Mexico

August 22nd, Day 16 - Now, I'm sure Oaxaca is a great place but we just didn't along well. From my 24 hour experience, it had the most tourists per capita, the highest number of cripples/amputees, and an unnecessary amount of clowns. In all, I wasn't feeling well and it was too carnival-like for me.

The 12 hour bus ride to Tapachula along the Guatemalan border was also quite dark. The initial 5 hours of the journey were on a very windy 2 lane road where the bus driver was passing people like he was in a Porsche. It didn't help that they played two fine movies, Bless the Child and Bringin Down the House which we had seen on our previous bus ride. Once the road straightened out, these torrential thunderstorms shook the bus making it a touch unpleasant.

Once at the border town of Tapachula, we caught a horrible minivan "communal" taxi where our eyes watered due to the odors and gas fumes. After a few minutes of questioning Kevin at the border regarding his taliban-like passport photo, we were in Guatemala!

August 19th, Day 13 - Mexico City has had it's fair share of difficulties. First, we stayed a night in the Historical District where we were awakened at 1 am with rabid mosquitoes eating us up. The lady at the front desk gave us one of those Mosquito coils that are supposed to be burned outdoors. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much.

We then moved to Zona Rosa which is similar to San Jose offices everywhere but definitely has more character. Our objective here was to obtain our tourist cards since we never picked them up in Tijuana. Simple enough... so we thought. We began the day (8:30am) walking to random ministries and didn't get to sit till 5pm. In all we probably traversed 10 miles of this city trying to achieve what we thought would be a simple task. A brief highlight follows:

Following the US embassy's incorrect directions, we finally figure out that we need to get to the Ministry of Immigration. This Ministry (run with the combined efficiency of the DMV and the New York Board of Education) directs us to the Public Ministry and tells us to say that we lost the tourist cards that we never received. It looked like we were going to be here for five more days while the paperwork was going through. Finally, we returned to Immigration the next day where they directed us to an English speaking lady who got us the cards within a few hours. Simple.

It doesn’t help that the food and pollution (plentiful here in Mexico City) have finally caught up to me. I’ve been a little bedridden lately.

August 16th, Day 10 - Guanajuato was again another surprisingly pleasant town. It too was embedded in the side of a hill with crazy streets, especially when trying to find things on a map. One of the amazing things beyond the epic cathedrals was that the highway ran in a tunnel completely underground. Very unique, but again, difficult when you're trying to figure out where you are. We did make it to Diego Rivera's childhood house in the middle of the night where Kevin had a little ankle accident while we running away from the distant barks of a dog. Well, I ran, he was confused and followed. On to Mexico City!

August 15th, Day 9 - Well, the initial was to catch a bus to the relaxing beaches of Mazatlan. Since the buses were full and were eager to move forward, we ended catching a bus to Zacatecas. Our guide book called made a reference to it as "sprawling deserts" but it was actually the most beautiful city we'd visited so far. The air was cool and pleasant (a rarity in Mexico). The entire city was a little hill with complex webs of tiny cobblestone streets. It reminded me a little of the Old City in Damascus with a Euro touch. That basically means it was cleaner and had a lot more Jesus around.

August 13th, Day 7 - Our night in Chihuahua turned out to be much more entertaining than we had planned. Following a healthy dinner (we are eating lettuce now though bottled water is still a must), we went to a random bar aptly named "bar". First, the bar had a little moat-like drain around it with running water where the gentleman near us kept spitting into. Somehow, we got into some conversation/physical gesturing with some extremely drunk yet entertaining locals. One was a newspaper man with 3 teeth named George and the other was a driver by the name of Martin. Once that bar closed, they took us to another named "San Juan" where the George was denied entry. From there, we met a large group of people around our age who we could actually communicate with. Once that bar closed, they took us to a sort of abandoned artist space where we spent all night discussing politics. Kevin and I were also introduced to a fine liquor that night by the name of sotol. It was similar to tequila but it tasted like it had some type of petrol base to it. Needless to say, we didn't drink much, they did!

August 12th, Day 6 - Our "9" hour train through the canyon actually took about 14. As we inched through the tracks at about a mile and hour, I thought of the many ways I could kill myself. There was no need for that though since the scenery became amazing once in the canyon. The canyon itself is about 4 times the size of the Grand Canyon only rich in pine trees and divided by rivers. We finally arrived in the pleasant hill-town of Creel where one night was enough given the tiny size. Following a 5 hour bus ride the next day, we were in the larger city of Chihuahua.

August 10th, Day 4 - From Tijuana, we took an epic/deadly 22 hour bus ride to Los Mochis. I have traveled quite a bit in the past, but this ride was one of the worst things I have ever been through. There is only so much Doritos and warm soda one can handle while cruising through the Mexican deserts. The feeling of devouring steak quesadillas upon arrival at 8 am was pretty memorable. Of course, we'd pay for it later.

Los Mochis itself was not very entertaining. It is more of an embarking point for the train through the Copper Canyon.

August 7th, Day 1 - After a few errors that resulted in accidentally driving over the Mexican border, taking a short driving tour of Tijuana, and waiting in traffic for 2 hours to get back over to the US, we finally walked to Mexico as intended. As most of you have probably been Tijuana before for a night of debauchery, you probably know that it's no cultural mecca. Following a night of touring bars and trying to avoid the "sin" tourism, we were ready to hit the road the next morning.