February 20, 2009

Happy Birthday MOM! =D For me the morning started before six, and I was off to school with a quick “I’ll be back in a couple hours.” Went to school (didn’t actually present…go figure) and then on the way back I picked up a tres leches cake I had ordered last week for Mom’s birthday. Well…this was supposed to be a special tres leches cake because I had asked for them to make me one with coconut on it since coconut cake is Mom’s special birthday cake. When I got to the Pasteleria though, the girl didn’t seem to know what I was talking about even though I showed her the receipt. Then she just gave me a cake which I tried to ask her how she knew it had coconut on it, but she just said “oh they told me this one had coconut” …after asking if I was sure that this was the place I had ordered it from. Oh well, the cake was still good, and while Mom and I were walking around later we went in and the lady I had actually ordered it from was there and she already knew about the mistake and apologized profusely, saying that she hadn’t been there and that she was sorry the girl had treated me poorly and gave me the difference in change for the coconut. That’s just a few more pesos we can spend elsewhere ^.^

As Katelyn left for school I got my day started by putting together her ½ way bag. Amazingly enough everything fit into the one bag I had originally bought. Then I proceeded to unpack, thinking “I’m going to be here a whole week I might as well put stuff away and not live out of the suitcase. When I looked out the window this morning I noticed how different everything looks in the morning. The buildings are very colorful something you don’t notice at night. Then I headed down for breakfast where I had some of the best coffee I’ve ever had and tried some new breakfast items. The buffet was full of fruit and other what we consider non breakfast foods in the states.

While waiting for Katelyn to return I had time to enjoy the beautiful aviary outside our room while reading the new book Clare had tucked into my suitcase for my birthday. While reading I saw a young man who looked to be with maintance, I thought I should mention our air conditioner was leaking water and the towels I had put down were overly soaked. So he told another man who came and I thought fixed it. (more on that to come) . Around 11;30 Katelyn came in with a wonderful birthday cake, we shared a piece and then headed out to get some lunch. We ate in the beautiful outdoor restaurant that was built around this huge tree. I had a picture taken of us there but we are having trouble downloading the pics so hopefully we will be able to put them up later. Katelyn dropped her purse and it had a soda in it that got all over her camera so we aren’t sure if the problem is not being able to transfer the card from one camera to the other or if it’s the soda did in the camera. Anyway after having a great lunch we headed over to Plaza Grande which is really like park but full of vendors. I picked up a few items there and then we walked through buildings full of vendors selling everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to shoes. We wanted to get some churros but Katelyn informed me “The churros only come out at night” hehehee so they were nowhere to be found. Returning to the hotel Colonial to drop stuff off we were told our airconditioner wasn’t working and they moved us to another room. Of course that meant packing everything up again and we laughed because it seemed like we already had more than what we could fit in the bags we had brought. But the gentleman helped us move our stuff and we are currently in room much the same but with a better airconditioner.

Now our plan was to find this little shop Katelyn had been told of to purchase a birthday gift for her host sister and then head to Carnaval- the big party in the street. Well we got on the first bus, and I was thinking I hadn’t ridden a bus for transportation since Disney World and this bus sounded like it was going to fall apart, but we arrived safely to where the store we were looking for no longer was. So now the plan was to figure out how to get to Carnaval….The ladies at the bus stop told us that this bus would take us there “just tell the driver to tell you where to get off” so we boarded a bus already full so we stood holding on for dear life and then we stopped picked up more people, and then stopped again more people got on, stopped again more people on all the while we are now standing in the very back of the bus unable to hear the bus driving tell us where to get off so we ask the men in the back of the bus “Donde es Carnaval?” Get off a little further down so we road a little longer, looking at each other like “ok when do we get off” but then we crossed an intersection where we could see Carnaval but the bus kept going. Eventually it did stop a couple blocks down so we hopped off made our way there. For Carnaval they block off miles of street and there are food vendors and beer vendors every 3ft. We decided our dinner would be a little of everything they had to offer so we started off with a marquesitos, which was a thin pancake with cheese rolled up, next hot dogs and fries but they were like octopus hot dogs that had been fried, quibies (pronounced “kibis”) which was like a big hush puppy that left us wanting something else, which led us to churros (that were out in full force everywhere you looked) made fresh right there and wonderfully good, Tamales and tacos al pastor which were very very good. Now keep in mind we were sharing everything so hopefully we didn’t eat as much as you think we did.

Amazingly enough here the city sets up 1000’s of seat for people to view the parade. So we found great seats in front of a stage. Of course, we were there rather early…the parade started at 7 PM Mexico time (which, as I forgot to remember and inform Mom, means it probably started around 7:30 or so) and we were there at 5 o’clock. That being the case though, we did have front row seats—front row seats we didn’t have to pay for:

Not long after we sat down, a lady came and sat next to us and several of her family members sat around us. We asked if they wanted to all sit together but she said no, that this was fine. Around 6:30, with more people arriving, she started charging people 30 pesos a seat. 30 pesos to sit in chairs that the city had already set up…hah!

I’m pretty sure that’s just part of the culture here. Wherever you can make a buck (read: peso) you do it. If that means charging people for seats that aren’t yours, then hey, go for it. Who’s going to tell you otherwise? That’s the basic premise anyway.

The parade finally got to us about 8 o’clock. Of course, in the mean time, Mom, who had almost talked me out of changing into jeans before we left, was cold. =P She did manage to persuade me away from my sweater, though, so I was cold too. I need to learn to stick to my guns: “no, Mom, while it’s warm out now, it gets cold when the sun goes down and the wind blows around,” haha. Oddly enough, no one was selling jackets or anything like that, so we were stuck with the chill.
The parade was amazing though. You’re never going to see anything like it in the Bel Air parade, and I’m pretty sure all the guys who were there were probably drooling like St. Bernards. There were lots of sexy women on those floats, shaking their stuff dressed in as little as possible. Actually I’m pretty sure Star Wars and Batman paraphernalia never looked so sexy.

The theme for this year’s Carnaval is the Cinema. So we saw the Merida Star Wars Fan Club, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader on stilts, a magnificent Lion King float, Batman, Spider man, a dancing Alka Setzer (not really sure where that fits in), and, of course, a bunch of Corona Dancers. All the floats were really decked out, as Mom said, like Disney World: lights, music, dancers. One actually had fireworks going off from the top of it and the little sparks were falling down into the street! There was a ton of confetti that would be shot out and then swirled around in the air. They threw little cositas out into the crowd; we actually managed to catch a little cloth cooler type bag, an empty coke cup like you’d get at the movies if you ordered a large drink with your popcorn, two packs of globos (which are little cracker type things I’ve eaten in soup here) and something that I think has to do with either opening or holding your beer/soda can.

The whole thing was really amazing and went on for an hour. …and then when we tried to get back to our hotel room it was still going. And then when we tried to go another way it was still going. And then another way it was still going. We’ve decided it’d be better if we just wait til it gets up closer to here instead of walking all the way down to Paseo Montejo (although all the food and stuff is down there so who knows. This time we’ll bring sweaters ^.~).

By the time we did make it back, I was *exhausted.* We went and sat out by the pool for a little bit but then went up and went to bed.

Needless to say I had an amazing birthday…all day.

Cheers! Sunny & Kate <3