I feel as though I need to write one last entry focusing on the crazy journey of the past four months that culminated just 2 weeks ago so that some part of me will feel something resembling closure. That’s silly of course, but hey, you’re still reading, and I appear to still be writing…let’s see if I haven’t yet forgotten all the madness:
Starting from where I left off, it felt wonderful to get out of the heat and humidity of southern Mexico and into the more centrally-located, hilly Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz. After nearly 10 hours spent in buses, though, we were quite happy to be picked up at the station by our lovely couchsurfer Bana and her mother. They were unbelievably generous and hospitable, offering us more food for dinner than we’d seen in days (our bus food was avocado and tomato spread on a roll and then a banana). That night we also became acquainted with Bana’s spritely dog Luna. She was a energetic little pup, pouncing all about. She made me miss Milkshake.
We ended up spending more time in Xalapa than we spent in any other city in Mexico: 3 nights. During our time there, we took in some pretty parks, saw some pretty art in two museums, and looked at the pretty plazas. Ryan was also finally able to withdraw money from a bank using a credit card, multiple forms of ID, and many, many signatures. Also, I was diagnosed with amoebas!!! Joy! So…this means that in my time away from home exploring the nooks and crannies of Latin America, I was able to acquire parasites, a bacterial infection, and now, amoebas! Ta-da! Collect them all. Batteries not included.
Anyway, I took some medicine that supposedly kills amoebas that day.
From Xalapa it was onto Puebla which required a bus change in the inescapable magnetic hub of Mexico D.F. (perhaps known to you as Mexico City). There I explained to a confused man how to enter the bathroom. (You have to pay for pretty much all public restrooms in Mexico, and then sometimes they don’t even put a seat on the toilet! Hmph!) After an hour or so of waiting at the bus station in Puebla, we were met by our poblano couchsurfer Ivan. He was a nice guy and showed us around town with one of his friends. We also went to the Feria de Pueblo for a few hours which was basically a big state fair complete with carnival rides, lizard women, corn dogs, men and women dancing with mops, and children singing in hula skirts.
Puebla was the largest city we spent any actual amount of time in, but it was a pleasant place. We walked around a LOT, watched a flag ceremony, bought typical candies, and ate the special food of Puebla like cemitas and mole poblano. Yum. We also played (tried to) ultimate Frisbee with Ivan and one of his friends. It was fun but embarrassing.
The next city on our agenda was Guanajuato, a city I was somewhat familiar with, as it would be my third time visiting there. It was nice to be somewhere that wasn’t completely foreign to me for once. However, I was feeling rather worn down from my illnesses and weeks of traveling, so it was hard to enjoy everything as much as I would have liked to. I went to another pharmacy and talked to a doctor for free and she put me on some pills that would later do me more harm than good.. (never trust them free doctors in Farmacia Similar). I put myself on special super diet, only eating things like juice, grains, and fruits.. nothing fried, with cheese, no beans, nothing spicy, you know, nothing Mexican. Right.
Ryan and I still managed to have some fun. We took the teleférico (cable car) up to the Pípila monument overlooking the city, where I’d been once before several years ago. It provides breathtaking views of the attractive city perched in the hills and brought back some memories.
We also watched the “tunas” sing at night, for the callejoneada, where they walk down the little narrow alleys that the city is full of, serenading everyone in the process. We did this until we had to pay, and then we left and just peered over a balcony at the city lights. Also of note is that this overweight woman began dancing with the tunas in the main square, and I believe it was the same exact woman I saw dance four years ago!! Astonishing. It gives me some strange sense of comfort knowing that this woman is always there, dancing up a storm.
On account of the way we were feeling (mostly me), we decided to cut Zacatecas out of our itinerary and come back to the US one day sooner. We were on to even more familiar ground in San Luis Potosí.
(Dedicated Ilene fans will remember that she spent 7 weeks living in San Luis when she was but a wee lass of 17 years.)
