Bye Bye Maza!

After just over a month of relaxation in Mazatlan, I felt recharged, refreshed, and ready to get moving again. So on Wednesday, we left our little apartment there and hit the road Guadalajara bound. A man with a Pulmonia (little golf cart taxi) gave us a ride to the Junction on the highway, where he drove us around the small town to show us off to all his friends and hooked us up with delicious cold juices.

After another short ride into in countryside of Sinaloa, we were picked up by a man and his family driving a pick up truck and trailer all the way to Mexico city. We got in the trailer where the heat was so intense that I was feeling pretty delirious. We took pieces of ice from the cooler back there and melted them on our heads to help with the heat. Finally, the sun started to go down and we stopped at a restaurant where the man treated us to dinner. After the meal, the man ordered a coffee and Josh joined him. Our waitress brought to cups each with a small cup of milky looking liquid on the side. As Josh was about to dump its contents into his coffee, the man stopped him and explained that in fact it was not milk, but a very light dose of peyote cactus juice! Supposedly its not potent enough to make you hallucinate, it just mellows you out (Ideal for the speeding truck drivers that come through).

The man dropped us off in the outskirts of town where a drunk guy at a gas station picked us up and gave us a ride to the city center. Now we are settled in with a few friends from couch surfing.

Before we left, our friend Camila explained the scene in Guadalajara as being, "Fresa (literally meaning 'strawberry,' but used to describe yuppies), but not like regular fresas... They are fresas that are into music and art and bikes." Oh, hipsters! And having spent an embarrassingly long time in Brooklyn, I was actually a little excited to check out this hipster capitol of Mexico.

Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed. With the exception of the rampant international student scene, Guadalajara, like everywhere else in Mexico, lacks the cultural pluralism which defines my generation in the the United States. Cyclists are cyclists, Punks are punks, communists are communists; there is little or no social overlap and it makes me sad to see the segregation of people with many shared goals.

But we are getting around, we are connecting, and we seem to be making progress on one of our larger projects: putting together radio transmitters to create community radio stations for indigenous communities here. Our first night, we rented bikes from Al Teatro en Bici (a local bike collective) and joined them on a group ride. There, one guy pointed us towards the Saturday afternoon Cultural Tienguys, an open air market which feature several zine stands and booths of radical groups. There we learned about a new Anarchist book store, as well as the actions planned for today (May Day!). Although the demonstrations were small and largely syndicalist, we did meet some pretty cool radicals there who hooked us up with more info about the local movement. We are getting there slowly, unpeeling the layers of the onion, and hopefully this week we can get working on our transmitters!

Shacking up in Mazatlan

Josh and I are going on one week in our little apartment in Mazatlan. We found a one bedroom on top of a little restaurant across the street from the Pacifico brewing factory for about 100 USD per month. Our block also features a really awesome bakery, some small convenience stores, and a motorcycle shop run by a Mexican guy and an old guy from the states. Everyone in the neighborhood has been friendly and helpful to us.

Unfortunately, when we moved into the place we expected to be living with Luis. The first few days we were there he acted very strangely, and then one morning he was gone with none of his things but some of ours (Luckily nothing too valuable). I should mention that Luis was only 3 days sober from a pretty serious drug addiction when we met him, so it's likely that he relapsed from the pressure of being back in a big city. It's a bummer since we had so much fun together riding trains for the last couple weeks, but ultimately we've had to let go of that friendship.

On a brighter note, I've been incredibly successful hawking aluminum can flowers here, and I started making some ashtrays and hairclips, too. One woman from a gallery loved my crafts so much that she offered to buy a large amount off me to sell in their gift shop. After 3 days of cutting cans literally until my fingers bled, I had my whole month of expenses paid. Awesome!

Mazatlan is proving to be a great place to relax. The city is big enough that I never get bored, but small enough to never feel overwhelmed. It offers all of the intersting culture of Mexico with a few creature comforts (like great coffee!) to cater to the Western community here (mostly retirees). People are friendly and laid back, and I am never too far from the beach. We have paid for 2 weeks on our apartment here, and after next week we'll decide if we want to stay longer or not.