No such thing as “Simple errands”

We’ve often repeated variations of the old joke – if you can do one thing a day in Mexico, you’re doing all right.  If you can do two things, that’s fantastic!  If you can do three – you’re lying.  🙂

A couple of recent incidents might illustrate why that is.

Last Thursday I was in Cuernavaca to pick up a few things, and see our friends the Casteels.  When I first got into the city I decided to run downtown to get some stamps and mail a few letters at the post office.

First of all, I admit that I got a little mixed up as I tried to find the right street.  With a memory like mine, 3 months is enough time to forget streets!  But eventually I found my way, and I realized that something was going on downtown.

It was something that blocked off streets, because I found my way into a complete dead end, right downtown, nothing to do except back up.

Downtown Cuernavaca with a sign from the teachers (demanding respect and against a Mexican politician). Photo courtesy of aquafoxx

Finally I got myself out of the awkward situation and found an actual parking lot.  I walked to the post office, and realized that what was going on was a teacher’s strike.  The streets were filled with booths, and rallies were going on.  I minded my own business and everything was fine, though later I heard that some store owners had felt threatened by a group of teachers.  (That’s just one story, of course – sounds like it’s been pretty peaceful.)

In the end, mailing a few letters took a LOT longer than expected!

On Friday, Shari and I headed to the Municipal Palace in Ixtapaluca to get some paperwork done.  As we walked toward the building and the square, we could see that there was a platform set up, and a crowd of students standing around.  Some kind of rally, it looked like, or protest.

Someone on the platform yelled into the microphone louder and louder as we approached the building.

The whole crowd began to chant as we were metres away from the door.  We passed a police officer with a big gun looking on (not so unusual here, but it added to the atmosphere).

Then suddenly the students literally stormed into the municipal palace!  We were close enough now to see inside, and there were soldiers actually in the building.  We were right in the crowd now, thinking…hmmmmm… maybe another time would be better….  and we turned around and walked back to the van.

I still don’t know what was going on – might just have been a field trip, for all I know.  Even so, it appeared that at that moment we probably wouldn’t be able to get the service we needed to get our documents!

So maybe that illustrates, in case you were wondering, why simple things often take so long.  Of course, it’s never exactly the same thing twice.

And a footnote – we did get our documents taken care of later that day.  But we later discovered that it was something we didn’t need to do at all.  Oh well, it gave me something to blog about.  😉