People we met at the Pacific Coast of Mexico

The crew of the Red Cross in Tepic

Actually we only wanted to check out the recommendatory letter of Heber which should guarantee us a cheap accomodation all over Mexico at the Red Cross. But over the night Markus noticed, that he really needed the sickbed: he had a strong flu, which the doctor diagnosed at once. The next morning the nurses came with a translator to ask, if we didn't miss anything. Some days later, after Markus recovered, I felt sick. So we lived for a whole week at the Red Cross and made several new friends among the nurses and doctors. They all were very nice and we felt like in a privat clinic, even if the circumstances were very simple (see also in the report "Diary/Colourful Mexico"). Thanx again for the nice help! (mi)

A flat share in Guadalajara

At first we had an invitation from a relativ of a friend in Guadalajara, Mexico's 2^nd largest town, but it didn't work out. We quickly asked at the Goethe-Institut, had good luck, and got a flat share in a beautiful neighborhood with sweet smelling orange trees in the street. We had lots of fun with our flat mates from all over the world: Nat, the archeologist and party lion from the States (front left), Dany, the gymnast, who teached at the university of Guadalajara (left of the window), her boy friend Thomas, who studied and spoke the best Spanish (left of her), the two sweet Swiss girls, who worked at the Red Cross and who could hardly be saved from all the worshippers (second from left and right) and Alex, who got one of the very treasured practica at the Goethe Institut and helped us to get the room in the "orange flat share". He is unfortunately not to see on the breakfast picture, because he had to get some sleep after the last party, a Mexican wedding of a friend. (mi)

Markus and Christian

Markus (in the yellow shirt) was picked up from Gerardo (see also Mexico/Baja California) like us. When Markus came back from his Baja-trip we also could visit him in Guadalajara. He lives with the family of his Girl frind Olivia, who has always international guests. We have been at the farewell party of the German Christina. Olivia's parents Alfredo and his wife Conchita invited us to a dinner and showed the funny Mexican movie "La Ley de Heroes" from Luis Estrada, which describes the appearance of corruption. Other guests were also a world cycling couple from France, Laurence and Frederic, and the emigrated German Christian with his Mexican wife Lourdes and Olivia's sister Mary. It was a fantastic night! (mi)

Karolyn

Karolyn was our savior when we lost a little surprising our accomodation in Troncones. The large attractive American, who always was taken for Julia Roberts, when she wears sun glasses, owns a bio-ranch. She grows the most well tasting tomatos of Mexico and even the legendary green tomatos. She allowed us to camp more than two weeks on her ranch in a jungle full of exotic animals (see also the report "Diary/Jungle Idyll"). Some days we have been searching an egg-thief, who stole every day more and more eggs from the farm. Finally we saw a snake which took refuge from the chickens cage. (mi)

Xavier

we met on hitchhiking from Troncones to Zihuatnejo. He just arrived with his family and friends from Mecico City to spend holidays in Troncones. He is oceanologist and works for the university at an interesting project, where he investigates the adaptability of fish at the variation of water temperatur. Finally this gives information about the global warming. We had a nice afternoon with his family and friends. Here we met Rafaela, who got us across to Haydee (see below) (mi)

Eva and Jim

The two smart lucky fellows Eva and Jim from the USA worked a while in Hong Kong as programmers. From the saved money they bought property in Troncones and built a hotel at a time, when there not even was a road. Now they have the most popular hotel in the area and earn so much each season, that they can have some month of holiday every year with their little son. Their dog Keiko loves sunsets. While other dogs play in the sand, Keiko sits quiet at the beach an wathes the sun setting over the horizon of the Pacific Ocean. At Eva and Jim we could update our website, use the beautiful beach-facilities and I could help in the hotel-shop, which was much fun. (mi)

Joanne, Francis and Casey

Ones plan a little longer (we e.g. 6 years), others like Frances and Joanne a little shorter (a half to one year) and others make a world trip from a simple holiday on the road. Casey (2^nd from left) is one of the very spontaneus. So far a backpacker he bought an used bicycle in Guatemala including bags and followed shortly afterwards Frances and Joanne. We met the happy group at a hot noon at the coast and had lunch together. A helpful police man guided us with our bicycles throught the narrow alleys of the marked to a typical comedor, where we could fill our hungy cyclists stomags for little money. (mi)

Katrin and Patrick

The two world traveller Katrin and Patrick from Germany we met in a hostal in Oaxaca. Together we had some nice days in town. They buffled us a lot with their equipment: They nearly had the same things like us (same towels, same digital camera, same palm pilot and the same foldable keyboard). Ther was only one diffrence: they didn't travel with bicycles. (mi)

Aura Liliana and her parents

Again we were searching for a place to stay for the night when Markus asked Aura's father, if there is a camp groung in Jalapa. Immediately we were invited. Her parents are both teacher at the elementary school. With Aura and her friend Yira we trained a little Spanish and they trained a little English. Afterwards Markus started his first try to sleep in a hammock. In the middle of the night he came into my bed while Auras parents togethe slept in one hammock. (mi)

Britta and Adrio

Adrio, the Welshman is head of "Doctors without Borders" of Mexico. He met his wife Britta, a midwife, at an assignment in Afghanistan. After a while in the Netherlands they went to Mexico. Their four year old son Milan speaks since three lenguages fluently: English to his father, German to his mother and Spanish to the neighbor kids and in the kindergarden. His little brother Luki also is a very sweet. Their house is at the border of San Christobal de las Casas and so we could watch a lot the the every day life of the poor people living in the neighborhood. They came from the villages in the mountains to live in town and try their luck. (mi)

Haydee

The Mexican women is merried with Arnoldo González Cruz, the discoverer of the burial chamber of the "Red Queen" and archeological leader of Palenque. She studied restorer with Rafaela, who we met with Xavier in Troncones. Twice we spend several hours with Haidee and asked her a lot about the Maya and there culture. Unfortunately we couldn't meet Arnoldo, because at first he had to work in Mexico and afterwards he was unaviable because hard rain had flooded many of his expensive books in San Christobal. (mi)