The Streets of San Francisco and our top 10 Mexican Destinations

Our four months in Mexico was a truly wonderful time. There are so many things that make this country so special. Some of them are:

The people: Mexicans have got the happiness thing sussed. Family connections are strong. On weekends, entire families go out together. Teenagers hold hands with parents and take grandma for a stroll in her wheelchair. Dads hold hands with daughters, mothers stroke the hair of sons. The family provides such strong support.

They love celebrations. They seem to look for any excuse for a fiesta. Music is loud and upbeat. Life occurs outside the houses, in the streets. Mexicans promenade around town squares on a Sunday afternoon or they dance the night away in those same squares.

Despite this being a strong Catholic country, they are not prudish. Even old couples hold hands in public. Young couples pash on park benches. Married couples salsa sexily on the dance floor. Public affection is absolutely normal.

Mexicans are so polite. They always say hello when they walk into a shop or even an elevator. Outside of the big cities, they usually say hello just passing you in the street. When they leave a restaurant they always say "buen provecho", which means "enjoy your meal", even if you've never met them or even spoken to them before.

We never felt threatened anywhere, There were a couple of places we avoided due to drug war problems, however I feel more concerned outside Coles in Ballarat than anywhere in Mexico that we visited. I'm not saying it's perfect (every country has dodgy areas) but we felt completely safe. Not once in four months did I feel sexually harrassed either. Mexicans are so respectful. Besides, why would they bother me when they have ther own gorgeous women?

The weather is perfect. I know we've been here at the best time of year but four months of endless blue skies has been amazing. Most places haven't been too hot or too cold, although we have taken the weather into consideration when planning our destinations. No wonder the North Americans come here in droves.

Mexican LOVE colour. Walls are painted yellow, blue, green, purple, pink, orange and brown. Bright flowers add extra splashes. Blankets are woven in bright colours and arts pop with vibrant hues. The arts are so strong here. Never have we been to a country where arts and crafts are so important. Pottery, murals, ceramics and textiles are everywhere. Each region has its own unique designs.

The food is amazing. Mexico is a gastronomical delight. Highlights were the moles (chocolate-based sauces) of Puebla, the cemites (amazing salad rolls with grilled meats) of Cholula, the fish tacos of Baja and the awesome street food that you can get just about anywhere.

I love the way each region has its own unique culture - different foods, arts and lifestyles. You can pick up a piece of pottery and know which town or region it has come from simply by its design. Weavings vary from place to place and even house designs are different. Some regions even have different races of people. The Mayans feature strongly in Yucatan. You can see the different races in so many faces. 

Looking back on our Mexican journey, here are our fave places in case some of you might be interested in going there one day:

1. The Mexican/Guatemalan border: We loved Las Nubes where we saw the most amazing waterfalls and places where the water disappeared underground and re-appeared further down the river. We then travelled on in a local minibus where the driver's lucky charm hanging from his mirror was a goat's leg! We caught a boat up the river to the amazing Yaxchilan ruins, which we had completely to ourselves for an hour or so then saw a wild puma on the return trip.

2. Divisadero and the Copper Canyon: The amazing canyon system was at its most spectacular at Divisadero. This was also where we ziplined down the canyon with incredible views around us.

3. La Paz, Baja California: From La Paz we snorkelled with whale sharks and sea lions. John even had a sea lion pup climb onto his chest! We saw frigatebird breeding grounds, jumping dolphins and schools of small manta rays.

4. The cenotes in Yucatan. Together with our "kids" we swam in these stunningly beautiful sinkholes, draped with vines and laced with greenery. Some even were almost caves and the rooves dripped with amazing stalagtites.

5. The unique village cultures around San Christobal de las Casas. At each village women, and sometimes men, dressed in different clothes. You could pick which village a person was from by what he or she was wearing. Their religions, customs and beliefs varied enormously. It was a fascinating place.

Sadly, our time in Mexico was up. Our flight home took us via San Francisco. I had never been there before so we decided to spend a couple of days there.

