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Hola! (ok totally cheesy, apologies!) So this is the first post on our blog, exciting! A quick sum up of where we are, I've just arrived in Mexico and Doug has been in Cape Town for just over two weeks visiting his family. He was suppose to be updating but so far nada, zilch, so these first few posts will be about my travels in Mexico with my good friend Gemma. Gem is currently living in Tlaxcala, 2 hours south east of Mexico City, with her Mexican husband, Luis, her two beautiful daughters Cleo and Aida plus their ever increasing menagerie, which includes two parrots, a puppy, four quails and several Mexican jumping beans!
After an emotional and stressed day on the Wednesday my bag was packed for the final time and ready to go. Apart from, I think rather small amount of clothes (for me) several bottles of deet and suncream, I also had a few requests from Gem including, knickers and a warm jumper for Cleo, scalpel blades and a mascara for her and mint toothpaste of Aida! I also had lots of crimbo pressies from her sister Eve plus pressies from me. I wasn't that surprised when my bag came to a whopping 23.3kilos!
The flight to Mexico via Paris was long but not particularly stressful. The change over was a mere 40mins from the same terminal and then the mexico flight was only about 10% full so I had a double seat to myself. Once i had ascertained that I indeed had double the space I settled in, inflating my neck rest and, the most wonderful invention ever, the inflatable (foot) stool! Pure genius. This means that those of us that can only afford to fly economy can still have luxury! It means you can put your feet up or actually lie on your side without contorting into weird and painful positions or try to ingeniously hook your toes into the magazine rack which inevitably irritates the person in front who then reclines their seat for the entire duration including the meal which I always find half on my lap if that happens. Anyway, none of those problems with my new inflatable stool. Granted you get a few odd looks when blowing it up and, granted, I did have to use electrical tape (its so useful, guaranteed this will not be the last you hear of it coming to the rescue) to seal it up, but that's all outweighed by the comfort you experience!
I eventually arrived in Mexico City, as the plane flew in you could see this vast city sprawling into the distance disappearing into a blur of pollution and cloud. After disembarking and a bit of tense lurking at the baggage carousel my bag appeared intact, my passport was stamped and I emerged into Mexico. Half an hour and a few text messages later Gem appeared and we formulated a plan... that was to head to Zacatecas, a 9 hour bus ride north of MC. We hired a registered but never the less manic taxi, survived the nerve racking journey to the northern bus station where we got an overnight bus to Zacatecas. Now I thought travelling with my foot stool was luxury but the bus seats actually had one built in! The seats were like the ones grannies have, when you lean back the foot stool comes out. It went so far back it was practically a bed. Gem and I both inserted our ear plugs, donned our eye mask and bedded down. 9 hours later we arrived as the sun was rising over the city, illuminating the ornate cathedral in the centre.
On initial sight Zacatecas looks not dissimilar to somewhere in the arab world with a sea of flat roofed houses in muted greys and terracotta spreading out over a dusty valley. However when you look closer you see the vivid coloured building so iconic of mexico. We taxied it to our hostel and after a very long explanation to Gem in Spanish about the exact location of every cafes in Zacatecas we got to our room.
- comments
Hina Hashmi What wonderful writing! I can't believe you are in Mexico - will you be back in D.F. soon? We should catch up - and have a spare room!
Gavin Brown A whole paragraph on your inflatable pouffe? Brown!