Austin TX to Mexico DF

(this is another post that will help to catch us up to real time. maybe one or two more of these)

When good friends leave town, the consolation is that sometimes they move to cool places and you can visit them. And so I travelled from Albuquerque to Austin (one of very few flights that this trip will permit) and spent three days with Liz and Brian, soaking in January sun, eating and drinking well, and vacillating over my eventual departure for Mexico.

First we visited the LBJ library, whose highlight for me was the portrait of the family surviving LBJ, with Ladybird and her kids and their kids. This photo has the terrifying suggestion that there’s a certain way that a family should look, and that this family figured it out, dressed and combed and flashing good complexions and healthy teeth. Also, elementary, high school and college report cards for the twentieth century presidents. And the gifts given and received by LBJ's presidency... can you guess what Somalia brought to the white house in 1966?

Also, Shiner Bock, a bike ride through UT and along Town Lake, Avatar in 3D, a hike through hill country and probably the best barbeque I've had. Thank you Liz, Brian, Grommy for three wonderful days.

Finally, on January 18, I boarded Autobuses Americanos, headed through Nuevo Laredo and south toward Monterrey. The US+Mexico border might be the sketchiest I'll cross on this trip. At this crossing, there were only three other people on a huge bus. Since no one else had any business at the US exit office, we skipped right by it, meaning that I never got an exit stamp. This will be extremely problematic for me as this trip reaches its conclusion. For now, it's a footnote.

We pulled into Monterrey the same day. Including Cozumel, this is the only city in Mexico I've been to. It's useful, developed, and not unlike Texas. I did see a part of Monterrey apart from what I'd seen before. A few blocks from the bus station, I found a bar with a group playing live, sloppy norteña and a room full of bus drivers drinking Carta Blanca. This was enormously fun for exactly one hour. It got old, so I ate a hotdog, returned to the bus station and bought a ticket for Mexico DF.

My arrival at DF, a city of generous proportions, daunted me at 7 am. I walked a few laps through the terminal, bought a city map, and discovered an elaborate metro system. This got me oriented and into the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the converted national theater replete with murals by Rivera, Orozco, Siquieros. My favorite was this, actually in the Diego Rivera museum, next to the Parque Alameda that is depicted in the painting> http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2047/2474907290_39a128121b.jpg

I'm not going wax poetic on why murals are great, and what I think they mean to Mexico. But I do think they are very cool, and oh so Important, and I wish that another Diego Rivera would come along and do for the US what he did for Mexico 70 years ago. Seeing the murals made the visual history of my country seem very thin to me. It makes me love Mexico.

From Parque Alameda, I had the marvelous fortune to reconnect with Patricia, a professor from Middlebury. At school, Patricia's classes were my favorites, particularly a course dedicated to Hispanic poetry and the city of New York. She also helped me with my thesis. It was a joy to see her in DF, to visit the Cafe Tacuba and Palacio del Gobierno and to see another striking Rivera mural through Patricia's eyes. Thank you, Patricia!

After 36 hours in DF, I got antsy to keep moving and caught the metro to another bus terminal. It is at this point that I will mention (brag) that I am travelling through Central and South America with no guide book. This is liberating, and it ensures that I will not walk little Lonely Planet loops through Latin America. It also means that I have no idea where I'm going or how to get there, and that sometimes it's easier just to stay on the bus and move forward. This theme dominated my experience in Central America.

Back to Mexico for a moment. The truth is that I rushed. DF was really cool. As my favorite cities on earth are New York and Buenos Aires, I should have recognized that another sprawling, pan Latin capital with arts would capture my interest. But I didn't. I blasted through, in a day and a half, and headed south. I also skipped by Puebla and a host of interesting Mexican cities. I feel some regret about this, but I also recognize that it was my trip itself, pulling me forward, towards the next destination. And I take consolation in the fact that Mexico, of all the places I will see in the next six months, will be the closest country to me in my life after this trip. And I have a big book about those murals waiting for me in Oregon.