Day 23 – Wednesday 12th October 2005
I left Mazatlan to make my way to the tiny island of Mexcaltitan. This is an island that is only about 400m x 400m, has one hotel and can only be reached by taking a water taxi, or lancha, through a mangrove lagoon for about ten minutes.
Before I reached the island however I took a bus (6 hours) from Mazatlan to Santiago Ixcuintla & then a taxi (I had missed the final connecting bus to the lanchas). Once I had reached Mexcaltitan after a long hot journey I checked into the only hotel on the island ($150 pesos/night) and went and had a little look around. That didn’t really take too much time, so I was casually wandering around the main plaza when I heard two blokes speaking English. Not having had a conversation in English (and as my Spanish really isn´t up to much yet, not really having a conversation in Spanish either) for about three days I said hello. As it turned out these two guys were driving from Denver to Puerto Vallarta as one of them had just retired down to there and wanted a car with him. We sat in the main plaza, and I casually mentioned I was heading down to Vallarta the next day. A few beers later and they offered me a lift with them. Bargain.
On a side note, I have been using the pseudonym Shane Warne when I have checked into hotels. I dont know why I just did it once and I kept laughing about it, so I keep doing it. On this occasion I had checked in under the great Aussie spin bowlers´ name and signed the guest list. The two Americans to whom I was now talking had seen this on the guestlist and not knowing who Shane Warne was, had no reason to doubt it was my real name, so when we first met they had said “Ah you must be Shane” and I just played along with it for no particular reason other than it made me laugh every time they called me Shane.
The island of Mexcaltitan is an unusual place. When the sun had set, the adults seemed to disappear and be replaced by kids. They swarmed upon the main plaza in their droves. It became like a school playground, and it reminded me of visiting my granddads house when I was growing up. Coming from England I am not really used to seeing kids as young as three or four out on the street playing after dark.
The evening was amusing, the kids kept coming up and speaking with us and the younger kids especially seemed to be fascinated by the fact that I knew the words to the English songs that were playing on their jukebox.
One of the things that was interesting was the generations of people that had lived there. The guy who drove the water taxi I caught when getting onto the island had lived there all his life, as has his father and his father before him. When those guys were growing up, how much contact did they have with the outside world? Maybe a television, maybe a radio, maybe nothing. The kids who grow up on the island today will have access to television, radio, internet etc, and it left me wondering if in years to come these outside influences will draw the youngsters away from Mexcaltitan or not, and if the sense of community that there is at present will remain.
ok well this was an interesting day so i kept it up writing about every day!
I´m in Guantanajato, I left the beach as I was being slowly eaten alive by mosquitoes.
Did you sing to these children the songs that played on the juke box and dance and clap?
hi
I’m a mexican advertising student in xalapa veracruz, if you happen to visit veracrus, let me know ,I’d love to show you around
Shane! Quality story mate, things are grey,damp and cold back here!
Me and Flan graced the Bell friday night – What a come down from Diego,L.A, Vegas etc!
Keep bowling those flippers!!!!
O.C
Jonesys got a girlfriend – na na na na
Friday nights in Haverhill just don’t have the same feel to friday nights in NYC!!!
If you fail me with meeting Karina in Veracruz Royston, I’ll have to unlease ‘das club’ on your return!! lol. Seriously mate, that sounds like a quality offer! Not that you don’t already know that! Loving the blog, its a fasinating read every couple of days and know its gonna keep me entertained during my long slogs in the States! Spent the weekend in Basingstoke, but like the lads said…Never been NYC!
Hi folks, still in same place, I went to the town of Tequila today and had a few tastings! Photos and story to come….
I´m also in the process of uploading all my photos to Yahoo Photos as I can store them there for free, and you can look at them at your leisure. I´ll prob put a link to it once they are uploaded. So stay tuned.
Roz: I did kind of sing a little bit, but you know my vocal talents aren´t up to much!
Team Handsome: Glad you are back in the swing of things and USA didn´t quite bankrupt you all!
And come on you Spurs! 2nd in the league!
Roy
The next 4 games are Man U away, Arsenal Home, West Ham and Bolton.
Rob Sullivan is new HCC captain, Nural is 2nd team captain.
Guess someone hang themselves on one of the conker trees at HCC (true)
Your Old Man
Hello fella!!
Hope your well? Just got few minutes online during lunch, so thought i’d ask a couple of things.
Where are you now (Thurs 20th) and where you heading next? Are you keeping out the way of the hurricane! Best you had more to the point! Any joy with the photos on Yahoo? Looking forward to the Tequila post!! Peace.
It’s a nice story from Shane Warne about Mexcaltitan Island life,how come you didn’t send any pictures of the island for everybody to see?