Valle de Bravo (day 5)

We relaxed until 10:00am or so, and then left here to take the bus into the town of Valle de Bravo. We just wanted to walk around on our own for a while and then maybe buy some groceries.

So we did…the collectivo into town cost 8 pesos (68 cents) each. This was actually a taxi that does a set route all day long, so it’s actually a little cheaper than a taxi normally would be. We had been waiting with another lady and we had asked her to make sure we were getting into the correct vehicle.

We got out near “el centro” and walked to the centre square where we just sat on a park bench for a few minutes and watched the world go by.

Then we walked around town for a few hours, stopping into an archeological museum (which was free, as museums should be!) and exploring some of the shops. I was also watching the road that we have to take to leave Valle de Bravo next Tuesday or so, because it is a bit of a congested town and I wanted to be familiar with the route out of here!

We bought quite a few groceries in the market, but also found a fairly large local grocery store (nothing like the grocery stores back home, or the Bodega’s or Sorinanna’s in Mexico) to do some shopping. As we were preparing to order some sliced sandwich meat, a shop girl in the store came up to us and introduced herself in English asking of she could help us. We stand out as Americans, but we are quick to introduce ourselves as Canadians. This girl had grown up in Phoenix, Arizona and her English was perfect. She helped us buy some cheese and sandwhich meat. Oh, and a dozen eggs which were handed to us in a bag. The dozen eggs cost us 10.2 pesos (85 cents).

We made our way to a tortierra (sp?) where we bought a kg of corn tortillas for 10 pesos (82 cents).

This guy didn't look too enthused at watching the world go by!

By this point we were carrying a few groceries so we flagged a taxi and he brought us back to Sherman for 20 pesos ($1.64) each. This was obviously a little more expensive than it cost us to get into town, but it was taxi rate, not collectivo rate. Still, very cheap by Canadian standards.

Christmas decorations in the square.

When we arrived back at Santiago’s place, he came around and knocked on our door. He had ordered an internet package through TelMex and was having problems getting it set up wondering if we could help. They also had some friends visiting from the nearby city of Toluca who spoke some English and we got along with them quite well. They enjoyed practicing their English, and us our Spanish. We came to the conclusion that the internet problem was in the line which was spliced together in typical Mexican fashion. They will have to get TelMex to come and fix the problem.

Next thing we know, Santiago is inviting us for food. His wife had a bunch of barbeque chicken and tacos and salsa and their friends from Toluca were joining us as well. We enjoyed dinner with them, and afterwards Ruth showed the women some of our pictures while me and the men talked about work and travel.

Turns out that this big Guadaloupe celebration starts at like 5:00am in the morning, and Santiago is coming to wake us up then so that we can join them for music and fireworks at that early hour. When in Mexico, do as the Mexicans do…