"Bueno"

Those who called me here in Mexico may have noticed that "bueno" is the way you answer the phone here. I guess everybody who is used to saying their name, find this a bit strange because how do you know who's talking.

Now you may say: "Well, I just can ask."And exactly that is the problem! It is considered inpolite to ask. Why? Because you didn't recognize the other person. I know, hard to understand but it's part of the Mexican culture. So they prefer pretending in case they don't know who is talking. I can imagine this already caused a lot of funny situations...

Jobs

I wanted to publish a post about "jobs" already some time ago but I didn't have the right picture. Now I have, here is the post...

To be honest, I don't really know how you call somebody who polishes your shoes in English. The Spanish word is botanero and you can see one of them on the pic. They are quite common here and some time ago it was a notable job.


For me as a German it is still quite strange imagine having somebody polish your shoes. I would feel a bit bad because I don't want somebody "getting to his knees" in front of me.

But to be honest this is not the only service you get here and which seems a bit strange to me. There are people who wash your car. For 30 pesos (a bit more than 2 €) and many people tell them afterwards where they have to wash or polish again because their car doesn't shine enough.

Then, there are people on the carpark of the super market, for example, who "help" you getting into and out of your parking spot by blowing a whistle and making wild gestures. After your shopping they expect a little tip. And they are not there because Mexicans can't park (although...). Usually those people don't have a proper job and try to earn at least a little money by that. You should know something like a social system doesn't exist here although there are a few ways you get help from the state.

Something else which doesn't exist in Germany (and I guess the rest of Europe) any more: filling station attendants. Of course they expect a little tip, too.

There are people who don't do anything else but waving a red flag at the railroad crossing. To tell you, you can pass...

And the best (I saw it when I came to the internet café): People painting topes (humps to reduce your speed). Of course expecting a little tip for it when you pass.

80 maximum

On our way back from our week of vacation I had my first real encounter with Mexican police. I'm not sure what I've told you about Mexican policemen but it is definitely another thing...

Mexican policemen are corrupt. At least some of them. No matter how much some Mexicans keep telling it is not true. Let me tell you that last week, for example, one of my friends turned left with his car where it was not allowed (which in some cases you can't know because there are no signs or they are kind of "hidden"). She had to get out of the car, had to show her driving licens etc. Then the policemen told her that it was 200 pesos and because it wasn't really much she decided to pay. But when she wanted to, the policeman said: "Get into your car, get into your car." She didn't understand and said: "But I want my driving license back." "Get into your car, you'll get it back." Later he explained that it was in order to prevent that anybody would see him receiving money. Of course there are official fines which you have to pay at the police station. Although in most cases it es cheaper it is a lot of trouble. Therefore a lot of people "pay" the policemen. BTW, this is called mordida ("bite"), one of the words in the vocabulary test.

Now let me tell you how I got to know 2 Mexican police men:
When you are on your way back from your vacations and you have to travel more than 1000 km it can happen that you like to get home as fast as possible.
Therefore it can happen that, when the motorway is very good, has two lanes and your Jetta has 105 HP, you drive 150 km/h.
It also can happen that you do so despite the sign "80 maximum" (nobody respects the trafic signs in Mexico!).
Then it can happen that you overtake 5 cars.
It can happen that the first one is police... *oops*

First they didn't really care about my speed. I guess because their car was slower anyway. Unfortunately about 1 km further there was the toll station and a queue in front of it. The police passed and after the station they called me out... *f...*

Martin already hid part of our money, in case we had to pay we could tell them we didn't have that much. I stopped and got out.
- Where are you coming from?
- From Playa del Carmen.
- And where are you going?
- Back to Puebla.
- Where are you from?
- From Germany.
- Ah, from Germany. I'm not sure how it is in your country but here driving that fast is not allowed. Maximum speed on the motorway is 110 and that part only 80.
- Yes. *very guilty face*
- Can I see your driving license?
- Yes, of course. *I had him over a COPY of my driving license* (It's something you learn in Mexico: Never give them the original unless they insist on it because it can happen you didn't do anything wrong and they just want money for giving you the license back.)
- You know we can take away your car? Then you have to go back to Puebla by coach.
*Martin gets out of the car. I can see despair in his eyes.*
- So, did you rent the car in Puebla?
- Yes. Well, it's a Volkswagen car. We are interns there and they give a car to 4 interns each.
- You are interns? The girl (Ute), too?
- Yes.
- For how long are you here.
- I'm here for 4 months and a half.
- Me for 6 months and she as well.
- Aha. Your Spanish is quite good.
- Thanks.
- Well, please don't drive that fast any more. This is not your country. Like this you'll cause an accident.
- Ok.
*He gives me the copy of my driving license*
- Take care. *He shakes my hand*
- Good bye.
- Good bye.

To be honest, I have no idea how I got out of this without paying or any other punishment. It must have been a combination of the fact that we weren't just tourists, we weren't gringos and we understood and spoke quite a bit of Spanish. And definitely the two policemen must have had their best day of the year! I still can't imagine... Such a story, for so little. Just cost me some nerves.

Palenque

On our way back, we passed Palenque because we still had a lot of time until we had to get to Puebla.

Palenque is another ancient town but contrary to Tulum it is in the forest. It really looks great as well and what impressed me is that only 4% of the whole town are discovered. The rest is still hidden in the forest. And if they wouldn't constantly remove plants, all buildings would soon be covered again.

There is one hill and they told us that probably there is a pyramide underneath as well.

To be precise: Martin told us as he was our tourist guide there. He had already been there before and to be honest I did a good job as tourist guide. There is more to learn and discover than in Tulum. So I prefer Palenque a bit. But both is worth seeing!

Yucantan - VIII

On our last but one day, we finally went to the famous ruins in Tulum. Nice, aren't they...


Unfortunately the weather wasn't perfect but ok. To be honest there isn't much to tell about the Tulum ruins. It's very nice there because it's on the beach (I guess the only Maya ruins on the beach) but there is not much to "learn". I told you all the important things before...

Yucatan - VII

As I already mentioned, the weather wasn't too good in Playa del Carmen. Therefore, one day we went to Tulum (about 1 hour from that town) to do snorkeling in the Cenote Grande.

A cenote is a cave filled with water (or partly filled). So weather isn't that important for this kind of sport. Although it would have been a bit nicer with sunlight as I was told that the water appears turquoise when the sun shines into the cenote. Well, it was very cool anyway. The formations of stones are really impressing. Of course I don't have fotos of that. But here is another nice one.

Hanna, who you can see on the left hand side on the pic is (almost) a professional diver. Martin wanted to dive as well and asked what would happen if he went diving without knowing about handling the equipment. Her answer: You'll definitely die!

Martin is still alive. But he didn't go diving after such a motivating answer;-)

After our snorkeling adventure we wanted to see the famous pyramides of Tulum which appear on almost every tourist guide about Mexico. As the weather go even worse we didn't go there that day.

Yucatan - VI

To be honest, the rest of our tour was a bit quieter. We went to Playa del Carmen where we met 5 other Volkswagen interns which was fun (and not always easy;-).

Playa del Carmen is a tourist town, too, but not as "gringo" as Cancun. It is not that big and more international. And the police is very eager there concerning parking. First I should explain that in Mexican towns you can park along the streets unless the curbstone is painted yellow (if I'm right it's the same in the USA). By saing the police there is eager I mean they don't even allow you to be 5 cm on the yellow part. Because of this they unscrewed the number plate of onother intern. Well, I should also explain that if you see a car with a missing number plate in Mexico this can have to reasons:

• The plate was stolen.
• The police unscrewed it.

In the second case you have to go to the police station and pay. Then you'll get it back. Strange way of making sure people pay but it seems to work. (In the first case there is not much to do.)

Unfortunately the weather wasn't that good there. Therefore, I won't publish pictures. I don't want to destroy your imagination that there is always sun in Mexico;-)

Because of the weather we didn't spend much time on the beach. I'm not so keen of it anyway so I don't really complain. Instead we went sailing as Ute knows how to do it. It was really fun. I was captain for some minutes as well and can tell you that sailing isn't that difficult. As long as somebody tells you what to do... ;-)

Yucatan - V

As I already said, our next stop was in Cancún. I guess Cancún is for US Americans what Mallorca is for Germans. The difference is that Cancún was built around 30 years ago from scratch! There is the zona hotelera (area where all the big and expensive hotels are) next to the sea and... let's say the rest of the city. At least, there the hotels aren't that expensive. But there are tourists (gringos) all over the place and they try to fool you everywhere;-) For example we ordered a beer each of us in a pub and got tow each. My friend asked if at that day there were dos por una (two for one; sometimes they have those offers here) and they told us that yes. When we had to pay we had to find out that it wasn't true and there was nothing we could do about it. The next day we were looking for a relatively cheap restaurant. After asking some people in the street we found one. That is to say: the food was cheap. The drinks were not listed on the menu and we didn't think about asking how much they were. At the end, the two cokes I had were much more expensive than the meal *annoyed*.

As Cancún is a place crowded with tourists we went to Isla Mujeres (Women Island) which got it's name because the Spanish conquistadores found a temple with many statues of goddesses there. There is a more romantic explanation for the name but it is not true;-)

It is true that Isla Mujeres isn't that crowded with tourists but by no means it is a quiet place. Martin and I went snorkeling there which was very nice. The funny thing was that after we had paid and everything was almost ready on the boat they asked us if we could swim... And you will be surprised to hear that the majority of people there couldn't or couldn't swim very well in deed. They got their lifejacket and the promise that they would get extra attention...

You already know the less good news. Some of our things were stolen on that island.

Besides of that the beach is nice there...

