Mexico: Day 4

It was a usual morning in Mexico. Loud birds, cereal for breakfast, and off to work.
It was not, however, our usual day. There were two major differences, the first one being that one of our team members had become very sick.
It was the youngest member in fact--Audrey. We weren't sure what it was at the time, but it was heat sickness. She hadn't been drinking enough water, and it was just too hot for her. So all that night she had been feeling terrible and she wasn't able to keep food down. It was just bad.
Audrey's parents took her into Mazatlan to see the doctor, so they were gone all that morning while we worked. When they did get back it was just in time for lunch, and just in time to inform us of the situation and let us know that they would not be going with us on our planned venture into Mazatlan that afternoon.
That is the other major difference concerning this particular day--we only worked half the day, and took the rest to go to the beach and see the city.
We were sad to be leaving part of our team behind, but away we went. Most of us rode in a kind of taxi that they have down there. I'm not sure what they call it, but it is basically a truck with an open, yet covered back with benches. It was really interesting. No seat-belts, no nothin'. You just sit out in the open and watch the scenery as it goes by. It was a really fun way to see the Mexican country side as well as the city.
When we pulled in on the golden road--that is the American touristy section of Mazatlan--we were dropped off right in front of McDonalds. We split up at that point. Most of the group went straight to the beach while Roger, Kelly and I went for a walk to see what kind of wares the vendors had. I was a little surprised to discover that for the most part everyone was selling the same things, and I mean the exact same things. I suppose that shouldn't be too surprising considering you see a lot of that in the touristy areas of the U.S., but in the U.S. all the shops aren't this close together.
After we had walked around for a while, and Kelly had found what she was looking for, we decided to join the others on the beach. At first it took us a little while to find the way into the beach. The beach is heavily blocked off by a solid line of stores and buildings. There is, however, a designated passageway onto the beach, and of course it is lined with more stores (just in case you forgot something you might need on the beach--like some fine jewelry.
We had to walk a while before finding the rest of the group, and as we were walking we had several salesmen ask us if we wanted to go para-sailing, boating, or take a tour of stone island. There were also countless other sales-men and women walking along the beach selling the exact same things as were in most of the stores. You could sit in one place getting a tan and purchase anything from a fruit drink to clothes to jewelry.
The crazy thing is, even though there were tons of people, and half of them were salesmen, the beach and the ocean looked amazing. It was a beautiful scene.
When we did finally catch up with the others most of them were out playing in the water. So, Kelly began to settle in while Roger and I just stood around. I didn't feel like getting wet that day. Before long Roger and I were back out on the streets, seeing what other stores we could find. During our little walk we found some air conditioned stores (a wonderful marketing tactic in Mexico), we were offered an audience with some strippers as well as a few more tours of Stone island, and we passed the local Dairy Queen. In Mexico you don't have to look hard to find whatever you want (unless you are looking for a solid purple bag that says "Mazatlan" on it, which is what Roger was never able to find for his daughter), usually if you walk far enough someone else will find it for you and try to sell it to you. I don't know why they don't have door to door salesmen...oh, wait...they do. There is a guy who delivers purified water every day, as well as a guy who delivers tortillas every day, as well as other guys who deliver all kinds of other things periodically.
Well, eventually we ended up back on the beach (after having attained a Mcflurry, of course). My feet were burning, so I moved up into the seating at Joe's Oyster Bar. I just sat there for about an hour until it was time for everyone to meet up for dinner. The shade was nice, the view of the beach was wonderful, and the book I had was entertaining (Spanish/English Dictionary: hours of good wholesome fun).

For dinner we all went to Pancho's. We had decided on the upstairs, indoor seating because it was air-conditioned. Of course, once we were inside the nice cool room some people started complaining about it being too cold. I tell ya', some people just can't handle Mexico.
I was feeling adventurous, so I ordered the Mexican platter. It had a little bit of everything, and it was delicious. During the meal I also--by invitation--speared a piece of calamari as well as a chunk of snail (we didn't know it was snail at the time) from my neighbor's dish. I don't know what it is, but something about living in another country opened up my mind to trying a lot of different kinds of food. There was one exception, however. I decided against trying the complimentary Kahlua & cream. Sure it was just a small glass, and it was legal, but I just don't mess with the alcohol. It's that simple. I mean, how much of a cultural experience can it be? My friend back home has offered me Kahlua & cream several times. Big woop.

After dinner it was getting close to time to head back to El Castillo. Most of us decided to ride in the van on the way back, so it was just Roger, Ed, Danny and myself in the back of the truck this time (though I might be forgetting someone).

When we returned we learned that Audrey and Debbie had been sleeping in one of the only air-conditioned rooms in the orphanage all day. Everyone was pretty tired, so the ladies went straight to bed. The guys decided to do something a little different from the previous nights. Instead of sitting out in the flies and singing, we met in our room and talked about some of the things we had been thinking about and noticing from our experience so far in Mexico. It ended up being a really cool discussion.
After talking we all went to bed. I think most of us slept well that night. I know for a fact, however, that some of us didn't. But that's a story for the next day.