The Stairway to ... Cuernavaca

The Stairway in Cuernavaca

The stairs in this picture are the first of a series of steps leading up from the house where we were staying in Cuernavaca.  The house was at the bottom of a ravine.  The first steps you can see in the foreground are about 1/8 of the distance, and the steps in the background leading up to the black door at the top of the picture (left-middle) make up another 1/8.

From that black door, you have to walk about 5 meters to another flight of stairs similar to the ones in the foreground.  From there, you walk another 10 meters to the last, longest and steepest flight.  It's about twice as long as all the other stairs put together (I know, the math doesn't add up, but you get the idea.)

The step's are narrow, irregular, and wind up the hill.  There are places, that if you fall, you would probably fall the full length of that flight, and you may not survive the fall.  In a few of the most dangerous points, a fence is being put up, but it is still not complete.

For those of us not used to it, it's quite a workout, and a little intimidating.

At the top, there's a walk of a short block, and then there's a main road with stores, where buses and taxis go by.

When my wife was stung by the scorpion (see Scorpions in Cuernavaca) we almost ran up these stairs - as close as we could get to running.  A few years ago, she was very athletic and would have easily beat me to the top, but this time, I had to help her up.

Most of the people who live down there are in pretty good shape.  Some of them have stumbled down these stairs drunk.  I'm not sure how they do it.

Scorpions in Cuernavaca

My least favourite part of day to day life in Cuernavaca are the scorpions.  They are small, but there are lots of them. Just about everyone has either had a scorpion sting, or knows someone who has.  It's so common, that upon arriving at a clinic or hospital with a scorpion sting, you receive immediate, free and fast attention, after only giving your name and place of residence.  It's not a shock or surprise, but they know that it's urgent, and easy to cure. On average, we killed on scorpion a day.  The house we were staying in was especially bad because of being surrounding by forest with a nearby river.

The evening we were planning to leave Cuernavaca, my wife reached into one of our bags to take out a diaper, and was stung by a hidden scorpion; they like to hide in dark, small places. We had been keeping all our bags well closed, but this one we had left behind, and partially open when we went to her grandpa's village.

Within 30 minutes we had visited a local clinic, where a doctor gave her an injection to slow the spread of the poison, and sent us off to the general hospital.  She was admitted immediately into emergency for supervision.  When she started complaining about a dry throat and trouble breathing, they gave her an anti-scorpion injection, which is, ironically, scorpion poison.  I have no idea how an injection of scorpion poison stops scorpion poison, but somehow it works. Within another 20 minutes, she felt better, and they sent her home.  The place where they injected the I.V. hurts her more than the scorpion sting itself, which felt less drastic than an ant bite.

Despite common belief, most people don't react severely to scorpions and do fine with a simple injection to stop the spread of poison, or, as my wife's uncles later told us, a magnet, which supposedly draws the poison out. (This is a folk remedy, and I would only try it once I were already on the way to the hospital.)

A handful of people experience anaphylactic shock.  It's more common to experience anaphylactic shock from a scorpion than from a bee sting (I guess since the poison is more potent), so it's highly recommended for anyone who gets stung to go the hospital for supervision and an anti-scorpion injection if necessary.  I guess my wife is one of the people who suffers anaphylactic shock from scorpions - a point we'd have to consider if we ever moved back to Cuernavaca. 

A Community Turn-Around Story in Cuernavaca

Yesterday, I visited a community where I used to lie in Cuernavaca called "La Barona." Years ago, it was the worst ghetto the city ever had; it still has a reputation for being the bad side of town, although it has changed incredibly over the past few decades.

Originally it was a village, and when it was swallowed by the city during the 40s and 50s, migrants from other parts of the country brought some local feuds with them, which eventually escalated into full-blown gang violence. During the 70's there was time that there was a murder every day. Buses stopped at the traffic circle which was the main entrance (there was only 3 entrances into a neighborhood of about 10,000) and taxis would also refuse to go further.



By the time I live there in 2006, it was a quiet, friendly neighbourhood, where the families who roughed it through the bad years (in return for really cheap property) had managed to build up their houses from little shacks into decent multi-storey, nicely painted homes – still mostly lower income, but nicer that what it once was. Now, children play in the streets, and there are a lot of little restaurants and local services. Fruit and vegetable shops are common, and everything tends to be the cheapest in the city (the bad reputation which it has never outlived is probably responsible for this). When I visited yesterday, there were more businesses and better businesses than four years ago.



