| April
26, 2002 Part of the adventure of this trip actually began long before I saw any mountains. Since Monterrey is only about 7 hours or so away, I decided I would brave the roads of Mexico and drive down to Monterrey. Tony was already down there on business, and Cotti, Yanira, and Pollo were all flying down. John was the only one nice enough to take on the challenge of driving down with me. My philosophy is that if anyplace is under 8 hours away by car, then that is how I am going to get there. First of all, it's cheaper...second of all, flying somewhere is just about a 5 or 6 hour process anyway (especially these days). I figure you might as well drive, save some cash, and see some stuff along the way. Besides, you really can't beat quality road trip conversation. I mean, when else are you gonna have time to debate things like my now infamous Knight Rider Question (no time for that one now.) Well, after giving lab meeting that morning, I was ready to roll. We planned to be out of here and on the road by 2:30 because we were a bit unsure of exactly how long it would take to drive all the way to Monterrey. Here's a shocker, I was slow so we didn't leave until about 3:45. Of course, as we are getting gas and getting ready to leave, it dawns on me that we really don't know how to get there...although, once we do get there, we have the brilliant aide of these maps that Marco has sent us, in the classic Mexican Map Quest format...I'm not even gonna get into that one, but let me just make a suggestion. If you're gonna drive to any city in Mexico, buy your own map before hand...do not ask you're friends who live there to send you one. Anyway, on the map it looks like going through San Antonio and taking 59 are pretty much the same so we flip a coin and decide to go through San Antonio. (Just an FYI for anyone who is going to Mexico via Laredo from Houston...the San Antonio path is a bit quicker...although not by much...but at least there are real towns along the way to stop in.) Well, since I had only slept for 2 hours the night before (that becomes important later), John was kind enough to drive the first part of the trip. It was all for nothing anyway because I barely slept 45 min. We arrived in Laredo around 8:15 or so. We spent about 25 minutes searching for a freakin' liquor store but finally found one. Now, I'm not making this up...it was actually called "Valdez Gun, Pawn, and Liquor." Can you believe that!? I mean, could you get any more Texas. Talk about a disaster waiting to happen. Something about the combination of poor drunks with guns makes me feel just a tad bit uncomfortable. The true comedic element of the place was that there was a drive-thru window. Too bad I'm not a comedian...you could probably sit in that place for a day and get a lifetime worth of material. So after paying Goober the attendant and filling up the tank (Gas in Mexico is VERY expensive...always fill up just before crossing the border) we were ready to roll again...but not too far. So there I was, thinking that I had thought of pretty much everything for the trip but it seems that I had forgotten a key element. As many of you know (or maybe not) when you cross the border all you need is a Driver's License. That's because in border towns, thousands of people day cross back and forth to do shopping, visit relatives, etc. Requiring a passport for everyone is just too much of a hassle since most people are just crossing for the day. Well, that is all fine and dandy if you want to just visit the town on the other side of the border, but if you want to go more than about 20 miles into Mexico, you have to get a Visa and a permit for your car if you are driving. The problem is that if you want to bring your car, you have to show a bunch of papers that prove you own it and you are not gonna try to sell it for a profit when you get over there. On top of that, you have to have a notarized document that says you are who you are and that you are the owner of the vehicle. That means, either you must have a passport, or a notarized copy of your birth certificate, both of which I had safely tucked away in my room at home...DAMMIT. So there we were, a bit behind schedule, but we were still gonna be in Monterrey before midnight. We cross the border and thanks to Tony's previous border experience, we knew we had to find this place to get our Visa's and car permits. Interesting to me was that you could actually see the building from the bridge that crosses the Rio Grande...getting to that building, however was a different story. After driving around for about 20 minutes we finally arrived at the building which was about 100 meters from where we had started. Now, I have to say in my defense, that I actually had considered bringing my passport but it turned out I left my house in such a hurry (because I was running late as usual) that I forgot about it. I thought about it as I was about to pick up John but then figured, I wouldn't need it since I had crossed the border many times without it. Somehow, when I explained all this to the guy at immigration, he didn't seem to take very much pity on me. Somehow, this bastard was immune to my Spanish powers...which usually work surprisingly well in situations like that. I tried to insinuate that I would pay him off but he either wasn't interested or was clueless to the universal sign of holding up a twenty while saying, "So you're SUUUURRRRE there's nothing you can do." Well, that put us in a bit of a spot. It was about 9:30 by that time and Tony was waiting to meet us...We had no way to get a hold of him. I had no choice but to go back to the one person in life you can always count on folks...Mom. I gave her a quick call on my cell and luckily, she was home and just like a good mother, had a copy of my birth certificate readily available to fax. So I turn smugly back to the guy and ask for the fax number. That's when I realized the joke truly was on me. He proceeds to tell me that I have to go BACK across the border to receive the fax AND find somewhere to get it notarized. That created two problems, the first being, where the hell can a go to get a fax at this time of night, and even more difficult, how in the heck am I gonna find a notary. Compounding the problem is the fact that since a certain bastard decided to attack a certain city last September, crossing the border in a vehicle from the Mexico back to the US is not a very short process. We are talking one hour minimum and we really didn't have that kind of time. It was time to jog off that McDonald's I had just eaten. I went back to the car and explained the whole thing to John and I was on my way. I found a nice hotel back on the other side of the border, that not only was willing to receive the fax, but also called a notary. Sweet. It took a bit of time so I sat down at the hotel bar and had a drink to calm my nerves. The notary gets there and proceeds to Rape me be charging me 20 bucks, which really pissed me off but I didn't have time to argue and John had been waiting for me for almost an hour on the other side by himself. I argued a bit but decided, screw it, it was my own fault anyway. I called my mom back to thank her, ran back across and then strolled in ready to shove these papers down this guys throat at the car permit place. I then had to stand in line for 45 MORE minutes to get everything done. All in all, I lost 20 bucks and about 2 and a half hours time. It was brutal. I single-handedly ruined the entire first night of the trip. We finally were back on the road around midnight and didn't get to Monterrey until almost 1:30. It was a little tough to find the hotel but we made it. Tony was waiting for us there. After a quick change and a shower we were ready to roll. I know what you’re thinking...it was 2:00 a.m. and we were just going out!? Pretty much boys and girls. That’s how they do it in Monterrey. We went to this great bar called "La Bikina" (I think that was the name) and had a blast. I met a ton of Tony’s friends down in Monterrey and we basically danced the rest of the night away. The bar was awesome because it was a big open room which seemed normal by all appearances...except there was no ceiling. The bar was out in open air. It was a great design (although I still wonder what they do when it rains). We all got pretty bombed and rubbed elbows with the beautiful women of Monterrey. After meeting all the girls that work for GE down in Monterrey, I’m considering a career change. Anyway, we ended up partying until about 5:00 a.m. in the bar. Now that was a bit of poor planning considering that we were supposed to be ready leave the hotel for the hike at Matacanes the next day at 5:45 (that’s right...45 minutes later!). We caught a cab back to the hotel. Tony and I decided that the power nap was essential so we caught some quick Z’s. John decided to go ironman and stay awake. I knew the next day was gonna be tough but even still I think I underestimated it. Sometimes it’s like that when you’re on the road though. You have to go balls out and that’s all there is to it. That’s the price I had to pay for forgetting my freakin’ passport and almost ruining the night...luckily, we salvaged it with no trouble and still had a GREAT time. I was about to go through a VERY rigorous day after on about 3.5 hours of sleep over the previous 48 hours. Gotta love it!!!! |
