Into Mexico

So, yes the adventure continues….. and yes, i am breaking my own rule and flying - time and safety playing a major role in my decision. I left San Fran having learnt how to dismantle and box my bike. Quite interesting: I love learning how things work. At one point there were four of us trying to get the peddles off; before we adopted an alternative tack and realized that it was easier to remove the ‘shank’ piece or whatever it’s called. Brute force not always winning over ingenuity .

All successfully packaged, I was overjoyed to be able to share a glass of wine with Doris who arrived that afternoon. It was great to see her again and catch up with her cycling stories. It really made me want to get on the road again. I guess you can’t hurry the healing process but I am now popping glucosamine sulphate which I had intended as a preventative anyway along with my prescription ibuprofen: come on knee!!

My VIP feeling continued as I had a private taxi bus all to myself. The driver, it turned out (unless he was bull plopping) was from the Philippines and had worked in the ‘secret security’ services for many years. There are so many ex-military guys out here and all of them seem to have a strange inability to commit or trust or attach to other people according to them. Bizarre! But, I guess that’s what years of being away from home and only dependant on oneself does to you. (Scary!! – I’m worried that will be my fate :-)() Somehow the conversation led to if I was single and why I didn’t have children, then I found myself telling him that I really didn’t just want children, unless there was a guy who was prepared to be there for them and me too; which cut his conversation short – a bit of a weird chat up tack I think. Still got to the airport safely which was a relief.

Negotiating the barriers with boxed bike was rather interesting. I would’ve imagined they’d have let me go through the cue to business class (a straight line), but no; I has to wind my way thought the normal barrier with everyone else. I guess to do this cycle touring in style would take a lot more cash (!). I think I would have awarded myself an NVQ in trolley negotiation skills, but then I am fairly generous. There were at least 6 bends in the snake though and some were excessively tight.

Check in was ‘just’ $65 dollars more for bike.

Bags checked in fine, I was once again pulled out at customs. Apparently this is the computers decision, but I am beginning to get a little paranoid about it. This time I was made to wait on one side for about 10 mins. I was relieved when I was joined by a lady and her young daughter. It at least normalised it a little; it is pretty anxiety provoking being singled out and made to stand behind a security barrier. As if travelling alone wasn’t enough!! She made me laugh saying we were special. That was what the SSSS on our tickets stood for. So, I went again through the rigmarole of having to unpack my bags. This time, everything was ‘litmus’ tested for explosives. I guess I can at least be reassured by the fact that they are doing their job even if I feel that I am personally being singled out at every stage. Perhaps this is a side effect of not travelling like a ‘normal’ tourist.

Eventually, the flight was fine but it seemed to take hours to get through passport control. It was about 5 in the morning when we arrived at Mexico City and I was surprised to be questioned about my marital status and at being quizzed on why I was single. “Here we go….” I thought… “6 months of this I could do without”. Finally making it through to Mexico City airport terminal with time to spare and display screens just showing ‘B’ I went on little wander. I became a little concerned after half an hour when there was no change on the screen as I was surprised by the length of time we’d had at Mexico city, but since no gate was shown, I figured we waited until it was displayed – how else where we supposed to know where to go? (I was with 2 American women who were confused also). What I now know is that none of us has set our watches to the right time zone so we were 1 hour later than we thought. Everyone else from flight seemed to have gone elsewhere!?

When the gate came up and we walked there (it took about 20 mins). Upon arrival however, the gate was empty and I thought we had about 40 mins before flight so went for a coffee and some fresh air. Then they wouldn’t let me back through; so I went again to check in where I was told that I’d missed the flight!! I was stunned! I was the given a bit of a lecture by the manager about being the ‘only one’ (which I knew wasn’t true) but they wouldn’t let me back into the gate to see if the others were still there. I guess I was lucky in that they booked me onto flight the next day for free; but I was concerned about my bags. So, I went to speak to baggage dept. The lady there phoned to check where my bags were and it was confirmed they had gone to Oaxaca. That was good at least.

