Earth Shaking Finale

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A final blog about our trip. I am cheating somewhat and writing this from NZ but we couldn't find any internet cafes in downtown LA.

Our last 4 days in Mexico were nice and relaxed. We went to some beaches, bought some souvineers and hung out with a nice Australian couple that we had met in Cuba and bumped into again. They had a much nicer hotel than us so we enjoyed a dip in their pool and some drinks with them.
Rob also went to Chichen Itza, an old Aztec pyramid about 2 hours from Cancun. I just couldn't bear to shuffle around in the open in the heat so opted out. I had also had my fill of old stones in Mexico City, but Rob was really interested as he took a paper in anthropology at university. He had also visited a pyramid near Puebla that I didn't, all surrounded by jungle and iguanas. He said he found the heat at Chichen Itza pretty hard to handle himself (even finding it hard to breathe) so I'm relieved I didn't go. Part of his trip involved a visit to some natural swimming holes (called cenotes) and from the photos they were spectacular so it was a shame to miss that part.

I overheard one funny conversation between some French tourists and a Mexican. They were saying they couldn't understand American English very well and blamed it on their grammar. I tend to think it's more the accent they couldn't get a handle on, after all Americans stuggle to understand my shocking NZ accent too! One of them said "they speak very bad", which the other two agreed with emphatically. Hilarious, given the grammar they were using.

After Cancun it was time for our last 4 days in LA. We stayed away from the cheesy Hollywood Bvd area this time and went to a cheap hotel in the downtown historical area instead. It had a fantastic lobby but the rooms on our floor reflected the price we were paying a bit more!
We got to do some all-American things like listen to Johnny Cash being played in a park and eat twinkies and bagels with lox, etc etc.
We did the obligatory trip to Venice Beach and Santa Monica and saw very muscly people doing impressive moves on gym equipment, hippies with guitars on roller blades, surf life savers dressed like the Baywatch cast, girls playing volley ball in bikinis, etc... The beaches are very wide and with very white sand, but also very busy.
I made Rob go on a tour of the insanely rich Beverly Hills, Sunset Bvd and Rodeo Drive area. I secretly suspect he enjoyed it actually. We saw one property that was worth $70 million! Insane. And all sorts of celebrity homes like the playboy mansion, the Spelling mansion, P. Diddy's place, a very long list of the rich and famous. Big houses, fancy cars and manicured lawns galore.
The celebrity hangout area on the Sunset Boulevard was pretty tacky, we saw the Viper Room and a few other famous clubs but they were interspersed with touristy looking Mexican eateries and all sorts of other weird stuff. I didn't really get it to be honest.
Rodeo Drive was full of rich people shopping at designer stores that I have only seen in Vogue, and tourists watching them shop.
We also visited the tar pits in La Brea. This is where natural asphalt pools trapped many unsuspecting mammoths, saber toother tigers, giant sloths, and other amazing animals and then preserved them nicely for scientists to unearth and study today. Very interesting!

We found the people of Los Angeles to be unfailingly polite, friendly and easy going. Even the homeless guys (there are a LOT of them) were polite!
There certainly seemed to be quite a few people walking around with mental health issues though, especially among the homeless, which was sad to see.
There are billboards everywhere promoting environmental awareness, and a lot of people driving hybrid cars, which goes a bit against the image we have been fed about Americans being big terrible polluters. I guess that LA is a bit ahead of some other parts of the States in this area though.
Sometimes it was hard to believe we had actually left Mexico. The Mexican population of LA is huge and just about every sign is in both English and Spanish. There are Mexican eateries everywhere.
Litigation is as big as we imagined in the States. There are ads everywhere offering lawyer services for every kind of legal representation around. At one cafe there were lots of lawyers preparing clients for court, and we even saw one guy walking with a saline drip and a group of supporters that we suspected was heading to court. He didn't look very sick! We heard one Chinese guy yelling "I sue your company!" into his cell phone, which was pretty funny.

Our first day in LA though was the most memorable of our trip. We had arrived late the night before and were sitting on our bed in our hotel watching a movie on TV when suddenly there was a massive jolt and the bed and entire room did a big lurch. My first thought was the same as when the earthquake hit Auckland last year - that something had hit the wall behind us. Completely irrational, but the mind just doesn't seem to believe that the earth can be moving so it comes up with all sorts of other crazy explanations.
I had just finished saying "what the f*ck was that!?" when the room started swaying back and forth. Rob was already on his feet and saying we needed to get out. We grabbed our wallets and shoes and ran down 10 stories and out into the street.
I don't mind admitting we were scared out of our heads! Given that the hotel was an old brick one and we were 10 stories up we were really not cool about being in there. Anyone who wasn't afraid would have had to have been incredibly stupid or not have a pulse.
Our hotel lobby was full of dust and falling plaster, which they painted over a couple of days later.
There were people pouring out of buildings everywhere and standing as far away from them as they could, some visibly shaking, and everyone looking up to look for news cracks in the walls. It turned out it was an earthquake of 5.4 on the Richter scale that was located 30 miles from LA, with more than 30 aftershocks - the biggest one in 14 years I think they said. They are predicting the Big One to hit in the next decade or two, eeek.
Needless to say, the following 3 nights in our old hotel were spent not sleeping very well, and with a torch and shoes handy!

Well, that's it from me. I'll post the last photos once I've sorted them out.

It's been a fantastic trip, but I for one am glad to be home again. Rob is not really, I guess he'll just have to start planning the next trip!

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