TravelStream™ news feed for member roadsunknown on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/roadsunknown en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:18:44 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/roadsunknown/1/1223140620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/roadsunknown/1/1223140620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/roadsunknown/1/1223140620/tpod.html Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:18:44 -0400 Roads Unknown

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Mexico City, Central Mexico and Gulf Coast, Mexico

So here we sit atop a five story colonial style hostel in the oldest part of Mexico City. For three days now I have been pondering the church next door and wondering if I just drank too much last night or if it really is leaning to the right!!! I vote for the latter. So after twenty hours of bus rides and bartering and sleeping in bus stations and being completely, utterly, and hopelessly lost we arrived in the fifth largest city of the world. I have to say that it was not something I was too terribly excited about but after you spend an entire day sitting on a bus even the prospect of getting beaten, robbed, and killed in what might be the most dangerous place in Central America (this according to the taco guy down the street that swears South Chicago is far safer than Mexico City) doesn't seem so bad. Really I couldn't have been more wrong. Everybody I have met so far has been more than helpful (even with my HORRIBLE grasp of the Spanish language) the sights have been amazing and the travel partners have been more than entertaining.

OK so enough with talking up the city and lets get on to the more important things like what we have been doing... Yesterday was the day for tours for us. Starting off at eight in the morning (nobody in their right mind wakes up early enough to be at a tour by eight when you are traveling) we decided to go and visit some pyramids. Cool?? Yes! Worth eight hours??? Not necessarily. But we powered through it. At a elevation of 7400ft. Mexico city is not your average hiking. Needless to say Jason about fell over dead after climbing the 1000 steps to the top of Aztec culture. I think I need to run or something. Or just maybe not visit the tequila factory until AFTER I sacrifice my heart to the sun god. But it was cool to see for a while at least.

So when we actually returned to the hostel and I was nursing my sore legs, heart palpitations, and third degree sunburn the Brit (Dave) in our room came up with the best idea I had heard all day. MEXICAN WRESTLING!!!! I know you just cringed your nose a little bit but bear with me for a few seconds... Think Olympic gymnastics meets Nacho Libre (in fact I think I might have seen the midget from that movie wrestling). AWSOME!!!!! And the hostel's tour guide was completely out of control... How many times do you get to see your tour guide standing on the bar with a bottle of tequila pouring it directly into your mouth before the event even starts??? I mean come on. I should have known right then and there that there was no good ending to this night.... So the event lasted four hours and many beers but apparently this is just the beginning of the tour. Our entrance fee included an after party at one of the hostels associated with our place. I can't turn down an offer like that so of course we attended.

And so starts my personal battle with the god of tequila. Needless to say the shots of free tequila ran like a river from the heavens (really just a river from the guide standing on the bar). It wasn't all bad though... We did meet about a hundred different travelers from all over the world in just a few short hours. I can honestly say that I don't remember the names of any but I did meet them nonetheless. Interesting factoid: I don't think I have met a single American since arriving to Mexico City. I found that weird but I digress. So here I am the morning after Mexican wrestling, the proud owner of my very own tequila hangover (why I fight that battle over and over again still eludes me), a pink wrestling mask, and at least one extremely entertaining story. It is a good day!!!!!!
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Reynosa, Northern Mexico, Mexico

...we arrived in mexico city but let's go back a few days.

october 1st we crossed the mexican border at reynosa which involved my uncle dropping us off in the parking lot a few blocks from the international bridge. we walked straight across without even a glance from border patrol on either side, no searching of our bags by mexican military, just a 50 cent toll that keeps the collector employed. i had read in our trusty lonely planet guide we needed to pay more however, for a visa longer than 7 days so we stopped at immigracion on the other side to find out they are cannot take our first jackson. we saved the next two hours of aimlessly wondering by meeting juan just outside the office who offered, without our asking of course, to assist us.

8 dollars later, we had two 180 day visas stamped into our passports, two bus tickets to tampico, and a life history from juan who lived in chicago for 30 years before the government came to collect back taxes in the amount of $68 thousand and child support for $24. soon after his deportation he spent the next few years trying to cross the rio grande to reunite with his 12 grandkids, spending 6 months in jail the first time and year the second after attempting to fly into houston on stolen papers. juan is over that now and simply using his great english skills to help gringos find their way to the bus station. thanks juan.

throughout the course of 2 bus rides in 18 hours we met several others, all who'd given up on getting back to america and i wondered about the irony of us going south while so many attempt north. but ill leave that to be pondered more later.
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