Taxco, Acapulco

Today's adventures came pretty close to beating yesterday's. In fact, I think today did beat yesterday.

Our day went as follows. In the morning we drove a 1.5 hour stretch, from Cuernavaca to Taxco. There we did some sightseeing and had lunch. After lunch we got back on the highway and drove all the way to Acapulco, arriving there at around dinner time, 5:30.

The day began with me getting behind the wheel of Rubén and Tati's Jetta. I admit, it was something I'd secretely been hoping for all along: the opportunity to drive on a major Mexican highway.

I am very impressed with Mexican highways. Essentially there are two kind of highways: toll and free. On our way to Taxco we drove on both. The toll highway we drove on was new, less than 10 years old, and it was equivalent, if not better, than the #1 Trans-Canada. The pavement was clean and smooth, not a single pot hole. The free highway system is effective - it will get you where you need to go - but it will take longer, because the pavement's not as good, it's often single-laned traffic, and it goes through smaller towns where the speed limit is much lower.

The terrain of the Guerrero state in central Mexico is quite mountainy, and the highways follow the curves and contours of the mountains, offering great views of valleys below. It's also dry, but not without rain, because the surrounding landscape was green. Once we got to the outskirts of Taxco there was a lookout.

After a brief break at the lookout, we continued our drive, and upon arrival we parked our car and walked around in this wonderful city. Taxco is a charming, colonial city that feels like a town. Nestled in the mountains, its narrow, windy, cobblestone streets, and whitewashed houses with red tile roofs, make it quite lovely and picturesque. Naturally, tourism is very important for the city, but historically, mining has been its primary resource. Even today, the thing to do in Taxco is shop for silver! There are jewelry shops everywhere throughout the city.

The weather was hot, so the first thing Sanjit and I did is buy a real, genuine sombrero. This way we fit in with the rest of the population!

Then, I let my camera do the talking.

I like the picture above. The people in the centre look like they're suspended in mid-air. In actuality, they're sitting at tables of a restaurant balcony overlooking the city square.

After about 45 minutes of walking around and taking pictures of everything in sight, we all felt the same call to go and eat lunch! We decided to eat at the Restaurante Flor de la Vida. The food there was average, but the view from our rooftop table was nice.

The highlight of our lunch, however, was neither the food nor the view, but the mariachi musicians who played for our table. I think they played 4 or 5 songs, which captivated my heart and soul. The simplicity of the performance - two singers, two classical guitars - combined with the soulfulness of the songs literally brought tears to my eyes, especially when they played Peregrina, a love song written for a pilgrim woman who left her native country (Canada) for the tropics of Mexico in pursuit of the man she loved. I wasn't the only one with teary eyes though. Tati needed a napkin to wipe hers clear!!!

After lunch, we made our way back to the car. We still had a good 3 hour drive to Acapulco, so as much as we'd have liked to stay in Taxco a while longer, we just didn't have the time for it. On our way back to the car I took a few more pictures though.

The drive between Taxco and Acapulco was tiring, probably because the first portion of the drive entailed a long, continuous descent from the mountains, on a single-laned highway that seemed overloaded with cars. All of them were going faster than I was - embarrassing - but I felt pressure from Rubén to drive slow.

In addition, there was not much conversation happening in the car that deserves to be called conversation. Sometimes we seem like a shallow, boring bunch. I have my thoughts about why that might be, but that'll be a topic for another day.

We arrived in Acapulco tired and hungry. We checked into our hotel, and after a quick shower and nap, we walked to the Tío Alex Restaurante just down the street from our hotel and ate dinner. The highlight of this dinner was once again not the food, but the piña coladas . They were 2 for 1, so Jen and I ordered two each. :) I have a funny feeling that I'll be drinking a few more of those in the next few days.......

Impression of the Day: Aside from the beautiful scenery and the lovely town of Taxco, I was most struck today by the soulful mariachi music(ians). The emotional impact it had on me was impresionante, (as my Paraguayan friends would say) but more than that, it was surprising, it caught me off guard. It shows me two things:

One, compared to a Latin culture, Canadian culture is hollow, and empty. In my very unprofessional and probably exagerated opinion, we have very little - whether it be music or poetry or art or books - that touches the soul, that grabs the imagination, that speaks to the joys and sorrows of everyday life. What we have lots of is the efficiency of a technocratic society, the shallowness of a pop culture that's concerned with the here and now, and the narcissism of a self-consumed, self-centred people. We're sterilized, soulless, and incredibly boring.

Two, I'm realizing how hardened I've become. I've taken on the characteristics of the culture I live and breathe. I was caught off guard, in a sense, when the emotions came on strong during Peregrina. I was fighting hard, not wanting to look vulnerable, not wanting to let out a single tear. Why the resisting? Why the restraint?