was kinda nervous waiting for my bus. silly, in retrospect, but for my first bus ride i had no idea what to expect. i managed to get on the correct bus and that in itself is an accomplishment for me.
my seat mate was felipe. i started talking to him before we left because the driver made an announcement and he spoke so fast i only caught about 20% of it. felipe told me that we were going to be late because protesters shut down the highway. for years they've been asking for a bridge to cross on foot and no one listens to them, so they formed a line of bodies across the highway and wouldn't let any cars pass. i can respect that. it was quite a spectacle when we finally made our way across town and past them, it seems that no one in san miguel has ever actually seen a protest before.
the ride was pleasant, i spoke in my best spanglish and felipe and i talked about travelling and work and anything that i could find words for. he had great english so it wasn't too hard. he lives in san miguel and just recently took a trip to cuba, which i am very interested in. best mojitos ever, apparently. he'll be going back for work in a month or 2 and invited me to tag along. yippee!
so we finally get to mexico city and OMG this place is nuts. its huge. zillions of people everywhere. felipe helped me navigate the taxi system before we parted ways. i may not have found my way out the door of the bus station alone, its like grand central station on crack. my taxi driver was pretty crazy but good, he would start to turn down a street, see the traffic, throw it in reverse into oncoming traffic, try the next street, weave in and out, run lights, barely miss pedestrians. we made it without incident and it really wasn't even scary. i did learn that i shouldn't walk out into traffic and expect anyone to stop for me here.
i'm not super fond of my hotel but i think its probably the best i can expect here. there's just too much noise everywhere to have a quiet room anywhere. i went out looking for lunch, very careful to keep track of where the hotel is. the streets are packed with people and cars and i am definitely not in love with this city. its very intimidating to be here by myself. but i found a cafe with good cheap food (and beer) and sat and people watched for a while. then i walked a few blocks each way to check out the neighborhood and i'm pretty sure that i'm the only white person here.
i'm in the centro historico, 34 blocks of museums and historic buildings. but i wouldn't have guessed that during my limited wandering, i saw dozens of wedding dress stores on one street, another street of camera stores, an entire street of jesus stores, with some small cafes in between. i do have to admit that this place kinda terrifies me. maybe i'm just tired from the bus, or the outrageous difference from san miguel, or that i haven't been in a big city in years, but right now i'm perfectly content to sit in my room. maybe i'll watch some mexican tv.
tomorrow i'll find a taxi and visit the anthropology museum, i've heard that you should plan an entire day for that. sunday will be finding diego rivera's murals and freida's house, maybe check out a mexican mall. and monday the pyramids. and then i'm off to the beach. i can't wait for the beach, only 3 hours in the city and i'm ready to go!
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| adios tracy, enrique and kate |
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