Advertisement
Photo 1
the police presence in Mexico is slightly more intimidating... This past weekend, we had a blast in Sayulita, Mexico!! A group of 16 of us from the University of Colorado and Georgia State University rented a house called Casa Agave in the mountains of Sayulita. The 5,000 sq. ft. house was completely covered in tile and adobe...and the bedrooms had A/C! Ah, the luxuries of air conditioning.
We decided to go to Sayulita because we heard that it wasn't as touristy as somewhere like Puerto Vallarta. It is small and quaint with mostly dirt roads. However, there were plenty of tourists, Mexican and USians, and tons of haggling on the beach. It was still very beautiful, though.
When we arrived on Thursday night after six grueling hours of nauseatingly windy roads through mountains, there was a hurricane-like storm on the West Coast of Mexico. The dirt and cobblestone roads were completely flooded...We couldn't see anything...we were crammed into a hot van headed straight up a mountain...looking back on it, I'm glad we couldn't see, because the van was driving on a very narrow road atop a very tall mountain. We thought we had landed on a different planet...the West Coast of Jalisco is a stark contrast with Guadalajara...whereas
GDL has a lot of surrounding plains and cooler temperatures, the coastal area had to be hotter than anything I've ever felt...it was equivalent to Miami in the middle of July, but the air was much more humid and there was practically no wind. There were tropical plants and trees...and larger insects than I've ever witnessed. I was expecting to see a monkey carrying a banana across the road at any second, but I never did.
We did the basic beach things, e.g., surfing, swimming, tanning, boogie boarding, shopping, etc. It was quite a difficult hike from our house to the beach, so once we were at the beach, we stayed there until we were ready to go in for the night. I rented a boogie board both Friday and Saturday for $15 pesos per hour.
Crystal and I ate at a restaurant on the beach...the guy there named Julio talked to us the entire time en espanol. I ordered a burger (yes, shameful, but it was half the price of getting fish)...and it was just not what I hoped. I don't know what the issue is with burgers here in Mexico, but I've had 3 of them
Photo 3
Crystal and I- first morning that were each gross in their own way...too fatty, too salty, too mushy, too thin...
One time when I was lounging in the sun on the beach, a guy tried to haggle me into buying silver jewelry...he had it all laid out in a briefcase-like display...he was a younger guy and knew a little English (but, proudly, I knew more Spanish than he knew English)...I told him, "No, gracias" about three times before he decided to be smooth and sit down next to me with the jewelry display facing me. He asked me where I was from and all...and STILL tried to sell me jewelry (keep in mind I had already spent money on hand-made necklaces and bracelets from a cute little girl and her mother)...the haggling was obnoxious! I feel like I'd buy more if the salespeople on the beach were a little more laid-back. But then again, I suppose it can get frustrating for you as a salesperson when you're trying to feed your children. I feel guilty each and every time I don't buy something because we're all up in the mountains in a $2 million house when the rest of Mexico is making and selling
Photo 4
the house we stayed in-- camera lens was foggy from the humidity bracelets on the beach.
Sidenote:
We're studying a lot in class about the relationships between socioeconomic classes in both the US and Mexico. We study the translations and linguistic connotations of the words "educated" in English. According to our conclusions, "educado" is not a direct translation of "educated" in Spanish. "Educated" in the US most closely means you have some sort of college degree. "Culto" in Spanish directly translates to "cultured" and refers more to a person who has attended college. Before college in Mexico, you can be "educado" (having polite manners, etc), but you're not considered "culto" (cultured) until attending University.
Becoming a student at a University in Mexico does not require a great deal of wealth, but as in the US, if you're born into a family with money, you're automatically expected to attend University.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.245s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 66; dbt: 0.1301s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb