Food, culture and climbing, my experiences of Mexico are all here, read on!

Fold it yourself Taco!

Everyone knows Mexico is the land of Taco’s, or is it Burrito’s or Tortillas? What is the difference? I asked the same thing. Tortilla is the wrap itself. As for Taco or Burrito, it would seem size is what matters. Anyway the big surprise is that no one wraps them for you. They are served flat on the plate and need to somehow be folded and shoved into the mouth. This was fun because I like eating with my hands but much harder than you might think!

Lemony beer!

In general I could only deal with the ‘not spicy’ food which was obviously spicy! Most of the dishes were tasty but what even I found disgusting was a favorite dish here called ‘Chicharron’– pig skin! I noticed that if you want to do it like a Mexican you better squeeze some fresh lime on top of it, Taco’s, salad, soup, even beer, basically whatever you put in your mouth! My veterinarian friend claims it helps kill some of the bacteria. He also fed me with anti-worm pills he claimed will save my stomach, and wouldn’t let me eat almost anything because I have a gringo stomach!

Sweet version of avocado

The good news was I found new tasty fruit I hadn’t yet seen on any of my travels!

The clocks in the metro. Is this why Mexicans are late? The actual time was 17:46

Moving out of the food department, it seems time has little importance here in Mexico.  Every time I met up with a local they were late, on average about 25 minutes late. Maybe this has to do with the terrible traffic or just the laid back attitude. It also seemed the culture was not as Christian dominated as Colombia. I base this analysis on the people selling stuff in the metro trains (thankfully not on the buses like South America!) they never evoke Jesus when trying to sell you some candy.

Glad I survived.

Except for eating and failing to surf, I did some climbing around Mexico City. Nature is beautiful and the climbers are super nice. The only qualm I have would be safety issues. Much like the laid back attitude towards time, climbers tend to be laid back when it comes to safety.  I found myself climbing on a rout which has a well-known massive slab that shakes! I shook as much as the slab when I climbed that part. For cleaning routs people tend to use just one quick draw from the anchor for a safety and the belaying is too relaxed for my liking. It seems to work for them, as climbers here are at a very good level (not much of anything to climb below 6b) but for me it was an added fear factor (as if I need reasons to be afraid when I climb!). All in all it was great fun and I’m glad I survived!