Subject:
Current Location - Creel, Mexico - home of the slowest internet connection in the world.
Trip Mileage - 14,800
Local Currency - Peso (10pesos = $1)
Temperature - about 50
Song defining this leg of the trip - Take is Easy- Eagles
Well, the happy fun bus has left port and it is on its way south....
I've been on the Green Tortoise bus for a few days now, and its been incredible. Theres 23 of us on the bus, including our 2 drivers, and in all of that group, only 6 people that are travelling in pairs - the rest are solo travellers, which makes for a nice mix. Its also a great group of people. All ages and backgrounds and probably about 6 or 7 countries represented. There's one guy, Jason, who has my identical twisted and corny sense of humor, and together we've been tormenting the rest of the bus. We've already been nicknamed the Bill and Ted of the group, which we thought was only too fitting as it is the beginning of a most excellent adventure.
The bus itself is rather cool. Theres a pic of it below. Basically, theres 2 benches up front, two 4-seater tables behind them, then one big huge mattress in the back which spans half the length of the entire bus. Normally, the center section of the mattress in the back comes out to make an aisle during the daytime, leaving benches on each side, but the bus is equipped to sleep 35, so the fact we have only 23 makes it possible for us to keep it one big bed all the time, which is awesome for travelling. We can jump back there and read, snooze, hang, etc. At night most of us sleep on the big mattress in a line facing head-toe-head-toe-etc. Enough about the bus... :-)
Wanna know what a smiley looks like if you type normal smiley keys on a Mexican keyboard? ΡΏ) Anywho.
After leaving San Francisco, we headed south and crossed the border in Tijuana. We were all able to get our personal paperwork easily, but the line for the papers needed for the bus was about 500+ people long. Thats a couple days wait. We decided to head to Tecate, another border town to try our chances there (you can drive within 22 miles of the Mex border before needing vehicle papers.)
Tecate turned out to be a better bet, as it only took about 7 hours to get all the necessary paperwork. Meanwhile, while the drivers did that, we hit a few resturants. In the city square they were having their christmas festival, complete with booths selling crafts, foods, and a huge night-time parade, with floats pulled by beer trucks (Tecate is where they make Tecate beer, and is the towns main source of income.) We felt lucky to happen on this city on the day of their big festival.
We left Tecate at night and headed to San Carlos, driving through the night. We stopped for breakfast on the side of the road, using all the Tortoise cooking gear, as we've been doing for most of our meals. Everyone pitches in cooking, everyone pitches in cleaning.
We drove through that day as well, and arrived in the beach town of San Carlos just after the sun went down. A few of us went and put our feet in the water, and as it was warm, decided to jump right in. No suits needed at night. Make that twice for nude swimming now. :-) There were these phosphorous plankton-like specs in the water that lit up and glowed purple as you swam and ran your hands through the water. Thats one of the neater things I've seen. Later, we gathered up some firewood and had a bonfire on the beach until the early hours of the night, and then fell asleep on the beach under the stars.
Panoramic of the bus interior
The next day we went exploring a little bit, and I found an incredible snorkeling spot with some of the most vibrant fish and amazing reef life I've seen. I must have seen at least 5-6 different kinds of starfish alone and even a couple lobster. As I was swimming back, I noticed a couple of people from the bus near the shore, walking away. I was eager to get their attention for them to come back and have a look, and in my haste getting out of the water, I stepped on a sea urchin. My foot swelled significantly, but with the help of an intensive care therapist who is on the trip, we dug most of the spines out, leaving just a couple which are too deep to dig out, which aren't so bad.