ODDITIES: Mexico

There are some things about Mexico that I find strange. I suppose that there are oddities about any place. I would think that when a person from another country comes to visit America, there are things that would seem a little strange to them. It is with this in mind that I have created this post which is poised to be the first in a series of posts entitled "ODDITIES". This is where I will share my observations, thoughts and experiences about such things that I find just plain strange, odd and completely out of the ordinary, as far as I am concerned, with regards to the locations around the world that I visit.

Mexico:
I love dogs. They are the one of the animals that I typically have a close bond with almost immediately after meeting them. If I got along with people the way I get along with dogs I think life would be much easier for me...at least that is the case with American dogs. In Mexico, dogs seem to come from a completely different breed. Dogs are not typically leashed, which I personally think is absolutely wonderful. They are allowed to wander freely about. They go where they want and seem to do what they want. If and when I ever will be fortunate enough to have some dogs to call my friends again, I hope to be able to let them roam free as much as possible. I feel it to be cruel and unusual punishment to keep such an animal, any animal really, locked in one place blocking their free movement. I think it is great that this seems to not be the case here in Mexico, however, I do not feel that it is an act of generosity or of kindness from the Mexican people as a whole. The dogs here seem to be quite afraid of people in general. Any attempt I make towards befriending a dog ends in them either completely ignoring me, them running away and cowering, or them barking while running away and cowering. So far since I have been in Mexico I can only recall one instance of having what I deem to be a normal greeting with a dog. I find that most of the dogs I come across look particularly malnourished and mistreated. There may be more to this story, though, because I have not come across any hostile or otherwise aggressive dogs like I would assume to come across in the event of dogs that have been mistreated. In any case, it is certainly an oddity.

Everyone has a cell phone. I would not be surprised to see that there are as many cell phones here in Mexico as there are in the states. Even out in the rural areas of the country where it takes 2 hours to drive to the main road; 2 hours just to get to the main road, not even to another town, 8 year old children are running around with cell phones. Very odd, I must say. On a related note: If you are in Mexico and want to hear some music, apparently the only way to do it is either by having some music on your mp3 capable cell phone and blast is so everyone can hear or to run your car constantly and turn up the volume so the whole block can hear. I have lost count of how many times I have seen people walking down the street listening to their choice music on the loud speaker of their Motorola Razor.

If you are out walking through a town in Mexico and you happen to have a need to throw something away, you better hold onto it because the odds of you finding a trash bin in Mexico is about the same spread as finding an iPod in Mexico. In other words, it is not going to happen. It seems that most of the population does not hold onto their trash, they decide to throw it where they happen to be at the time. Pollution is rampant. Look in any creek or river and you are hard pressed to find an area that is not littered with bottles of all sorts and wrappers from any numerous amounts of items. I come from California...this is very odd to me.

Have a need to get somewhere in Mexico? Get on a bus. The buses go everywhere here. They are cheap, efficient and frequent. If it were not for the fact that it takes forever to travel from point A to point B there probably would be no airlines in this country. In fact, they are so good I feel sorry for Mexican tourists that visit America. They must have one hell of a time trying to get around. Most of the buses that I have been on have actually been quite comfortable as well. The seats have plenty of room and a lot of them had movies to watch while we were on the go. As for the quality and selection of movies, that is another story.

So far, I have only seen one Starbucks.