Mexico thus far

Recently some friends of mine asked me how Mexico was and whether I could clear up any of the ideas and myths they have about the country. I thought this would be a good chance to reflect on our experiences the last four and a half months.

The family and I have driven clear across Mexico twice and lived in two different places, for two months each. The interior near Mexico City where we are currently and will mostly be living is over populated, a bit smoggy, poor, but still very beautiful. The place where I work, about 20km to the East of Mexico City, is surrounded by small mountains, or cerros, two active volcanoes, and is quite beautiful. Its the rainy season so every evening the clouds roll in, it gets windy and if you are lucky it rains for 30 minutes to settle everything. The weather is amazing, with the highs only around 75F, but the sun can be intense at 7000ft. We live in a small village called La Purificacion, up a small hill about 10 minutes from work. The house is Mexican style, large but not too fancy, with an amazing yard about 3/4 an acre full of fruit trees. We have a cleaning lady, Sacoro, and a gardener, Hector. Its a quiet paradise, except around 7pm when all the dogs in the valley start barking. The village is small with many of the same shops that sell the same stuff, like bottled water, fruit and vegetables, hot dogs, etc, only the essentials. There is also a butcher, tortilla shop, and an internet cafe. People are friendly, although they sometimes look at us funny because we are gringos, and dogs roam the streets. The woman and children love Rowan, more so in Obregon that here, but his beauty is obvious to all!

The divide between rich and poor in Mexico is very obvious. You have particle board shacks next to amazing houses on the side of a mountain. La Purificacion is a village within Texcoco, which isn't unlike a US city in that it has two Wal-Marts, Home Depot, Office Depot, I went and saw Robin Hood last night in English. The difference is that it was founded around 1500, the streets are narrow, the roads poor, and the infastructure isn't strong enough for the population. But it manages. This is not unlike Mexico City, which I have only driven through once with the aid of a GPS (which actually worked quite well), but is a complete, for the lack of a better word, clusterfuck!

The country side is beautiful, we drove for three days with mountains the entire way, until we hit the desert. There are nice, empty, toll roads, cuotas as opposed to taking the libre, so you can drive 90mph no problem. You see some Policia, but if you are on the toll roads you are more or less safe. A co-worker of mine from Chile, Sybil, got flagged down for going 100mph and they told her to take it easy. We've stayed in Guadalajara, which Shannon and I both thought was a fun city, and Mazatlan a couple of times. Drove through Tequila and saw Agave being farmed on the side of the mountains. Drove through Sinoloa State which I believe is the largest tomato producing area in North America.

The last two months we lived in Ciudad Obregon, which is just NW of Mazatlan in Sonora state, about 6 hours from Tucson. Its new Mexico, very different, very organized, more like the US. Its a college town so there were good restraunts, sushi, hot wings, bar food. Not a bad place, but its the desert and extremely dusty, dry, and hot. It didn't rain for two months when we were there, but they irrigate the heck out of their crops and get wheat yields in the range of 9 tons/hectare, compared to 2.5 t/h in Texas. Its also about an hour from San Carlos, which is a quaint little beach town on the Sea of Cortez, where we spent a couple of weekends. Its beautiful there.

Obregon is closer to the border and you can feel it some. There are more military check points set-up at random locations and you hear about the violence more. Over Easter weekend Federales were taking peoples door panels off on the way to the beach. The University of Texas actually recommended the evacuation of all there staff and students in Sonora. However, I've never felt scared for myself or my family. I've had two interactions with the Policia. The first was in San Carlos and we paid $200pesos ($18USD) to the cop to let us go after we went the wrong way in a retorno. They were just looking to make a quick buck. The second time I got pulled over for speeding on the way to work on a Saturday. The cop said something in Spanish that I didn't understand, I apologized for not understanding, and he asked me where I worked. I told him CIMMYT and he grabbed me on the shoulder, told me buen dia, got back in his car and drove off. Working for CIMMYT you are considered a diplomat, I have diplomatic plates on my car, and this saves me at least some trouble.

Now we are back in Texcoco, where it actually is starting to feel like home and will even more so when Shannon and Rowan get back from Texas! I'm hoping we can get out and explore this area more. Puebla, Cuernavaca, Acapulco and Vera Cruz are all within in driving distance. Chiapas is a little further, but I have to see Palenque before we leave.

Although, I don't see us leaving within the next few years.