Death by bus ride

This post has been sitting in my edit box for a week now. It's behind the times. So I sped through it. check my facebook for pictures if you want. --

I think I've re-edited this new post, like, five times now because I just haven't been able to finish it. Now, here we are back at home getting ready to take off for our next adventure tonight. I haven't blogged near as much as I wanted to. For that, I apologize. But, we had an amazing time in Mexico and hope to return some time in the future.
I've been thinking about this topic since our first day of school and simply haven't had time to write get it down. So here it is:

The Queretaro bus system is much different than our own back home. In Eugene the bus system is owned by the county - Lane Transit District. Buses are clean and big, accommodating all who want to ride. In Querétaro, there are four or five different bus companies who are all competing for business.
I'll start by saying, the roads there are already terrifying. Our first experience was in a taxi, swerving in and out of traffic, honking to let other drivers know we were there. I figured that that was just how taxi drivers drive. We've all seen the tv shows portraying the madness of of the taxi business. Then we rode with our host mom. Lanes and stop signs are more for the sake of image there. Drivers simply slow down at stop signs to make sure no one else is coming. We'll often see cars straddling the lanes while driving. Many will just stop in the road and hang out for a while or make a right turn from three lanes over.
Imagine this kind of traffic in a bus. They aren't all that careful, either. Since they've got competition, they need to make sure they get to the bus stop first. So the buses are all passing each other in whatever opening they can find in traffic. If there isn't an opening, they will make one. They cut pretty close to each other, too. At one point our mirror slid along the side of another bus as we were trying to squeeze by. Sometimes riding the bus feels as though we're in a racing game. The purpose is to go as fast as possible to be in first place, but then at the same time we have to stop where people are waving us down. So we're slowing down, speeding up, swerving to the left, swerving to the right, slamming on the breaks, and so on. At one point we went to pass another bus and our driver just slammed the gas. As we passed the first bus at full speed I noted the drivers making some sort of signal at each other. Our driver smiled because we won the race.
Grabbing a bus is interesting. I'm pretty sure the buses don't have any sort of time schedule. They simply have their route that they're supposed to follow. So we just knew that one would come eventually, if we stood in a certain area. There weren't real bus stops, except for little stations here and there, so we would just stand on a corner where other people stood, watch for our number, and wave it down. Sometimes it will stop, sometimes it won't.
Since they are different companies, the pricing is sometimes iffy as well. Since we were students, we should recieve a student discount with our ID cards. A half price discount. There were many bus drivers who simply wouldn't have it. We never took the S bus because the driver actually accused us of having fake cards. Normally, though, as long as we took the bus to and from school, we would get the discount.
end.

A list of shorts

So I am over my illness and have a few minutes to post something new! Here's my list of shorts. These are all short statements that don't really need a full blog or anything.

This is one of the many plazas here. The shoeshine stands are
all lined up and usually seem pretty active. Also, the cleaning
ladies all have what look like handmade brooms with sticks
tied to the bottom of a pole.

>There are people dressed in orange pushing carts around town cleaning up the ground. They seem to be primarily older ladies.

>There are a ton of shoeshine stands. All lined up.

>Comida (lunch) is the biggest meal of the day. It's a lot of food. We always eat with our señora at three. We normally aren't given any food between breakfast and comida. In fact, Paty got mad at me one day because I ate too close to comida time and so I wasn't hungry.

>We've learned that we must always request our check from our server. They won't bring it unless we do. We did a lot of waiting around before we realized this custom.

This was in Mexico City but
we see the same thing here
in Querétaro.

>There are cops everywhere and they always seem ready for a riot. Also, they've always got the light on. I wonder how people know when they're being pulled over.

>There are clowns in the plazas! I guess that's probably a big city thing. I mean, we wouldn't see that in Eugene.

>Our family members have never heard of A Christmas Carol. I don't know if that's a Mexico thing or just our family. But it was surprising.

