Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Mexico!

I made it to Mexico! I crossed the border in Nogales, AZ on the 7th and have been having quite an adventure. I spent my first night in Hermosillo, the capital of the great state of Sonora. The town itself wasn´t too exciting, but there were a few friendly people on the street who spotted me (apparently I stand out from the crowd down here. Who would have guessed?) and started talking to me in English.

Next I went to Mazatlàn, which is an interesting mix of a real Mexican town and a gringo-infested beach resort. Luckily, the resorts are a few miles from the real part of town, so I wasn´t too bothered, although it was funny to walk around the resorts and see nervous Americans on the streets at night.

If you´ve never been down here, the bus system in Mexico is fantastic. I can walk into the bus station and be on my way within an hour to just about anywhere I want to go. It´s far more efficient and heavily used than the Greyhound system in the states. Contrary to popular belief, the buses are not disgusting old school buses filled with livestock. They are new, clean nice buses with plush seating and usually TVs showing American movies dubbed in Spanish. Also, they´re cheap: You usually end up paying about 50 pesos for each hour you´re in transport, which comes out to around $4. The buses are rarely more than half full, so I have plenty of room to stretch out and nap.

I´m currently in Guadalajara (pop. 4.1 million), the second largest city in the country. It is delightful, although I haven´t really done anything here yet so I´ll have to write about it later.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to know where you are. What's next?

rtaylorb said...

i am glad your enjoying it. i really wish i could have gone down with you. my trip might be getting pushed back depending on if i get a fire job in CA.

Adam said...

Dude, the buses here are modified pickup trucks! Starting next year, they're decomissioning a lot of them because they just figured out that a truck axle rated to only carry a few hundred pounds can't handle a busload of people.