October 21, 2012

• Report # 933

  Well I just paid 45 dollars to put premium plus on for another year. I never enjoy paying for that, but seeing as I’ve used this site for almost eight years and it’s allowed me to write so many things and post so many photos I guess I can’t complain having to pay something once a year. On Thursday evening Dora and I went to a nice restaurant in a hotel. There were two very white looking people having dinner and we both knew they weren’t Mexicans, but they weren’t speaking English either…. I believe they were Dutch !

  Lázaro Cárdenas has people from all over the world working here as it’s a major port city so it’s not too hard to meet foreigners here. A lot of times they don’t speak any Spanish, but quite often there company is paying for them to take Spanish classes at one of the local schools. For dinner I had a cheese burger and fries, but it was a more upscale cheese burger with incredible flavour, so I was very impressed. Dora and I then shared crepes for dessert and we walked around for about 10 minutes to burn off at least a few calories before heading home.

  Dora didn’t work on Friday so she accompanied me to Cinépolis where we went to see Paranormal Activity 4. Dora had seen all of the previous films but I hadn’t seen any, but I still enjoyed it. While the movie was far from an oscar worthy film, it managed to be both funny and very spooky at times (though very weird) as well so that’s about all the people can expect from a movie like that. The real reason I wanted to watch it was because there was only one other option this week, and it was a movie from France.

  From what I was reading the film from France would have been a great movie, but it would have been a little difficult for me watching a movie in French and reading the Spanish subtitles super fast. One of these days I will get to learning French and German. I just wish I had more time to be able to do everything. After the movie I accompanied Dora to the dentist and then we drove back to the mall to pick up my laundry. We stopped at the Aroma coffee shop and had a very interesting meal.

  Dora had a fruit smoothie and a hamburger and fries and I had a plate full of pieces of cheese and some waffles. It was a very odd dinner but it was good so that’s all that matters. Yesterday ended up being a super fun and adventurous day. Dora and I drove to Ixtapa which is about an hour and a half drive from here in the state of Guerrero. Dora wasn’t 100 % confident with her ability to get there, but she talked with her friend on the phone and we followed the signs and everything went great.

  Once we arrived in Ixtapa we walked around for a while and had lunch at a restaurant called Casa de Morelos. I had a lasagna and tortilla soup and Dora had some shrimps wrapped in bacon and cheese. They were like the shrimps I ate by the beach in Lázaro, but here the shrimps were so much larger so I think the better deal is actually here, but they were still very delicious. We shared an icecream cup and then walked around some more. Thankfully it kind of clouded over so it wasn’t excruciatingly hot.

  Ixtapa is such a tourist city and literally every block there was a kiosk with a person trying to convince us to get a hotel room, have dinner somewhere, or take some type of tour. While I’m sure some of the tours were amazing, we were just there for the day so unfortunately we didn’t have time to do any of the tourist stuff. it’s amazing how insistent those people can be though. And it doesn’t matter if a person doesn’t speak Spanish as they usually speak English too.

  We found a beach called Playa Palmar and it was a beach open to everyone, so we headed back to the car to get our beach clothes and some sunscreen. I actually went swimming in the ocean and it felt great. The waves in Ixtapa are much calmer than in the beaches in Lázaro, and there are buoys out to warn people not to go past, so it’s a pretty safe beach for swimming. I swam out quite a ways and it got pretty deep so I headed back. I walked along the beach taking so many pictures.

  The whole beach is filled with apartments, hotels and resorts. Ixtapa is such a commercialized resort city, whereas Lázaro Cárdenas, which has many beautiful beaches as well, is more of a industrious port city with huge significance in Mexico. It’s been very cool to see both places and the differences they have. I took some pictures for a couple on the beach and then I tried to get a few more pictures of the sunset and I headed back to where we had our beach chairs.

  Technically we shouldn’t have been using the beach chairs or the shower by the pool as we weren’t guests of the resort, but no one said anything, so we got away with it. We left the beach when it was almost completely dark and we walked back to the car, passing more people still trying to get us to stay in a resort or take some sort of tour. I had noticed there was a Lilian’s Coffee which I went to with Dora in Morelia, so we stopped in there. Dora and I had no idea they had a location in Ixtapa, so it was a nice surprise.

  We walked around for a while longer and finally headed back to the car to return back to Lázaro. It took us a while to figure out the route out of town, but we found some signs and it led us back to the highway and we were ok. There was hardly anyone on the highway, though at one point it started raining and you could see the steam coming up from the highway as the rain was cool and the roads were hot, so it was pretty neat to see. We got to a point where there were two directions to go.

  One said “Lázaro Cárdenas Libre” and the other said “Lázaro Cárdenas Cuota.” Dora didn’t turn off so we ended on the “Lázaro Cárdenas Libre” route. This meant that it was free as there was no toll both to pass through, but apparently almost no one used that road. As we were driving on the road I could tell it wasn’t used much as it was narrow and dark and each side was covered with bushes. Dora started getting really nervous and telling me we should really turn around and take the other route as there were drug traffickers who steal cars on this route and that it wasn’t safe.

  We stopped and Dora turned the car around and we found the way back to the other route. Dora definitely made the right decision, and if she says it’s dangerous I believe her, so it was much smarter to pay the 28 pesos and to take the highway route and stay safe. We got back to the house around 11:00 pm and went to bed and Dora left this morning as there is a birthday party for her son. I’ve already been for a run this morning and I’m just going to have a relaxing Sunday.

  I’ve been thinking a lot about how in Mexico they have the military on the streets to protect civilians and fight the drug traffickers and their gangs. No one wants to have soldiers patrolling the streets, but I do believe in Mexico it’s a necessity right now and I can understand why the government decided to summon them. Basically life is still normal, just sometimes when you are walking on the streets you’ll see soldiers standing guard with their incredibly huge rifles, and at times you’ll see trucks passing by full of soldiers.

  It was a little intimidating the very first time I saw this, but now I’m used to it and it’s just normal. I’ve never seen any of the soldiers fire their weapons once, and I’ve never witnessed any dangerous event in Mexico before, so I think it shows that having the military on the streets is making a difference. Unfortunately there has been a lot of violence in the country in general since 2006, but obviously it’s impossible to make any progress without any violence at all.

  Maybe I’ve just been lucky having never witnessed anything negative before, but it does appear to me that the security situation in Mexico has been improving and I think that is a great thing as the people of Mexico have been through more than enough in terms of violence in the past six years. While obviously in many countries having soldiers in the streets is certainly not something that is needed, I think in some countries in the world they really do help bring law and order to the people and they are making a positive difference in their communities. So for the next question:

  What are your thoughts of having the military patrolling city streets ? Is this something that you feel has a positive effect in the prevention and fighting of crime ? Or do you feel it shows a place has more the feeling of an ongoing war ?

  Today I have some more pictures from my walk around Mexico City. I wish everyone all of the best with everything. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Wednesday, bye for now.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  • 12:24 pm
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