woke up early and met up with erika and katie to go to the panaderia, a bakery with mexican pastries, most notably empanadas and conchas(?)...i think that's what that's called. it's the one that kind of looks like a shell. it is round with icing. the empanadas are pastries with fruit or some have tuna...not the fruit, the fish. so for 59 cents, i got about 6 pastries. we went to the zocolo steps with some coffee, and enjoyed. well, first i bit into a mystery empanada...and of course, it was tuna. gag. hot tuna in the morning. luckily i had a warm concha to rid my mouth of the taste.
from there, we went to the market to buy a birthday gift for fernando, the boy who served us breakfast every morning for the past two weeks. we got him dulces and a spiderman bag and gave him some cash. we dropped it off up at the mirador, apparently right at the same moment when...
barbara's purse, wallet, and passport were stolen. apparently she was scammed by that sketchy woman i saw behind her and her male partner who i didn't see. the scam involved spilled mustard and water. and we were supposed to leave in 30 minutes. after a brief flurry of panic...
a police report, a call to doris, and the chaos of all of us in the lobby with suitcases. the bus arrived, and we followed the police to the station so barbara could make a report. she was going to have to cross with only photocopies of her passport and this police report. needless to say she was nervous.
the bus ride to the airport was relaxing. i got a bit of homework done. it was about the best part of the trip.
the guanajuato airport was busy and each suitcase was searched. mine weighed 23 kilos over the limit, so i had to pay $$169 USD to get my luggage home. it was so frustrating b/c they tried to run my card, and it was declined even though i had plenty of cash. i asked the agent to try again, and she refused. so i had to run to the atm, take out more pesos ( i now have an abundance of pesos in my hello kitty bank), and run back to pay. meanwhile, the people on my trip are disappearing, and the hour of the departure for our plane creeping closer.
of course, this is mexico. we were supposed to take off at 1:15. the plane hadn't even arrived by that time. try 2:15. awesome.
the flight home seemed quick by comparison to my usual baltimore flight. some food, a nap, itunes, and some conversation. it wasn't all that bad.
but then we got to tj.
apparently, after finally getting our bags, we were going to have to load them on the bus, drive to the otay mesa border, then unload the bags, walk them across the border, then load the back on the bus. remember how heavy my bag was? oh, and i had two others to carry. i was so unhappy. i sported dark blue and black and yellow bruises all up and down my legs for weeks. and i broke one of my esteban valdez pots. cranky doesn't cover it.
the good news was that barbara made it across the border. mustard shirt, photocopied passport and all.
the trip home to city was uneventful. kim picked me up, and we all dispersed rather quickly. tiring day.
naps, thai food...it was a good night. though my stomach started hurting a bit. i figured it was just the trip (little did i know it would last the entire month of august).
in one final footnote...
we had a reunion of sorts this tuesday, and enrique, who stayed in Mexico for an extra 2 weeks, told me that an hour or less after the stolen passport incident, doris, our guide and assistant for the trip, got a call from the thieves offering to sell back the passport to her for a price! what a deal?
