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Some time ago I started dating a young woman named Yara, who lives in Mexico. We knew each other when we were both attending the same college in Virginia more than 10 years ago. We were not especially close at that time, and only recently reconnected via Facebook. However, our friendship took an exciting turn, and we began a relationship. Since we were dating online, we decided we wanted to spend time together in person, since that is such an important part of getting to know each other. Eventually it was decided that I would visit her first in her country, and later she would visit me here.

I had never been in interior Mexico before. In high school I had once been as close as Corpus Christi, Texas. And just this past December I was in Cozumel, Mexico, for a day, as part of a cruise with other members of my family. But Cozumel is almost like a U.S. city; the dominant language is English, and the atmosphere is more like Florida or the Cayman Islands than the Mexico I was about to experience.

I was a little nervous about the trip at first. There were the swine flu pandemic warnings, although my mom was more worried about those than I. More acutely, I was concerned about landing in Mexico City, which is a huge city with a relatively high crime rate. I was also concerned about being immersed in a country that speaks another language. (You can get only so far with, ¡Hola! Mi llamo Michael. ¡Soy de los Estados Unidos! My working conversational vocabulary at this point is only a few dozen words — sufficient, I’m sure, to convince a street thug that I’m an easy target.)

I took as much cash as I thought I would need, thinking I would convert it to pesos upon arrival. However, somehow during my visit, despite my best intentions, I never made it to an exchange. So I spent the whole six days relying on my good ol’ credit card.

It’s fun when the conversion rate in a country is 1:13, and you suddenly feel rich. On the other hand, there are sometimes panic moments, such as when you get handed a bill for $1050 — and then remember it’s pesos.

Friday

I had an early flight, so I set my alarm. As much as I hate waking up to an alarm, it was necessary. I spent far more time packing the previous night than I anticipated. I finally retired, — and woke to my alarm at 12:15 a.m., after about 2 hours of sleep. I groggily took a shower, finished packing, and was in the car driving at 1:00 a.m.

It’s a 2-hour drive to the St. Louis airport. A very looooooong two hours, in this case. Fortunately I’ve been there often enough that I know my way around. I found a great parking space, in row A-1 at Super Park. Yay. So far, I was off to a good start.

I tend to be very pessimistic about check-in times, because I’ve had so many bad experiences. In this case, I arrived a good three hours before my departure time, and everything went smoothly — and I ended up at the gate with two hours to spare. Two hours in the airport is kind of dull, especially when traveling alone. I decided to eat breakfast, which was a raspberry danish and juice I purchased at the airport, along with some applesauce I had brought with me.

There was still some time to kill, so I slept on some seats in a quiet, out of the way location near my gate. There was a wall separating the room I was in from the main concourse. No other people were in the room, but I wasn’t far from the gate. I felt privileged to find such a spot.

The flight departure time was 7:10 a.m., and we left on schedule. It was good to be in the air, and now I was starting to think more about what experiences lay ahead of me. The plane was small, 19 rows, with three seats per row; one seat was on the left side of the aisle, two on the other. I was in row 19 for three of my four connections, coming and going. Fortunately being in the very back is not so bad when there are only 19 rows. I had one stop-over in Houston (IAD), which was short. In the next leg of the flight, I looked down and saw the ocean, the Gulf of Mexico. Soon we were over land again. We passed over deserts and big hills. There were communities everywhere. Some places were green and lush, others rocky and dry. I enjoy watching scenery from the air, and was glad to have a window seat and a clear view. It was different than I had imagined, but that was not surprising.

The flight into Mexico City was amazing. Mexico City itself stretched on and on and on. I’d never seen such a vast city. It would have been even more impressive if not clouded over by smog; as it was, I could also see a certain amount at any one time, everything else has hidden in the brownish-gray cover. There seemed to be skyscrapers everywhere, and the buildings of the city filled the valley and ran up the sides of nearby mountains and hills. Every space was filled. I wish I had made a video of it.

I arrived on time in Mexico City, at the Benito Jaurez airport, which is the main airport. In the arrival area, I had to answer a short questionnaire about swine flu symptoms.

