Let's get together and ROCK the world !!!!

That's it, I am starting this world tour with my cousin ! Youhou ! We have been talking about it for so long. It is finally happening !!
But, hey !!
Am I ready to leave my life, my job, my friends?
Am I ready to start moving from one place to another every now and then?
Am I ready to have NO routine at all.?
Am I ready to start a new life, to make new friend, to find new goals in life ?!
That's so big, I am kind of overwhelmed by the size of the challenge.

The good thing is that I am not alone, I am with my cousin.
Together we are going to ROCK the world.
To meet people from different cultures.
To make new friends.
To discover new lifestyles.
To discover ourselves... may be... hopefully…

Anyway, let’s talk about this trip. After meeting up in DF (Districto Federales - Mexico City) and enjoying a couple of days in the big city. We moved on to the state of Oaxaca. This state is one of the most rural state in the country with Chiapas (a province located between Oaxaca and Guatemala). It is twice as big as Switzerland, and it is also covered by mountains, but it doesn't have the Swiss Road network. It means that it is a challenge to cross this state.

After 7 hours of bus from DF we finally reached our destination, the main city of the Oaxaca State, Oaxaca. Easy right ! Our local host was waiting for us with his pink shirt at the main bus station. It made it easy for us to spot him…
What a nice attention of him to come pick us up at the station. That's one of the many nice thing Mexican people do for us (apart from being way TOO generous and thoughtful with us).

Our host name is David Cruz. His family welcomed us for a couple of days in the old city of Oaxaca.
This poor family resumes part of Mexico history in itself. Señor Cruz (David’s father) moved several times to the US as an illegal immigrant to make money for his family. He did it for the last time from 2005 to 2007 (2 years and 3 months in total to be accurate). For Mexican people, immigrating to the US is a good way to make money and to improve their family’s lifestyle. The southern states of Mexico are extremely poor, there are few job opportunities and even less opportunities for poor families to climb the social ladder.

Cruz Family

So, for Señor Cruz, moving to the US seemed to be the solution. It meant making money, quickly; making sure that his family back home would have a decent life; and saving enough for his children’s tuition fees. But it quickly turned out that for him money was not enough. He was missing his family. Desperately missing it…
At this point he started drinking more than he should have. And he quickly became an alcoholic. It took him several months to get out of this hell and to come back close to his family.
He now lives a happy life with his 3 children and his wife. He doesn’t drink anymore and spend a lot of time reading the bible. He came back to his religious roots and is convinced that they helped him to get out of Alcoholism.
This story is the proof that money is not everything in life… A good lesson right!

Mexico City District Federal

Hoooo dear Guadalajara! I had to leave you and some part of me will stay there forever I think. But I had to move on, and despite the sadness of leaving those people that made my stay in this wonderful city so unforgettable, I was also happy to move on and to finally start our travel, our adventure!

Here was the capital, with his 21+ Millions people, his dirty air and crazy nights. I walked (A LOT) almost every day but I won’t make a touristic guide here (you can find that online easily, I trust you). But some words on my impressions… People are incredibly slow. It looks like they walk with some kind of disease and don’t mind so much having someone walking behind them (which is kind of funny sometime if you can understand what they are talking about). The second thing I can say apart praising Templo Mayo and La casa azul, is, as always, people will try to get as much money as they can from you. For instance, they won’t mind letting open a museum at the same price with most of the painting not available (did I say most of them? Well, ALL of them bar one…).

Then I had some time with my cousin who just arrived before going straight to Oaxaca (The city as well as the name of the district, which is simply a dazzling choice).
Before letting you go, you can still get some of my pictures of the city/museum on the flick’r account, but right now, some bizarre things I’ve spotted in the capital:


The first one really made my day: a flying Jesus! He somehow managed to exchange his place with some priest. Can you do that David Coperfield!

Flying Jesus!

 Then, maybe my lack of religious knowledge is not helping here, but what the **** is on the head of Jesus? Really, it's disturbing...

Jesus super star

 Finally, the cleverest doc' in town: As you can see this doctor raised the pourcentage of people coming back because of a torticolis by 80%!!!
I tell you, TV is bad.

Clever Doc'

That's all for Mexico City. I just upload many pictures on the Flick'r account. i'm now with my cousin and the travel can finally start: next stop Oaxaca!

François

Mexican sense of humor?

As you walk in Guadalajara, you might get by some weird signs. I once was in a mall to see this sign. It didn't seem to bother anyone but it make me laugh. Now I'm wondering if the Hungarian people are proud of their pizza and pasta!

Yammy Hungarian pizza!

Another sign made me laugh, imagining I would say to the people inside: "Can I come?".

What kind of store can it be?

You can also check that for one more dirty joke.