The Beginning

The Beginning. This is it. I’m in Mexico City. The good thing about having this huge looming adventure and little plan for what I’m going to do is that it forces me to focus on the present. I can’t possibly foresee the future, and so am totally open to whatever happens. Like, for instance, arriving at the bus station at 5 am to find out that the bus is cancelled due to snowstorms in New Mexico. Thankfully I was with my amazing friend Mattie, so I was able to go back to her house and reevaluate the situation.Wait…my bus from Phoenix, Arizona to El Paso, Texas is cancelled due to snow. En serio? I started examining my options and found out that American Airlines had dropped the prices of their flights, and it was the same price to get to Mexico City in a fraction of the time. Not that price was a huge influence in my decision. For me, the snowstorm was a pretty clear message from the Universe not to ride the bus.So I emailed Miguel, the Couchsurfing host I was going to be staying with, and asked if I could come a day early. At the same time Marie, his present Couchsurfer, was asking if she could stay an extra night. Marie is a really cool French woman who has been living in Mexico for 15 years (with 4 years in Colorado somewhere in the middle). She invited me to go with her to Mercado de Sonora to look for herbs. She helped me get my bus and metro cards, and showed me some of the interesting historical places in town. Mexico City is at 8,000’ elevation, so I was pooped after a couple of hours of walking around the city.During our morning together I found out that Marie has also lived in Cameroon, where she worked at a hospital and volunteered at a leper colony for children, and drove a Jeep solo across the Sahara desert for 3 months. This is the kind of traveler that really inspires me and makes me feel like I can push myself so much further. After all, she did all this before there were cell phones, internet, Couchsurfing, and a million other things that make traveling so easy today.Later that night Miguel took me to the Coyoacán borough of Mexico City, the town where Frida Kahlo was from, and a pulquería where I had my first pulque. It’s a fermented drink made from the agave cactus, and the taste reminded me of a quote from The Lion King- slimy, yet satisfying. Interestingly, pulque was a sacred drink of the Aztecs.Miguel and his two roommates (whom he met through Couchsurfing!), Miguel "dos" and Andrea from Colombia, are really cool and already have some fun activities planned (salsa dancing!). I think I will even go see some Mexican wrestling this weekend. That's right- Lucha Libre!