Jason and Liz sorted us out a pretty pimp Marina run by some greasy euro who claimed to be an ex pornstar. He did kinda look like a pornstar, not a new age one but your standard 70's Jon Holmes type. Not that I am an expert on the subject.
Anyway we frequented the Atlantis Casino pretty much every night and spent not a cent on gambling. Its pretty much the biggest hotel I have ever seen. Apparently it has the worlds largest fish tank , filled with unfotunate Eagle Rays,Sharks you get the picture. On the second night I made a spectacular entrance to the fish tank area. Walking into the hotel I mistook a brass stair railing for a wooden one. This is not good, Brass does not allow for sliding, not at all. I ran, launched, landed on the rail, then stopped fell backwards and rolled down the marble stairs to the bottom. Didn't hurt a bit at the time!
A shocked crowd gathered around the fish tank stared at us. I had just been watching BBC blue planet, so immediately grabbed a group of people and started in my best David Attenborough informing them about the fish "these African pompano gather in huge humbers in this fish tank" etc, haha they had no idea what was going on and to be honest nor did I.
But the dance floor here is the most interesting place of all. Now its been a while since I was last in America, and this place is frequented almost entirely by American's.I had almost forgotten the white trash american mating ritual is very different from most other western nations. This was apparent when we entered to find numerous females dancing with dudes in various sexual positions (though clothed) thoroughout the bar. Bringing on hysteric laughter from all of us. The best being a large redneck and his "girlfriend" who was on all fours. To make matters worse James had acquired a bowl of nuts and was offering it to pretty much everyone, then got down on the ground and offered some to her! haha.
Went home by myself as the boys had run into a closed dance area and got lost in the bowels of the casino (later escaping through the Kitchen). When I walked through the fish market came across loads of rats. This was awesome cause there was also loads of rocks. Basically went nuts until I couldnt through anymore obviously not hitting a single one, but man that was an awesome game.
Had a wild party to welcome Anne and Herbie and managed to upset most of the marina, although a few dislocated fingers were the only casualties.
Landed in Ft Lauderdale to pick up some camping gear. Then left Florida shortly after feeling much, much better about myself at not coming from Florida.
Arrived in Mexico City and after being introduced to what the traffic of a city with 20 million people is like, made it to the hostel sometime later!. Mexico city first of all ,is not dangerous (I mean if you head to South Auckland at 2am its dangerous, Mexico city is no different im sure 99% of all the incidents the city is famous for are simply mother nature letting natural selection do her beautfiul thing). Its acutally suprisingly nice, although chaotically crowded. Headed straight to the Anthropological Museum , its amazing, pretty much all the best stuff from the Olmec, Aztec and Mayan civilizations. Spent about 6 hours there!.
Was most excited about heading to Teotichuacan but was not excited about the 40 degree heat and thousands of tourists so headed onto the metro at 6am and got there right on opening with the whole place mostly too myself. If the sun has of been up it might have been slightly better :) but 30 minutes later I had light! and the whole place too myself. The big pyramid here (Pyramid of the sun) is the 3rd largest on earth (the largest is also in Mexico) and is more than impressive. Its a fair walk down the Avenue of the Dead and the views from the top are stunning, next its the far more asthetically pleasing Pyramid of the Moon. By now its 10 oclock the crowds are building and its scorching. Tried to see a few other lesser sites but was just insanely hot so got the next bus back to Mexico City.
Headed out to one of the outter suburbs of Mexico City to get some replacement lens fluid after it was confiscated by those extremely clever people at airport security. Now you can often get a very different feel for city depending on where you are in it, and Coyoacan is fantastic. Once the home of Leon Trotsky (never one to go without rather ironically) before Stalin arranged for an icepick to be inserted in his cranium. It resembles more rural France than anywhere else, with fresh bread shops, cafes, broad leafy streets and beautiful houses. Anyway my point being Mexico city is only as dangerous as you are stupid.
