Saturday, March 21, 2009

Take it easy, relax, ponder awhile.........


Sitting here on the beach in Mazatlan, we hear many visitors that come here to enjoy the Pacific Ocean, well at least I think that is the reason that they come down here, or for some warmer weather, anyway I hear a lot of complaining......

"It takes too long to come down here, or we can't go anywhere because it's too far or too long to drive there."

In the states people whine about it also. Too long, too much traffic, inconvenience because I'll be in a cab for 20 minutes, or stuck in traffic on the way home for a hour or two.

Ok, I will agree that Mazatlan is missing a underground subway system that would whisk you to environs in minutes and it's missing a 4 lane highway that would get you to Tepic in an hour or so.

But lets look at reality.

Time is relative. At least that's what people say.

It wasn't that long ago that the main and only means of transporting of ones own body was either walking by foot or perching your butt on top of a mule,donkey or horse.

It was a days journey to go 7 or 8 miles.

100 years ago if you wanted to travel between Mazatlan and Ciudad Obregon to the North, it would be 5 or 6 days. At least!

And you didn't do that in one trip.

That means you had to bed down each night, first of all you would have to find a place to stay.

Well traveled roads usually had a cantina or posadas with some beds in the back or upstairs.

You wouldn't jump into a shower to clean of the road dust, that was done by sloshing through a stream on your way that day.

But yet we complain.........

Imagine if you wanted to head to Nogales, which by car is about a 12 hour ride from Mazatlan.

That would be a massive undertaking, you had to figure a months journey and that's if you didn't get attacked by banditios or cartel gang members........

It took George Washington two days to cross from New York into Long Island but how many thousands of people complain and curse when the cab in Manhattan is stuck in traffic for a spell?

Interesting to think of the old days and to comprehend that most of the people living then never traveled more than about 10 to 15 miles from their place of birth in their lifetime.........

I think I 'll jump in the car and go over to Soriana for a 6 pack and stuff for dinner.
Not so quick!
That would have been a trip that would have taken all day, not so long ago.

I think I will stop complaining and think about yesteryear more............

After all, doesn't one come down to Mexico to slow down?

4 comments:

Bob Mrotek said...

Ken,
You made me think back to the days before interstate highways. I remember that when I was a kid it used to take us at least eight hours to travel the same distance that now takes about two and a half. The roads were two lane and they passed right through the middle of every town down main street. Heaven forbid that you stumble across an army convoy and then it would take much longer.

Tancho said...

Yep, the old days, Couple of times we have taken the "libre" roads and go through every pueblo and their countless topes, that's still about the same, they haven't changed.....

Michael Dickson said...

Zihua is a lot closer, and real nice.

Tancho said...

Mexico......

Blogger Constantino said...

Now that you told me about the road we are going to try and put together the next trip there. The reason we go to Mazatlan is we have family from the north fly down for a couple of weeks and the flights to Maz a direct and cheaper!
but will try Zihua next time, Thanks