"On the Trail"

The Journals from the Road

December 15th and 16th: 

In the morning, for a breakfast treat, Teresa shared a type of heated Mexican fruit punch with me called "Poncha" I think. It was great but when I headed out on the town I found myself still a bit hungry so I stopped at a little stand and had two chili rellenos with beans, one Tad-designed vegi burrito, and a papaya, banana, and cantaloupe milkshake. All that for only 25 pesos or about $2.50.

Teresa had a class to teach during the day. She works as an English teacher for the United Nations in Mexico. However, in the afternoon we got to go visit the famous Mexico City Museum of Anthropology. To say the museum was amazing would be an understatement. Seeing so many artifacts from all over Mexico placed together in one location is like feasting at a buffet with thousands of choices. We spent all afternoon there and hardly saw half of the rooms. One could easily spend days admiring and learning about these ancient and contemporary Native American cultures.

For all the homeschoolers and classroom students out there reading this, I would be happy to revisit the museum again and do some particular research for you. Take some time to find a book about the museum and then let me know via email to xteam@peacebike.org what your specific question is.

That night I stayed with one of Teresa’s former students, Edgar, now an accountant working in the city. He and his family live close to the airport and would take me there to catch my flight back to Portland in the morning. I got my first taste of cactus that night for dinner and I really liked it. It was cooked until it was very tender and ,yes, all of the thorns were removed before I bit into it. What a treat! I did my best talking politics with Edgar, his cousin Ludwin, and his father, but I was soon taken to the limit of my Spanish skills and had to resort to my emergency active listening tactics to piece together the phrases I understood.

Edgar, a big music fan, convinced Ludwin and I to go out to a disco-bar that night. I told him that I was fine with the idea but I could sleep on the plane if we were out late and he had to work the next day. He decided it was worth it and we headed out, picked up a few of his friends, and found ourselves listening to a live, Mexican rock band. They were very talented and knew songs in English as well. I requested "Pride" from U2 and was very impressed with their rendition.

Well, long story made short, we got back very late, about 1:45. We had to get up the next morning at about 5:30 because we were going to meet Teresa at the airport at 6:00am. She had my bike and all of my luggage so it was rather essential we meet her there.

Edgar convinced me that he would wake up at 5:30 and rouse me from my slumber so that we could get to the airport on time. Just as a worst case back-up measure, knowing that my watch alarm rarely woke me up, I set my alarm for 5:45am. I climbed into bed, tired, but anticipating my return home. And with visions of mom and dad and brothers and sister running through my head I slunk off into slumber.

Beep... beep…beep…

"How could it be morning already? Wait, that is my watch? Oh, no!"