More from El Paso and Juarez

I think I may be slowly getting use to the heat. It still wakes me early every morning.

Last week we took a day trip out to The Carlsbad Caverns. It was the first time I was crossing back into the US. It went as smooth as could be expected. The border guard was just a little confused as to why I was there. So we set off (Isabel, Mayela, Pablo and I). Once outside El Paso it was just desert after desert. I think there are some pictures in that album. This was all brand new for me. Along the road there we're some houses dotted here and there. I couldn't (and still can't) fathom why anyone would want to live so far out.

The road then led us up towards the Guadalupe Mountains. The Chihuahua desert surrounds this. Again something I wasn't use to was seeing flat land to the horizon and then a huge mountain range jutting out.

The caverns were huge. The area is all limestone, so over millions of years they were carved out. The lift took us down about 750 feet and we were able to walk for about 2 mile underground. Hopefully that'll give some idea of the magnitude of these caves. I think the largest chamber is the 7th largest in the world. Then again I may have just made that up. It is also full of bats. Didn't get to see any because they roost really high. It said the numbers can range from between 100,000 up to 1.3 million (I hope I have those numbers correct) depending on the season and times of drought etc.

The drive back was nice as the sun was setting across the desert. Funnily enough some clouds showed up to slightly obscure the view. Both Isabel's and my camera's batteries died so we couldn't really get any good photos.

To cap off the day we all went to see Brave. I highly recommend it.

I don't think I've spoken about the driving yet. It is completely different to home and I don't mean because we drive on opposite sides to one another. Indicators seem to be optional. I've seen 2 car crashes since getting to this continent. Now neither of them were terribly bad, but it's more than I've seen since I started driving back home. The driving appears to be a lot more agressive than home too. All in all I don't rate the experience highly, so less of that and more of what we are at.

We hopped the border to El Paso downtown on Tuesday. By hopped I mean walked over a bridge and through US Border control again. Now the gentleman that questioned me could not fathom why I didn't need a permit/visa to cross even though I had all the correct documentation so that held me up a few minutes. First thing I did in the land of the free was pick up a bandana because my forehead was getting pretty sweaty underneath my cowboy hat. I don't know why but we decided to walk around El Paso at about 12 oclock just as the day was reaching it's hottest. In the end I handled the heat pretty well. Isabel on the other hand got really flustered. We skipped out of the midday sun into Cafe Cental. Fanciest Cafe ever. I felt really rich in that place. They even gave me a little table thingy to put my backpack on. Pablo joined us for lunch and was drooling over the hostess in the place. To be honest there wasn't really a whole lot going on in El Paso. They have a street festival at the end of the week that we are hopping to catch.

After lunch we took a drive up the Franklin Mountain which overlooks all of the city and Cd. Juarez as well. It was an amazing view. I'll add some pictures to the album opposite. (below should be a mashed together pic :p)

We're taking it handy over the next few days. Some more friends to visit/meet and hanging out with Isabel's family. We're due to journey onto Chihuahua city on monday. I'll see if I can add something to the blog showing what dates we're moving around mexico/where we are at the moment as a few people have been asking me when we're due home before we head off to Germany. Until then.

Some pics from the first week

I seemed to make a mess of this post the first time so here it is again. Click the pic for the album (I hope)

edit: seems to be some sort of issue still.

here's the direct link https://picasaweb.google.com/110158633348350638357/AnIrishManInMexicoItSVeryWarmHere?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKydj9u_gtPDKw&feat=directlink

Mi Primera Semana

Hola! The title means my first week for the non Spanish speaking folk.

Anyway, it's the end of my first week in Mexico. It has flown by. I did spend 4 days in Virginia before this for a wedding. I may add an entry later to cover that.

Right where to start?

This trip has been my first exposure to a desert and as these things go hand in hand, I've also been exposed to the accompanying climate. Have you ever had your face too close to the oven when you've been cooking and opened it? That's what it's like here all the time. Flying into El Paso I noticed that the entire landscape was a mix of brown and every imaginable shade of brown. Completely different to the green at home. After we got outside the airport, that's when I was acquainted with Mr. Sun and his friend 5% relative humidity. If I've done it right there should be a display on the left showing the current weather if where we are.

Isabel's friend Pablo picked us up and brought us to meet some more friends at a nice little restaurant in the center of Juarez. Not before we went to this little market so I could buy a real cowboy hat. We were the only people there so everyone was after our business. I think I added a pic to the blog of Isabel wearing it.

As you can tell from that previous information we are now in Juarez. Juarez is the Mexican half of the whole that is made up with El Paso. It's the same city, just separated by the mostly dry Rio Grande. Of course there is also the heavily patrolled border between the two nations. We drove straight in from the US side. It's the other direction that can take longer/be more difficult. Apparently the queues can be up to 3hours either direction though. It's also quite common for people from ElPaso to work in Juarez and vice versa.

So the little market was my first exposure to Juarez, a city famed for it's violence and danger. After being here for a week thankfully it's no longer as bad as it was (not because of the week i was here or anything). There are still a huge number of police on the streets, but no more army. The city is returning to the way it was, whereby it is still dangerous in areas, but the majority of the people are able to carry on about their lives. I'm grateful to have Isabel as a guide. She can even see a huge difference between now and a year ago. We even read that there has already been 10000 jobs created here already this year. The dynamics of an industrial city sitting directly on the border with the united states are quite interesting. Hopefully I'll get some time to touch on it more during my entries.

Where was I before that tangent. Lunch with Isabel's friends, which leads me onto an extremely important topic...food.

The food here is amazing. I will definitely be talking about food a lot more over the next few weeks. My favorite so far had been a burrito with barbacoa. It's shredded lamb cooked in an oven in the ground. Hmmm, that wasn't a very good description. For all you food lovers

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbacoa . Small known fact burritos first came from Juarez.

For the first week we've just been staying with Isabel's family, visiting friends and stating out of the sun during the hours between 11 and about 6. I have a factor 60 sun cream so I can keep my pasty white complexion. I also met Isabel's aunts. One of them is married to a real cowboy. I told him I wanted to get real cowboy boots with spurs. He offered me one piece of advice: "Make sure to take of your spurs off you want to squat down" :-/ Still haven't picked up any boots yet. Did find some made from exotic creatures for about €150. Wouldn't be able to take them home or through an airport though.

My Spanish is coming on in leaps and bounds. I've successfully ordered in Spanish...at least as many times as I haven't been successful. I'm getting there though.

We're off to spend the day in El Paso tomorrow, so I'll have plenty more to say on that. We've also been on a day trip to a massive cavern in New Mexico so I can fill you in on that too.

Right now it's getting late and the sun wakes us up at 7 every morning. I'll leave it there. By the way I'm using my phone to post, so apologies for any spelling corrections or auto corrects :)

Ro