I like to travel light, so I had only one checked-in item, a rolling luggage almost small enough to be carry-on. However, about this I had my first bit of anxiety. It wasn’t on the carousel. I kept expecting it, but then the carousel stopped, and all the other passengers from my flight left. I was standing there by myself, looking a bit lost. But I eventually started exploring, and saw that it had been left with other unclaimed items in the middle of the room, between other carousels. Whew!

After exiting the baggage claim area, I looked for Yara — but she found me first. We had our first non-virtual kiss. She said it was a “medium kiss.” I gave her a wall calendar that I made for her, which contained photos of me for each of 12 months. She seemed very happy with it.

From the airport we took a taxi. Taxi driving in Mexico City was interesting. But it was not scary to me. The drivers are very aggressive, and seem to go all over the road. The lane lines are taken as mere suggestions. But they don’t drive very fast, by my reckoning, which would be difficult in such crowded conditions.

It was surprising to see so many American brands advertised on signs, storefronts, and billboards. Sometimes even the advertising was in English (but usually not). I saw so many U.S. brands that I lost count.

We drove straight to the hotel. The room was kind of plain. No air conditioning. The window, which opened to an interior sky well, would not lock shut. I was glad to see the room had a filtered water tap, though. I had never seen that before, and appreciated it.

We walked around the downtown area for a while, and saw the big golden angel statue that represents the city. We also visited some booths that were part of a United Nations fair. Each booth (or sometimes a set of booths) represented a country. I said hi to the people in the United States booth. Each booth had people dressed up in cultural attire, or ethnic food from their country, or trinkets from their country for sale, or any combination of these. The booths were located on forested walkways that went on in various directions for blocks.

Later we ate at a vegetarian restaurant called YUG. I had a green salad, apricot-carrot-raisin salad, potatoes (a bit spicy), stuffed pepper (hot), soup (very good), spaghetti, and some juice of a local fruit that I don’t remember the name of. It was a nice meal, but I could tell that Mexican food was not like what I was accustomed to.

Next Yara and I went to a modern art museum. It was somewhat interesting, but modern art often fails to impress me. In many instances it seems the artists are trying to make a statement, but no one is really sure what, exactly, that statement is. Others say modern art is supposed to engage your imagination and intellect, but unfortunately it often seems boring and perplexing instead. There were a few interesting pieces. Sometimes it was fun to try to figure out what an object meant or represented. Yara jokingly commented that a row of objects looked exactly like trash-cans (and that’s what they were).

Next we went to the anthropological museum. By contrast, this museum was extremely interesting. I think I could have spent all day there. There were two (or three?) floors, each of which was vast. The top floor was full of life-size or near-life-size dioramas of life at various time periods in each of the regions of Mexico, from pre-civilization to the colonial period and beyond. There was also a section of prehistoric (post-Flood) wildlife. And a very cool section on the Aztec civilization, with life-size (which is to say, huge!) reproductions of walls, columns, statues, etc., from their cities. In my mind it was as impressive as anything from the ancient Egyptian culture.

Our next stop was meeting her family: her mom, and her brothers Memo and Carlos. Her dad was still out of town. And her other three siblings lived further away. I also met the cat. Yara’s mother was taken with how much her cat liked me. The first time we met, the cat came and sat on my lap. We had some pictures taken with the family.

(Back at work, after my vacation, I was showing my boss these pictures, and she commented: “I take it you don’t like cats.” Well, actually I do like cats, very much. And despite what this picture may look like — apparently ignoring the cat — I get along very well with cats. Anyone who has seen me play with cats can attest to this.)

I was back at the hotel around 10:00-something. And tired. Despite no air conditioning, and I don’t know how many sirens wailing in the night, I slept pretty well.

Saturday

After breakfast, we went to the biggest Seventh-day Adventist church in Mexico City. All the seats were full, on the main floor and in the balcony, so we sat in chairs at the ends of rows. At first Yara was seated in front of me, and her mother in front of her. Obviously this did not work too well for Yara interpreting the service to me. Then someone moved, so Yara and I sat together. Later Yara’s dad came, which was my first time meeting him — a very nice gentleman.

