Day 2: The Adventure Begins

I'm looking at this and feeling quite guilty because its been so long since my last post. But life gets to us, right? Well now I have many requests to keep people posted as I am traveling through Mexico! Exciting, I know. However, there are many people out there wondering how I (the blue eyed, blondie) am holding up in this foreign land. So here it is, my story of my travels in Mexico. 

You'll notice this is titled "Day 2". Yeah, I know how to count and this is my 2nd day here. Yesterday is when I flew out of Portland to Houston and then the Mexico city. The flight itself was kind of a rush because
1) My flight was at 6 am, which meant I had to be there around 4 am, which meant I had to leave my house around 3:15 in the morning. Ew. But kudos to my very nice friend who drove me there. You're the best! ;)
2) I was really nervous. Everything was hitting me all of the sudden. I was really going to Mexico. I was really going to a place where I would be the minority. I was going far away from people I love and places I know. I also had no clue what I was doing as things started converting from English to Spanish. Filling our my passport form on the plane, they ran out of English ones, so I had to try to decipher a Spanish one. At that point, I was kicking myself for not paying attention in my high school Spanish class. So here's my advice: PAY ATTENTION cause it will definatly help you later! 

Anyways... back to the plane. I'm pretty sure I got all my nervousness out then because once I found my group, I felt A LOT better! There was even someone from the program who came to greet us and help us get on our way. Nicest lady I've ever met and helped us tremendously as we tried to figure out buses and getting from the airport to Puebla. The buses I've been on so far have actually been really nice. It was so fascinating because I've never seen anything like it! I'm already in love with the scenery here. Lots of trees, mountains, and colorful buildings. 

So we got to Puebla where the lady (Carla) took our big bags back to the school in Tehuacan and we took our smaller bags on our vacation, parting ways. We got on our bus to Puerto Escondido and started our adventure! ... our 18 hour bus ride adventure. 
Best part of it all: Nothing bad happened. It was very uneventful. So it was perfect. 

We made it to our destination and as soon as I saw it, I started thinking of a line a country song. "We started yelling when we smelled the beach" (name that song). That's how my heart felt to see the ocean. I'm pretty sure I'm destined to live my life as a beach babe (not a beach bum, I'm way too classy for that). 

So we made it to Puerto Escondido. Hooray! Now for the real challenge ahead: Finding our hostel in a place where no one speaks English and only two of the seven of us know enough to get by (I am not one of those two). 

Oh the journey. Hot, sweaty, tired, and hungry, we started walking in the direction we think we're supposed to go. Lucky for us, it was. We eventually found it after walking around and pulling our luggage through dirt roads for 20 min. It's a hole in the wall but it's actually pretty nice here! The owner speaks English and there are quite a few young backpackers here as well. I'll take pictures tomorrow when it's light out but it's a cool place. Authentic enough that I know I'm still in Mexico, but not so sketchy that I don't feel safe. No big bugs or anything like that. Just a few small geckos. The one we found on our bathroom door we lovingly named Geico. 

We got settled and changed out of clothes and realized we were STARVING. So we set out in search of food and water. We found a little place near our hostel that was really good and had HUGE water bottles (1.5 liters). It felt like getting a home cooked meal. I had rice and fish tacos which were really, really, good. Of course, after you haven't eaten in a while, almost anything tastes good. My biggest relief was that I didn't get sick from it. I trusted the fish a little more because we're so close to the coast. Do you think that's logical? So far it's worked out...
Side story: While at this restaurant, we met the cutest kids. The little boy was I'm guessing 5. The little girl was probably around 3. The boy was very talkative and quite the ladies man. He asked us all our names and tried talking with us. I could only understand a little of what he was saying. I'm pretty sure he was making fun of us at some points. But he was a cutie. He reminded me of another little guy who is also quite the ladies man. Thinking of you, Ian ;). 
Those are the girls in my group. More on them later when I take pictures with them. For now, just know we all get along really well, we're all LDS and are either going to BYU-I or BYU (most of us are actually BYU-I. Yeah! Represent! lol). Two know some spanish, the rest of us know how to say "No hablo espanol". We'll get the hang of it.

So here's a little funny short story. We came into our room and started exploring a little. We have a bathroom, three closets (one with manikins in it. go figure?), a balcony, some hammocks out front, and a door... that leads no where. A nice little surprise. Just thought it was kinda funny. We thought so. 


To sum up: I'm safe, I'm well, and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself here. Just another "Love like crazy" day! I'll post tomorrow. We're going surfing! I'll let you know how it goes! 

I just realized there are no pictures with me in them. I'll do better about that tomorrow!