Four days into Mexico, and things are looking good. So far,
I've got 6 hours of Spanish tutoring under my belt, and it appears that I'm
going to really be able to up my game while I'm here. The place I'm staying at
is also great. I've got a room in the house of a lovely older Mexican woman,
Señora Alicia. I use the term house loosely, as it's really more of a complex.
It's essentially a big, hollow square structure surrounding a beautiful garden
with a half dozen trees that grow avocadoes, papayas, guanabanas, limes, and
figs, and with a bunch of plants including tomatoes, epazote, yerba buena,
Mexican oregano, and rosemary, among others. I've got what is essentially the
upper level of a coach house on the opposite side of the garden from the main
home. It's not the Four Seasons--the bathroom can get pretty dank, the wifi is
extremely spotty, and the bed is pretty hard, but all things considered, for
the 23 bucks a day I'm spending for this and the three included meals, it
really can't be beat. And that food is pretty good. Señora Alicia cooks for me
most of the time, and everything is fresh and tasty. Nights like tonight,
though, where the señora is at the church working the food bank she organizes,
Señora Sylvia, her housekeeping assistant that helps her when she has guests,
is cooking for me.
The house is pretty big and has three other rooms in
addition to my own. Right now it's just la Señora, myself, and her nephew who
is hardly ever around. It's a good thing I like her a lot as her as we have a
lot of alone time talking at meals. Apparently four other students from the
school will be joining us next week, though.
The house and school are both located in Tlaquepaque, a city
which is part of the larger Guadalajara area. It has much more of a Mexican village
feel, as opposed to the big city, and is really charming. This is a relatively
upscale part of town, and it has a beautiful square with things always going
on. The big thing at the moment is the Fiestas de Octubre, some kind of
Catholic whatnot that I don't understand. Also going yesterday was some kind of
thing for the Virgin Mary. Whether or not these two things are related in any
way, I couldn't tell you. I really didn't know there was anything special until
I went to the main square in Tlaquepaque yesterday and there was all kinds of craziness
going on, with ethnic dancers and kids cracking whips everywhere
(which I made sure to steer way clear of). I checked out some other parts of
town, and by the time I got back, most of the dancers were gone, but they were
replaced with a group of four wackos that were sitting on this square lazy Susan
looking thing at the top of an 80 foot pole. Each was tied by the ankle to the
pole via a rope that was wrapped around the pole a bunch of times. They'd then
fall backwards, scuba-style, off the lazy Susan, which would then start
spinning around in circles, whipping the four dudes around the pole as they
gradually descended to the ground, all whilst they were playing some kind of
flute instrument. What all this has to do with the Virgin Mary, I'm not really
sure, but it was neat to watch.
In addition to the wacky dancers and the crazy pole guys,
there are also all kinds of street food vendors out. Again, whether this is an
October thing, a Virgin thing, or just a general Mexico thing, I'm not really
sure. I think it's actually likely a combination of all three. The other thing
I noticed yesterday was the non-stop mass services. There are two gorgeous old
colonial churches right on the square, and is seemed like there was a perpetual
surplus of asses in pews. Looked like standing-room-only in a lot of occasions,
actually, and I got the impression some guys were back for sloppy seconds. And
all this is going on with all the crazy dancing and Yucatan guys flying
around on poles right outside the flung-open doors. Apparently the priests are accustomed
to competing with a bunch of background noise. I presume the perpetual church
services were a Virgin thing and not just a regular Mexico thing, as I find it
hard to believe that even Mexicans go to church that much on a regular basis.
I've hit most all of the historic stuff in the city already. If you want details, check out the photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/tunafishandgrits/Mexico?authkey=Gv1sRgCM7yv8aax46vXw#
I’ve been getting pretty good food outside the house, too.
On Friday night, I hit what is supposedly the big place to go if you want
fancy-pants, modern Mexican food. Got a great stuffed chicken breasts with some
kind of Mexican herbs, huitlacoche (AKA corn smut), pineapple, and whatnot. The real star of the weekend, though, was the birria
de chivo, a braised goat recipe, that I got at my new favorite restaurant, La Birrieria
de Las Nueve Esquinas in downtown Guadalajara. I love me some goat, especially
when you jazz it up with fixings and make tacos out of it with fresh, house-made
corn tortillas which are piping hot right off the griddle. I actually liked
this place so much that I went back on Sunday. This time a got the cochinita
pibil, which is native to Yucatan, not Jaliso. But I don’t really care—it was
still damn good. I could sit around at that place, eat, and watch the women
there bang out fresh tortillas all night.
Honorable mentions go to the place I went Saturday which,
which made food from Durang. I also had a decent molcajete de camarones on Sunday,
a bubbling hot bowl of a thick tomato-based sauce with shrimp in a Mexican-style
mortar heated over the fire so that is cooks the food just by plopping it in
there. I’ve gotten some pretty bad-ass ceviche tostadas and an octopus cocktail
during class breaks, too. From other street vendors I’ve also been able to grab
some grilled corn on the cob made with crazy purple corn with kernels the size
of marbles, and coconut juice drank straight out of the fresh coconut (just
like in SE Asia). Next on this list of street vendor food is the deep-fried
sweet potatoes I’ve been seeing, which are both nauseatingly greasy-looking and
yet incredibly compelling at the same time, and the ubiquitous torta ahogada.
