2004-01-06 - 4:33 p.m.
Well, it wasn't a complete disaster. It wasn't even half a disaster. I would say it was maybe 1/32 of a ... not even a disaster. It was 1/32 problematic. If I were feeling ungenerous I might say that the problems added up to maybe one day's worth. One day out of nine. Not to shabby considering that in the not too distant past Mom and I couldn't go more than 36 hours without screaming at each other.
They flew into Mexico City. This was not a good thing in my opinion. I wanted them to fly into Leon, wanted to skip Mexico City altogether. But I didn't want to tell them why. So when I found out that's where they were coming, I just didn't tell them why. I just didn't. I wanted to skip that part.
'That part' being the enormous crime problem. The armed robberies. The fact that every third Mexican guy I knew had been robbed at gunpoint in Mexico City. And every 10th tourist had been pickpocketed. That at least one American woman had been killed over a necklace, that a writer from Texas had been shot in the belly by a rogue cabbie. That a woman at my hostel had been stripped of all her belongings in a cab on the way into town from the airport.
I can see Pop's face as he is reading this ... his eyes are about to pop out of his head, his chin dropped, his mouth turned down, it's like a closed mouth gape, if you can imagine.
But since they were in fact landing in Mexico City, it seemed best to make a go of it. After all, there are alot of very cool things to see and do in the third biggest city in the world. It was probably shitty of me not to tell them. The closest I came to it was telling my mom not to wear her wedding ring and both of them to leave in the hotel room anything that wasn't essential. They didn't ask why, just made faces, huffed a little, but went along. They didn't ask why and I didn't offer much of an explanation.
And nothing bad happened, really. The first half of the trip, anyways. We had a pretty good time.
Saw all the big sites, the pyramids, the awesome modern art museum, the world-class anthropology museum. They got a taste of the Mexican version of a 'line' at the Castle Chapultepec ... a writhing mass of bodies. I tried to convince Mom to play along ('Just push in.') but she preferred being irate. Pop just stayed out of it.
After a couple of days, we headed for San Miguel de Allende, also known in Mexico as Gringolandia. We mostly just chilled, spent the afternoon of the 31st at a hotsprings, rang in the New Year at a shbang that included buffet, toast, live music, and a spurt of fireworks at midnight. Then I deserted them for my own fun downtown.
Shopped a bit, ate at my favorite restaurants, took a day trip to Guanajuato. I abandoned them for a couple of hours every afternoon and at night to do my own thing, which amounted to not much but was very necessary.
Before I had time to recuperate, it was time to head back to Mexico City. Their last day was mostly perfect, beautiful, clear (almost unheard of in one of the most polluted cities in the world). We floated down a canal in a particolored boat in Xochilmilco. Took a leisurely train ride to the neighborhood where Frida Kahlo grew up for lunch and to see her house. This was when things got interesting.
I'd been there before and knew they'd like it. It's a great place, wealthy but funky, a big park with a hippie-ish arts festival every weekend and lots of sidewalk cafes. The best ice cream shops in the city. But a bit of a walk from the subway station.
So I said 'Do you want to take a bus or a cab.' And as I said this, a cab pulled up right in front of us and let a woman and child out. I was reticent, trepidatious (if that's a word) about the cab, but when I saw the kid come out safe and sound I thought, what the hell ... We got in and I told the guy where we wanted to go.
Like I said, I'd been to the neighborhood before and he was going a way I didn't recognize but, you know, maybe he knew something I didn't, so I didn't say anything. And then Pop said 'That would have been a long walk.' That's when I realized I had no idea where we were.
Here's something else I didn't tell my parents. The MO of the rogue cabbies of Mexico City is to take you far far out of the city where the accomplice is waiting to strip you of your belongings and leave you out in the middle of nowhere. If you are really unlucky, they take you 'shopping.' Which means that they drive you around to ATMs until you've withdrawn the maximum and then they keep you until after midnight and take you for another go around before they let you free.
So honestly I was a little scared as I said, 'Where are you going?' The cabbie said something like 'To Avenida Centenario.' So I said,'There's a much better way to go. Just take Avenida Mexico straight down and it intersects.' He started explaining to me how HE was going to get us there an even better way but I didn't really listen. He kept talking and talking talking talking and driving and driving. I kept saying, this is too far, this is too long, this is way more expensive than it should be ... SHOW ME WHERE WE ARE ON MY MAP. And finally, 'I want you to stop.' So he stopped.
We looked at the map together, I showed him how I wanted him to go, he showed me how he was going to go, and I really kinda wish we had gotten out right then because I had no idea whether he would actually go that way or not. But we kept going. Things started to look familiar so I relaxed a little. I was comparing street names with what was on the map and everything checked out for a few minutes. Until somehow we ended up on a street that wasn't on the map.
That's when he started the whole talking talking talking thing, explaining what he was going to do but without being able to show it on the map. He said 'If I turn LEFT here, we'll end up on suchnsuch street which intersects with Centenario and I'm so sorry I was going to another street and I don't know centro very well but this will be perfect now we're almost there ...' talking talking talking and I couldn't make it out. I couldn't see it on the map and he kept talking talking talking so I finally just said 'We want out.'
And sure enough, when we asked a passerby, he was planning on taking us in the exact opposite direction.
God only knows if he was actually going to rob us. Maybe he just wanted to jack up the fare as high as possible by driving us in circles for half an hour. But I was really glad to get out and shake it off.
The rest of the day was lovely, Frida's house is very cool, wish it were mine, we got home safe by BUS and TRAIN, and the next morning they packed off to the airport on their own before I even woke up.
(I'm going to be home in a WEEK!)
