Whooah, MEXICO!

I just returned from a trip to Acapulco with my wife. It was a family affair really--7 of us all in our 30's--3 of which were her cousins and the rest of us spouses. We stayed at her cousin Miguel Angel's shiny new abode on a jungle hill overlooking the Pacific. It was a full on 3 day lock down party. I left the house once and that was to get more booze. There really was no reason to leave. We had a maid, a cook and a pool boy who took care of our every need. I was reprimanded for trying to get a beer by myself. Basically it was a 5 star vacation without the bill. It was a priveledged Mexican experience to which I have had little prior exposure.
I learned a thing or two as well. The first thing I learned was that if you have money and you drive around Mexico City, you want to drive a car that does not betray your social status and make you a target for thieves. Miguel Angel's driver picked us up in a non-descript Dodge sedan at the airport. I have to say I was expecting something a little more opulent when I learned we were to have a chauffeur. However, when we arrived in Cuernevaca (just outside Mexico City) at MA's house things started to make sense. In the garage were the requisite high end German autos you'd expect to see in such a setting which leads to the second thing I learned: if you live in Cuernevaca and you happen to be wealthy, you register your automobiles in Mexico City. That way the bandits will not bother to follow you home and rob you because they figure you are not a local.
We settled on the Porsche Cayenne for our ~3 hour drive to Acapulco. My wife and I both maintain that the Cayenne looks extremely similiar to the much cheaper Hyundai Santa Fe not that you'd ever get a Cayenne owner to agree. I can, however, vouch for the performance of the Cayenne as we hit a top speed of 120 mph and probably averaged no less than 100mph the whole way. We were able to drive in this manner due to the fact that the toll road to Acapulco is pretty deserted (and very beautiful by the way) as most people take the free road which is much longer, and we had a radar detector to alert us of any imminent Federale ambushes. The most unnerving thing about the whole trip was coming upon the numerous road crews with little to no warning. All of the sudden we would round the bend and there'd be a man in the middle of the road frantically waving his flag. The Cayenne slows down almost as fast as it accelerates. I wonder how many Mexican road workers die each year?
The third thing I learned is that I do not know as much Spanish as I think I do. I relearn this lesson every time I travel to a Spanish speaking country. Sure, I can order from a menu, ask where the nearest cantina is and string together a handful of random verbs, nouns and phrases I've learned over the years; but I am nowhere near fluent.
Having a bilingual wife has its benefits and drawbacks. The major benefit is I am able to listen to her speak for hours on end and attune my ear to Spanish and ask her any question pertaining to the numerous idioms that make the language unique. For example, I wanted to ask her cousin who was older--her or her sister? So I asked, "quien es mas vieja?" which directly translates as "who is more old?" This implies that the subject is old in the grandmother sense which I learned when my question was met with a small look of shock then laughter. Evidently the correct way to ask this question is "quien es mayor" who is major? Go figure. Well now I know, and I won't forget that lesson. The only drawback to having a bilingual wife is that I tend to rely on her to speak for me and translate instead of trying to figure it out for myself which makes me lazy, but I think in the end the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. Give me 3 to 6 months immersed in Mexico and I will come out of it fluent. Now please, somebody, hand over the time.
So the days were spent lounging by the pool only to be interrupted by the occasional meal. The evenings were spent lounging by the pool only to be interrupted by the occasional meal. One of the guys with us has a profound appreciation for rock anthems of the 70's and early 80's. He had with him numerous CD's he had burned that had just about every song you thought you'd forgotten and would never hear again. Songs from bands and artists such as Styx, Steely Dan, Asia, Kansas, Peter Cetera, REO Speedwagon, Meat Loaf, Genesis and on and on. One night we listened to these CD's well into the morning hours. It's amazing how many lyrics to songs I had not heard in about 20 years I remembered. It was a tribute to the power the mind to be able to dust off long forgotten lyrics and recite them in real time.
The last evening was spent drinking tequila, howling at the moon and bustin' out traditional Mexican jams on the classical guitar, bongos, tambourines, clanking sticks and maracas of every shape and size. We proceeded to sing just about every folk tune in the land of Mexico. Two of my wife's cousins are quite talented, the rest of us just tried not to ruin their groove. I guess MA was impressed with my bongo skills because he gave them to me along with a bagful of other noisemakers. They won't go to waste!
Since I had the airline tickets I was charged with getting us out the door on time. 3:45p flight, 15 min to airport, leave the house around 2:40 no problem. We were about 1/3 of the the way there when I decided to look at the tickets again. Much to my horror our departure time was actually 3:25p. A quick look at the watch told me it was 3p--10 min to the airport still--oh man it's gonna be close! We literally slid into the plane like a base runner sliding into home on a squeeze play with 3 minutes to spare--much to the chagrin of the standby passengers just about to board ahead of us. Mexicans are notorious for being fashionably late, but even this was a little too close for the comfort of my wife and her cousin and husband who were on the same flight with us.
It was great getting to know some of my wife's cousins that I had never met. It was also great to reacquaint with the ones I had met in the past. Listening to them speak and relive tales of their youth eventhough I was only able to interpret the gist of the conversation was nice. I was able to weave together a mosaic in my mind's eye that painted a telling picture. One thing that I suspected but was proven on this trip: good music and food sprinkled with plenty of drink is an excellent way to combat a language barrier.