So, I found myself in Mexico city. Having almost burst into tears when they told me I’d missed the flight, it took me a while to gather myself sufficiently to appreciate that on the positive side this meant I had a free day in Mexico City without the worry of my bags. The choices then were to stay at the Hilton in the airport or venture into town. So, I got directions and decided to make the most of the situation and head to the ‘centre historico’.

Four metros and one church later, I arrived downtown at cathedral square. Wow! I went in and said a few prayers for all at home and safe arrival of new baby. It is traditionally the time for children here Fri (31st). Cathedral Square is amazing, although number of riot police forming a ring around rather intimidating. To my pleasure I discover the hostel is right on the square with views of the cathedral. They have a really nice café and rooftop restaurant and free wifi and the building is very characterful in its design. It felt exactly where I needed to be. I was asked to wait until check in time (it was pretty early in the morning) so settled for breakfast and emails.

After a nap I went exploring. What a beautiful city! Such a shame it has such a bad reputation. I had been warned several times not to go there alone, and yet ‘fate’ found me there. I managed to make it into my 3rd church of the day before discovering hot chocolate heaven. Boy do they know how to do chocolate here! It’s that cinnamon slight spiced taste: amazing with sweet bread, for that perfect afternoon tea pick me up. Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum!!!

The evening celebrations ,for the start of ‘The day of the dead’, was spectacular with stalls and traditional crafts and foods and performances. The climax was a traditional Mayan ball game played by guys in traditional dress (actually very little). I did get some photos and video if I ever figure how to upload them quickly enough. I seem to prefer spilling out my thoughts to watching a dotted line on the screen telling me my computer is thinking about something. Sorry to all those who want photos! I was then invited out for a drink by a fellow tourist and enjoyed a refreshing tequila cocktail and listened to live samba whilst watching the colourful world of Mexico City pass by. The street lighting made everything so theatrical it was like being in a living theatre. Fabulous!

http://picasaweb.google.com/anneb007/ToMexicoAndMexicoCity?authkey=gh421Ba1PeQ#5264188799287610626

Rather hung over I got in a taxi to the airport the next morning assuming that as I’d ordered it at the hostel to take me to the airport that the driver would know that. It was only when I got out and followed his directions that I realized he’d dropped me at the bus station. (Errr…. Help!) I guess early morning; half asleep travelling isn’t a good thing. My brain had barely connected enough to maneuver myself from bed to shower and then out; nevermind conversing in a language I have no real familiarity with at 4am. That woke me up a little! By now so phased by travelling in Mexico City that I didn’t have the resources to worry about it I managed to explain in Spanish (somehow) that I needed to get a taxi to the airport as I had been brought to the bus station by mistake. Thankfully, the taxi system there was straight forward and I was able to pre-pay for a taxi to the airport (all more money though – I seem to be making some pretty expensive mistakes!; although in all fairness short of becoming fluent overnight I don’t know I could’ve avoided this one).

Still, I made it to the airport and made it to area “B” the waiting area and bought breakfast (the nutrients very much required by my now semi-athletic state that has not seem alcohol for a good while until last night) and headed to the correct gate and made the fight fine. The two Americans were there too. During the flight, the views of the mountains and folded landscape from the plane window dispelled all other thoughts from my mind. I now have to find out what or how they were formed. It looked to me like they had at one time been under water as the now forested landscape seemed to be formed like gentle waves. The landscape to my eyes had neither the drama of wind erosion nor the clarity of water, but seemed gently moulded. Ahhh… another thing to learn more about!

When we arrived at Oaxaca, the three of us met to collect our bags. This was remarkably straight forward despite having to stand on the red foot prints and body scanned. The Mexicana staff were particularly helpful and we were shown to an office to keep our hand luggage safe and then taken to customs to collect our bags which we were completely relieved to find safe and sound. However, surprise surprise… on pressing the button for random bag checks as we were passing out through customs, I got a red light so had to have my bags searched AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!! Finally here, the 3 of us shared a cab into town.