>There are more fans of fútbol americano than previously expected. Even our señora likes it more than soccer. But most people are fans of southern teams like Dallas, San Francisco, and Oakland, which makes sense.

>Most bathrooms cost money to get in (like 4 pesos) and they hand out toilet paper at the door. Also, we don't flush our tp here. There's always a little trash bin next to the toilet. This can often lead to bathrooms smelling less than pleasant.

This couple was actually taking a picture of themselves
making out. Ahhh youth.

>Young couples make out everywhere. Mostly they park themselves in the plazas where there are benches and pretty fountains. But really... they don't care who's around.

>When it rains here it freakin' pours. Like, for serious.

>Our señora says not to give money to beggars because they are immigrants from South America going through Mexico to the States. She says that they aren't wanted here and if they don't get any money then they would be forced to go to the church for help. The church will feed them and clothe them but also will send them back home. I suppose we all have our own immigration issues.

>Speaking of which, I talked to my new Mexican friend about how we have a lot of immigrants back home who refuse to learn or speak English. She was flabbergasted and talked about how incredibly important it is to learn the language of the place you're living. That made me feel good.

>There's a really weird Nazi presence here. I don't quite understand it yet, but I see paraphernalia everywhere.

>Busses are terrifying. I'm going to write a separate blog on that.

Side note - I had some sort of infection. The doctor wasn't specific about it. It could have been a sinus infection. Anyway, I was pretty darned sick. Had a high fever, sore throat, and just felt all around gross. I had to take an exam at the hight of my illness. Surprisingly, I got a B on it! So anyway, I went to the médico. Most of the pharmacies here have a little doctor's office on the side or in the back. The one I went to was just a little room on the side of the building. It's pretty weird, but it got the job done. The doc simply took my name, age, temp, asked if I had any allergies or chronic diseases, and then prescribed me 4 different medications, one of them being a shot that I had to have in mis pompis two days in a row. I'm over it. I just have some congestion and an ugly cough left over (very common for me considering my asthma). The worst part, I think, was being so sick during our trip to Mexico City. Hopefully I'm done for the rest of the summer!

So there's all that. Keep track of our Twitter accounts for periodic updates or pictures. Brandon's is @the_ferg_says and mine is @JessicaPestika. A new update will be coming as soon as we have time. So until then, my friends!

De Efe

Hey! It's a special guest episode of the Ferguson blog, written by that other guy! Jessica has a ton of homework and I have been blessed with a slightly lighter workload. I always give Jess a hard time for writing such long blogs, but I am finding out first hand how difficult it is to summarize these kinds of experiences.

This was our view of
Mexico City from the plane 

Bueno, this weekend we went to Mexico DF, which is around a 3 hour drive to the city, then another 3 hours to the other side. It's the world's second most populated city next to Tokyo, but the world's most dense city. Jess and I got a pretty good glimpse of the immensity of the city when we flew in a few weeks ago; buildings as far as the eye could see, including two separate strips of skyscrapers.

There's a lot to see and do in DF, as it's basically Mexico's Washington DC and New York all in one, only with more history and people. The city was built over the top of Tenochtitlan, the Aztecan capital from the 14th century until the Spanish conquered it in the 16th century. Tenochtitlan was built on an island in a lake. As it's population increased the Aztecs built little floating islands, primarily intended for gardens and small houses. The Spanish went ahead and built the whole city (skyscrapers, castles, and all) over the entire lake, and it sinks about three inches every year.

