The trip

October, 19th 3.25 AM
Right now I'm sitting in a very comfortable bus from Mexico D.F. to Colima. I had some four hours of sleep and my body thinks it's time to get up now. So with the display tuned to minimum brightness and grey letters on black background I should not be disturbing my seat neighbor too much. At least he is still asleep so it seems to be OK.

Let's go a bit in reverse order.

At ten PM the bus departed at the Bus Terminal Mexico de Norte. The Suitcase and the big backpack were put in the hold and I was able to convince the security guy that my daypack with the laptop in it went with me into the bus. My Leatherman tool made it through the screening probably because it was below two pullovers and a Jacket tied around my waist. Anyway they are probably more interested in Firearms than in small knives.


In the terminal I had some food and a cup of coffee (32P) and bought a bottle of coke (15P). 14P being one Euro (so take the prices times seven and cut away the last two digits). By the way the bus trip costs 525P with Omnibus de Mexico. Sorry, Mexico but I'm not going to fight my computer for accents now.

The way to the bus terminal is really easy and cheap if you take the metro although I was not really happy with my situation most of that trip. Well for two Pesos you can go from any place to any other place in D.F. The ticket is eaten by some machine at the entrance and so you can really travel the whole day as long as you don't leave the metro. It seems to be a good Idea to get a printout of the metro network in advance so you can check how many stations are left during the trip. They can easily be found on the Internet. All in all it is a
very smooth and convenient ride. I rejected the offer of some boy to carry my suitcase down the stairs of the metro station at the airport. I kind of stick to my luggage... Probably I'm completely overcautious but that's much better than no suitcase.

The airport...
The money vending machine of the Banca de Mexico (or whatever was their name) seems to be coming directly from hell. It displays screens full of writing for two seconds and if you don't hit Continue during that time, which will of course take you to the next screen, you can start over. I also was not able to withdraw money using my EC Card. The Master Card worked out well.

You need to fill in two forms on the plane. One for the migration and one for the customs. If that fails they are of course available at the airport. It just takes some unnecessary amount of time. All the luggage gets X-rayed at the customs. I myself did not get checked. They don't seem to be too hard on checking what you have but that might also just have been luck.
As can be expected the forms want some kind of address where you will stay so keep that at hand.

The flight went smoothly and sadly just passes by some hundreds of kilometers off the American east coast. You get some short view of Florida when crossing it but the rest was just clouds above water.
Window seats are nice during takeoff and landing. During the flight the best places to be are in front of the restrooms and the kitchen where you can stand and move a bit. Here I got to know Mario from Mexico. Thanks for the music advice!

*** Breaking News *** Breaking News *** Breaking News ***

4.57 AM
Our bus just had a flat tire which cost us one our somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Now everything seems to be fine again and we are heading on towards Colima.

*********************************************************

Let's see. Where was I? OK, the flight was not that spectacular in other respects. Food was let's say OK. We went over or close by Cardiff and Cologne but I was seated on the wrong side of the plane and there were some clouds. The Movies. Well let's forget about them. The only reasonable was some collection of old Disney cartoons. Of course no in-seat video but some old CRT-Screens spread out in the cabin. Well for the other ones you definitely don't need the headphones to get the story. A few glimpses from time to time and you know the plot pretty exactly...
The good part was that Laure-Anne and Olivier were also on the plane and that the crew didn't really mind you standing somewhere when there was not too much going on. So it was a lot of standing around because sitting in those small seats with no space for the legs is just no fun at all.

So now I'm basically back at the Airport of Frankfurt about this part of the trip I have written some notes on a sheet when the bus trip started. I will copy them later when I have some light.

That's it for now. Going by bus in Mexico is cool and the people I've met so far are very nice. I'm really looking forward to my time here.

Before I forget: Happy Birthday, Julian!

Highway in the middle of nowhere 5.07 AM October 19th, 2006 END FOR NOW

Highway between Guadalajara and Colima, 6.22AM 25 Degrees Celsius
(according to the display in the front of the bus)

I hope that was not to chaotic to understand it. If anybody needs a German or resorted version feel free to send me an e-mail.

Let's see what I forgot.

At first let's start at the beginning. When I took the train from Neunkirchen which is close to the town where my parents live to my grandaunt I missed the first train because I wasted two complete tries on the electronic cash ticket vending machine (yes twice all the menu and each time three tries mixed with my normal EC and my MasterCard). People from Germany will know...
So I had to go one hour later. In the meantime I was at the ticket counter and they said they knew that the card reader of that machine was in a very bad state and urgently needs replacement. I don't want to know for how long they know...
The next train then was late so I missed the connection in Mainz and had to wait for a while again but this time not that much.

Well it's still dark outside but at the moment there seem to be some clouds hiding the stars which matches pretty well with the front window of the bus
being wet. The roads are getting smaller and after some 24 hours since boarding the airplane I don't really feel like sitting and travelling any more. It would definitely be nice to be able to move freely again.

The bus system really seems to be the number one way of travel in Mexico. There are lots of buses going in all kinds of directions. Also when we hat the flat tire there immediately was a service car of Omnibus de Mexico present. The trucks here look like real trucks with a long nose. We obviously are in America although my bus is a Volvo which is very reassuring.

My Spanish is very poor but I can kind of get around with it because people really are very friendly and patient if one tries to speak Spanish. I often get the basic ideas but the shorter the things and especially questions are the more difficult it gets since it is almost impossible to guess a missing word.


Ok, by now I'm in the office at the University of Colima. My Laptop is connected to the Internet and the sun is shining. Pictures will follow soon.

Flo