Mexico - Worst trip EVER!

Mexico - worst trip EVER
Category: Travel and Places

So, Mexico. I was a bit concerned about all of the normal "Mexico Stuff" (i.e. Montezuma's revenge) but there no need for concern there. No, instead it was the unexpected stuff that made this quite possibly the worst trip ever... A brief timeline of events:

Saturday:

- I start coming down with the symptoms of a cold.

Sunday:

- My driver picks me up at 2:45 AM to catch my flight. He yells at me because he tried calling me yesterday and my phone line was always busy. He must have used the number in the phone book (who still uses phone books?) which is my internet line.

- The cold symptoms become worst and are joined by swollen glands and other symptoms of the flu.

- I end up shivering through two flights until I arrive in Chihuahua to find two things:

1) It's COLD there. Like high of 40 degrees if the sun isn't out. What type of
weather did Marc pack for? 70 degrees. But what I packed didn't matter
because:

2) THEY LOST MY LUGGAGE which contained all clothes AND MY MEDICINES!

- I go to the hotel and check in early and suffer in my bed for the next 13 hours.

Monday:

- My luggage is delivered at 1AM.

- My throat starts hurting like crazy and I have the full force of the flu.

- In Mexico, you are required by law to have a nurse/doctor on-duty in the plant so I go talk to her.

- She recoils with horror as she looks at my throat and proceeds to tell me (in Spanish) that I have strep throat.

- She walks over to a cabinet and hands me a box of medicine that's of course in Spanish. I assume it's Pennicillin but who knows. What's great about Mexico is that people can just give out medicine, they don't need prescriptions or pharmacies.

- I go visit a supplier. At this point in the day, I've lost all control of my body temperature and decide to start shivering uncontrollably. As we go through their plant, they keep staring at me. My Mexican counterpart, Reynaldo, offers to take me to the hospital for the first time. I decline and everyone noticable begins to keep their distance from me.

- My nose has become dry so with every attempt to clear mucus, my nose starts to bleed.

Tuesday:

- I finally unpack my suitcase and realize that my digital camera has been stolen out of it some point before I received it on Sunday. I'm not happy about this.

- See another supplier.

- Drive up to El Paso TX. I successfully used up a whole role of toilet paper as tissues in this 3.5 hour drive. The Mexican border guard searched our car and looked at me in disbelief at all of the used tissues.

- I once again lose control of my body temperature and start sweating profusely for about ten minutes and then start to shiver uncontrollably again. Reynaldo offers for the second time to take me to hospital (sicne we are approaching the U.S.). I decline again.

Wednesday:

- Start to get a little better but only a little.

- Reynaldo rear ends the sales guy we are following while going up an on-ramp. Everyone was ok except the sales' guy bumper.

Thursday:

- Got a little better.

- Had great dinner and tequila. Lost track of time and went back to the hotel at 1am. I had to pack and wait for my ride to pick me up at 4am.

- The ride to the airport was funny. I was still sick and tired. The guy looked exactly like Pedro from Napolean Dynamite. His car was a pimped out Suzuki/Smart Car type contraption with tinted windows and Neon lights and only a front seat that was usable. All the way to the airport, we listened to Mexican polka Music - that was great. Pedro didn't speak English but didn't really seem to get that I didn't speak fluent Spanish. He did attempt to use his hands when he spoke but that didn't help. I usually just nodded and said "si". I realized that was probably a bad thing and started to become concerned with direction we headed. Lo and behold, we go the airport - 45 minutes before the ticket counter opened.


So, dinner and tequila was awesome. Everything else, not so much. I'm not looking forward to writing this trip report up because I really didn't get a lot accomplished.


Ah Mexico - it really is a ghetto. They wear cowboy hats with really pointy boots. They still think Mustaches are in style. But they are actually really nice people.