My friends from Mexico City were surprised when they came and saw that it was a decent neighbourhood. Their friends who lived here had told them it was the worst part of the city, comparable to roughest parts of Mexico City. During the 70's, I guess this was true. The worst thing that happened to me there was being pestered by 2 drunks for money. (If they had wanted to rob me, they could've easily done so; but they didn't.) There was also a little incident with a ghost, but that's a different story.



Fortunately, I've never lived in a real bad part of any city. This is the closest I've come (along with the village of Santa Fe in Mexico City.) But it's a place I like to talk about and think about since it shows how a neighbourhood can go from a really bad problem, into a relatively decent family community.

Cuernavaca and Drug-related Violence

To start, I want to point out that it's definitely an inaccurate perception that all of Mexico is ravaged by drug-mob violence.  Most of the country is free of this kind of violence and the majority of Mexicans and visitors have no contact with this kind of thing; in day to day life, it pretty much shows up only in the news papers (it's real, but it happens a few areas mostly near the U.S. border.)  That having been said, the reality is that recently, Cuernavaca has actually been one of the places to see an escalation of drug-mob violence since President Calderon's war on drugs started.  While most people who live here are still not effected by it, it's a reality.

Since the Mexican marine killed one of the country's top drug lords in a suburb of Cuernavaca early in 2009, there's been a fairly gruesome violence within the drug mobs, with some fairly public displays of their violence.  These events seemed to be worse during 2009; at least the news hasn't said much about them recently.  I assume that these events are most noticeable and difficult for police officers and people with related jobs, since they're the ones that have to deal with it in some way.

Most people who live here don't seem to see, notice or think about these events.  For the days I've been visiting, no one has been talking about drug violence and life in the city seems normal; in fact down town seemed very lively, full of shoppers, young people, old people and families enjoying an evening out, even more so than when I remember it.  I really, really hope this means that it was a short phase, that has now abated.  I love Cuernavaca and I'd hate to see it marred by violence.

Even now, I feel really safe here.  I walk through the streets carrying a nice laptop bag (something I wouldn't do in a place I didn't feel was safe) and chat with people I see downtown.  If that wave of violence from 2009 is still going on, it's behind the scenes.

That having been said, I don't doubt that the city will pass through this phase, if it hasn't already.  The city has lived through much rougher times in the past. I actually have a nice little personal story here showing how a city or community can come through rough times. I'll share that tomorrow.

For two of the things I love about Cuernavaca, read:

The Low Cost of Living in Cuernavaca
The World's Perfect Climate

The Low Cost of Living in Cuernavaca

In Cuernavaca, everything is cheap.

Vacationers arriving in Playa del Carmen think it's cheap, but when we arrived there, we almost packed up and left because of the prices (and the heat.) Cuernavaca really is cheap. When we arrived in Cuernavaca 5 days ago, we bought all of our groceries for the week for $20 at the local market. This was mostly lots of fresh, local fruit and vegetables, plus bread, tortillas, granola, rice and some other dry food like that. When we used to buy meat from the market butcher back when we used to live here it was only two or three dollars more.

My wife's cousins also gave us some oats, beans and zucchinis; they don't like oatmeal, and apparently brown beans are better than black ones (I can't taste the difference.) They've eaten so much zucchini that they don't want more. These people are not well to do, but I guess food is cheap enough here that they feel that can be picky. (Although I've known some very poor people in expensive places that were even pickier – a concept I've never been able to figure out.)

When we lived here, we paid $120 for rent. It was a small home with 1 very large bedroom, and a nice shared lawn. From what I understand, rent is still very affordable.

I guess that for most people, if you live here, it's hard to find a good income, so the two aspects balance each other out. It's perfect for someone who's income source is from somewhere else.

More about Cuernavaca:

The World's Perfect Climate

The World's Perfect Climate

After an absence of almost 4 years, I've finally had the chance to return to Cuernavaca, to visit my wife's family here. (Travel was the reason for the week I haven't updated this blog.) To be honest, I don't know what ever made us leave. (Well, I do know. Work. But that's a different point.)

The weather is perfect. I've never been in a place where the weather is better. Mexico City is slightly cooler, and closer to an ideal temperature for me, but since most housing doesn't have heating, and cold concrete is as bad as ice, the winter can get a little too chilling, depending on which part of the city you live in, what kind of home you have, and how much sunlight it gets during the day. But Cuernavaca almost invariably has warm sunny days and cool nights. It's like late August in Ontario, all the time. Playa del Carmen, on the other hand, is about 10 degrees too hot, all the time. They call Cuernavaca the city of eternal spring, but I would call it the city of eternal late summer. I guess it doesn't have the same ring.

