Stage 2: Mexico

I arrived at Guatemala City airport emotionally drained but getting more and more excited for the next adventure. In the airport, I received my first inkling that Guatemala had left me with a parting gift (hint: it was hiding in my intestines), but fortunately there was plenty of time to use the bathroom before my flight (though I got a weird look from the guy who used it after me, which filled me with a strange pride). The flight was short and uneventful, but the landing was really bumpy and actually kind of terrifying. I comforted myself by closing my eyes and meditating on the fact that, if the plane was going to crash it was going to crash and there was nothing I could do about it, so I might as well think of happy things since they might be my last thoughts. It didn't crash and I just ended up feeling silly.

I made my way through Mexico City's really-very-impressive-and-nice airport to the bus terminal where I purchased my ticket to Queretaro, Mexico. I had wanted to grab a bite to eat at that point but there wasn't time so I just grabbed some chip-type-snacks for the ride. The bus was very comfortable. Interestingly, because of past hijacking type crimes, they videotaped each passenger for a moment before frisking us and allowing us on the bus. I gave the video a double thumbs up. The cameraman was surprisingly unamused. Perhaps a single would have sufficed. I enjoyed the ride and found Mexico City and the surrounding country to be an interesting sight. A lot of poverty, but of a different sort than in Guatemala -- more urban, more developed in places. I arrived in Queretaro after three hours or so and was met by my college friend Dan and his parents, whose house I'd be staying at for the next couple of days.

It was exciting to see Dan. He'd moved to San Francisco after college and we'd only seen each other a couple of times in the past few years. Furthermore, he's just returned from a (pre-law school) six month around-the-world adventure and I was eager to hear about it. His parents are super-nice too. We drove to their home in San Miguel de Allende, stopping off at a mexican Walmart and a mexican Costco on the way.

We stopped off in town for dinner (which was delicious; I hadn't realized how much I missed protein while in Guatemala) and then headed back to their house. Dan's parents had moved to Mexico a few years ago from New York and had built themselves a dream house on the outskirts of San Miguel. The place is really incredible. I had my own room and bathroom with handmade tiles and all that. It was pretty fantastic. Just the place to have uncontrollable Guatemalan diarrhea. That makes my little bug sound a lot worse than it actually was...though it took longer to vanquish than my first Guatemalan Bowel Party, it actually didn't incapacitate me quite as much and I was able to enjoy myself between defectations. In any case, the house was really beautiful and situated among these haunting, bare mountains spotted with cacti. Pretty incredible.








We drove into San Miguel to look around that day and the next. It's a really gorgeous town with a HUGE artist population. The place is filled with little art galleries and street performers, etc. The architecture is also quite beautiful and the town does a good job of keeping its treasures well-restored, in part because of the huge amount of money brought in by the many gringos who have relocated there.










Having eaten a bunch of truly delicious homemade meals in the Ades house (thank you!!!!!) and gotten nice and comfortable (I did laundry, backed up my photographs, wrote some blog posts, and read a great deal of my new book), we prepared for our long drive to New York. Before I get into that, let me introduce you to the awesome Ades dogs. They've got three Akitas (Ringo, Tania, and Lorenzo) who are enormous and bear-like and terrifying until they put their paws on your shoulders and lick your face. Very excellent animals. I'd never played with Akitas before. They were the imperial guard dogs in Japan, I guess, and are bred for strength, etc., but these ones are sweethearts (Dan included in final picture for perspective)...






You may have noticed a little lady in some of these doggie pictures of a coffee/white complexion. Her name is Zoe and she's Dan's American Staffordshire Terrier...pitbull. At first, when I learned of her breed some years ago, I was a little sketched out, but when you meet Zoe, all that goes away. She rocks. When we left, I got the impression that everyone was most sad to say goodbye to Zoe, who'd been living at the house for six months while Dan was away traveling.




After two and a half days, we were ready to head out. The car was packed, rations had been obtained, Zoe had been bathed, my intestines were mostly bacteria-free, our ipods had been refreshed with some new tunes, the car's brakes had been checked out, and we were mentally prepared. With a hug and big thanks to Dan's parents, we got Zoe into her little backseat throne (man was she freaked out) and set off...