Writings By Date| Musings On Mexico | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
I've come to the conclusion that Mexican music — at least what I had to listen to for a week — is every bit as annoying as country music. The only thing worse is Mexican country music. Ever see a Mexican country music video? Most are shot on amateur video cameras, show unattractive women being wooed by even less attractive singers, and have acting skills that rival those of late-night infomercials. Every song has the same rhythm, the same guitar chord pattern, and the same damn Mariachi horn section behind it. In Mexico's defense, I do like the Gipsy Kings, but in a whole week, I didn't hear them played once. However, I did hear Brittany Spears twice. And I still can't get that %$@! song out of my head now.
From any vantage point on any road in Mexico, you can look around and find more stray dogs than you would Starbucks shops standing in the heart of Seattle. They'll be wandering around towns, villages, cities, and even ruins. One stray dog even climbed diagonally up the Main Temple at Chichen Itza and just went to sleep inside at the top. (I really wanted to see how he got down.) But almost all of them are stray, mangy, and half near starvation. Some are fed by locals, others have to scavenge. We only found two that were aggressive, chasing us down on our bicycles through Puerto Morelos until I barked louder to get them to back down. (Finally, I got to be the alpha dog!) But the funniest thing about these mangy mutts is how they'll just fall asleep anywhere — even in the middle of a street. It is expected (by them, and by the locals) that you just drive around them. Honking your horn does no good, unless you have food.
There is other wildlife in Mexico, too, some of it quite beautiful. We saw hundreds of yellow butterflies, a gorgeous blue butterfly, giant tarantulas, a yellow-bellied sparrow — and that was all just on the grill of our car. We also knocked a slow, greedy buzzard in the ass with the top of our windshield, who immediately flew right back to his carcass when we passed by. You see, the wildlife in Mexico may be beautiful, but it isn't very fast.
We never did get to see the turtle farm on Isla Mujeres, or the tens of thousands of pink flamingos at the Ria Celestun Biosphere Reserve, and that's probably good, for their sake. The only other fascinating animal we came across was a three-foot iguana in Chichen Itza, who immediately scrambled into hiding in a pile of rocks when he saw us. He'd probably heard about our driving.
Most of what you've heard about Mexico is true, but that's not a lot of what Mexico is. Mexico is a nation that is very proud of their heritage, very proud of their Mayan history, and very eager to accept your money. As an American, you may not be treated with the respect of a hard-working local, but you'll certainly be respected for your interest, and welcomed for your dollars. If that doesn't work, try bringing some doggie treats.
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