To Wine or Not to...ya right.

(...continued from "Home Free")

I last left all of you with us in a hotel room with plenty of wine, but no cups AT ALL (not even a water bottle) to drink it out of. Things got pretty scary, I considered shoes to sip out of, but we all had flip flops and sandles. I was wishing I hadn't decided to unpack my running shoes after all, hell at least they would finally have gotten some use. We started to panic, and to again curse the maid that didn't replace our trashed starter glasses. Then out of no where, like the angel that she is, my mother produced clean plastic cups for all of us! Cheers rang out and the vacation was able to continue.
"How did you find these glasses we asked?"
She shrugged innocently and sipped her wine. For a moment I wondered what she was not telling us, but then the relief of wine in my hand took over and I didn't care if she had mugged someone for them.

After the horror of that 1st day without cups, we figured out not to throw them away and we continued to have a happy vessel to drink from.

So what about this beautiful city we were visiting? Did we simply spend the entire time in Mexico worrying about our next glass of wine? Well, yes, but we did venture out of the hotel and away from our wine (with hands shaking) to sight see and experience Aguascalientes.

My sister-in-law Liliana's family are kind and generous people who excitedly invited us into their homes. We visited the city center and it's beautiful gardens with each fountain's spray wetting the cobblestone paths. The flowering trees arched down as if to sip on the flowing water and exquisite cathedrals loomed in the distance. It is nothing short of magical.

Now believe it or not, you can not live on wine alone, I know it is terrible, but true. Luckily there is great food on every street corner...literally. Just to clarify, growing up in New Mexico, we know some of the traditional Mexican food (but surprise to everyone in the world) we in Northern New Mexico, eat Northern New Mexican food. I know it is crazy. Anyway, the food in this part of Mexico, specifically Aguascalientes, is some of my favorite and Liliana's family is hands down the BEST cooks. I spend much of my time thinking about the meals we had seated at her sister's house looking over her lush gardens and fruit trees...sipping wine. What you didn't think we would leave the wine at the hotel ALL the time did you?

Things were going so easily, so comfortably that we decided to roll the dice and let my mother-in-law head out in the middle of the night to pick up her husband from the airport...alone. What happened next nearly made us put our glasses of wine down in alarm. Nearly.

(to be continued...)

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!
www.vivacwinery.com

Home Free

(continued from "I Gotta Go)

Let's get back on track after that 'potty break'. Where were we?

As we drove from the state of Zacatecas into the state of Aguascalientes,  we were stopped by boarder control and interrogated. OK too strong of a word, we were questioned. Evidently Aguascalientes doesn't want anything to do with Zacatecas either. My favorite question from this officer, was one in a very confused tone "WHY were all of YOU traveling through Zacatecas?!" Because, officer, we are crazy white Americans...obviously.

That reminds me of an earlier story where we also encountered a guard stop in which the questioning officer got so far into my husband's personal space, I thought they might merge into one person right before my eyes. Here is where you insert the image (thanks to our media) of dead bodies piled on one side of the road and cars on the other.  But none of us were hauled off, children were not frightened and we continued on our wide eyed way. That was early on in our trip, at the time of the Aguascalientes stop, we were feeling like seasoned veterans. Officer schmoficer.

As we entered Aguascalientes,  we were ecstatic to see the welcomed sights of our destination looming up ahead. We noted that the state of Aguascalientes, like the city of Aguascalientes was clean and visibly affluent. Architecture was stunning and whispered of its Spanish history. Medians were ornately planted and people were dressed nicely as they walked along the side of the road.  This is a truly beautiful area. I might mention that we had been to Liliana's home town several times before, but always by plane and viewing it in this context and comparison was really incredible.

We found our modern hotel quickly and corks flew as we celebrated surviving the so-called 'terrorizing drive through Mexico'. We raised a cheers with plastic hotel cups, an up-grade from the water bottles of previous nights, and readied ourselves for the real start to our vacation to begin.

Little did we know, the hotel wasn't everything it seemed. The hotel had a nasty secret. The hotel didn't replace those plastic cups daily like hotels in the USA. No they let you throw them in the trash only to find yourself with an open bottle of wine the next day and NOTHING TO DRINK IT OUT OF! It was far worse than the dead bodies we had imagined on the side of the road. We were desperate and didn't even have water bottles to cut apart. We were stranded and it was scary as hell.

(to be continued...)

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

I Gotta Go!

