It is so strange that with all the travel I've done over the years, that I've never gone to Mexico. Flying here takes no more time than it does to get to Chicago. But for some reason, I've always felt a bit intimidated. Partially it is the inability to speak Spanish. And there is always for me a little bit of intimidation factor when going to some place I've never been. There are always stories. I've heard people tell stories about places I go to frequently where I wonder where they come up with them and how can they be believed. But nonetheless the irrational, emotional mind is a powerful thing. So I had some mild anxieties.
We arrived into the Leon/Guanajuato airport from Houston yesterday. It is a small airport but they have recently done a complete remodeling of it so it is exceedingly clean and modern. It was a small plane coming in from Houston and the only one landing so there were no crowds. The immigration and customs people were very efficient and pleasant. Finding our shuttle that would take us to San Miguel was a breeze. It was almost a bit shocking to have certain expectations shattered.
It takes about an hour and twenty minutes to get from the airport. We went through a number of towns/cities on the way. The geography and climate here are not that different from New Mexico thought they get around 20 inches of rain compared to our 10 so it is not so dry. San Miguel is at 6500 feet. In February, there weather is like what ours will be in April. So the days are warm but it is still pretty chilly at night.
It was dark by the time we arrived. Our friends Barry and Melissa live off an alleyway and I was concerned about finding it in this strange, very different looking cityscape in the dark. However, the shuttle service Barry employs is extremely efficient. Our driver after we got off brought us right up to the door and even found the doorbell (not easy to see in the dark) and made sure we were in the house. I made sure to give him a good tip.
Barry and Melissa are serious home remodel addicts. I use to tease him all the time about the amount of work they were doing to their house in Albuquerque since it seemed the projects never stopped. I think Wife and I probably caught the disease from them. We had heard all kinds of stories over the years of there dealing with the Mexican construction culture and Barry forcing his Anglo will to make things happen. So it was wonderful to see the beautiful results. Unfortunately Melissa is having some breathing issues and the altitude is not the best for her plus they do a lot of travel so actually owning a place here doesn't seem to fit their plans. As a result they have really cool video that you can look for marketing it that will give you a good picture of it.
Dinner was French picnic with tequila samples. Barry had four different versions so by 11 PM we were really ready for bed.
6 comments:
For some reason, I was also intimidated about travelling in Mexico. I did go with friends and had a great time, but was too timid to explore further on my own.
Sounds like a relatively pain-free journey!
Lisa and I went to Cozumel (is that really considered Mexico?). However, despite the tiny island, we did manage to get off the beaten path a bit and well, we live in Manila now...talk about beaten, run down paths...
tim
That's a lot of tequila!!
Mexco is awesome! So glad you went and the trip looked like a ton of fun.
okay, I can maybe be persuaded, I must read the rest of the entries.
You seem to be basking in the favor of the travel gods on this trip!
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