Oh Mexico...I had to make my border run last week which was...interesting...
I don't enjoy, ok fine, I loathe, completely and utterly detest, riding the buses here. The buses are the same affairs I had to ride in elementary school. And I didn't like them then either. But here it's riding them over multiple potholes and other miscellaneous things jutting up from the road. It's like discomfort exponentialized. I was also a little terrified of going to the border by myself since I hadn't ever done it before. I don't mind traveling alone as long as I know what I'm doing, but I had no clue what I was doing. Meh, life is about challenging yourself, learning, yada yada yada.
Off I go at 7am from my house to take my first bus from Xela to San Marcos. The bus left at 7:30am, on time. It was the first bus I can remember that has ever taken off on time during my entire stay here in Guatemala. I was surprised. The bus driver even asked me where I was going as I was disembarking from my Xela bus. He pointed to the next bus for me which I thought was really nice since a lot of people don't go out of their way to be nice here. The next bus I caught in San Marcos to Malacatan took off early. Amazement again. Was I really in Guatemala or had I entered some weird alternate universe? Getting from Malacatan to the border was a little more difficult and included a lot of asking around, but not super difficult.
Once across in Mexico, I found the nearest restaurant and ordered lunch. The proprietress looked at me like I had seven heads or had suddenly fallen into lunacy when I told her I didn't eat meat, but I was used to this from China. It's always quite comical though. After going over the fact that I don't eat meat she asked if I wanted chicken. Hahahaha. This was like in China when I would say I didn't eat meat and then the person would go through all the different types of meat, "Do you eat beef?" No. "Do you eat pork?" Still meat so no. "Do you eat chicken?" Yep still meat so no. It was always kind of funny.
Coming back across I was nervous. So far things had gone so well which I was really happy with but I don't really trust happiness or when things go so swimmingly so I was definitely nervous. Back on the Guatemalan side, the border official told me it would cost a certain amount to come back through. I told him I didn't have that much money and asked if I could give him half that amount. He said he would explain it to me in English. I told him in Spanish he could explain to me in Spanish. He did and then jokingly asked if I didn't trust his English and thought it might be bad. I laughed and said of course not but since I was a Spanish student I needed all the practice I could get. He accepted my lower offer and off I went, back to my three bus rides.
Making it back to Xela, I was exhausted but happy to have made it through without any real issues. It's always kind of scary being in a country you haven't grown up in. You don't know it's idiosyncrasies or what to expect. It can make life exciting definitely but it can also make it...well, more than you bargain for. But my border run was just enough of a bargain for me.
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