Ryan's Travel Blog: La Paz, Mexico

It's been nearly a week since my last entry, which was written on my way to Mexico but things have been so busy (as usual) so I've been neglecting my blog. Sorry! I'll go down the schedule for the week and fill you in on my day to day activities here in town.

Monday
We arrived at the airport in Cabo around 2:30 and immediately began our drive to La Paz, which is about a two hour car trip. I don't remember exactly what time we arrived her, but all that's important is that we made it alive because our driver was genuinely insane! The entire trip from Cabo to La Paz is through the mountains, so the roads are really curvy and dangerous and almost none of the turns have rails, so that just makes it even more crazy but to top it off it was raining the whole way. To make a long story short, the driver was speeding the entire time, we almost hit a cow in the middle of the road, and almost got killed by an 18 wheeler. I think it's safe to say that nobody slept during that car ride and if they did, it wasn't a comfortable nap by any means.

Tuesday
This was our Regional Learning day in La Paz. We woke up bright and early just like always and went to the local museum and a historic cathedral with a tour guide. It was so hot that everyone was really not too interested in the tour because we all knew that after the tour we would get to cool down at the beach! The beack was absolutely gorgeous (see pictures)! We stayed there for about 3 hours before going back to La Paz for host family pick up around 6.

Wednesday
Wednesday was promo day for me and a few others on the marketing team. We went to a very busy grocery store with lots of flyers and tried to get people to come to the show on Saturday. It was especially challenging because we had to speak in Spanish and I really don't speak Spanish so every time someone came into the store I'd say "Hola! Como estas? Viva la Gente Sabado a las ocho!" So if they asked me a question I couldn't really respond. I'd just say "No hablar Espanol." It was pretty relaxed but as usual, it was HOT!!!

Later that night we had a mini show at the Malicon. The Malicon is an oceanside town square type place which everyone in La Paz is familiar with. The show went very well (did I mention that it was really hot?) and lots of people attended. We even had a few potential applicants ask us about how they can apply for the program. It was a good day.

Thusrday
I'm having a hard time remembering what I did Thursday but I want to say it was a Promo Day also. I honestly don't remember and that's why I regret not updating my blog regularly. I do remember very vividly that it was my "host brother's" 5th birthday and we had a party that night! Since abunch of UWP students are all staying in the same neighborhood, everyone showed up and produced a pretty good turn out for little Enrique's birthday. It's so funny because he doesn't realize that none of us speak Spanish so he'll just talk to us 100 words per minute and all we can ever say back is "Si!" It was a fun night and everyone really enjoyed it...especially the Pinata! I forgot how entertaining a Pinata could be :-D

***Edit***
I just remembered after looking in my journal that today was a CI day! We went to a park that was to be used that night for a Women's Rights meeting and did some landscaping and maintainence. We moved sand from one side of the park to the other because the wind had displaced it and made it uneven. After that we painted the entire playground set as well as the lines on the basketball court. It took us literally all day and the heat was so ridiculous! It was the most public Community Service I've done so far because as we were working, people were constantly walking or driving by and staring at us partially because we all look way different than people here and also because they probably had never seen anybody ever do anything to this ugly park! It was a gratifying feeling but it came with a sense of awkwardness because nobody likes to feel different or be stared at and I'm no exception! :)

Friday
I actually do remember that today was another Promo Day because I have the pictures to prove it. They're all boring though, so I won't post them. But it was basically a repeat of our last promo day with the exception of getting to ride in a Mexican Taxi for the first time in my life. It was soooo hot because the car's A/C didn't work and the car was like a 1985 Toyota Tercel so it was way weird, but aside from that it was great! We had rehearsal all afternoon in preparation for the show that would happen Saturday night. While we were rehearsing, the set up crew was getting things ready at the stadium.

Today was also our last day to have our friends from the North Carolina School of Arts with us. They left early Saturday morning and had to say goodbye to all of us before even getting a chance to see our first show in Mexico. They were all awesome people and I'm really glad I got the chance to meet them.

Saturday
Show day! Our first show day in Mexico was extremely long and incredibly wet. We were all anticipating it to be 150 degrees or something, but it wasnt. Instead, it started raining about an hour into our rehearsal and it stayed steady for the majority of the day. We never got a chance to rehearse the entire show before it was time for the show to start so things were a little bumpy throughout the show, but we managed to make it through with no casualties, though one member of the cast suffered from heat exhaustion and had to be treated by paramedics. The night was long too. We didnt get to leave the stadium until 2am and at that time we went straight home to eat dinner (I fell asleep on the couch) and finally go to bed.

Sunday
Today is our last day in La Paz and is designated to be a host family day. I slept until 1:30 this afternoon and woke up to more rain. Looking on the bright side though, I woke up and my hair was completely intact which means I must not have moved much in my sleep. I love mornings (or afternoons) like that! We're going to the movies later and then dinner around 9 or so. I still have to finish my laundry and pack! I'm still a procrastinator...nothing has changed there!

Tomorrow we head to Cabo at 8:30 and everyone in the cast is super excited! On the down side, there's a tropical depression forming off the coast of Cabo which means rain, rain, and more rain! Hopefully we'll get some sunshine so we can head to the beach a time or two this week. Hasta Manana Amigos!