Mayhem in Mexico City

well so I'm back in truro and for the first time i
will attempt to write an email not from abroad, not as
easy as you think. Well after the first few days in
mexico city we headed south to Chiapas, a southern
mexican state that borders guatemala. The bus ride was
fantastic, the bus chairs reclined ten times more than
the greyhounds I'm used to. There was only one strange
feature, unlike the greyhound buses and most buses
i've ever been on this bus went direct, no cigarette
breaks no meal stops nothing 12 hours no getting up.
Levi and I in the morning realized that this also
meant that they never changed drivers!?!? how is this
possible?? the same driver for 12 hours that doesn't
seem safe. then on exiting the bus all our questions
were answered, A baggage compartment opened up and a
alternate driver stuck himself out, stretched and
yawned. Apparently they have converted one of the
baggage compartments into a small bedroom for another
driver to catch a few winks complete with a
matress(this wasn't a one time thing, every bus we saw
this was the case, one of them even had a few hawaiian
shirts and a guitar in it, perhaps for those long
nights out before getting on the bus)
Neither levi or I have ever had what you'd call a
typical vacation, heading to the beach catching some
rays and drinking cervezas on the beach, so we decided
it was time. we headed to a really small coastal town
called puerto arista which lonely planet describes as
"a small town of 2000 people with a few chiapans
visiting on the weekends... but on semana santa
chaipans come by the thousands" yep it was semana
santa (easter week) and they were set up for spring
break mexican style (most of the visitors were
mexicans, in fact we only saw one other gringo) So it
was wonderful, 4 days of lounging, spring breaking
(yep), and watching chickens drink from coconuts. It
was just about then that things started to get
interesting, first thing that happened, we were
swimming and I stepped on something alive, it moved, I
moved but not fast enough, I got stung barbed or
bitten, so I immediatly went into 45 minutes of
paranoid breathing trying to come up with all the
things I could of stepped on that would send me to the
hospital. But that past and it was just a little
blood. the next day we took an incredible ride on the
bus again into the mountains, at one point it took us
4 hours to go 100 km because the road was so twisty
(indeed for most of the ride the bus hugged the
breakdown lane so hard and the dropoff was so steep
you had the sensation of flying) San Cristobal was our
next destination, a small colonial (i'm pretty sure
that isn't the right word, perhaps it is even PC) town
way way in the mountains. We arrived late and woozy.
The next day was a big day, we met up with one of our
fellow pilgrims from the camino de santiago, she was
travelling chaipas as well. Early in the day I
realized it was gonna be hot and that I should take
off my long sleeved shirt and put on a t-shirt, the
real mistake I made was that this t-shirt had a wide
neck, much wider than my farmers tan I had been
working on. thinking nothing of it we continued to
church hunt seeing some amazing pastel churches. That
night I didn't even feel hot, however at about 4 am I
suddenly woke up felt my shoulder and realized things
had officially gone "rogue" my shoulder had started to
bubble and was alarmingly hot, I ran into the shower
and took a real cold shower, which needless to say
dazed alarmed and having just woke up nearly sent me
into shock. so the next day instead of going on the
tour of the canyon with levi and sabrina (the other
pilgrim) I was in the hotel room with a wet towel
around my neck (I did get my revenge though, as it
turns out levi went on the canyon trip, sat out on the
boat sleeves rolled up, just thinking how great it was
not to have sensitive skin like ellery and how being
one 64th Native American really was helping right
about now, when he got home he said he felt a bit
nausaus, blaming it on some old pizza, then about 2
hours later he vomited and realized he had acquired
heat stroke, so we sat in opposite beds tossing aloe
between us for the rest of the night). lesson learned
(when you say 15 dollars for mexican sunscreen is too
much, you're gonna pay) luckily i didn't miss too
much, (we had seen every church and sight in san
Cristobal the first day) we headed back to mexico city
the next day (which was real close to a disaster as
well because idiots that we are, we never book ahead,
and it turns out that everyone in mexico is travelling
on the last sunday of semana santa because they have
work the next day...duh, luckily by going a mere 4
hours out of the way we found a town that still had
tickets back to mexico) So we arrived, exhausted, and
burnt, headed into the mexico city metro, just waiting
to get back to levi's house (for one thing I wanted to
resoak my towel) we were in a real packed car, and I
was just exhausted and for that one moment let my
guard down (yep you know where this is going) my
shoulder hurt and I couldn't really reach my pocket,
but I was just thinking to myself "boy I should have
my hand on my wallet like I always do on the subway
(even in the states)" reached for it and of course it
was gone, just like that. lesson learned (if you're
gonna be such an idiot as to not by sunscreen and get
burned at least don't let your sunburn get in the way
of your alertness) Well luckily my passport and my
american money were still in my bag, just lost my
liscense and atm card.
My last two days in mexico city were very tame, the
first spent in levi's room finally watching my
blisters heal, and then the second day we went to
Tiuhatiuacan or something like that, some of the
biggest pyramids in mexico, and catching a few Diego
Rivera murals. Then I finally got that well earned
plane ride to washington DC where I got a USA passport
stamp and was informed that my luggage would be coming
on a later flight, therefore when I got to boston I
would just file a lost luggage claim and the next day
they would deliver it to my house, "whatever fine at
this point I don't even care" was my attitude as I got
onto the plane to boston, then something occured to me
that really made me chuckle to myself (I looked quite
the fool on the plane) yep my return bus ticket was in
my bag, oh and of course I don't have any money or
credit cards (I was pickpocketed remember you fool).
lesson learned (when you don't buy sunscreen, you're
gonna get burned, when you let your guard down you're
gonna get robbed, and when you pack your bag leave
everything you're gonna need to get home on you, cause
their gonna lose your luggage, and then you're just
fucked!!
ell
p.s. united was kind enough to write me a voucher
home, my luggage arrived before I woke up the next
day, my sunburn is healing and you can always make
more money.
next stop: south africa, lets see how bad that can get