Cuernavaca has its downsides; there's not much of a cultural life here, but at least there are a few museums and a lot of history. Playa del Carmen has nothing. It's also very close to Mexico City (less than an hour), which has more culture than you could ask for. Being so close to Mexico City is actually one of the best things about Cuernavaca (next to the climate, I would say.) The advantage is that it's actually faster to and get around the downtown – southern part of Mexico City from Cuernavaca.

Over the next few days, I'll write more about some of the good things and not-so-good things about Cuernavaca. On the whole, I'd have to say it's been one of my favorite places to live.

For some earlier posts about Cuernavaca, read: 

Interesting Expats part 3 - A traveller who never travelled ... 

Coffee, Wonderful Coffee!

 

Don't Call Me "Teacher"

"DON'T call me 'Teacher!' "

While in Canada and many other places it's usually a good thing to call someone by there name (since doing otherwise usually indicates you've forgotten it,) in Mexico, it's much more respectful to call someone by their title.

In Canada we use titles only for those who have gained a higher title, like "doctor" (for physicians or academics), "pastor" in a church, etc.  Mr. and Mrs. are used for the older generation, but this usage is wearing away in favour of first names in may situations where it used to be necessary.  We also almost always add the last name; for example, I would call a professor from my university "Doctor Faber" or "Professor Faber," and never simply "Doctor."

In Mexico, on the other hand, anyone who has a title or a professional position can be called by that title, and most often is.  Teachers, for example, are always called "teacher" by students and others in the community; even an accountant is often called "accountant" as a title. (As in, if you see your accountant, you could say "Good morning Accountant! How are you?")  Names are usually excluded, but sometimes first names are added.

When I first started teaching here, I listened to all the students call me "teacher," and I assumed they simply forgot my name.  So after I made a habit of writing my name on the top left corner of the board as a reminder (without drawing too much attention to it), I realized that they still always called me "teacher."  At that point I realized that it was a cultural difference, and starting explaining to my students that in North American culture a simple first name was fine (these were adults only slightly younger than me.)

One day, however, one student explained that in Mexico it was a matter of respect; it didn't seem right to call a teacher by simple first name ("teacher" + [first name] is fine, even from children).  When I told her that it just didn't make sense in English or Anglophone culture, she, along with others wanted to know how they could show respect in English.  I told her that between grown adults of the same general age group, especially in a setting anything short of very high formality, first names were just the way it was.  I then went on to explain the more formal situations in which titles could be used, and that for teachers, other adults would only use a title if the person were a doctor or professor.  So, from that day onward, she jokingly called me "Professor Wall."  (So much for respect!)  I appreciated the joke, though; it helped her learn a cultural feature of English-speaking countries.


Respectful forms of address, titles, etc. are much more important here, and many people, young and old, feel they are necessary.  People who say learning a language is learning a culture are right; without understanding the culture, you can't get the language 100% right.

Cloth Diapers - Advantages and Disadvantages

The "Fancy" Cloth Diapers - The folded diaper cloth is inserted into the decorated liner

While we used only disposable diapers with our first baby (who's now 3) we've used almost only cloth diapers with our most recent baby.  Throughout North America, including Mexico, there seems to be a small but growing trend to go back to cloth diapers, along with breast-feeding, etc.  The good news is that this makes cloth diapers more available   The bad news is that as soon as something becomes associated with a "natural" or "organic" lifestyle, it becomes more expensive.  The better news, however, is that even with more expensive cloth diapers, it's still much cheaper than even discount disposable diapers.

Our baby wearing one of these nice cloth diapers

When we tell people we are using cloth diapers, we get varying reactions, including, "Are you crazy?  What's the point of making so much work for yourself?", "That's neat, but it's just too much work for me", and, very rarely, "Wow, we're doing that, too."  Both of our mothers were very enthusiastic about the idea, but kind of shook their heads at the fancy and expensive cloth diapers we ordered over the internet; they both thought it would work just as well to use traditional diaper cloth and the nylon shorts.

We are now using both traditional cloth diapers (composed of a cloth, safety pins, and nylon liner shorts) and our collection of "fancy" diapers; the truth is at first the traditional cloth diapers were all we wanted, but we couldn't find the nylon shorts anywhere (diaper cloth is easy enough to find at any fabric store.)  So, we looked on the internet and ordered some nice hand-made cloth diapers with colourful designs.  My parents live in a Mennonite community in Canada, so finding the nylon shorts was easy enough.  My mother sent some to us by mail, and they work great.