Part of the service was about LE workers, some of whom had paid for their studies at the university (I think most of them attended Montemoralos?). We had a sermon about 666. The pastor said that a “6″ looks like a snake coiled and preparing to strike; also “six” and “serpent” start with S, even in Spanish. He talked about how the word “six” starts with S in a variety of languages. He also said something about an implanted chip, at which point a lot of people laughed and groaned. He was apparently very humorous in his presentation. Yara kept laughing. In the end, at about the last 10 minutes of his talk, he changed direction and said that 666 represented human imperfection or something along that line.

For lunch I had my first experience eating breaded prickly pear cactus (the green part, not the fruit), which was really good. The meal included other things as well, which I don’t especially recall, and was very good.

Later we went for another walk downtown. There really isn’t much else to do in downtown Mexico City on a Sabbath afternoon, I think, unless you have a group of friends meeting together or something like that.

I think it was on this night that Memo told us about a bad experience of friend of his had. She was taking a taxi alone, and apparently took an unlicensed taxi. They drove her around and around, taking all her money. After midnight, when she could withdraw more money (since she had already withdrawn her maximum the previous day), they took her to an ATM and forced her to withdraw more cash, and then drove her around some more. In all it cost her about $1000 (pesos, I think). She was not hurt. This had happened just that day or the day before. It was a sober reminder for us to be careful in the city.

Sunday

On Sunday morning I had breakfast with Yara and her parents at a restaurant called 100% Natural. This was a great restaurant, my favorite one of the whole trip, and very attractive. We talked about the way it was decorated. I had a giant goblet of mango smoothie, and then some burrito-type things. It was an excellent meal. I wish they had this chain in the United States. On the table there was a flip-card display with health and dietary tips. It was as if someone had taken the NEWSTART principles and made advice cards out of them. There was even something about trust in divine power (although in slightly different wording). I thought it was funny that one of the cards said it was best not to drink with meals, yet the restaurant still served all these different beverages. “The customer is always right.”

We all went together to the National Palace (Palacio Nacional in Spanish), and a giant Catholic church (which was having services that Sunday morning), and a national art museum. The National Palace was very interesting, with a number of detailed, intriguing historical murals, and rooms showing colonial (?) period lifestyle and government. There was a nice garden there too. The church was vast. Inside it was simply cavernous, with high vaulted ceilings. There was lots of gold and glittering stuff. The church had a huge pipe organ. The service ended while we were there, so we had to make a quick exit. The doors were unusual; you had to step over the bottom door frame, or else you would trip going in or out. I didn’t enjoy the art museum so much. Yara’s dad knew the artists very well, and had a lot to say about them. Some were interesting. But it was modern art, with a number of nude and some grotesque pieces — not my favored style.

We had planned to eat at the House of Tiles, but couldn’t find good things to eat on the menu, so we only had something to drink there.

After supper, Yara and I took a bus to her home city of Querétaro, a little less than a 3-hour drive from Mexico City. (The bus fare was quite cheap, maybe about US$15.)

In Querétaro, I stayed at Hotel Mirage. This was a very nice 5-star hotel, better than the 5-star ASI hotels I’ve stayed at. But I couldn’t figure out how to get the lights to come on. I had to use my flashlight, as I arrived well after sunset. (Always bring a flashlight!) There were switches on the walls, but they did nothing. Finally I found that I had to put my card in a slot on the wall — and further experimentation proved I had to leave it there — to keep the lights on. In all other respects it was a beautiful hotel with excellent service. There was free wifi, an undiscovered amenity at most expensive hotels in the U.S., so I was able to check my email and get on Facebook for the first time on this trip.

Monday

I started feeling a little sick this day. Had a fever, perhaps the result of dehydration. It was less hot in Mexico than in Illinois, but it was still very warm, and the climate was drier. I had anticipated hotter weather, and so I was a little short on comfortable things to wear.

I had breakfast at Yara’s, which was nice. I met her roommate’s dog, Wanda.

Because my mobile devices had only USB cables, I had not been able to recharge them in my hotel rooms, and so this was my first chance to recharge my cell phone and iPod Touch on this trip, which I did by plugging them into Yara’s laptop. The cell phone had already died, and the iPod was on its last leg. Later I also did some laundry there.