Next got a bus out to Morelia. Firstly Mexican bus's are the best I have ever ridden although not the cheapest they are certainly worth it. Morelia is high in the mt's and is a pretty spectacular location and town. Although not touched by Foreign tourism there is still a huge mexican tourist industry here and its made the town a little fake in my opinion, kinda like the "Bath" of Mexico.
On the plus side they do make an awesome breakfast salad , coated in pepper, chilli and cheese. Proof that with fresh ingredients anything can taste good!
Next stop Guadalajara. Now I love Mexican food, love it, and everywhere has more than surpassed expectation's so far. But Guadalajara is one of the culinary capitals of the country. I basically put on 5lbs in 5 days!. Firstly nobody has heard of hard tacos in Mexico . Hallelulah! I also new those things were f$%kn stupid, I mean seriously I have rarely seen anything so stupid in my entire life(nor have they heard of Fajitas etc). Now thats sorted , the food. Firstly got into Cerpache, raw shrimp cooked in lime juice and chilli.Next up Birria Goat Stew served in tortillas with Guacamole and a plethora of spices, then tacos by the dozen. Soo good, and seriously cheap.
Guadalajara is quite an impressive town,but had basically come here to get a crew together and head to Tequila, as even I am not lowly enough to drink that stuff by myself. On the Thursday night met two friendly Mexicans who had come up from Pueblo and ended up at a Cuban dance club. Fortunately for my self esteem was able to avoid actually dancing, but the skills of the people up there was pretty impressive. Felt less than OK the next day, but things got progessively worse when two Danish alkies showed up. Went out to an awesome Jazz club and met some cool locals, well the Danish girls did, I just went along for the ride. Got thoroughly hammered and they invited us out to another club when it closed. Was slightly suspicious but they seemed too nerdy to be any trouble. Then the brand new Audi S4 we piled into certianly didnt ease any concerns!. Made it to the new club in about 55 seconds travelling at an average speed of 159 mph.
Had a blast inside, its kinda like K/Ponsnoby rd in this town, everyone is too busy looking cool to have fun, so took the bull by the horns and danced like a retard for the next 2 hours, then another club! Now this was dodgy, lead through a car sales yard into an underground bunker. Now theres a many signs your in a shithole, heres just a few
1) Every female there has a two piece and resembles what you might see on a st corner at 2am
2) Everyone in the place is staring at you , like you might be good eating
3)The Jagermesiter cooler is made from cardboard
We all decided it would be wise to leave and got a lift back to the hostel. But when you travel at a speed of 159mph in car worth the average price of 100 volkswagens that everyone else drives you draw attention! The cops pulled us over, and to be honest the driver had drunk a few more than 3 beers! No problem a quick collection of all our change (90 pesos or $7) and we were on our way, easy!
Got up 3 hours later, got into the van and headed to Tequila. The van pulled away and the first bottle of Tequila was produced, oh no! To make matters worse we had no shot glass so guestimated with a pottery jar! Pretty much a haze to be honest, think we went to a few distilleries , and the town but cant be sure, even my photographs dont really give any indication of what went on.
Made it back to hostel and got back on it, went out with the Danes again to what I can only describe as the gayest bar I have ever seen. Hilariously gay, dudes in cages wrapped in god knows what, haha, was pleased to escape.Next day headed to Lucha Libre, Mexican wrestling. Wasn't really expecting a lot to be honest as my expectation was even lower when we were ushered into wooden seats in a musty scorching hot arena. It felt more like we were about to watch a cock fight rather than a show. Well it was awesome, I have never seen such wreckless abandon. The acting is even worse than WWF but the moves, the moves are way better (more dangerous). Basically you know something good is about to happen when the front rows of the crowd start to flee the area. This happens when someone gets out of the ring, the opponent still in the ring then launchs a series of flips, launches out of the arena, snots his competitor(s) in the head and crashes into the chairs. Awesome!
Headed back to Mexico City that night, along with the entire rest of Mexico being the end of Spring Holdays...clever anthony!. Managed to get into Mexico city 30 minutes late and missed my bus so had to travel across the city in rush hour to the other bus terminal, what fun! Travelling is sooo awesome sometimes.
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