Yucatan - IV

Let's continue a bit with my tour:

On Monday we went to Chichén Itzá. Probably the name doesn't ring a bell but I guess the following picture does. You definitely have seen it in any kind of information about Mexico:

The pyramide is quite famous and I found it really impressing. It's not only the buidling itself but its function and meaning. It has 91 steps on each side which makes (91 times 4) 364 in total. Plus the "last step" on top... mmh? ... 365! The number of days of a year. Maybe you don't find that too impressing but they didn't only calculate the number of days per year exactly but also had a system to add days (as we do in a leap year) which was almost as exact as the system now (btw, it's quite interesting as it's actually a bit more complicated than adding a day every four years). Considering that they knew that already 1000 years ago and were much more exact than the Gregorian Calendar in Europe, it is something really worth knowing (for me;-).

In addition, twice per year the sun is the reasons why more people than usual come to Chichén Itzá. Because of light and shadow it looks as if a snake is coming down the pyramide. You can see it on the next picture although I think it's a bit difficult to imagine. Well, I didn't see it either as it is for the start of spring and autumn. The interesting question is how the Mayas calculated the adjustment of the building.

And some more about Mayan mathematics: they had a number system based on 20 including zero. Those who know a bit about mathematics and the history of numbers know that it isn't self-evident and that "our" zero comes from India.

Going back to Chichén Itzá and the Mayas, let me tell you that the pyramide isn't the only building there. Of course they also had a ball game field there. I think by now I told you enough about it (see previous posts) and the building called "The Observatory" is quite cool as well. You can see it on the picture on the right.

We stayed a bit longer in Chichén Itzá to see the luz y sonido ("light and sound") event in the evening. The light effects were very good and they told in short (30 minutes) the story of the region and the town.

By the way, around the archeological site there is really nothing worth mentioning. The next town is more than ugly. Therefore we continued our travel at about 9pm to arrive in Cancún about 2 hours later... (Cancún will be the next post.)

Yucatan - III

The next day (Sunday) we went from Campeche to Uxmal which is a quite famous archeological site. Or just stones again (depends on your point of view).

We took a guided tour there which is always quite helpful. There are hardly any signs to tell the tourists about the history and buildings.

What I learned there is that Mayan language has some similarities with German. Very strange... Uxmal (pronounced oosh mul) means 3 times (ux=3; mal=times which is the same in German). The Mayas gave this name to the town because it was constructed 3 times. Or lets better say they but 2 times a new layer of stones over the old one;-)

The town was constructed at that place because of some big cenotes (like holes in the stone) where the rain water collected. It was quite interesting to learn that the ancient Mayas already did the same as we are doing now at Volkswagen. Collecting and treating rain water for further use (this is part of my project here).

But the Mayas didn't use all the cenotes for collecting drinking water. They also believed that in some of them lived the rain god. To get to know about the weather of the following year, they threw somebody into one of the cenotes (after 3 days of fasting). If the person survived for more than one day, they were retracted and asked about the weather. They believed that the rain god revealed his plans to those who survived. Well, it's a kind of weather forecast but I prefer the modern ones;-)


Later that day we continued our trip and went to Mérida. Again we followed the "Lonely Planet" (I still had it then) and went to a youth hostel. There we met quite a lot of people that had also been in Campeche. As Martin expressed it: Buying the "Lonely Planet" means buying in to a certain community.

And there was evening, and there was morning - the second day. And we saw that it was good!

Yucatan - II

As I promised, I'll tell you a bit more about my trip last week.

I went with two other interns at Volkswagen, Ute and Martin, and we took one of the Jettas Volkswagen gives to the interns. Of course, officially the car is only for going to work and back and maybe doing your shoppings. But let's say they tolerate that we interns also use the cars for our weekend and holiday trips. Or how do you explain that the car assurance is valid all over Mexico...?

So we left last week friday at about 10pm. Our first stop was in Campeche. For Mexicans: Campeche, Campeche (i.e. the city Campeche in the state Campeche; many states are named equally to their capital or another big city). We arrived there about 12 hours later. Quite tired as you can imagine. But happy;-)

Campeche is the cleanest city I have seen in Mexico. It is a really nice colonial city with small streets, restored colonial buildings and of course the important city wall. You can see part of it on the picture.

We travelled with the "Lonely Planet" (at that point I still had it) which recommendet the Monkey Hostel. It is located directly next to the zócalo (city square) and we got to know quite some... mmh... let's say "freaky" people including some Germans. Backpackers with matted hair etc. The whole program... ;-)

Campeche is also very nice at night. They play music at the zócalo, there are clowns (well, that was more the kids' attraction) and they sell beer there...

And there was evening, and there was morning - the first day;-)

Yucatan - I

I'm back from my week of vacations in Yucatan and there are a lot of things to tell you. I had a great time, took a lot of pictures and enjoyed my time.

However, not everything can go fine on such a trip. My friend was robbed at the beach and with her things my watch and my "Lonely Planet". Fortunately those were not of such great value. It was a bit annoying to continue the tour without the guide. And the watch... had more of an individual value to me.

Don't worry. This is the only "bad" news. I'll continue blogging with positive experiences of my trip.