Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Two Week Trip - Post Two

After trying to get our hotel DVD player to work, I did some researching and found out that DVD's are coded, based on region. The United States is region 1. Mexico is region 4.

So, Annie and I wandered out towards McDonald's again on Tuesday. Walking just past McDonalds, we discovered a Starbucks and Blockbuster.

After speaking Spanglish with the worker at Blockbuster, determining how much a DVD rental costs (15 pesos or about $1.50 USD -- it is actually less, but I use the ratio 10/1, rather than the actual 12/1), and figuring out how to get a Mexico Blockbuster card, Annie and I successfully brought home "Cars".

However, the DVD player still wouldn't read this region 4 dvd. So, we trekked back to Blockbuster, after google translating "the disc wouldn't play" (el dvd no jugaria). We traded the disc for another copy with little difficulty.

Upon trying the new dvd, we went down to see the concierge, begging "tu hablas Ingles?". The maintenance man/our Sunday bellhop, came up, checked the dvd player, tried to talk to me in Spanish (no hablo Espanol), and called the concierge desk for a translator. We needed a new dvd player, which he promptly brought up.

Did he exchange the dvd players and get rid of the old/broken one? No. He plugged in the new one, using a long extension cord, that stretches across the room. A tad dangerous as Annie seems to think it's another new toy. The broken dvd player is somehow hooked in through the wall and can't be unplugged...

Regardless, we have successfully watched "Cars"...and discovered that this dvd player is universal, and accepts our U.S. region 1 dvd's!

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