South of the border

What a day its been, a truely spectacular brilliant disaster! more on that in a bit. I am close to completing my second week on the road and am now in Mexico. Following on from my previous entry, San Antonio was a really cool city, theres so much history and the mix of Texan and Hispanic cultures is fascinating. I also got on really well with the guys at the hostel, I say guys as the hostel has sex segregated buildings rather than just dorms! a tad extreme methinks.

On Wednesday, I think it was (already losing track of the days) I crossed the Mexican border at the Laredo-Nuevo Laredo crossing. The border was relatively simple, I did find it hilarious that I was the only non Mexican on board apparantly the crossing isn`t as popular as it was some years ago. I arrived in Monterrey at around 4:30pm after watching Spiderman 3 in Spanish which somehow made it more enjoyable. After a brief culture shock at the crazy traffic and millions of people everywhere I found my hostel which was a really good one and empty as well! I had an 8 bedded room to myself both nights. My second day in Monterrey was spent sightseeing. As seems to be the theme so far most of this involved wandering around enourmous, beautiful plazas and topping it off with a musuem, this time it was the musuem of art in Monterrey which I wandered around in for about half an hour.

I eventually gave in to the heat which was pushing 30 degrees yesterday, stunning weather so far. I spent the evening in the hostel and got an early night in preparation for todays early start, a 7am bus to Guadalajara.

Just to fill you in, Monterrey is a long way from Guadalajara, the journey took over 12 hours and when I finally got here the taxi took an eternity getting through the traffic. I eventually arrived at the hostel at getting on for 9pm. It was the first one I had not booked and proved a mistake as not only were they fully booked but most of the other hostels in town were too. I eventually found the place I am in now, Hotel Fenix, for my budget its expensive but it is money that can easily be made back seeing as how dirt cheap the countries will be from now on. The room is nice at least and a night of privacy and a TV may be what I need after going at a pretty hectic pace since the start.

Here is the itinerary for the next week and a bit. It has changed slightly as I am now skipping Mexico City as I have been before and its too big and chaotic to just spend a night or 2 in transit.

28,29,30 Nov - Guadalajara, Mexico
1,2,3 Dec - Morelia, Mexico
4,5 Dec - Puebla, Mexico
6,7 Dec - Veracruz, Mexico
8,9 Dec - Villahermosa, Mexico
10,11,12,13 Dec - Cancun, Mexico

I apologise for the crappy spelling and pronounciation, one reason is this keyboard and all the symbols being in different places, the other reason is it has been a very long day!

Buenos Noches!