OK just to set the record straight. The Leatherman thing was a joke. If I needed one that badly I could go out and buy one myself, right? My friends just find it amusing that I have put it on my christmas list for the past 4 or 5 years and never gotten it. Its a running gag. Don´t worry about it.
Besides I bought myself some great christmas presents. For example:
Yesterday Lauren, Kim, and I went to a resort spa and got massages. It´s a funny, but slightly scary story. The school had recommended this spa, and told us we would get a discount. They recommended that we go as a group and share a cab because it is located a little bit outside of town. So I called Lauren and told her to meet me at the school and we would go together. Well it started out with my ATM card not working and me only having about 20 pesos ($2). We figured we could pool our money and I could exchange my travelers checks at the hotel. So Kim flagged down a random cab. We always negotiate the price with the cab drivers before we get in so we showed him the brochure and asked how much. We thought he said cuarenta y cinco ($4.50) and we didn´t know where the place was so I repeated what he said to Lauren and I said do you have that much? And she said no, and Kim said, I have at least 100 pesos ($10) so we jumped in.
The cab driver was really nice, but when he merged onto the highway I got a little concerned. I repeated our destination and he corrected my pronunciation. So I relaxed for about 10 minutes... then I said this is really far, no? And he said only one more hour... I questioned him and told him we had an appointment in a half hour and he said, no no it´s only 20 minutes he was just kidding. OK... and I repeated it´s really only cuarenta y cinco pesos to go here. And he nodded his head. So we all looked at eachother in wonder.. This is really cheap. He´s only charging twice the price for like 5 times the distance of our typical cab ride.
Then he went through a toll booth, he graciously offered to pay the toll if we would pay him back when we arrived at the hotel. So we added that into the fare and found out we had just barely enough. Lauren asked how we were going to get home. Kim said let´s ride on that burro over there. I think it´s dead answered Lauren. Sure enough there was a dead burro on the side of the road... we were in the middle of nowhere. I asked the cab driver again how much longer. He said not to worry we would arrive in plenty of time. Finally we saw a sign for the hotel.
We passed a couple hundred more cacti and stray dogs. Then things started to look populated. The road opened up into this beautiful view of the hugest lake I´ve ever seen and it was surrounded by enormous hotels and vacation homes. We passed a couple mediocre hotels and came to a big gate with uniformed guards. They asked for our reservation names before they let the cab pass. Then a man who spoke english opened the door for us. We decided to tip the cab driver 2 extra dollars (a 50% tip) because it was such a long distance and he was so cool(we sang along to american classic rock the whole way). But he looked a the money and got really confused. We said, it´s 45 pesos, right... and we want to tip you so here´s some american money. He said, it´s cuatrociento cincuenta. What??? That´s 450 pesos, not 45. Meaning he expected us to pay (45 US dollars) um... no. We don´t have that. I explained to the hotel worker what was going on. He said that it´s only supposed to cost $25 to get to the hotel from Cuernavaca. ONLY?? He haggled with the cab driver and said, I told him he charged too much so you only have to give him 200 more pesos... um we only have like 5. So we paid in american, and the hotel guys exchanged the money for him.
We were all so frazzled from the experience we didn´t know which way was up. The second the cab was sent away everything changed. The hotel manager himself took us on a ´fantasy island´ type tour of this tropical paradise. It was literally an oasis in the desert. There were people swimming and waterskiing in the lake beautiful bars and cafes overlooking the water and a crystal clear swimming pool. It was 100 times better than acapulco. They brought us to the spa and treated us like princesses. Afterwards they sent us home in a private car for $20.
We asked the cab driver to drop us off at this restaurant near Lauren and Kim´s host family. It was closed... more than half of the places around here close on Sundays. So we had him take us to The Fun Bar. That´s what it´s called, literally. (My favorite name for a bar here so far has been ´Drink Team´) We have become regulars at the fun bar. We know all the waiters names and we´ve met some americans from other language schools there too. Paco the bartender knows what we want to drink before we ask for it, and Marco the waiter always puts on U2´s Joshua Tree album when we walk in because after a beer or two I get on the stage and sing along. I think it´s because we come in on weeknights when the place is empty and the employees are all bored.
