Out into the big wide world of smalltown Mexico

After a week in Mexico City (which I would say is worth a visit but I was quite glad to be heading somewhere a bit more ‘Mexican’) it was time to say goodbye to our comfortable touristy lives, and to each other, and head off in 38 different directions around the country. It was difficult to feel too alone, as Guy and I were heading to the same school, and were therefore in exactly the same boat: and actually got the same coach, with our tutor Alberto, then stayed in the same hotel in Veracruz for our overnight stopover, and are now living in the same town. So not quite as alone as I might have feared.

Our little detour via the port town of Veracruz gave us an opportunity to get to know Alberto a bit, have a few friendly beers with him, and break the ice, which was pleasantly thin anyway as he was immediately friendly and made us feel at home. The slightly elevated but not uncomfortable temperature of Veracruz also helped to prepare us for the furnace that is Minatitlan.

Our first day in our new home was a whirlwind of introductions, ferrying about and trying to retain new names and places and, most importantly speak Spanish. I found my quarters to be surprisingly spacious, extremely safe, and with pink furniture, specially painted for my ultra-feminine self. I am living in a 2-room annexe just next to a family home, right next to the municipal building of my unpronounceable town, Cosoleacaque (not Que huele a caca, as a certain other assistant now likes it to be known). I feel utterly secure here, and the town sits in a pleasant equilibrium of community-based but big enough to have some choice in food places and stomping grounds.

Our first day therefore involved a dish of the infamous local ‘camarones’ (prawns in a variety of different sauces), seeing the coastal resort of Coatzacoalcos, drinking beer or the motorway (having burst a tyre on one of the many pot holes riddling the streets of this area) and talking and drinking beer and tequila into the early hours with our ‘responsible’ tutor and some other teachers from the school. A fitting introduction to our new lives, rounded off by renditions of both national anthems.