El Vago en Suramerica

I might as well start from the beginning.

The bus trip was interesting. After only about an hour of sleep, my family and I headed to the airport, and I got on my bus. My first stop was New York, which was nice. I had about an hour to walk around the neighborhood near Times Square, and in my time there I was struck by an overwhelming barrage of languages and masses of people. Then I was back on the bus, heading south. In Baltimore, my uncle came to the bus stop to see me, and we talked about my trip. Meanwhile, the bus left and I had to wait for the next one, which was luckily only about 15 minutes. There were lots of stops, and I remember very little of each one. We would drive for about 2 or 3 hours, then stop for food or to pick up and drop off passengers. I met an Indian kid who just graduated from College as we left richmond, then two older women from Tennessee, then two girls from Veracruz and their families. I ended up traveling with the girls from Veracruz all the way from Hope, Arkansas, to the border at Laredo Texas.

Upon arrival at the bus station in Laredo, it became clear that there was a bit of a problem. My backpack was not on the bus with us, which meant I would have to wait until it showed up. I waited about an hour and a half for the next bus, but it wasn´t there either. I wandered around Laredo for a while, and finally, on the 5:30 bus, I found my bag. I got on the bus, and headed to the other side of the border….

I arrived at 6:30, a full 6 hours after I was scheduled to arrive. As I left the bus station, I realized that I only had American currency, and all banks were closed. I then began a frantic search for an ATM, which only ended in failure. It was getting dark, and the streets became a bit threatening. Two jeeps drove by, one after the other, each full of security personnel armed with machine guns. Finally, in the bus terminal, a driver changed $50 for me. I went out, got an expensive hotel room ($15), and chilled out for the night.

Yesterday, I wandered around Nuevo Laredo a bit in the morning. It wasn´t such a bad town by day, and I was quite relieved to finally be in mexico. Though it is a Mexican city, it has huge shopping malls and big businesses that look like they belong in Texas. Laredo, Texas, meanwhile, is in some ways a more classic mexican city, built around a pretty plaza and complete with colonial architecture.

I bought a bus ticket to Monterrey, a big city about 3 hours south of the border. The trip there was very pleasant, and the Mexican companies seemed infinitely more competent than Greyhound. We left on time, the seats were comfortable, we stopped for meals, we watched videos, etc. In any case, we passed through some intense desert scenery, sometimes with big mountains, sometimes completely bare and desolate.

I walked around monterrey for about an hour, but I decided to head even further south, to the town of Zacatecas. It isn´t such a long way between the cities, so I expected a four hour ride. The bus was empty, and we immediately left civilization for the vast desert. The road was rough and small, and we drove slowly. It took a full 7 hours to reach Zacatecas, and I arrived at about 9:30. There, however, it is safe to walk around at night. I found a nice hostel, and met some people there. A mexican guy who works there invited me to drink some Tequila in a nearby cantina (only 1 shot…), and I obviously accepted. Seven shots later, as the ranchera music blared at 1 in the morning, we decided it was probably time to turn in.

Today, I saw some very nice ruins near Zacatecas, and I spent hours wandering the town. I also climbed a huge hill overlooking everything, and went to a museum there. I met some kids who were breakdancing in the street, and I saw a wonderful parade from a church in a barrio in the outskirts of town. I also met an old woman, and we went to a gorgeous church together. We then walked to a nearby park, where we watched an impressive display of fountains of water timed in conjunction with classical mexican music.

I am having an incredible time, and it is hard to believe that I left on Saturday. Already, I feel like a real traveler, like a crazy freewheeling cowboy. I think Ill head to Guadalajara, Mexico´s second largest city, on friday. Maybe tomorrow. That will be my next stop, then Guanajuato, another small colonial city where Ill take some spanish classes.

One final thing… tomorrow I might be able to take a tour with the hostel of the Corona distillery, here in Zacatecas, which is the biggest beer distillery in the WORLD. After the tour, we´ll get unlimited mexican beer.

I hope things are all going well back home. I miss all of you, and I would really love to hear from everyone.

Tags: Mexico

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2005 at 8:36 pm and is filed under Mexico. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.