Dec 4, 2008

The adventure began interestingly enough, but then again what adventure isn't interesting? I landed in SJD(San Jose del Cabo international airport) at 4:45 local time. Customs was a wonderful pain in the ass to go through and I saw a couple of less desirable looking fellows on the same flight as me get the red light and get taken aside and searched. I prayed I wouldn't have to go through the same ridiculous bullshit as well. It was already stressful enough having the drug sniffing dogs smell my guitar case back in Vancouver when I was making my way to the plane. Especially considering the night before had been spent smoking a lot of purple kush with my cousin Tyler, who drove me to the airport this morning. Fortunately I made it through everything with relative ease even the metal detectors which I was sure would sound off due to the metal pins in my ankles from surgery earlier this year. I had a doctors note with me in case of this but fortunately I never ended up needing it. The flight itself was long and irritating with a stop over in Calgary for an hour where I ate a chicken terriaki sub from Subway and talked to a couple waiting for the same flight in the terminal. The man whose name escapes me asked me if I intended to smoke weed down in Mexico and told me a story of the last time he went. Some hippie looking fellow with long hair staying at his hotel and taking the same flight back apparently spent a week and a half of his vacation in jail for buying weed from an undercover. I don't know why I felt the need to lie to this man but I told him that I had no intention of taking any drugs down there. On the flight there was a crying baby that I remember wanting to smother at one point so I could get a little bit of sleep in my 5 hour journey. I didn't end up getting much though and the snack food they served was less than desirable. The orange juice was good though and I tried to take a few pictures or interesting things I saw from my window seat. None of which were very interesting. I slept while we passed over the grand canyon which made me a little upset since I had never seen it from any height and thought it might look interesting from the sky.

When I got out of the terminal finally I was greeted with a big hug by Jaime.She was with her brother Devon, and a Mexicano named Luis. Luis was medium height dark skinned with dread locks and a beard. He kind of looked like that guy from Kung-fu the TV series but more Mexican. He was friendly and spoke a little English and offered to carry my guitar for me since my other bag was already quite heavy. We took a bus into the city and Luis played my guitar while we rode into town. I watched everything I could out the bus windows while we rode in. Mexico was just as I had imagined it. Decrepit looking buildings, stray dogs everywhere, taco stands and restaurants on every 2nd corner. It was great and I couldn't wait to get right into all of it. I was surprised however to see that most of the vehicles on the road were very modern and mostly gas guzzling trucks and SUVs. There was graffiti on everything but almost all of it was poorly scribbled tags that were unreadable. We went to Luis' house which was near the old center of the city. His house, if you could call it that was a cement building with 2 other apartments in it, one above and one beside his. Inside was a small room completely cement with tile floors and a less than appealing looking bathroom at the back. The bathroom had a toilet a sink and a shower only separated from the rest by a curtain. Next to the toilet was a garbage can full of dirty toilet paper. I already knew about this rule, that in Mexico you don't flush your paper due to the poor plumbing and sewer systems all over the country. In the main room there were tools and other junk scattered across the floor and a foam mattress in one of the corners. There was an electric element on top of a milk crate for cooking and several photos and drawings on the ground by the door. Our bags were in another corner in what appeared to be some type of closet.

I really wanted a beer so Jaime and I left for a couple while Luis began rolling a large joint. We went to one of the Pacifico corner stores called super mini's. Each one had a different name I learned and I was also told that there were two main types in Mexico. The Pacifico ones which sold Pacifico, Modelo, and Corona were apparently the most popular. The Tecate stores which weren't as popular sold Tecate, Sol, and Dos Equis. Both stores also sold all your regular convenience store items like junk food, water, pop, TP, etc... Jaime introduced me to the Ballena right away which was a 1.2L bottle of Pacifico which cost only $1.70can or $17pesos. We bought two and took them back to Luis' house. The joint had just started when we got there and I popped one of the bottles with my lighter and discovered that they made a fantastic loud noise when I did so. Devon popped the other one and told me how much he loved that sound. We passed around the beers and the joint. In Mexico the people always pass to the right which confused me for a little while at first but I eventually got used to it. I announced that I was hungry after we finished the beers and so we all went out for food. Luis took us to this fantastic little restaurant with open walls to the street and a man with a guitar playing Spanish love songs inside. I tried to order in Spanish and inadvertently was drawn into a conversation that was way over my head for what little I knew. The waiter was polite however and spoke English as well and everything was sorted out. On the table there were about 10 bowls and 1 ramekin all containing different salsas and other condiments. My favorite of all were these pickled potatoes and onions that were very spicy but quite delicious. Luis invited us to stay the night at his house over dinner and we all agreed since it was already night by this time. I paid for everybodys dinner as a good gesture for them coming to get me from the airport and we made our way back to Luis' home again. Jaime and I decided more beer was in order Luis gave us some money to get him one and started to roll another joint. When we got out the door Jaime began kissing me which was quite nice since we hadn't seen each other in almost a month. I had missed her and it was great to be able to make out a little again. We took the empty bottles back to the super mini and I was happy to learn that when you return an empty you receive 30% off your next beer. Also if you collect 6 of the bottle caps and return them with an empty you get a free beer. What a country.

At Luis' we drank some more and smoked the other joint and told stories of the last month or so we had been apart. The weed was not to bad to my surprise since I had been told by many friends that Mexican weed is crap. Devon went to bed shortly after on the floor of the apartment. I didn't want to sleep just yet I had only been in Mexico for a couple of hours and I wanted to take in as much as I could before I went to bed. Jaime, Luis and I decided to go to the town square and drink there. We poured the remaining beer into our water bottles and set out. It was only a few blocks from the house I was told. When we arrived I noticed an enormous Christmas display set up right in the middle of it all. It seems Christmas(Navidad) is very popular in Mexico and this display they had built would put most of the Santa's village in any mall back home to shame. The main tree which was fake stood about 40' high and was decorated beautifully and very evenly. Their was a bunch of statues depicting the birth of Christ as well and lights hanging all over the place. We sat on a bench and Drank our beers and after a while a few Mexicans that Jaime and Luis seemed to know came by. I introduced myself and a couple of them spoke a little English but it didn't take long for a lively conversation in Spanish to start up and I did my best to keep up. I only spoke a little Spanish at this point but I could understand a fair amount of what was going on. After the beers were gone we all went out separate ways. Jaime and I stopped to make out behind a building on the way back to Luis' place. When we arrived she set out a blanket on the floor and we slept in our sleeping bags on top of it.

Sleeping that first night was a challenge Between the loud trucks with megaphones driving by shouting in Spanish, the roosters across the street that didn't seem to know what time it was, the stray dogs fighting in the street, and the uncomfortable cement floor I had to sleep on I didn't get much sleep that night. On top of it Devon snores and when he shuffled around at one point in the night he knocked over my guitar.