This isn't going to be a long post because I drove for over twelve hours today, but here it goes.
We didn't leave Puerto Escondido until this morning, a day late, because we were having such a great time relaxing and were really not looking forward to getting on the road again. Plus, it was the weekend in Puerto, so a lot of cool travelers came in and we ended up spending most of yesterday hanging out poolside with six Australian guys. They were really funny---two sets of two brothers and two other life-long friends--and their jokes and accents kept Mike and I in a good mood most of the day.
We also met a man that I'm upset to say I didn't exchange contact information with. Julio and his wife were staying in a cabana a few up from ours at the Rock Away the whole time we were there, but we didn't talk until yesterday. Turns out, Julio is a Federale (part of the Mexican governmental police force) in Ciudad Juarez (the most deadly city in the world, and definitely the most dangerous in Mexico during this Drug War) that was on vacation from the insanity of the front line for a week. We were supposed to talk more this morning before we both took off, but I am assuming he got called up in the middle of the night to report back to duty. He got into a conversation with the Australians and us poolside, where he showed us extremely gory pictures out of a magazine, including photos of brutally murdered friends and colleagues of his. Having just done a report on Mexican drug cartel propaganda, I helped him translate some of the narco-banners pictured in the magazine and to explain the situation a little bit to the Aussies. They were definitely shocked by the level of violence, but they had also just been in Pascuales (north of Puerto Escondido on the Pacific coast by about ten hours) and had witnessed two US citizens get arrested (actually kidnapped) by men dressed in Federale uniforms but, luckily, they escaped. It seems the Drug War is occurring in each and every part of Mexico--from random surfing beaches along the Pacific coast line to Ciudad Juarez.
Last night, we went to dinner at with friends we'd met, Nisa and Chaz, at their condo they were renting for the month. It was nice to have a fun-filled day at the pool, a chat with Julio on the Drug War, followed by a home-made dinner of shrimp and pasta, then a final night in our bed at Rock Away. Unfortunately, I woke up in the middle of the night to a dead rat in our bathroom (it wasn't mauled by a dog so I'm still wondering how it died/ why the dogs didn't wake up) and a cockroach trying to get into our toothbrush bag, yet again.
We got on the road at 8 this morning, then took the 200 about six hours to Acapulco, where we took toll roads almost all the way to Mexico City, and now we're in Toluca, which is just north-west of Mexico. We got stopped five times today--twice we were searched at military check-points, twice we just got stopped to chat, and one time involved a bribery. We were in Mexico state, almost to Toluca, and apparently we weren't allowed to drive out-of-country plates on Mondays in the state. It cost us four hundred pesos and our information written down on a white piece of paper, but the cops had me write down "Comandante Ruiz: facilidades" on a piece of paper so that we wouldn't have to "pay" any of their friends in the area more money for driving with Costa Rican plates. I still don't know if it was a real law or not, but being nice and paying the "fine" are easier than being difficult with Mexican law enforcement, or any law enforcement for that matter.
That leads me to now. We stopped about 45 minutes after the bribery incident, and like I said, we're at a drive-in motel that men usually take women that aren't their wives to. But, we have our own private garage, and to tell you the truth, this is the nicest place we've stayed at yet and it's only $300 pesos a night. We're just trying not to think about what goes on in this place on a day-to-day basis :)
I'm exhausted and don't have pictures to upload from today, but I'll post some tomorrow. Buenas noches!
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