High Adventure World

After a restful night’s sleep in Puebla, we awoke to go look around the city before catching a bus to the Mexico City airport. Joe found a cup of coffee at “The Italian Coffee Company” on the Zocalo. There were lots of American places near the Zocalo, and they were all upscale, even the McDonalds, Burger King, and Carls Jr. There was also a huge Holiday Inn, Centro Historico, Puebla. We stayed away from these places mostly. I found an excellent Mexican bakery and got a couple of great pastries. We then just wandered a little and waited for the Parián craft market to open up. It was an interesting dichotomy – the Zocalo and surrounding area was where Mexicans could spend money to look like and act like Americans. The Parián craft fair was where Americans could spend money to took like and act like Mexican tradition. It was clear that the former of these two areas was seeing the all money – besides tourists of course.

Eventually, the fair opened and Joe bought a pair of loose-fitting cotton pants and shirt. We wandered around some more, then he went back. I wandered the craft fair one more time and bought some souvenirs for my family. It was pretty easy to talk down the price, but I only usually tried to talk it down 20% or so since everything was so cheap anyway. Then, I went back to the hotel and found Joe all cleaned up and in his new clothes, looking like a well-disguised gringo. I was still an obvious and stinky gringo, but it didn’t bother me. I had long since ran out of clean clothes. Joe then took our mostly-full fuel bottle and asked the hotel keeper where he could dispose of it. He eventaully found a hardware store a few blocks away that took the fuel off our hands. Then, Joe and I got some lunch at a place right below the hotel on the street. We got Mole Poblano (a rich, spicy, chocolately sauce) over Pollo (Chicken). Puebla is known for being the home of Mole Poblano, which is apparently famous all over Mexico. We both enjoyed the meal, which ran about $80 pesos each. Then, we met the authorized taxi we had arranged earlier with the hotel keeper, and asked him to take us to CAPU. We arrived at CAPU and got tickets on Estrella Roja’s Expresso Aeropuerto service for $150 pesos each. This was more than I was expecting to pay, but Joe helped me out since I was again almost out of pesos. We waited about 30 minutes for the bus then hopped on and we were on our way to the airport. This was the nicest bus by far, and we got a snack bag and headphones for the movie that played en route. We got to watch SWAT dubbed in Spanish. I didn’t understand a word but I could follow the plot. I’ll have to check that movie out sometime in English. I wonder if it’s any good. I already know the surprise twist, though. Anyway, the bus ride was about 2 hours (surprised?) to get to the airport and we were dropped off at the bus terminal. Ticketing was up an escalator, to the left, across a skyway, then to the left again. The airport was a little more confusing going this direction, so make sure you don’t rush yourself. However, being at the gate a full 2 hours before the flight is also not necessary. Ticketing can get backed up since they search all checked bags by hand. I think Joe and I backed up the line for United by quite a ways since our backpacks were so thoroughly packed. You’re not supposed to have lighters or fuel. When I checked in, they asked for my stud of paper that was on the bottom of my entry form into Mexico. Luckily, I had carried this form the whole time with my passport so it wasn’t a problem. They didn’t have a problem with my ice axe since only the bottom point was sticking out of my pack and that point was well-covered with cardboard. However, they made Joe wrap his axe in plastic wrap (saran wrap stuff). A guy wrapped it for him using this super plastic wrap machine designed to wrap luggage. It cost $66 pesos or $6 USD, but it was a very thorough job indeed. The resulting package hardly resembled an axe. Joe then had to sign a waiver releasing the airlines of damage to his axe. This axe was the one Joe had found on an earlier trip up Mt. Whitney. It was covered in scratches and marks. I’m pretty sure that anything short of throwing the axe directly into a jet engine would not have left a noticeable mark on it, and even then I think the jet engine would get the worst of it. Anyway, we continued through security and then found our way to our gate. We had some time before our flight, so Joe used the last of his pesos to buy us a couple of beers. Then, we bought a couple bottles of some fine Tequila and we waited for the flight. Our gate was changed and we had a minor delay, but we asked the information kiosks and found our new gate easily enough. Eventually, we got on the plane and headed home. We got dinner; a little chicken puck this time. The flight was uneventful. We watched a movie, Little Manhattan. It was in English this time and I give it a 6/10. We arrived at LAX about on time, despite our late takeoff. We had to get a bus to the international arrivals terminal. Immigration took no time at all and neither did customs. Then, we were back in the US! We caught the Lot C shuttle back to Joe’s van and found it sitting right where we left it and completely free of homeless residents. Our last hitch was finding the 105 freeway but then before I knew it I was back at Mudd. And that ends my first real mountaineering trip – the first international Delta-H trip – the great Dh Mexico Volcanoes Adventure 2005.

- Jim, Thursday, 15 December 2005

To read more, go to Los Volcanas 2005