It was good to be back. We got off an intra-city bus from the bus station close to downtown, but near a huge park I’d somehow never seen before called La Alameda which even had a little duck pond. We decided to find a place to stay, this time without the aid of Lonely Planet, as the places they listed were too expensive for us. Luckily, we ended up finding a place close to La Alameda which only charged 200 pesos/night for a double which was cheaper than what we’d read. It even had a private bathroom and tv.
I called my friend Paco who I hadn’t seen in four years, and we walked around town. He hadn’t changed much in those four years. Memories flooded back to me slowly as we ambled through plazas and up streets. Somehow things appeared bigger and wider than I recalled.
We went to Paco’s house and drank some juice and then to a restaurant to get some lunch. One of the only things I thought was safe for me to eat were eggs, so unfortunately I had to skip out on the enchiladas potosinas, but at least Ryan got to try some. That night we went out with Paco and some of his friends to one of our old hangouts, the coffee shop Chaire’s. It’s so strange visiting places that belong to the past. In your mind they stopped existing the moment you left them behind, so it’s a bit unsettling to return and discover that not only do they still exist, but they’ve been evolving and functioning away from you.
The next day was spent in plazas, in my favorite Plaza de San Francisco with my favorite fountain and the little callejón with the “hippies” that sell things.. I was surprised to see that the merchandise was a bit different from what I remembered too. Later we met up with Paco and a friend again to eat sushi! which was so delicious as I hadn’t eaten sushi since probably January (not counting the Korean kimbab in Antigua). Ryan and I walked down Carranza and to the Parque de Tequis, that I used to live near. I was even able to find the old house that I lived in during my days in SLP, and saw that it and some of the businesses in the area had changed a little. At night the four of us went to a bar where we were given a ton of free little snacks. Anyway, it was nice to see an old friend and an old city again.
Our plan for the next day was to take a bus to Matehuala, and from there take another 2-hour bus ride to Real de Catorce, a “re-awakening ghost town” a little difficult to reach.
We would, however, never make it to Real. Once within the bus station, I suddenly felt rather weak and ill—nauseous. Deciding that I was too sick to make it to the ghost town, we ended up just taking a taxi to a hotel in town and staying in Matehuala for the night. There was a good man who worked the desk in the hotel who offered to drive me to the hospital. Once there we waited in a waiting room with crying babies and their mothers. The doctor gave me a brief consultation telling me (without examining me) that I probably still had amoebas and was supposed to repeat treatment after 7 days, and that this other drug would be more effective, and that the pills the doctor in Guanajuato put me on (apparently a blood thinner) were making me dizzy and weak.
After stopping in what must have been 7 different pharmacies looking for these blasted pills, we finally found one that had Amoebríz in stock, and I began my new course of treatment, taking it easy for the rest of the day and night. I knew we only had two days left in Mexico, but man, was I ready to get home.
The next day we continued with our updated plan and landed in Saltillo. We were greeted in the main plaza by our couchsurfer Diego. We sat around and chatted, waiting for his friend to come pick us up in his car. When we arrived at Diego’s house we were met with his very drunk roommate who told us (in English), “Hello. I am drunk.” continually offered us alcohol, and then passed out a few hours later. We went back into town with Diego, grabbing some late lunch/early dinner, walking to the park, stopping in the cultural center to see a photography exhibit, and chatting about good things like music and movies. Diego proved to have quite good taste and we exchanged some tunes later in the evening.
Later, drunk roommate woke up and drove us all to some bar where I just drank orange juice due to amoebas. It was a hip, calm place with a nice décor though and there was some good conversation.
The next city would be the final city on Grand Mexican Tour 2007: Matamoros. Here we didn’t really do anything except (1) enjoy the ridiculously cheap hotel which was fine except for mosquitoes, (2) pay our tourist fee ahead of time, (3) eat dinner and buy water.
