Mexico City to London
June 29th 1995
I went out and bought a litre of the cheapest tequila i could find and then took my bags out to the airport, so i didn't have to cart them around the rest of the day, or take them on the metro in the afternoon, when it would have been more crowded.
Then i went to the vegie restaurant Yug which was in the expensive and wanky Zona Rosa. I thought i'd go mental and spend a bit of money on an expensive veggie meal just for the novelty of it. It cost twenty seven pesos and i basically had refried beans, rice, a little bit of salad and some veggie soup - which would have cost about six or seven pesos in the sort of places i normally ate! Oh well, i'd just wasted nine hundred dollars on a flight, what the hell!
I spent my last sixty five pesos on a couple of books about Chiapas and went to the airport.
When i checked in, they told me i had to pay departure tax - either seventy five pesos or twelve yanquí dollars. Shit! The travel agent could have told me! And they don't accept travellers cheques. However, after a fair bit of buggering around, i changed a fifty dollar cheque for forty nine dollars in cash and paid with that. It was better than ending up with a pocket full of pesos, which i'd have to change into pounds.
I was really pissed off because there was no form of immigration control whatsoever. After all that hassle and the trouble it caused me getting my visa extended!!!
In the departure lounge, i saw a woman who i was sure was someone i knew from Taxco - a friend of Gretchen's. It was her voice that attracted my attention first. but i wasn't really sure and i was hesitant about going up to her and asking her. I was always so conscious of how many dickhead men use that line as a pickup attempt: "Hello, haven't i seen you somewhere before???" and it made it hard for me to approach a woman in that situation.
Anyway, then i saw someone else i knew - but i was sure this time. It was Monique, who i'd met at Zipolite and who'd travelled with me and Paula to San Cristobal. She was talking to two other people who'd also been at Zipolite and were on the same bus to San Cristobal. She'd just bumped into them by chance there too!
Then the woman i thought i knew from Taxco recognized me and waved. Her name was Annabel and she was who i thought she was. This was beginning to get weird! I went over to talk to her and spotted someone else who'd been at Zipolite, the big austrian dropkick with the fully tattooed back, who thought he's too cool for the normal tourist scum!
Well, it was new moon, but still, it was pretty amazing that all these people i knew were getting on the same plane as me! Dominique and Annabel had both met other people they knew too - it was obviously one of those weirdarse cosmic convergences! It felt like a really good sign...
- - -
My overall feelings about Mexico, didn't really come clear till after i left. That country affected me very strongly, emotionally and spiritually, in ways that i really found it impossible to put a finger on. One day, maybe it would all make sense, but right then, it was just an unclear, but powerful emotional feeling.
In some ways i really loved Mexico. And in some ways, or maybe at some times, i really hated it. I really liked Chiapas, in particular. In fact, that was the only part of Mexico that i could say i did really like. Mexico city was alright, but to me it was so much like London, it didn't really even count. I don't like big, polluted cities much anyway. I don't like London for that reason and i didn't much like Mexico for that reason. But San Cristobal was another story altogether. I could probably have lived quite happily there - for a while, at least - if it wasn't so bloody cold!
The biggest problem i had in Mexico was that i never found anywhere where i was really comfortable. I enjoyed being in San Cristobal, but i just couldn't handle cold any more. I enjoyed the climate at the coast, but i was bored by the foreigners and the dull tourist lifestyle. I never found anywhere that combined the hot and humid climate of the coast with the cultural and political aspects of San Cristobal. I was sure such a place must exist - probably not actually on the coast, but in the low lying areas of Chiapas - but i didn't know where it was. One day maybe, i'd find it. Then, i thought, i might find it much harder to leave Mexico!