I didn't end up making it out of Tampico before New Years, but that turned out alright. I volunteered to help clean up the roof after we were talking about me sleeping up there one night- I never ended up doing it. The cleaning process was pretty funny though; Roberto had gotten ahold of a new pressure washer and seemed to be looking for any excuse to use it. After blasting the roof and sweeping all the water off, he decided that it would be a good idea to clean the stairs down through the house with it too haha. 2600 PSI was splashing water all over the walls and everything in the vicinity. The wife looked very unamused with the happenings but Roberto, unphased, said that since the walls were already getting wet we should power wash them as well, which resulted in several places now being without paint. I also managed to get mildly shocked as we power washed walls that included electrical outlets and light switches.
After all the cleaning it was time to start the New Years festivities. Señora cooked up a huge meal, but it was being saved until midnight. I finally got to drink some, got Roberto to help me tackle a bottle of tequilla. After many many Speedy Gonzalez impersonations, firing fake pistols in the air and other drunken nonsenses we were allowed to eat early, about 11pm or so. Everyone was dressed really nice, even Roberto managed to get all spiffed up, it was interesting to see how families in Mexico do the new year thing. The fireworks were going off pretty constant from about 10pm on, but at midnight the entire town went crazy. It sounded like a warzone as every house had what I assume was an endless supply of the earth shattering firecrackers. To top off all the explosions and the car alarms that were all going off because of them, there were the colorful explosions in the air coming from random places all over town. I got a couple videos but I doubt they do it any justice, it was an experience unlike anything I've seen before. All the random people in the streets were giving me hugs and saying Feliz Año.. it was awesome. I got my backpack out and went around the block carrying it with all the other people taking their luggage around the block- we are all supposed to have good luck traveling this year now :)
Jan 1st was a laaaazzzyyy day and it was pretty cool to kick back relax, eat, and watch tv for a change. Exchanged information with everyone, promised I would come back, and caught a bus at 11pm to Mexico City. If you have ever had to take a greyhound or bus in the US, the buses here are WAYYY better. When we got on the bus we got a little care package with food and drink, there were several TVs, with individual headphones, the seats had plenty of room between rows and you could lean your seat way back. And like a third of the price or less than a trip that far would cost with Greyhound. The guy that sat beside me spoke really good english, just finished college, and was going to stay with a friend in Mexico City until he got a place. He told me about all sorts of stuff in Mexico and helped me get from the bus station to the place I was staying here in the city. The main streets are even crazier somehow but the subway system is AMAZING!! You never have to wait more than a few moments to catch a train going wherever you want to go in the city, and its 25cents US to go anywhere. Most of the stations have lots of food options and stores you can shop out without exiting the turnstyles so you can hop back on the train without paying again. I ate breakfast up on the street at a little stand. Delicious fried tamales and drink for two people, just under $2 US. Awesome.
I did manage to lose my phone or get pickpocketed, but I was on constant watch for that so I'm thinking it slipped out of my pocket somewhere along the way. I met up with Gabby, whom I'm staying with, and hit up the black market area with her and her boyfriend so they could get a few things. I could write an entire post on the black market, it was overwhelming. Constant shoulder to shoulder people, hard at times to just walk through a store or down the block. Stolen or pirated things everywhere.. people on the streets yelling for attention trying to sell copies of all the latest movies or software.. if you ever want an audiosystem it would almost be worth getting to Mexico City somehow because they savings in speakers and audio was insane. Gabby has a Macbook with a broken display so we were looking around for one of those, which would be a rare part in most places in America to have in stock. Here, not the case. Electronics stores had stripped computer parts lining the walls, it was very odd to see disassembling TV's, motherboards from computers and anything else you could think of all hanging on walls but they were there. One place had the display but kept insisting they take the laptop in the back to install the screen, which Gabby wisely refused. She said they would try to take out whatever parts from her computer they thought they could get away with. Eventually she got it all figured out for like a TENTH of what Apple wanted to fix it. Their shit is always overpriced anyway, but still.
Back at Gabbys she showed me some of the amazing videos she and her boyfriend made, they are time lapse photographers and get paid to go hang out in beautiful places all day while they take enough pictures for the video. I'll put some up online, probably when I finally put up the pictures I took.. one of these days. I planned on going to the beach with her this morning but we found out as we were leaving it was $100US a night, and neither of us knew what kind of setup it was, if I would be able to camp out on the beach there or how far I'd have to go, blah blah. So she left me her keys and I'm chilling in the city for a few days till she gets back.
I walked around FOREVER today, extremely lost, and I am realizing how big this city is. I actually ended up going in a circle at one point somehow, its not like I just took a bunch of lefts, but while trying to make it home after an hour I wound up in the same intersection I had been in earlier this morning. Practiced my Spanish a good bit, found not too many random people know English here- oh yea, Gabby speaks really well but with an Australian accent at times which is so awesome to make jokes about. She offered me a job with her this next week helping setup for a shoot near Cancun but we were pretty drunk I'm not sure how much of that was serious, but if so, thats where I'll be next! If not I have another job offer to work in a bar about an hour outside of the city, probably next to nothing pay but free drinks and alcohol while I'm there. So many awesome people. I haven't really had anything bad happen or see anything, lots of shady areas and shady people but I just avoided them. Most people I asked though have had something happen to them.. one guy was driving along in a good part of town and was stopped at gunpoint, they took his car, all his money, laptop etc. Couple other people were mugged on the street. So I'm ready to move on to some more exciting nature areas, definitely like to come back to the city and spend more time when I master Spanish. Back to exploring and trying to roll that R.
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