M: We arrived to Mexico just on time! Once we arrived Tio Leo, (Marisol's uncle) was waiting for us. Because we had too many luggages we decided to go straight to the bus terminal and catch a bus to Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca. The bus did not leave until 11:00pm so we hung out about 5 hours at the terminal and met a few people. We met a guy who was very nice, Ken was very scared because he had been advised to watch out for strangers in Mexico City. The guy spoke 6 different languages so it was nice talking to him, go figure not all strangers are scary. He was a very cool guy who goes to the terminal every sunday to meet foreigners and practice his languages. I saw a few familiar faces on the bus that was heading to the festival.
The bus company we took was called OCC, they were very comfortable and NOT A CHICKEN BUS! The ride was bumpy and everything was dark so we tried to sleep most of the way. The ride was about 8 hours long. By the time we got to Tlaxiaco I had over saturated Ken with information. One of the things I had explained to him was, if ever any vendor asked him for something, his immediate response should be "no, thank you" … well, for those of you that do not know, public bathrooms come with a small cost of regularly 3 pesos. Well, being that Ken had been explained about the "no thank you" when they tried charging him to use the restroom, he responded, "no thank you" and went to the bathroom… preceding on his merry way!
K: Ok so I need to explain what she means by that. You know all the movies that you see a mexican town that is at the cross of two dirt roads and the taxi's are either an audi or really old bugs, of course all of these are covered with about 3 years of mud. Then there is always those garage doors that are shops. Ya that movie you all know it was shot there. Add in about 50 mexicans moving about starting their day shouting about in spanish, mixtec or some other local dialect. Just to say it was a total new experience.
M: Once, we got into Tlaxiaco, we took a suburban which was full of 14 mexican's and one white boy (quite a funny sight!).
K: Ya the ride …. ok we have Mr. Mario Andradi at the wheel, speed bumps where ever they felt like it and a half patched road. So the hour went like this GAS……. BRAKE…….GAS… BRAKE wait power slide corner. But honestly the ride only mattered till we started to see the mountains… her dad started talking about his great grandfather in the Mexican Revolution. It was like taking a step back in time, little wooden shacks dotted the hill side with goats, bulls and sheep all around. You think of them as hills but really when you're at 7500 plus feet they are really mountains. This red dirt was all around and some areas it made it look like the land was bleeding, with all the steep gullies. So pretty much the last real white north american… people from america that I saw were in the bus station in Mexico city and there were only a few. We arrived to Chalcatongo, …. ya where the only white guy in, oh say 700 miles; is dragging a rolling luggage down cobble streets. Il'l paint you a picture- clack clack clack clack oh hey everyone on the street is now looking at the very white boy pulling bags down the street. Now I'm in an area where it's not just mexicans but serious mexican ladies carrying baskets on there back and are 4 feet something. Ok we ain't in Kansas no more kiddo. Once we got to one (of about 50) uncles houses we only had a chance to take a shower and begin the festivities.
I get to say something about how we left. We woke up late and she told me to go take a shower, this was back in Seattle. When i got out we realized we needed to get going and we scooted off to the airport, once we got to Chalcatongo she told me to go ahead and shower.. heh you know what happened next? Some of the family came in shouting to get going to the church before the festival started. So it took her about 30 hours from when we left to finally get a shower.
M: I was very happy about not taking a shower! ARGH!
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