I feel bad that I am just writing now. Writing in Mexico wasn’t an option. Well, I could have written everything long hand and retyped it. As much as that sounds like a good plan there is one flaw. No one can read my hand writing, not even me. It has gotten to the point that my hand writing is so bad that I can’t even duplicate it myself. At one point I was not able to cash a traveler’s check in Mexico because I could not match my own signature.
So now I am trying to recreate memories more than a week later. I know this is futile. There is no way that I am going to remember thing how they happened. Memory is much too malleable for that to happen. My hope is over the next few days is to share about the wonderful people and beautiful landscape that we encountered in our brief stay. As in all things, I know before I start, there is no way I am going to do Mexico (or it’s people) the justice it so richly deserves.
Today is nothing more than back ground information. The richness of our time will hopefully unfold over the next few days.
Mexico City
We all flew into Mexico City, is the largest city in the world. It has between 20 and 25 million people. Imagine more than 2 New York Cities spread out like LA. To fly in was just staggering. The city covers the equivalent of a 24 mile by 24 mile square. I would say that I had seen nothing like it, but that would be obvious because there is no other city like it. What was even more amazing than the city itself was driving in the city. It is like driving in LA, only it is much much bigger and drivers view traffic signals and traffic laws as nothing more than suggestions. More than once I saw drivers zip right through red lights, after only slowing down a little to insure they could beat the cross traffic. (Our own driver was not immune to trying such tactics.) During the day it would take more than three hours to drive north to south in the city.
Raúl
Our guide and driver was a man by the name of Raúl. He is in his 40′s and spoke wonderful English. When I say he speaks wonderful English, I mean he speaks English, in the way I wish I could speak Spanish. A few years ago, I would have called his English, poor at best. There were many times when his explanation only provided more confusion, not clarity, because of his language skills. But make no mistake, his English was way better than any of our Spanish, and our trip wouldn’t have gone nearly as smoothly if it wasn’t for the English he spoke. The more time I spent fighting to learn another language, the more impressed I get with those who are superior to me.
Raúl set the tone for the type and depth of hospitality we were going to receive. Over and over again he offered us everything he had, and did it with a smile and a laugh. As a job on the side he ahs been a clown for over twenty five years. You can’t do that not be a person briming with joy.
The six of us trickled in over the course of six hours. In that time Raúl made a few airport runs and began to acclimate us to the city. I could not image Mexico City with out him. (More will be written about him in the context of some of our adventures.)
Laveme
As we were walking to the car in the parking garage at the airport, we passes a Jeep with “Laveme” drawn in the dust of the back window. It means, “Wash me”. Something are the same no matter where you go.

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