Besides I bought myself some great christmas presents. For example:
Yesterday Lauren, Kim, and I went to a resort spa and got massages. It´s a funny, but slightly scary story. The school had recommended this spa, and told us we would get a discount. They recommended that we go as a group and share a cab because it is located a little bit outside of town. So I called Lauren and told her to meet me at the school and we would go together. Well it started out with my ATM card not working and me only having about 20 pesos ($2). We figured we could pool our money and I could exchange my travelers checks at the hotel. So Kim flagged down a random cab. We always negotiate the price with the cab drivers before we get in so we showed him the brochure and asked how much. We thought he said cuarenta y cinco ($4.50) and we didn´t know where the place was so I repeated what he said to Lauren and I said do you have that much? And she said no, and Kim said, I have at least 100 pesos ($10) so we jumped in.
The cab driver was really nice, but when he merged onto the highway I got a little concerned. I repeated our destination and he corrected my pronunciation. So I relaxed for about 10 minutes... then I said this is really far, no? And he said only one more hour... I questioned him and told him we had an appointment in a half hour and he said, no no it´s only 20 minutes he was just kidding. OK... and I repeated it´s really only cuarenta y cinco pesos to go here. And he nodded his head. So we all looked at eachother in wonder.. This is really cheap. He´s only charging twice the price for like 5 times the distance of our typical cab ride.
Then he went through a toll booth, he graciously offered to pay the toll if we would pay him back when we arrived at the hotel. So we added that into the fare and found out we had just barely enough. Lauren asked how we were going to get home. Kim said let´s ride on that burro over there. I think it´s dead answered Lauren. Sure enough there was a dead burro on the side of the road... we were in the middle of nowhere. I asked the cab driver again how much longer. He said not to worry we would arrive in plenty of time. Finally we saw a sign for the hotel.
We passed a couple hundred more cacti and stray dogs. Then things started to look populated. The road opened up into this beautiful view of the hugest lake I´ve ever seen and it was surrounded by enormous hotels and vacation homes. We passed a couple mediocre hotels and came to a big gate with uniformed guards. They asked for our reservation names before they let the cab pass. Then a man who spoke english opened the door for us. We decided to tip the cab driver 2 extra dollars (a 50% tip) because it was such a long distance and he was so cool(we sang along to american classic rock the whole way). But he looked a the money and got really confused. We said, it´s 45 pesos, right... and we want to tip you so here´s some american money. He said, it´s cuatrociento cincuenta. What??? That´s 450 pesos, not 45. Meaning he expected us to pay (45 US dollars) um... no. We don´t have that. I explained to the hotel worker what was going on. He said that it´s only supposed to cost $25 to get to the hotel from Cuernavaca. ONLY?? He haggled with the cab driver and said, I told him he charged too much so you only have to give him 200 more pesos... um we only have like 5. So we paid in american, and the hotel guys exchanged the money for him.
We were all so frazzled from the experience we didn´t know which way was up. The second the cab was sent away everything changed. The hotel manager himself took us on a ´fantasy island´ type tour of this tropical paradise. It was literally an oasis in the desert. There were people swimming and waterskiing in the lake beautiful bars and cafes overlooking the water and a crystal clear swimming pool. It was 100 times better than acapulco. They brought us to the spa and treated us like princesses. Afterwards they sent us home in a private car for $20.
We asked the cab driver to drop us off at this restaurant near Lauren and Kim´s host family. It was closed... more than half of the places around here close on Sundays. So we had him take us to The Fun Bar. That´s what it´s called, literally. (My favorite name for a bar here so far has been ´Drink Team´) We have become regulars at the fun bar. We know all the waiters names and we´ve met some americans from other language schools there too. Paco the bartender knows what we want to drink before we ask for it, and Marco the waiter always puts on U2´s Joshua Tree album when we walk in because after a beer or two I get on the stage and sing along. I think it´s because we come in on weeknights when the place is empty and the employees are all bored.
posted by Meegs @ 1/12/2004 04:19:00 PM
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