Day two in Mexico -- Sunday, Nov. 12

Some interesting observations already – there are no washcloths or alarm clocks in the hotel rooms. Luckily, I was told of this before I traveled so I brought both with me. Of course, my washcloth is in the luggage that hasn’t arrived yet! Also, there’s no remote control for the TV. But that’s fine since at least there’s English-language stations! Whew. It’s funny to see the shows, which are essentially closed captioned into Spanish.

This is our first full day in Mexico! We met as a group for breakfast around 9 a.m. We had a choice of foods and I opted for the cheese tortillas….I am in Mexico, right? I expected I would get some kind of breakfast taco type of deal. Instead, it was more like a plate of cheese nachos…..spicy cheese nachos, that is! Everyone’s food had a side of beans. We also had fresh fruit – pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon and papaya. I’m not a fan of the papaya. We also have fresh bread.

We listened to a presentation from Virginia, who is our national director for Mexico. She has two of her staff with her – Pilar and Ana Luz. They all work out of the Mexico City office.

After that we got a short walking tour of Patzcuaro. We saw the shops in the Mercado next to the hotel – they had stands selling everything from Yankees caps to Hello Kitty to Mexican candy and homemade goods. We learned some of the history of this amazing city while we saw a few sites.

We then loaded on the bus to make our way to Lake Zirahuen. The area we are staying in is nestled in the mountains and surrounded by lakes. The mountains are the extension of the Rocky Mountains. It’s truly beautiful! Along the way we got our first real taste of Mexico. We drove through winding small villages. I have no idea how the bus fit. We are traveling in a nice charter bus. This bus driver is amazing! As we made our way through the villages we saw homes with roosters, chickens and goats running around in the yards. We saw a woman washing laundry by hand.

Finally, we arrived at the lake. We were going to board a boat to take a tour of the lake and then go to our restaurant for lunch. Many people had to use the restroom. We then learned an important lessons…..always have pesos available. You often have to pay to use the restroom in Mexico!

We got into the small boat (capacity 40 and we had 38). We took a trip around the lake while a young Mexican boy told us the story of a mermaid and the lake. We then arrived at our restaurant, La Torre de Ala. This was our first experience dining a sign of meals to come. We started with tortilla soup. I’m not a soup fan, but this was amazing. We had fresh bread that had cheese inside. At first we thought it was butter because it wasn’t melted like cheese. We then had Mero (a grouper fish) cooked in leaves with a side or rice. It was amazing. We were then served Flan for dessert. I had a Pepsi Light to drink (no ice, of course). We were entertained by a group of young girls who sang for us and played music.

We were running behind and missed the time we were to spend with an internationally famous copper artist in Santa Clara del Cobre. But we did get a chance to check out the goods in the town. No one had exchanged money at this point, but we fortunately found a store that was willing to take American dollars at a good exchange rate. Whew.

Then it was back to Patzcuaro and time to head to dinner!

We started with a wonderful guacamole. Yum! Then, much to our dismay…fish again! This time the head was staring at each of us. All I could think was how much Gage would like to eat that head! It was average this time around. It couldn’t compare to lunch! The garlic soup did not appeal to many either. And we had flan again….not as good as lunch.

I ate dinner with many of our sponsors….including Dan, who ironically lived in Lafayette, La. at the same time I was working there! I enjoyed eating with all of them and when we returned to the hotel we decided it was time to drink tequila in Mexico! Unfortunately, all the bar had was Jose Cuervo Especial. But that didn’t seem to stop us from doing two shots!

Around 11 p.m. I was greeted by a knock on the door. It was my luggage. Jorge, one of two tour guides hired to work with our group, brought the luggage around to all of us. I was so happy to put on my own pajamas to sleep! Our luggage actually went to Mexico City before joining us in Patzcuaro.