Thursday, May 1

Happy May Day! Or, in Mexico, happy Labor Day! Which is actually the same thing. In many countries of the world, including Mexico (but excluding the U.S.), May 1 is celebrated as International Worker's Day (w) . And of course, in Mexico, it usually kicks off a long weekend, coming as it does just a few days before May 5, more commonly known as Cinco de Mayo (w) . Which is not Mexican Independence Day, by the way (that's September 16), but a celebration of a Mexican military victory over a French invasion in the year 1862.

We said our goodbyes to Mina, packed up the car, and headed out. But before we left Veracruz, we stopped for breakfast at:

This is a very old restaurant:

"The original and traditional since 1808"

Alas, it was here that we had our only serious problem with the dog. There's no ADA in Mexico, and access to public places with a guide dog is basically up to the good will of the management. Most of the time, we had no trouble. Here, however, they wanted us to sit at one of the sidewalk tables, outside the restaurant. That might have been OK, except for the heat - we wanted to be inside where it was air conditioned. Well, Hector had them call the manager, and got up in the guy's face and read him the riot act. I only wish I could have understood it. Whatever he said, it worked - they let us in. They sat us at a table waaaaaaaay back in the far corner - but we were inside!

Café de la Parroquia is famous for its Café Lechera, or coffee with steamed milk. They make something of a production of pouring the milk. The waiter starts with the pot just above the coffee cup, and then lifts it higher as he pours, until it's a stream a couple of feet long:

There's not much to say about the drive back to Mexico City. It was much like the drive to Veracruz, only in reverse. But there was one significant difference. On the drive to Veracruz, I mentioned seeing the volcano La Malinche. On the drive back, I looked on the other side of the road, and saw a larger and more impressive volcano, one that you might have heard of:

Popocatepetl

I spent the rest of the week learning how to pronounce it (po-po-ca-TEH-p'-t'l) (w) .

On the drive back, I amused myself by taking pictures of road signs. Along Mexican highways, in addition to the usual highway signs (speed limit, directions, distance to the next exit, etc.), they have a series of what I call "friendly reminder" signs. Here's a random sampling:

	"Diminish your speed," i.e., slow down!
	"Keep your distance"
	"Obey the signals"
	"Left lane for passing only"
	"Don't throw trash"
	"Persons who throw trash will be penalized"
	"If you drink, don't drive"
	"Radar in operation"
	"Thank you for driving carefully"
	"Don't drive on the shoulder; emergencies only"
And my personal favorite...
	"Don't leave rocks on the pavement"
...a sign that you rarely, if ever, see in the U.S.

The only problem with these signs is that there are a limited number of messages, and the signs are posted every few hundred meters or so. With the result that, on a long cross country drive, you see every one of those darn signs again... and again... and again...

I saw one other interesting thing on the highway. As I've previously mentioned, the road between Mexico City and Veracruz goes over two mountain ranges. And as the road comes down from each of the ranges, there are several "escape lanes."

We have these in the United States, too. If you've ever driven north out of Los Angeles, and down the Grapevine into the San Joaquin Valley, you've probably seen them. They're traffic lanes that lead off the highway and into, essentially, a gravel pit. The idea is that if a truck or car loses its brakes going down the hill, the driver can steer into one of these escape lanes, plow into the gravel, and come to a safe stop.

But in Mexico, they've added an interesting extra wrinkle. As you approach the escape lane, you see this sign:

"Vehicles without brakes, follow the red line"

And sure enough, there's a big red stripe down the road, leading off to the escape lane:

Well, we made it back to Mexico City - and I successfully navigated the intersection where I had gotten turned around on the way out - and got back to Hector and Malena's apartment. For dinner, we walked a few blocks to a nearby restaurant called Toks, where we were pleased to discover that they had Braille menus. We then stopped at a supermarket on the way home to pick up a bottle of wine. And that was it for the day.