This all sounds pretty normal to me except that I never take the bus. I drive everywhere and almost never use the horn, even when driving in Mexico City. By the way, and this going to sound really strange to some of you, if you are driving and happen to hit someone, never stop. Get out of there ASAP unless you have no other choice. Hope I am never in that situation.<br>Maybe I should start a new thread for potential ex-pats.

 

[quote author=Mexstan link=board=10;threadid=16148;start=15#152258 date=1056336444]Maybe I should start a new thread for potential ex-pats.[/quote]<br><br>Can we call it &quot;Have Cummins will travel!&quot;

 

I can picture almost all of what you are saying, Mexstan. <br><br>I spent almost 5 years stationed in Madrid, Spain and loved going to and through the small villages. Then I was fortunate enough to have been stationed in Naples, Italy for four more years. The people away from the large cities are fantastic.<br><br>My ex is from Spain. When we were married, we would go to the village she was born in. About 100 miles west of Madrid and then about 40 miles south of the highway. Villa de la Serena. The road wound it's way into town to a &quot;T&quot; intersection. There was no train service. There was no airline service. A bus would come into town maybe twice a week. Back around 1980, they had A (1) phone in the town. There was electricity in her aunt and uncle's house where they had wires and bare light bulbs hanging from their ceilings - this was their interior lights. They also had hooks hanging from the ceiling in their dining room/kitchen where they would hang the hams and sausages from a pig they had slaughtered earlier that year. When we went to visit the temperature was chilly so Uncle would go to some other room and get an extremely large (3-foot diameter) &quot;pizza pan&quot; and fill it with hot coals. He would put that under the table top on a ring that connected all four table legs together. We would put our legs under the table cloth and keep warm that way. Their water supply was at a community well - about 1/4 mile out of town. They would put their large ceramic jugs on their donkeys and go to the well to fill them and then pour the water into larger ceramic jugs in the room behind their kitchen. That's also where you would &quot;bathe&quot; - use a rag and some soap, pour some water over yourself, lather up, rinse and dry off. Their &quot;bathroom&quot; was out in the back yard with the chickens. The townspeople were so very friendly. She had other relatives there in the town that welcomed me into their homes in such a fashion that I felt I had been part of the family for my whole life. <br><br>The Italians were the same way - outside of the large cities. I had a ball in the smaller villages in both Spain and Italy. And I never lived in the &quot;American&quot; areas. I figured that I worked with you for 8 to 10 hours a day I didn't want to live with you, too. I wanted to live with the locals. More fun and got to know the people and their customs better.<br><br>Thanks for bringing this back to my memory.<br><br>DW

 

DW, I hear yuh. Know exactly what you mean. BTW, if any of you have ever seen the movie &quot;The God's must be crazy&quot; and remember some of the stuff that poor guy went thru with his Land Rover, well, been there, done that. Driven hundreds of miles with no brakes, even in the city. Got stuck like he has in the mud etc etc. If some of you have not seen that movie, then try and get it as it is a classic. It showed for about two years at the one movie house in Toronto. The sequel is really crazy.<br> Thursday morning I am taking off with my wife to explore the state of Veracruz. Hope to stay on the back roads as much as my wifes nerves will stand. She is a city slicker so is not used to backroad stuff. One of my stops will be the waterfall where &quot;Romancing the stone&quot; was filmed. It is at a small place called Xico which is not too far from Xalapa. Can't wait to leave.