What I thought was my last night with Lauri in Flores, Guatemala turned out to only be the middle of our traveling adventures. For curiosity I checked flights out of Mexico City and found out that I could actually make money by canceling my flight out of Guatemala and buying a new one out of Mexico City! I shuffled my flights and squealed with Lauri as I told her the good news.
Palenque, Mexico. This place was full of tourists but cheap coronas and tacos so I was happy. Lauri and I decided to find a grocery store, make dinner, drink beer and plan the rest of our trip through Mexico. When we found the grocery store and we literally collapsed in laughter. Laughing in a grocery store? It seemed to be the only response that made sense. This grocery store not only had cheese, but different kinds of cheese, real cheese! It had a deli section, a butcher and cheesecake. It was so overwhelming that we just sat and laughed. I guess comforts from home are funny.
Next stop, San Cristobal De Las Clases and it was amazing. Super cold, but super beautiful. At some point we befriended some kiwi girls. We danced salsa with the hostel owner in exchange for clean towels, we drank a lot of coffee, shopped and gawked at the beautiful colonial city. We found a tapas and wine bar, got lost walking back to the hostel and got a ride from the police. I witnessed Lauri’s Latina roots at the bank as she screamed at “the ATM guy” who definitely put a torn and taped bill into the ATM that ended up in my hands. He wouldn’t trade it and called Lauri a liar which didn’t go over well and the whole bank got to watch her tell him what an idiot he was. Definitely a highlight.
Oaxaca, ahhh Oaxaca.
So much culture. Poster’s for art showings, documentaries and theater acted as wallpaper in most restaurants. Political demonstrations and European gypsies selling their crafts littered the streets. I really loved the feel of this city. The first night we were there, the Mexican hipster that worked the front desk at our hostel invited us to accompany him to Mexican hipster bars. To my delight, every bar had a taco stand in front of it. Bar, taco, another bar, another taco, it was quite the perfect way to consume food and alcohol. In addition to our Mexican hipster host we befriended some hippies from Colorado and danced the night away until 4am.
Being a tad too hung over Lauri and I spent the day walking around and reading on roof tops. This chill day prepared us for the following day of mezcal tasting.
The Dutch boys Brady and Jacco were going to be in Oaxaca the next day so we planned to meet them in the morning for a day of local consumption. What is Mezcal? It’s proper tequila, made from 100 percent agave rather than the 51 percent that Jose Cuervo has, complete with the agave lava that settles at the bottom. We found a small Mezcal factory just outside Oaxaca. We got a tour of the process as well as a taste of all the different types and flavors of their mezcal.
This ended up being around 15 small shots of sampling, so we were well on our way if you will. On a side note, If you know me at all, you know I don’t take shots unless it’s tequila. Mezcal is quality tequila so I was a happy camper. We bought bottles for a shockingly cheap price of $4 and decided to continue the good vibes with a few beers before heading back. Well those beers turned into being adopted by a group of adorable Mexican men that bought us all dinner. We spent the rest of the evening dancing, playing limbo and taking so many, so many Mezcal shots. At one point Lauri went missing, I found her in a state that I wasn’t sure to be excited or worried..
Lauri: “So I went to the bathroom and I couldn’t leave because there was a thing there that wouldn’t let me pass. I wasn’t sure if it was going to bite me or love me. But I’m pretty sure it wants to love me”. Well coincidently I had to go to the bathroom so I had to encounter this creature anyway. What I discovered was the most adorable pig to ever exist. He did like to nibble, but it was definitely a love bite. Lauri and I cuddled him, loved him and I considered vegetarianism for about one minute.
On the way home the party Mexicans took us to another Mezcal disterillery. The owner at this distillery played us songs on his guitar as we giggled drunkenly. Lauri and I arrived at the bus station around 11pm and took the night bus to Mexico City. Watching the stars in a Mezcal state made it a happy bus ride.
Lauri and I decided the appropriate farewell from Mexico and travels in Central America would be attending a Lucha Libre match. You know famous nacho libre. Of course we found some of the Dutch boys and dragged them along with us. The colorful masked event was hilarious, drunk and loud. We drank grande coronas and cheered for the weirdest opponent. Leaving the arena we stumbled upon a party bus. All four of us looked at each other in confirmation and forced friendship on the party responsible for the bus. They accepted us and even fed us alcohol from their bucket of joy. It was extra joyous when I found they had my favorite drink in the whole world that I haven’t been able to find at a responsible price in the past two months.. Whiskey ginger ale.
We sang Mexican songs, we danced and I asked inappropriate questions that they answered without blinking. All of them were beautiful, obviously had a little money and didn’t look Mexican in the slightest. When I informed them of my ignorance one of the girls responded without any hesitation “It’s because we’re rich Mexicans”. I learned all of them were doctors, lawyers, accountants, professors and other various respected professions. So I guess in Mexican you start to look more of the Mediterranean genre of origin the more money you make. I wanted to understand this a bit more but the club we accompanied them to informed us the $20 cover charge and we weren’t into that. They hugged us, gave us whiskey gingers to go and called us a safe cab. Lovely rich Mexicans they were.
The next day we took advantage of the free zoo and saw the Aztec Calendar before facing the inevitable. The airport showed me the last of the many occurrences of the fate of having Lauri in my life. Our airlines were right next to each other as well as our gates. We killed time with what we are good at, drinking the local beverages. We had the most epic recap over Modelos and Margaritas. I really cherish people who understand traveling, in turn people who understand me. So there we sat, my stand in best friend for the past month. Feeing so many different emotions a wave a of nausea came over me. I turned to Lauri and asked her what she was obviously waiting for me to ask her for awhile.
“What would you do if you were in my position Lauri, with New Zealand and all that”
-I would do what made me happy. The wonderful thing about travel is that it will always be there. Save that ticket for a time when that’s what will make you most happy. The reason you were going to New Zealand in the first place isn’t the case now. As you have told me, if there’s anything you’ve learned from travel is that plans change and then they change again.
This small response has my brain turning in new directions..
I like this Lauri girl. Well done :)
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