I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel like total dog shit. A few of people that went to Mexico over New Year's got the Montezuma's Revenge, seems like everybody else got something else. Coughing, aching, sneezing, the whole NyQuil commercial. I get to work, and half the people here are sick, too. Can we really be getting that susceptible to pollens, spores, and allergies, that half our population is getting sick at the same time? I don't know maybe Freeman is right and the government is killing us slowly. I know I'm getting older, and my memory isn't what it used to be, but I'm having a hard time remembering so many people suffering all at the same time. Then again, we did all just party had for New Year's, and they say alcohol decreases the immune system's effectiveness, so that MIGHT have something to do with it. I'm no scientist, just a fixer.
So, I also wanted to take a second to write out our trip to Mexico (just the getting there part). So Christmas was lovely, thought the anticipation of the trip had me a bit on edge the whole day before we left. We woke up on the 26th at 4:30am and hopped over to the airport. No, not Austin, San Antonio. We had a friend of the family staying at the house for Christmas who lives in San Antonio who had to head back anyway, so she agreed to take us there on her way home. We got on the plane at 7am, fell right to sleep, and woke up in Monterrey, Mexico. We got off the plane in one of those rare chances that you only get on Airport Base Station Force One or a Third World Country, actually walking down stairs from the plane onto the tarmac.
We went through customs and read a HUGE sign warning all visitors to watch out for the Guacanna Virus. It went on to say that if you experience any aching, or soreness of the eyes to report to the hospital immediately. I looked it up, and apparently it's the West Nile Virus that they were warning us about. We went out to the front of the airport to check out the scene and the mosquito's were swarming. We went back inside, had to change planes and airlines, then flew on to Mexico City. Flying over it, Rachel mentioned that it's one of the largest cities in the world, and I believe it. It seemed like we were flying in a strait line over the city for 15 minutes before we landed. It's big, very big.
Once we landed, we had another interesting de-boarding method, a giant platform like bus pulled up to the plane, we all got on, took a 10 minute drive to the terminal and off again. it was a mad rush trying to get to our bags and catch a cab at the same time. I do have to say, the cab system in Mexico City is brilliant. You buy a ticket in the airport, step outside, and they are just lined up waiting to take your bags. We handed the cabbie the ticket and off we went, racing toward Terminal Norte (North Bus Terminal) It took about 20 minutes to get there, driving though the most poverty stricken squaller I've ever seen. Every wall had graffiti tagging and we stuck out like two sore thumbs.
We arrived at the bus terminal and had JUST missed our luxury bus to San Miguel, it was fully booked and the next bus didn't leave for another two and a half hours. Well, we certainly weren't about to wait around there all that time, so we took the next available bus that was leaving in 5 minutes. It was a regular bus. No bathrooms, no TV, no shoulder room, just your standard fare bus with a bus load of natives looking at us like we were crazy. Perhaps we were. It must have stopped 15 times on the way out of town, dropping people off, picking more up, and at nearly every stop, a snack man would jump on board and try to sell potato chips before the buss took off.
After about 3 hours we couldn't hold it anymore and ran into one of the bus stations on the way to pee. Have you ever had to pay to pee? There were giant cattle-like turn-styles, you put in your 2 pesos and it lets you in the bathroom. I'm thinking of installing one at my house!
The last hour or so there were still people getting off the bus periodically, but were were in the middle of nowhere, and I do mean nowhere. It was pitch black outside and 2-3 people would get off the bus and start walking down the road. this happened several times, no house, no light anywhere in sight! It was a bit creepy, and very surreal.
After a 5 hours bus ride, 16 hours of traveling total, we finally arrive in San Miguel. One more cab ride and we are schlepping our bags through Centro to meet up with Jaomi, Jessica, Candi, Paul, and Tonya. We hit two bars with our gear in tow, catching a few laughs from the locals, one even pointed us to the nearest hostel, I guess we looked lost.
After a nice tequila buzz, we finally made our way to the house where we stayed for the next eight days. Gorgeous. Six levels, three bedrooms, two living rooms, three courtyards, a beautiful kitchen and two rooftops terraces. The view was amazing!
On a side note, we had a few friends that decided to drive themselves in the next day. They made it in twelve hours. They beat of by four whole hours, and we flew!
