To Oaxaca

Saturday morning we left for Oaxaca, Mexico. But before we could leave, I had to organize laundry, get coffee with Korrin, go to Sarita’s to get jelly for my bagel, and be at school by 10am. Oscar, our trusted bus driver, picked us up at school at 1030am. We loaded our bags like a wall through the aisle of seats – as is our usual custom. I shared a seat with Korrin. The bus ride lasted for about 3 hours west through Guatemala to the frontera (border) with Mexico. We discussed the boys’ strengths and weaknesses to help them strategize for their upcoming medical and dental school interviews. Kate surprised us with a delicious snack lunch from Carlos (Kate’s boyfriend). We ate bread stuffed with cheese and veggies, kind of like a pizza bread. We are all coming to appreciate Kate’s connection to the bakery and how well he cooks). After lunch, I listened to music and took a nap. About 5 minutes before the border, we were all hurried awake with “Eat your fruit! You have five minutes!” We were told we would not be able to bring fruit across the border so we were scrambling to eat bananas, apples, and oranges from Guatemala – no one ended up checking our bags so it was all for nothing but laughs.

As our bus pulled up to the border, we were immediately surrounded by men with huge wads of cash. Everyone wanted to exchange our quetzals for pesos. However, most of us knew we wanted to wait for a bank in Mexico. We waited sweating in the heat for about an hour as Kate took all our passports to the window. Luckily, I planned well and wore a dress. Everyone was dying. Jefe laid on the floor of the office to try to get cold tile (just like a dog) – very funny. We walked with our bags across the border, reboarded to the bus, and we were off to Tapachula, Chiapas (city, state). My first impression of Mexico was that it looked just like Guatemala with different street signs. As we pulled into Tapachula, the city began to look more like East LA. We had a three hour “lay over” here until our big bus would arrive. We also had to change our clocks. Mexico uses central time whereas Guatemala uses mountain time. Some people walked around the city but I chose to stay in the bus terminal and read. I ate an ice cream bar and watched our bags. We all ate dinner at a restaurant across the street from the bus station. I had delicious steak tacos with onions and cilantro (much like you would expect from a Mexican street vendor). We then took all our crap back across the street to board the bus. We used a company called ADO, much like a fancy Greyhound bus. We checked our bags, had assigned seats, and watched a movie. Just as we boarded the bus, the rain began. I sat next to Rachel and we shared some snacks and chatted a bit. The first movie was “Away We Go,” which I really enjoyed in English but was not nearly as funny in Spanish. The second movie was “Bride Wars,” but I fell asleep as it was starting. Two Dramamine, a sleeping bag, and a fully reclining seat later I awoke in Oaxaca. The bus stopped a few times in the night to board more people, a few guys were escorted off but I’m not sure what the issue was, and the bathroom was a bit stuffy. In Oaxaca, we were met by Andrea, our host, and took taxis to the hostel around 8am. We stayed at Hostel Don Antonio near the center of town and ate all of our breakfasts there.