Riding Scared
Semana Santa Begins

March 18th, 2016

Spring has sprung, three days early here in Mexico. Everyone is cleaning, and there was a parade today to celebrate “La Primavera”.


What happened…

Andrew writes: Since we figured that it would be a quick/short cycle to Lazaro Cardenas, we decided to take our time leaving this morning. This gave the town a chance to wake up and get going, and for us to enjoy it in the daytime. A class of students walked by our hotel, clutching garbage bags and rakes. They were down at the beach cleaning it up for Holy Week next week. There was a class or two of young children, maybe preschoolers, who did a parade down one direction of the divided road, and then back up the other, with traffic chaos being created behind them. The whole town was out to watch and we joined in the fun. Again, it was for the celebration of spring. Such a joyous holiday time here in Michoacan!

We stopped for lunch at the border between Michoacan and Guerrero. As we sat in the shade eating our PB&J tortillas, a delivery truck came and dropped off a whole pig for the restaurant where we were sitting. Then we sat and watched avidly as the owner and his wife cleaned up the pig, including shaving it with a razor, and started prepping it to make carnitas with. We spent maybe 15 minutes talking with the guy, and it was fascinating. I think that if a place in Vancouver butchered their meat in the front window, that it could be one of those cool, trendy places. Honestly, I think everyone should see how the food is prepared. Here in Mexico, it’s in your face, but for the Mexicans, it’s how they’ve always known it. We aren’t grossed out, if anything, it’s reassuring.

We decided to head to the nearby beach town of Playa Azul, instead of going into Lazaro Cardenas, which is a bit of a detour, but not much. Playa Azul was similar in feel and look to El Paraiso, with most of the businesses being right on the waters edge. There we quickly found a dingy hotel room, and Amanda finally got to use the internet for the first time in over a week. We ended up sitting in the restaurant across the street using WiFi, and drinking beer that we bought ourselves at the store. It’s strange how the restaurant owners don’t seem to care if you bring food/drink with you into their establishments. Maybe we’re just gringos and so we get away with it, but we’ve seen huge Mexican families doing it too!

I closed out the day in the surf with our boogie board, and then watched a group of 20 young men playing beach soccer. It looked pretty serious! I wonder if I’ll ever work up the nerve to ask to play…


Amanda writes: Recently we’ve been getting up early to try and avoid the heat. Today we decided to sleep in a bit and take our time. The funny thing is even when we take our time, it still takes us the same amount of minutes to get ready.

We enjoyed watching the kids parade before heading out on the road. The ride included a fabulous shoulder for a lot of the day and that was nice. We pulled the plug early in the town of Playa Azul that is hosting a surfing competition in the coming weeks and we enjoyed watching the surf. Andrew even ventured out into the water. While Andrew surfed I enjoyed my beer and being online. I’m not too much of an addict however sometimes it’s frustrating when Andrew is online every day because his iPhone has a phone plan that includes some data. In any event it was nice to check in. I also managed to reach one of my sisters and have an hour long conversation with her. Our new phone plan is awesome and we’re enjoying catching up with family more regularly and without the annoying delays of internet calls.


Today’s Photographs

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Riding Scared
Semana Santa Begins