We arrived at the airport and went to immigration. We lined up to process our passports on a machine then went into another line to wait for imigration. And we waited. And we waited. It took just over two hours to get through. It was disorganised chaos!

By this time we hadn't eaten for a long time but there was no food anywhere so we headed to the airport train. The machine to buy a ticket wouldn't work but luckily there was a man there who could help. The train pulled up just as we got to the platform. At last things seemed to be going right! People walked to the doors to get on the train but before the doors opened the train moved off again! Another tourist and I looked at each other and started laughing. Luckily, it only moved a bit further up then this time it let us on.

The train smelled awful. Strangely, it smelled like a sheepyard. The windows were so filthy we could barely see out of them. The train screeched and shuddered its way through tunnels and pretty suburbs (what we could see of them through the windows.) A man, so drunk or stoned that he could barely keep his eyes open, wandered through the carriages begging.

We came to our station and rode the escalator to the street. There was a shout from a security man and a couple of youths bolted out of the station. Another security guy called over an old homeless-looking man who was swigging from a brown paper bag. An angry sounding black guy stormed off from the people he was with. We were starting to wish we were back in safe, happy Mexico!

Outside we saw a Carls' Jnr burger chain store. We had visited one of these in Mexico and it was pretty good. We were starving so we walked in. The grotty shop was full of people who looked like they'd seen tough times. The guy serving us was sickly pale and had the personality of a wet fish. While we waited for the burgers, we looked around and nearly everyone in the place looked like they lived on the streets. It was a bit scary.

We paid a whopping $9US each for our burgers and my vege burger was burnt. (How do you burn a vege burger in a chain burger store)? We then lugged our bags six blocks up those famous San Franciscan hills and found our hotel which quickly became a wonderful haven. The girl who checked us in was incredibly helpful. A bonus was they upgraded us to a larger room! Suddenly things were looking good again!

It was getting late but we thought we had to see something of the city so we went to a bar just down the road. It was in art deco style and served old-fashioned style cocktails. We got talking to a guy who was sitting next to John. Behind that guy was a group of people and I thought I heard one if them say the word, "Ballarat". Curious, I wandered over to them. It turned out that, of the four people there, two were local, one was from Melbourne and one was from Ballarat! One of the local women was dressed in 40's style clothing and had a fixation on the Dr Blake mysteries, which are filmed in Ballarat. They were a really fun bunch and we ended up staying at the bar til the wee hours with them. The cocktails were flowing and we all had a really great night. Woohoo!

From left to right: John, Anand, John, the Dr Blake lady whose name I can't remember, me.

We woke up the next day a bit worse for wear. We only had one full day to see San Francisco though, so we had to get going.

I couldn't believe it when I looked out of our window and saw these classic fire escape stairs like you see in the movies. They were everywhere in SF.

I loved the gorgeous style of houses here.

Many of the streets were really steep. Check out the angle the cars are parked on.

Of course, we had to catch a cable car. No trip to SF would be complete without this!

The Bay Bridge was visible at the end of some of the roads.

At the Ferry Building there were the most amazing food shops. There was one that specialised in melted cheese dishes. This was a mushroom shop. John loves funghi!

This retro tram was very cool.

We went to a famous restaurant called Tadich Grill. The decor was really cool in an old-fashioned way and the food was great.

We climbed up what seemed to be a  gazillion steps to get to a lookout tower. The area was really lush and green, surprisingly so for a city location.

The tower was decorated with cool murals. I thought these only existed in Mexico! Lol.

The views from the top were amazing. We could see all over the city....

....... plus across to Alcatraz. We didn't have time to visit the old prison though.

We got our only glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge from here.

More cool buildings and steep roads.

The Transamerica Building.

Next to the Transamerica building was a sequoia park. John said I had to put this photo in for you San!

A cool, retro streetscape.

Chinatown was much like Chinatowns anywhere else in the world, but this one was very big. They sold everything from roast ducks to Bobble-head Jon Snow toys!

Chinatown had some cool murals.

So that was the end of our Mexican travels. Mexico was a truly amazing country and we'd recommend it to anyone. 

Hasta luego!

Heather and John