(continued from "On the Road Again")

This section of our road trip through Mexico is dedicated to public bathrooms. I know what you are thinking "yay, my favorite subject!" but it is one with which special attention should be paid. I believe you can tell a lot about a place from the condition of their bathroom. Being that I am a little bit of a germaphobe, this matters a great deal to me. Now I am not a wash-my-hands-7-times-before-I-can-leave-the-bathroom kind of gal, but it seriously gets to me to touch dirty things. So with THAT in mind, I have a report on the road side bathrooms in Mexico. They are freakin beautiful! Ya, stone floors with lots of ventilation and someone constantly cleaning. Most are free to use, but some require a bit of change to pay for toilet paper. I think this should be a rule in the USA, why not hire people to maintain bathrooms by charging a few cents entry? It was such a relief since I pictured squatting behind bushes or finding myself in hot port-a-potties.  On the other hand, there was a bathroom experience that was, shall we say memorable?

*ADVISORY please stop eating if you are doing so while reading this.

As we drove onward past the lunch hour, we all grew more and more hungry, looking for just about any place to stop and grab a bite to eat. The bags of chips and junk food had hit its limit and we all needed real food. We finally stopped at a small road side restaurant and ordered nourishment. In our eagerness to get 'actual food' into our growling tummies, we over looked the greasy hot sauce bottles, the flies buzzing in a multitude that made you fear an invasion and the sticky tables. We were out of the car and going to eat. Moments passed and it became evident that my 6 year old son, Denim, had had enough, melt down was impending. Realizing he needed a nap, badly, and had not gone pee ALL DAY, I begged him to visit the restroom with me. I knew if he fell asleep he would wet his pants and we would all have to drive in a car that smelled like pee. My son hadn't gone pee all day because he is very particular about bathrooms as well, must be genetic. I should have known something was up because Denim's  tugging at my arm as we inched closer to the door leading to the bathroom increased, he is like that kid in the "6th Sense" only instead of dead people, he sees bad bathrooms. I pulled him through the door and not into a bathroom but outside! The surprise to be outside and blinded by the light was possibly a plan by this restaurant to keep you from seeing the garbage lying outside the kitchen doors that you literally had to step over to continue. Bathroom stall #1 was what nightmares are made of and I can not even begin to describe it to you, we are simply lucky that I didn't have a physiological break down then and there. Stall #2 was better...if you can imagine poop covered tissues spilling out of the garbage onto the sticky wet floor with a toilet that looked like it had vomited its contents all over itself as better. By this point I could see Denim really did have to go NOW, but he was terrified to be there. I held him against me and he took aim from a few feet away. Poor baby, I think it traumatized him.

The meal took an hour to cook and believe it or not, we did eat there. I'm not sure if it was the cold, casadilla I had, the melt down, all out, screaming fit my son threw after visiting the bathroom or the end of a long day in the car, but I didn't feel so good after that. Thank goodness we had wine packed in the car. Wine soothes the nerves and the alcohol killed all the nasty things in my belly...at least that is what I told myself.

Luckily this was a one time experience on our trip, a trip that took us into many bathrooms in the classic I've-got-Mexico-tummy-issues way. However the state of Zacatecas had areas of road side that reminded me of that restaurant and there is no cure for the sights your eyes take in, no amount of wine to sooth them away, so we had to turn to tequila.

(to be continued...)

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!
www.vivacwinery.com

On the Road Again

(continued from "Fuel up, we've got a road trip!" )

As we approached the Mexico boarder in the cool early morning air, the 2 cars containing all 13 members of our family, eased through the passage and quickly navigated the tiny streets to the by-pass around Juarez. The sun started to rise in the sky and the clean roads stretched out in front of us. Things were off to a fabulous start!

The media, over the last few years, has portrayed Mexico and specifically Juarez and Chihuahua city as the biggest nightmare on the planet. The horrific stories of abduction and tourist fatalities are enough to scare anyone into bombing the country let alone ever traveling there.  But what we found, was a pleasant country that is easily navigated if you are smart about it and plan to travel safely; do not travel at night and stay on the toll roads. Juarez  (which we drove directly through on the way back) has been depicted as a gang war that carries on all day and all night, an impassable place where they are stacking bodies on one side of the road and cars on the other, but what it really is, is a lot of people, a lot of Americans even, working. Ya, just people working. People walking around buying tacos from stands and chatting with each other. We didn't hear even one machine gun spray fire! Now that doesn't mean I think you should don your hot pink mini skirt and walk the streets at night, but the idea we have and fear we provoke in each other seems a little bit out of wack.