(When my boss saw this picture, she said: “I take it you don’t like dogs.” LOL. Actually I do like dogs. In fact, I get along with some dogs very well. I’m not a big fan of poodles and little yapping dogs, but I like most larger dogs, especially beautiful ones like Australian shepherds. Wanda and I had a good time, and she would play constantly if she could. If this picture looks a little strange, it’s because Wanda has this habit, when playing keep-away with a toy, of running between the person’s legs from behind, or grabbing their leg with her front paws to tackle them. I found that an effective way to counter these measures was to pick her up off the floor with one arm, and use the other hand to extract the toy from her mouth. Maybe this is cheating. But Wanda herself plays all-out, with lots of play growls and violent head-shaking when she’s trying to pull something away.)

Yara went to work, and I went back to my hotel. Later I visited a park, which was very beautiful, and quite large — perhaps as wide in each dimension as one or two large city blocks. Besides numerous paved trails and lots of free benches, there were also fountains, pools, and other structures. It was full of palms and other tropical plants, as well as other trees — including one that looked like beech, one of my favorite trees — and lots of flowers.

Later Yara and I went together to a mall, where we ate lunch at an Italian restaurant. We also looked at eyeglasses and furniture, which was more fun than it sounds. I was impressed at the quality and selection. The department store with the furniture had three vast floors which included clothing and other things, and everything was high quality and in contemporary styles. On the way out, I saw some mall guards walking by, and they were carrying automatic weapons. Not like your typical mall cops in the U.S.  Yara said they had really been cracking down on crime; the people did not want Querétaro to become like Mexico City.

Two of Yara’s friends took us to places around the city. We saw an old aqueduct. We looked at various plazas. A street historian explained all about the events related to Mexico’s independence. Later Yara’s boss, Nancy, joined us for supper. We had a very nice salad, and then a carrot cake in honor of my soon-coming birthday. Unfortunately, because I was not feeling too well, I could have only a small slice.

Tuesday

This day I was feeling better, but Yara said I still had a temperature. She brought some breakfast food (cereal, milk, an apple, a mango). Then she left for work. I finished the cereal and apple, but could not figure out how to eat the mango without a knife. I posted something to Facebook about it, and others responded with suggestions. But I also did some reading online, and learned a good technique. If you bite the tip off, you can peel it like a banana. This seems to work very well, and I think I prefer it to my old method of slicing and dicing.

After Yara returned from work, we had lunch at her place. Then she gave me a gift: a big mug from Starbucks that says Querétaro, and a bag of carob candies that was inside it.

We took a bus back to Querétaro, during which we mostly slept, even though it was only late afternoon. Yara took me to her parents’ place, and then immediately left for her home. I had supper there, and a nice talk with Memo. During the night my fever broke (a second time), and I had to change my sleeping clothes because they were all wet.

Wednesday

I got up early on Wednesday, around 6:00. We had to leave by 7:30 or so, to get me to the airport in time. I had a nice breakfast, and said goodbye to everyone.

By this time my fever seemed to have disappeared. However, I also realized I had acquired an intestinal bug of some kind, which hung with me for about a week. This is not the best thing to have while traveling, but it didn’t give me any problems — although I was careful to not eat much. (Back in the U.S., I got over it without the use of drugs or antibiotics.)

Carlos accompanied me to the airport in a taxi. Our taxi took us to the airport, but it was the wrong terminal, and the driver said he could not take us to the other one. Carlos couldn’t go past the entry point to get on the tram between terminals, so we traded cell phone numbers and said goodbye. Later he called to make sure I got to my gate.

I got on my flight without problems. I had a chance to take an earlier flight, leaving at 9:00, without any additional charge. But I declined, because I did not know if I could get through to the gate in time. As it turned out, there was plenty of time. But I was running a bit slow with my recent illness, so I was glad I waited. And it would have saved me only an hour or so.

At Houston, it was so nice to be back on U.S. soil. After getting through customs, everything was smooth sailing.

I arrived in St. Louis just before 5:00. In O’Fallon, I had lunch at the Panera Bread/St Louis Bread Factory place. The meal was so good, after meager airline snacks, but I could not eat it all. Then I did some grocery shopping. I got home around 8:00.

* * *

In summary, it was a great vacation. I enjoyed my time with Yara, and it was a pleasure meeting her family and friends. It was also an educational experience, in which I learned more about another country and culture.