Atop the Pirámide del Sol
looking towards the Pirámide 

de la Luna 

View of the Pirámide del Sol and
the center of the city

First, we went just north of the city to Teotihuacan, the religious and cultural capital of the parent culture of the Aztecs and Mayans. The city's peak era corresponds with that of Rome's, and it was one of the biggest cities on Earth at the time. It was one of the only major sites of antiquity not destroyed by the Spanish when they arrived because it had already been deserted and was covered by dirt, so much that until 100 years ago people thought the massive pyramids there were just hills. There are several different kinds of temples and buildings: one temple to Quetzalcoatl adorned with amazing sculptures, and two pyramids that are much older; el Pirámide de la Luna (moon) y el Pirámide del Sol (sun). I climbed them both, but Jess was dealing with a sickness that messed up her ability to breathe (Mexico city is much higher in altitude than Querétaro, which in turn is much higher than Eugene). It was a neat experience that I'm glad I took part in, but the multitudes of tourists and people trying to (successfully) sell me trinkets stole a little of the ambiance. The vendors had some pretty humorous tricks to catch the gringo's attention. They would shout “One dollar!” or “Great prices! Almost free!” switching between English and Spanish as they liked.


There were multiple museums throughout the trip, and I don't think I could successfully differentiate between them well enough to be worth the effort. There is one at Teotihuacan that is stuffed full of artifacts found there on site (check out our pictures for more details). The next spot is out of chronological order, but it fits well here. Just about 3-4 blocks away from where we were staying, around the corner from the city's main square and gigantic church, is el Templo Mayor. In fact, the church was partially built using stones from the temple. This was the most holy site in all of Tenochtitlan before the Spanish arrived. There was an enormous two-pronged temple there in honor of two different gods. Here, we saw many of the same things we saw at Teotihuacan, but because this site was still in use when the Spanish arrived and was purposefully covered up, there are parts that were more preserved than the dust-covered Teotihuacan. There is a pretty great museum there as well.

We also went to the Castillo which sits on a hill overlooking a beautiful park that leads the eyes further to the city's skyline. When the French emperor Maximiliano was living there in the 1860s the skyline would have been dominated by towering churches. Today it's dominated by skyscrapers, but I suspect it's equally as beautiful. The Castillo is surrounded by castle walls that were built into the hill and covered by trees. Other than those walls it is far more like a mansion than a castle. Most of the main halls and staircases are covered but also open to the outside, it was hard to differentiate when we were inside or out. There are ridiculously magnificent gardens out front and one on the roof near the emperor's habitación. The halls and great rooms have been converted into museums dedicated to Mexico's immense and complex history of colonization, independence, and revolution.

One of Diego Rivera's Murals in the Palacio. They are so 
left-leaning that the conservative politicians of the current 
party have to walk by with their heads turned the other 
direction.

One of the most famous muralists of all time, Diego Rivera, lived and painted in Mexico DF. He was married to the artist Frida Kahlo, whose famous blue house we were able to tour as well. Rivera's murals are in some of the most important places in the whole city, including the Presidential Palace where he painted murals depicting the history of Mexico and the direction he wanted it to take in the future. Frida and Diego founded the Mexican Socialist Party so there are a lot of anti-capitalist, pro-proletariate themes with appearances by Lenin and Marx throughout. His murals are also a permanent fixture in the Palacio de Bellas Artes, an amazing building built in the 20s that screams of the prosperity the nation saw at the time.

The trip overall was great, but there were times we were on the bus for hours just driving through the city. It's huge and apparently doesn't have sufficient freeways. At one point the bus got stuck taking a corner too tight and we had to ask someone to move his parked truck. We blocked traffic at that intersection for a solid 5 minutes at least. On the way home we hit a big traffic cone and had to pull over to get it out from under the bus. I could go on and on about the frustrating parts of the trip, but I'd rather not because overall it was amazing.

One of the infinite moments
we spent on the bus

Catedral de México DF

Part of the ruins of the Templo Mayor

PS: We're halfway done. 3 weeks until we come back then another day until we leave for Europe.

Oh also, there was an indigenous lady selling guajalotes in the major plaza of the city. We wanted to take her picture but she wouldn't let us.

Keep track of our Twitter accounts for periodic updates or pictures. Mine is @the_ferg_says and Jessica's is @JessicaPestika. A new update will be coming as soon as we have time. So until then, my friends!

On a party boat in the river with beer and mariachis