Our spirits lifted as we drove and we found ourselves relaxing ever so slightly. We pulled in to the immigration stop, which we found empty, no lines and no waiting! Thrilled we filled out our papers and the kids had a chance to run around. We registered our cars and felt like the smartest travelers ever. And then...trouble. Turns out there is an issue with people taking American cars to Mexico and selling them, so the person the car is registered to needs to be with the car. No problem since we were driving my mother-in-law's car and she was with us, she even had a certified letter from her husband (who would be flying to meet us after he completed his work that week). What we did not anticipate was that the 2nd car in our group, which had been selected due to it's 'blending in' ability, was also registered to my mother-in-law, Jane. She can't drive 2 cars into Mexico. So the Mexican officers insisted we show a birth certificate for my husband, Jesse, or his brother, Chris, to prove they were related to Jane. Now I don't know about you, but we don't travel with anything but our passports so this was a definite issue. After some time begging, they agreed to a faxed copy. Yay! Only now we had to contact someone back at home and get them into Chris' house to find his birth certifcate and fax it to...where? The office didn't have a fax!

2 hours later, some lovely trash art made by our boys, a bloody toe from a rusty bolt and one faxed birth certificate later, we managed to get approval. Don't ask where we finally found a fax, that is a blog of its own.

Back on the road, way behind schedule. We found ourselves a decent way into Chihuahua state, the next step in survival traveling. We stopped at clean, safe rest stops along the way and found ourselves more and more surprised by how clean and how safe it was...despite our preconceived notions. Chihuahua city was a surprise too; clean and lovely, no piles of bodies or gun fire anywhere. The only bummer was a speeding ticket and sleazy pay-the-cop-and-go experience. On the up side we got to see a side of my sister-in-law we've never seen, she wouldn't put up with harassment and bartered with the cop, she was a total badass.

We stayed the 1st night in a charming little hotel in Jimenez, south of Chihuahua city. It was 6pm and there were still plenty of hours of sunlight, but with the unknown looming ahead, and pale shaken voices of fear ringing out about driving in Zacatecas at night, we decided it best to give everyone some rest. As we settled ourselves, stretched our legs and enjoyed a glass of wine... out of cut plastic water bottles, the hotel quickly filled up. We came to find out that everyone gets off the road at dusk and there were no hotels, no towns, no gas for hours down the road. It was a smart decision to stop when we did and we patted ourselves on the back for it. Other Mexican travelers stopped to chat with us and kindly welcomed us to their country. The wine eased our stress and smiles returned to our faces. Tomorrow we would brave Zacatecas, but for now, we would enjoy the warm air and the sound of our children laughing.

*As a side note, when you forget wine glasses or are caught on the road in Mexico without them. A quick fix is to take an empty water bottle, cut it in half (or with a large bottle, cut about 4 inches up from the base) using your wine key's knife. If you do not have a knife on your wine key, you obviously have the wrong wine key and need to buy one from Vivác Winery. The possibility of cutting your lip on these glasses is a distinct possibility, but hey you have wine so no complaining.

(to be continued...)

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!
ww.vivacwinery.com

Fuel up, we've got a road trip!

"Fueled by Vivác" hit the road and traveled to Mexico...by car, with our families. Yep we are crazy.

So why did we take on driving from the USA through some of what the media has proclaimed "the most dangerous areas in North America" into central Mexico?  My husband's brother Chris and his wife Liliana (who is originally from Aguascalientes, Mexico) had decided to drive back home to visit family; a result of not being able to afford plane flights for a family of 4. Well, as everything starts in our  Vivác world, over a table of great food and lots of wine,  we tried to talk them out of this insane trip,  and then the wine seemed to talk US into it!

It is important to understand that Aguascalientes is a beautiful city located in the state of Aguascalientes, a little confusing, but think of it like New York city which is in New York state. This is an area that shows a side of Mexico that many people never get to see and Liliana's family are some of the most generous, loving people you have ever met...who happen to be the best chefs ever. No really ever, I crave their homemade salsas, meat dishes and molé on a regular basis, oh man that molé is amazing (cue scene from the movie "Chocolate" where everyone is in ecstasy over the chocolate sauce poured over the chicken at the birthday party...this could only have been Liliana's family recipe). Anyway, a few bottles of wine later, we were all driving to Mexico!

The plan developed as such: we would pack the kids and the grandparents, 13 people total, into 2 cars and caravan down. We chose the cars that would blend in the most and agreed to only drive the expensive toll roads and only during the day. This also meant very limited stops, with 3 small children. How would we manage a 22 hour drive under these conditions? Well we aren't "Fueled by Vivác" for nothing! We also determined that it was mandatory to squeeze in 3 cases of wine. Who needs foot room anyway?

The days leading up to the trip, my husband and I spent working in southern NM, making sure the entire state of NM is fully "Fueled", the rest of the group met us in El Paso and we stayed a final night at the USA/ Mexico boarder. That was a sleepless night. All the stories of horrific crimes, torture and cruelty flooded our minds. What are we doing driving our small children and families into the depth of danger? The stress mounted and the fear was palpable as we hit the road early the next morning.

(to be continued...)

-Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!
www.vivacwinery.com