The next few posts will be from Mexico, I typed them up on the phone when I had the time. Enjoy!
Day 1,
Yesterday was a laid-back but still very eventful day. First came the traveling. The night before I was the best man in mark and Jennifer's wedding. I had a great time and by the end of the night had drank a fair share of vino. After I was driven home to matt and mikes house, I almost immediately crashed on the sofa and completely forgetting that I had a 6:15 international flight the next morning! At 5:20 I woke up and strained my eye across the room only to have one of the worst feelings ever, I starred at the clock for another moment and to make sure I wasn't dreaming took a good look at my hands. I can actually look at my hands and know of I'm dreaming or not based on the little details that my mind leaves out, like the hair on the back of my hand or the wart on my finger. But this was no dream unfortunately. The clock infect said 5:20, a mere 55 minutes till my flight. I don't even remember putting on my clothes and dashing out the door. I think I actually woke up somewhere on the san antonio highway and I was certain there was no chance I was going to make the flight taking off in less that 45 minutes. I was only about 10 minutes away from the airport and knew there was no way for me to get to the air port, park my car, get my boarding pass, go through security, get to the gate, and finally step on board the aircraft. I figured my that itinerary would have to be changed and I would have to tell my friend Stephanie, who had arranged for me to be picked up when I arrived in Guadalajara. I was getting ready to also dish out a bunch of extra dough as well. I was imagining how much more I could have done with that money in Mexico!
Well, I parked my car in long term parking at the San Antonio airport, quickly grabbing my gear and dashing across the street into the terminal. My airline, American airlines was in the new terminal B. As I was waiting in line for the front desk i was thinking about how I was going to plead with her to let me somehow get on the flight. I finally just decided to tell her that I messed up and ask her what I needed to do to get on the next flight. I walked up to counter, with my puppy eyes and said, "I messed up, I'm supposed to be on the 6:15 for Guadalajara." The airline representative said nothing but started typing away at her keyboard. She motioned her eyebrows in a curious manner and looked up and me and said, "You have 4 minutes to check in, and you're here now, so you've made it!" my jaw dropped and I might have jumped into the air. I was pretty eccentric. After I got my boarding pass and was waiting for a moment in the short security line I thought to myself, if i had tried to do that on purpose, I would have been like James Bond, but I didn't so I was more like one of the three stooges who just lucked out.
A few short minutes later i was on my way to Guadalajara feeling like i was just in the opening scene of a James bond film. The journey was fairly uneventful and I was really surprised it only took 2.5 hours to get from callas to Guadalajara.
Once I arrived, I quickly passed through immigration (la migra) and customs and went outside to the free world. It felt good to see my old, crusty, barely passible passport get another stamp on its light blue pages. It was almost like the hard thump of the officials stamp snapped me out of a work induced trance and I was about to embark on a journey.
I was expecting Stephanie's good friend, Netto to pick me up, and since my flight came about an hour late, I would expect him to be a bit irritable. When I walked out the doors to the lobby, I found netto holding a hand written sign saying my name. I walked up to him and said here I am! We quickly made our way back to the car and drove into the city. First we went to stephs grandmas house to pick up the key since steph was coming back with her parents and were in Guadalajara. Netto and I got the keys from grandma and walked across the street to her parents house dropped off my luggage and then left I'm search for some cold cervesa. We went to a bar called komar y tomar, which simply means, food and drink. It was a neat open air bar that served liters of michiladas and clamatos, which are beers with added spices and seasonings and of course Latin americas favorite, salt. We finished our first one over some good conversation and then i decided to try some 100% authintic Guadalajaran Mexican food. What did I order you ask? Was it a super burrito like in petaluma's mi pueblo? Was it a taco like the one from san antonios riverwalk? No i ordered some nachos and they were amazing! We finished a liter michalada and a liter clamato. Meanwhile, i found out that steph had arranged for her freind Antonella, to pick me up that night and take me out for salsa! What more could I ask for! After leaving the bar, I was ready for a nap. Netto, dropped me off and I passed out. Antonella eventually got a hold of me and at 1015 picked me up and we went to la diabla where we danced the night away. We called it quits a little early since Antonella had to work the next day. I got home a crashed, it was quite a long day!
