It All Began With a Little Joke

We left home with good intentions. But even the best intentions can be sunk when you are a bit too keyed up and not paying attention. We were also a little distracted because we'd witnessed a really angry woman smearing her run-away dog all over the pavement with a broom. The dog was running all over the place and the lady was right behind him, broom held high.

We meandered down to our bus top where Nicole decided she wanted to buy a bottle of water at the corner store. I said, "Well why didn't u just get a drink before we left?!" But in she went. As she headed in I peered down the road and saw a big white and yellow bus careening toward us. I couldn't see what it said but thought it'd be funny to fluster Nicole so with a sneaky laugh to myself, I yelled "You better hurry up because I'm gettin' on this here bus whether you're back or not!!" (Heh, heh, heh...) 
So in she scrambled, up into the store to grab a water out of the cooler then skate-tripped her way back outside yelling "I almost fellllll!!"
So there we stood on the corner he-hawing like morons while the bus comes barreling toward us. I flagged it down, and we hopped on. The bus immediately lurched forward and we went skidding down the aisle with amazing balance and coordination towards an unoccupied bench.  I distinctly remember leaning over to
Nicole and saying, "Hey we're getting pretty good at this!!"

After about 20 minutes on the bus we realize we had no idea where we were. Apparently we weren't good enough at this to even LOOK AT WHAT BUS WE GOT ON! Somehow we ended up at Capu, a big bus station in an extremely hustlin', bustlin' part of Puebla. What an adventure! But we lived to tell about it and like Bro. Loa says, you never know what accident or tragedy you avoided. Hahahah!

 Whew! I'm glad this wasn't the line to our ATM!! 

Crazy long line of people!

A lady walking past us summed it up well when she muttered,

 "Are they giving away money, or what??"

 One of the beautiful building in our downtown... 

I dream about living in these apartments!

We decided to have lunch at our favorite restaurant taqueria and old stand-by, 

Los Angeles!

I'm telling you, this place never gets old for us! 

 Hey, hey, shout out to Los Angeles!! Cheers for getting new cups!

 

They have thee most wonderful natural fruit drinks! I got mango and Nicole got watermelon.

 We got a nice little show from two disgusting lovers, perfect view over Nicole's shoulder. 

 Meaty meaty meeeaaat! :))

 Some chick tryin' to finagle her way out of a ticket...

Or at least that's what we figured was happening :))) She was draped across the trunk of this car when we walked up, but by the time we got the camera out she had stood up.

 Enjoying my Oreo McFlurry :)

McFlurries are so much more delicious here in Mexico. I tried one in the US last time I was up there and they didn't even put hot fudge in it!! What a rip!

We had a run in with the downtown clowns that are regularly camped out in front of the cathedral...

Now, let me say, I love to listen to their routines... They can be quite funny sometimes! They really are more like comedians than clowns. But, they tend to single out people in the crowd and do impromptu jokes, which adds to the hilarity... except for when it's you that gets called out! It doesn't help that our white faces stick out like a sore thumb.

I guess Nicole got too close to the clowns and was looking a little too interested because they quickly noticed her and started yelling out, "Ohhh una gueraaaa!" (A white girl!!)

Then, in broken Spanglish (they love any opportunity to try out their English on you), they began to give her the third degree--

"Do jouu espeak Espaneesh?", "where are you from?",

and my favorite, "what is your 'llamar'?" (translation: "what is your name?" haha).

 She wasn't quite sure if she should answer all these questions, but the crowd was enjoying it so she just gave them basic answers. When they asked Nicole's name, she told them in an American accent, "Nicole". This threw them, so she tried repeating it in a Mexican accent- "Nee-kohl"...

And then as if a light went on in their heads they say "Ahhhh, siiiii! Nee-kohl Keeedman!" (Nicole Kidman).

 

The fun and jokes lasted until they posed for this first picture, and then said "Here, take another one for your bedroom!", and turned around and stuck their rears out..... Ehhhh, no thanks guys!

We grabbed one last snack before we went on our way to catch a bus--

Papas Locas, Nicole's favorite snack!

 

Papas Locas are potato chips with a combination of salsa botanera, homemade salsa, Worcestershire sauce, chamoy, lime, and salt!

 

 Walking to the bus...

 Hey sista, old sista..

Dried chiles and garlic

This is officially the most awful smelling street in this whole city. It is the fish street! 

Although it is very rankin', it is also very interesting. So many kinds of fish, shrimp, octopuses, crab and lobster...and so colorful (but oh so smelly). 

Little hot dog getting her rest

~Bethany~