Here we go, Mexico!

On Monday night, after hours of figuring out what the best way of getting to Mexico would be, we found a craigslist ride-share ad that seemed almost perfect. Dave, the author of the post, was driving down to Costa Rica from San Antonio, and after a few phone conversations we decided to meet in Victoria, TX, where he would pick us up and then drive us to Tampico, Mexico for half the cost of gas.

The next day we woke up quite early to catch the airport shuttle from College Station to Houston, where Sabi and Ziad picked us up and joined us for a delicious lunch at Escalante's. Before getting on the bus to Victoria we went to the post office to ship some packages to Poland, and because it took us a little longer than we expected, we almost missed our bus. Fortunately, thanks to Ziad's crazy fast driving and our convincing begging to the security guards, we made it in the very last minute. We arrived at a gas station near Victoria at 3:30 pm, and while we waited for Dave we studied our guidebooks and finished a pint of Ben and Jerry's "Half Baked" ice-cream.

Although Dave seemed quite strange over the phone, we did not expect what we were about to experience with him and Ross, another guy that was sharing a ride with us. Our future travel companions arrived two hours later in a green SUV with Julio Iglesias blasting from the newly installed speakers.

Dave was a forty something orthodox Christian, who looked like the main character from Crocodile Dundee with his necklace and a cowboy hat. Ross, intriguing at first, seemed a little bit off and hard to figure out.

It turned out he never went to school, not even first grade, but got a scholarship to college for his tennis achievements. Unfortunately he quit after a year and never wants to go back to a classroom again. It looked like he really missed out on the ABC of growing up and did not know how to behave in certain situations. He was on his way to Guatemala, but had no idea what he was going to do there and how long his trip would last. Dave, on the other hand, had a set plan to move to Costa Rica, where supposedly he owned two properties. He sold everything that didn't fit into his car and packed everything else including a number of his mediocre paintings of Jesus, Yoda and terrible replicas of masterpieces. He was so proud of his work that all we could do was smile and nod when he asked us if we liked them. Dave was very eccentric and it felt like he had a mind of a five year old, but at the same time he was very sweet and harmless.

The four of us ended up sharing a room at a motel in Brownsville before crossing the border the next day. After breakfast we were all ready to go to Mexico... all except for Dave, who decided he didn't have enough money to go to Costa Rica anymore. He was kind enough to offer us a ride to Tampico, but since we knew he was coming back to the US, plus his irresponsible and childish behavior started to get on our nerves, we decided to cross the border by foot with Ross.

We then found the next bus that was leaving from Matamoros to a larger Mexican city, and that way, after saying goodbye to Ross, we were off to Monterrey.

We arrived around 6 pm and decided to take an overnight bus (to save money and time) to Zacatecas. We still had about six hours to kill, so we went to explore the city. On the bus ride to Paseo Santa Lucia, one of the most important tourist attractions, a young guy started a conversation with us and offered to show us around. His name was Paco and he was a twenty year old ortodontics student. We walked around Monterrey for a few hours and then went for dinner and some raspberry margaritas.

Paco was funny, adorable, and a great companion for our first night in Mexico. He even offered us to spend the night at his apartment and leave the next day, but after discussing the pros and cons of staying or going, we chose to hop on the midnight bus to the colonial city of Zacatecas.

We got there one hour ahead of schedule, just a few minutes past 5:30 am. We played cards until it got light outside and then went to visit the historic center of the city. We kicked of the day with yummy burritos and freshly squeezed "jugo de naranja" at a local bar. Zacatecas is a lovely town with elaborately decorated buildings, cobblestoned streets, wrought-iron lanterns and historic monuments - Cathedral, Church of Santo Domingo, Del Cubo aqueduct, Church of San Agustin, just to name a few.

We also took a tour of an old silver and gold mine, Mina El Eden, and went to Cerro de la Bufa by "Teleférico", an aerial tramway, to enjoy the panorama of the city.

The 15kg backpacks really started to hurt our weak backs, and we had to take a 30 minute rest before going down the hill to the city.

After the 45 minute walk we grabbed a few gorditas on the street and were ready to get on a bus to Guadalajara to see Julika, my best friend from Brillantmont.