Generally speaking, the following are the advantages of cloth diapers, from what we have found:

• They reduce garbage considerably
• They are much better for the baby's skin (they're made of cotton.)  With our second baby, we haven't had a single diaper rash, even living in a hot, humid climate.  With our first, living in a cool, fresh climate (Mexico City) he had rashes quite often using disposable diapers.
• They are cheap.  For the nicer designed ones, a package of 12, which is usually meets our needs with a daily wash cycle, we spent about $200 dollars; even cheap disposable diapers run up close to $100 per month, so in three months that money and more has been saved back.  The price of the detergent (which is a very simple detergent) is negligible, and since the daily wash load of diapers fits into the "small" or "medium" setting on the machine, our water bill hasn't risen noticeably.
• They look nice (our "fancy" internet diapers.)

 The disadvantages are:

• They need to be washed every day. But once you're in the rhythm of this, it's five minutes in the morning to start the machine, and another 20 minutes to hang them and fold them.
• "Solids" need to rinsed out.  But this is usually only one diaper a day.  It's also just a matter of a quick rinse; the machine does the real work.  As my mother-in-law says, "It's just milk, anyway."
• You need to carry the dirty diapers with you when your out and about.  The cloth diapers we bought over the internet close up very nicely and don't let odours out.  The biggest problem is the bulk of carrying them.  We still haven't tried the traditional cloth diapers, but we'll probably just save those for at home.
• They take a little longer to put on.  The fancy ones from the internet go on just as quickly as disposables, but take a few minutes to prepare (inserting the diaper cloth into the decorated liners), which my wife usually does ahead of time.  The traditional ones are only slow when you first start, and once you get the hang of it are almost as fast as the other ones.
• If you're using the traditional ones, they need to be changed immediately.  The fancy ones have an extra liner and help keep moisture away from the skin a little longer.  In any case, it's best for the baby's skin to change any diaper (even disposables) immediately, so this really shouldn't be an issue.

The components of a traditional clothe diaper - cloth, safety pins, and nylon liner "shorts"

As you notice, I have a "but" for every disadvantage.  The truth of the matter is, my wife and I are NOT super fanatics for "natural" trends; we try to do a little, but will give something up quite readily if it doesn't look like it's worth the trouble (I'm not proud of this, it's just to put this into perspective.)  Cloth diapers are much easier to use than most people imagine.

In terms of the environmental point, some people will argue that the water used is as bad or worse than the garbage generated by the disposable diapers. This is especially true here on the Yucatan Peninsula, where otherwise correctly treated and disposed waste water still damages the coral reef.  However, besides the huge factor that it's still better for the baby's skin, the water used for washing is equal to about 2 flushes of the toilet, or for what many people is a standard shower.  While waste water and clean water usage is a real issue, it should be addressed in terms of rain water collection and alternative treatment and disposal methods, since even without washing diapers, it's still just as big of an issue.  It should not be used as an excuse not to use cloth diapers.

Our baby using a traditional cloth diaper.

(I know some people who consider themselves people who "care about nature" but don't recycle, don't use alternative products and don't use in any other environment-friendly activity in their lifestyle, since for everyone of them, they've found a opinion that feels that the alternative is worse than the normal main-stream practice.  So, care for environment seems to mean, for these people, doing everything like we are now, and discouraging any alternatives.  I see this as a cop-out to avoid saying that they just can't be bothered. I'm less concerned when people say they just feel they're too busy, or don't care much; at least they're being honest, and those problems can be addressed by making things easier.)


Back to the main point, we're fans of cloth diaper use (both fancy and traditional), and we would recommend it to anyone who is wondering.  Our baby's skin is better, we're saving money, we're doing one more little thing to reduce garbage, and our effort has been minimal.  I would only recommend that anyone interested who has never changed a cloth diaper before use the fancier ones, to start at least. The nylon shorts for the traditional ones are harder to find these days, and if you prepare the the fancy ones ahead of time, they're really easy to change.  Since they come with neat designs and look really nice, it's also easier to get excited about them; motivation is important since our modern lifestyle makes it hard to "get into" something like this.  (The novelty wears off after a few times of washing the "solids" out, but excitement can give the routine a nice and necessary boost at the beginning.)

Our diapers drying inside (after washing!) on a rainy day - we don't have a dryer.