August 31, 2012
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Report # 916
Hey everyone, I’m typing up my first entry from Lázaro Cárdenas in Michoacán. I left Mexico City yesterday at 12:50 pm and arrived here just after 9:00 pm. The bus ride went by pretty quickly as I listened to music for a long time on the small TV screens they had on the back of each seat and I watched two movies as well. They were both Hollywood movies, though I had to watch them both in Spanish. I saw one movied called Armoured, and another movie called the Vampire’s Assistant, which was a very good movie though extremely weird.
Dora picked me up at the bus station here and she took me to my apartment. It’s going to take me a little while to get used to this city as it’s very humid and I have to start from scratch in terms of buying things and setting myself up in the apartment and then of course the most important thing, finding a job. Dora felt that I didn’t like the apartment or the city, but it’s not that at all….. it will just take me time to get used to everything.
I bought a few things last night, though I have a number of other things to buy again today and over the weekend I’ll have to prepare all of my work documents. I took a taxi to this internet cafe and now I’m not exactly sure how I’ll find my way home again after, but I’ll worry about that later. I enjoyed my days in Mexico City though I had a couple of interesting experiences. On Tuesday I walked through the Chapultepec Forest which was a giant forested park with many paths .
The park had two lakes, and they were the greenest lakes I had seen in my life….. not sure what that means ! I also saw a totem pole that was given to Mexico for it’s 150th birthday back in 1960 from the Canadian government. I then walked up a long winding hill up to the Chapultepec Castle, which basically is a giant mansion that used to house the president of Mexico, but many years ago a president decided to open it up to the public and it was basically made into a museum, and now the president lives in a different residence.
It was absolutely beautiful seeing all of the different rooms, and even more amazing were the views of the city from the top of the castle. It took me a few hours to tour through the entire castle and the museum of Mexican history that accompanied it. Afterwards I headed down the hill and then walked the entire stretch of Paseo de la Reforma…. the most famous street in Mexico City. It’s a long straight street with forested paths in the middle, tons of cars and cyclists on the outside, and many hotels, museums, stores, restaurants, and historical buildings.
It goes from all the way to the Chapultepec Forest, past the Angel of Independence and to the main square where the government buildings are and the giant Mexican flag. It was a great walk and I was very glad to be able to see everything on that amazing street. I stopped at Chili’s to have something to eat and on the way back a man and a woman stopped me and talked with me in English. They gave me a copy of the ‘Awake’ magazine, which was completely the same magazine as I would have received in Canada. Those Jehovah Witnesses must be everywhere !
They were friendly people and he said he might know a school that needs English teachers, so I gave him my contact information. He will probably contact me about the magazine though. On Wednesday I took a tour through Templo Mayor which was some ruins left over from what once was quite the temple. Heading inside a man asked if I’d like a tour guide and I just said yes. I really have to be better at saying no to these people, but at least he worked for tourism Mexico and was a legitimate employee.
He gave me a 40 minute tour of the outside part of the ruins and took my picture a few times so that was nice. He said he liked fishing a lot and heard that Vancouver was a great place to go fishing. Afterwards I toured through the museum and then headed out and began walking back. I had lunch at Sanborns and had some frozen yogurt after. I walked through the Zona Rosa part of the city which has lots of gay and lesbian people, and at around 7:00 pm I headed back to my hotel.
It was on the street Florencia where a man started talking to me and saying I should go into a club that had women and deals on drinks. I told him that I had to get back but he just wouldn’t leave me alone. He said I could come in for 10 minutes, and even though I kept insisting on no, he wouldn’t leave me alone and was able to take me into the club up some stairs. He sat me down next to two women who started talking to me. I said I should go back and get changed {an excuse to leave} but nothing really worked.
I told the man I didn’t drink and then he said I should buy drinks for the women. He brought drinks and then showed me a bill and said that I owed 90 dollars !!! At this point I knew I just had to find a way out, so I basically got up and walked fast down the stairs. A man outside tried to keep me from leaving, but I told him I didn’t order anything and than I just ran. I turned a street corner and luckily no one followed me so I was able to get away. The whole thing is a complete scam, they try to pressure people into that club and than they make their money by charging ridiculous prices for things.
It’s my fault for allowing someone to just pressure me so much, I should have just tried harder to say no and get away from the start, but I have learned my lesson. So I am happy to be out of Mexico City for that reason…. no more people like that will be pressuring me to do all these things I’m not comfortable with. Overall though it is really an amazing city with so much to see and do. Unfortunately there are some bad people, but I’m sure there are people like that all over the world.
Now I’m happy to be here in Dora’s city at the coast of Michoacán. While it will take me a while to get used to the climate, I am really hoping to find a job here and be able to work, so that is my next goal ! And Dora has done a lot to help me which I am very thankful. I am definitely looking forward to spending more time with her here as well. I will have to wait until I get internet to be able to start uploading photos on here again, but hopefully in a few days I can do so. I’m really going to make an effort to only show 24 photos a time though as I have so many I really have to cut down.
For the next question:
Have you ever been pressured/forced into a situation that you were not comfortable with ? What happened and how did you manage to escape ?
I wish everyone all of the best with everything. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Monday, bye for now.
Comments (3)
Wow, an 8 hour bus drive? Good thing it went by fast for you. That would have made me insane, but great you’re with Dora now.
An english teacher would be an amazing job for you! Hopefully you’ll hear back from them about the job and not magazine.
That was definitely a scamm Unbelievable what people do sometimes. Lucky you made it out!
Enjoy your stay with Dora and keep visiting scenaric/historic places!
Glad you made it to your new home..
I still think you are amazingly brave to do all this. I’m glad you won’t have to deal with the Mexico City craziness where you’re living.
Once I booked a hotel online at an amazing rate. When we showed up at the hotel they told us we’d received a discounted rate and that we’d have to go to an hour presentation sometime during our stay. It turned out they showed us a bunch of time shares and then sat down with us and tried to force us to give them financial information so they could sell us a time share. That was in Orlando- we only live an hour from there and we’d just bought out house. We kept telling them this and they kept pushing. Finally they called in a manager who actually raised his voice at us. My mild mannered husband got angry and told them off about tricking us into even being there. We were there well over 2 hours at that point, so we just got up and marched out.
Hope you got back to your apartment!