Oh one thing of note: we decided to hop on the intra-city bus from the bus station to the center of town in the city, cause you know, we’re really cheap. So we get on this bus with our huge bags and sit in the back where everyone in the entire vehicle is unabashedly staring straight at us.—I guess cause while they’re used to seeing gringos in their border town, they’re not used to seeing them in their public transportation? I don’t know, but I was just sick of being stared at and ready to cross that border the next day to the land of the free and home of the brave or something like that.
Crossing the border was an experience in itself, and one that I’m glad I had the opportunity to witness first-hand. The next morning we hopped on another intra-city bus that would drop us off at the border crossing bridge. We easily got our exit stamp from Mexico, and proceeded down the pedestrian bridge over the Rio Grande with the rest of the people who probably cross the bridge everyday to go to work. Ryan and I were definitely the only Americans waiting in the pedestrian line. We got through without much of a hassle (they just scanned our bags in the X-ray machine). I saw a drinking fountain and remembered that oh yeah! Those exist!
And with that we were in Texas. Brownsville, Texas. Everyone around us was still speaking in Spanish, though, and in fact the first person to greet us was a Jehovah’s witness speaking to us in Spanish to which I just replied, “No gracias.” without even realizing it was strange. Apparently when Ryan went to change currency, all of the transactions were in Spanish as well.
We found the Greyhound station and immediately noted the decline in quality from buses and bus stations in Mexico. The seats are first come first serve, there is hardly any leg room, and they don’t show movies! Give me ADO any day. I’m not sure I would ride Greyhound again. The bus ride from Brownsville to Austin was interesting though. Nearly all the passengers on the bus were still speaking in Spanish. There were two border checkpoints where officials would board the bus and first in Spanish and then in English ask us to have our IDs and papers ready for them to check. We passed a station that had a sign detailing how many illegal aliens and drugs had been caught at that checkpoint.
After maybe 8 hours we arrived in Austin, which is to be my new home starting in about a week! Yes, yes. We stayed with a friend of Ryan’s and her boyfriend’s super nice apartment. They were friendly and fed us (BBQ! So much meat and so unlike anything we’d eaten in months, and a homemade meal.), showed us around town, and drove us to possible future housing arrangements.
All in all, I think I’m really going to enjoy the city. It seems like my kind of place.
From Austin we took a bus to Lafayette, Louisiana where Ryan’s mother and grandmother picked us up and drove us to their family home in Bourg, LA on the bayou where I saw a real live huge alligator! I thought it was a statue at first, but no, it was real!
I relaxed in Louisiana for a few days, soaking in the comfort. Though, I didn’t get to eat a shrimp po-boy, I did get a mufaletta, fried shrimp, and red beans and rice. Not bad. On Tuesday May 22nd I took a free Southwest flight courtesy of Ryan’s dad’s incentive passes to Midway Airport in sweet home Chicago.
This time I was met by my family, which was a nice change of pace. It felt good to be back home, and eating real pizza again. Milkshake has not been snobby to me this time. I have turned 23. This has brought unexpected new levels of enlightenment! Totally. I also now have a juicer and should soon find out if I still have amoebas.
In exactly one week I will be re-locating with Ryan to Austin, Texas—“live music capitol of the world!” I’m ready to live somewhere for longer than four months. (I will have lived in four different places during the past year: Bloomington, New Orleans, Quetzaltenango, and now Austin. It’s time to relax.)
And that basically brings us all up to date. Yes, being home is kind of strange, but then not strange at all. I’m extremely grateful for the time I spent in Guatemala and do not regret a day. (Although in the future, I’m not sure I would travel through Mexico in buses at the same insane pace.) (And maybe I’d eat less street food…maybe.) My time there now feels like a dream and an entire world away, which is in some ways quite accurate. My perspective and ideas have been permanently altered by what I saw and experienced there and I don’t want to forget.
Thanks to everyone who spent time reading my writings and leaving comments. They were a nice reminder of familiarity at an unfamiliar time.
