Okay, everyone thinks they know a lot about Mexico, and often, they are correct. For example, almost everyone loves Mexican food. And to travel in Mexico, you are not disappointed in this respect, the food is terrific.
But what about things you did not expect? Let's take a look at five things that were unexpected and rather surprising:
I apologize in advance if I offend anyone by being surprised ...
1. It's a pretty modern place.
I don't know, maybe I expected to see a bunch of adobe structures and broken down taxis and dirt roads, and cactus and burros (donkeys) wandering around? And there was a bit of that.
But the airports and bus stations and shops and restaurants were very modern and fairly new. It wouldn't be completely out of line to say that everything is up-to-date in Mexico.
Everyone has smartphones. And cell service was good even in some remote places where we went. Computers are everywhere, and the internet is widely used, almost every restaurant - and certainly every hotel - has free high speed WiFi.
I realize that we didn't cover the whole country, but we did cross several hundred miles on buses and went from the coast to high up in the mountains. We saw a lot of the place, and it was all modern.
2. The roads are really good.
We like to use public transportation when we travel, it's the best way to get to know someplace.
There was a high level American government advisory to not travel in Michoacan, because it was unsafe. That didn't stop us, and we took a bus from Ixtapa all the way to Morelia, a six hour bus ride.
And the roads were terrific. Better than many roads at home. Our travel was occasionally interrupted by modern gleaming toll booths, and all the vehicles had those little electronic emitters that opened the barrier arm, and we whistled right through.
And the buses had all the newest gadgets, like free Wifi and movies and music and A/C and everything you could want. And it was so inexpensive! At one point, we went on a hundred mile modern new bus ride and it cost $4.00!
And in town the roads were good, with proper functioning traffic lights and lanes and speed limits.
However, the driving habits of some of the locals were rather dubious at times! Ha! Ha!
And the historic old towns and cities where we went had the most narrow winding streets you could imagine.
3. They eat a lot of seafood and fish.
So the food is great. We made a point to eat local and experience the variety of flavors and spices that are often regional specialties (we didn't play it safe and eat pizza). This included street food and some stuff we couldn't pronounce, and often a surprise or two.
But one thing of sustained excellence was the seafood and fish. We love fish and would probably eat it almost every day if we had the choice, and that's what we did in Mexico.
I guess I didn't appreciate the fact that the country has two very long coast lines, both Atlantic and Pacific, in warm semi-tropical waters. And naturally the ocean is a rich source of food.
The fish - often "Dorado" (also Red Snapper and Talapia) - is outstanding, especially when combined with other elements of Mexican cooking. The meals were well prepared, healthy, delicious, and filling.
And the shrimp and other seafood was equally, if not more, delightful - such a variety of ways to enjoy!
I think most people would expect Mexican food to be good, but it was outstanding!
4. They love Americans.
Okay, I didn't anticipate hostility, but what we found were happy, eager-to-engage, friendly, cheerful citizens. And they were peaceful.
In light of the way they are sometimes treated in our country (and some of the words used to describe them), you might think they would be ... I don't know, resentful?
But they were all very nice, and we did not encounter even one instance of bad behavior toward us. The opposite was true, they were happy to see us there visiting and often asked us how we like Mexico.
And they simple fact is - there are a lot of Americans visiting Mexico, and an amazing amount who actually live there!
I have some reasonably good Spanish and can make my way around okay (I even received an occasional compliment!), and they were always receptive and helpful. They were often quite talkative and many had been to the States.
In the smaller towns, there was not much English spoken but in the bigger cities, it was quite common to be able to communicate in English - or more accurately Spanglish, a combination of the two languages.
They always wanted to know where we were from, and conversed well with a knowledge of the U.S. I would say that Mexicans are for the most part well educated and everyone can read and write.
5. Much of the country is high in the mountains
My image of Mexico is one of flat desert-like terrain, with maybe rolling hills and endless horizons. Not so.
I was constantly surprised by how much of the country is comprised of fairly high-altitude cities and settlements. Once we left the coast, we went up and up, and stayed there.
Morelia was the our first town high in the central Sierra Madre range. And from there we went higher into Guanajuato and over a 9,000 foot pass into San Miguel.
Much of our travel was above 6,500 feet and we stayed for about a week at 7,200 feet. It took some getting used to, and I might have mentioned that we were huffing and puffing just going up a flight of stairs.
We eventually got acclimated, and the weather was nice and cool at night in the mountains. But I did not expect such lofty altitudes where we spent most of our time.
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In another blog post, I pointed out the amazing strength of the nation of Mexico in respect to other world nations. Frankly, we are lucky to have Mexico as a neighbor. It's a great country.
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