did in the previous and asked directions from probably 5 different people. They all told us different things and we started getting into the residential roads which meant we were very lost. Thank goodness that we made it out and back onto the highway, I was starting to feel like we would be there all day! We were still very far away from La Huacana but everyone was getting excited and we were all talking and laughing! We played UNO and ate Mexican snacks. People here snack so much! (I love it!).

Oh and they pump your gas here, but you have to pay to use the bathroom and sometimes they give you a sheet of toilet paper. Definitely always bring your own toilet paper and seat covers! I saw some horrors in those bathrooms and it was lucky to find a nice one. (Just a little tip if you ever go here) In bigger cities its better because there are stores and restaurants but, good luck in towns.