lucktraveler57 2.0

 When the driver arrived he became our knight in shining armor. We were trying to get to the area of town known as Tlaquepaque. He informed us that it was both an area of the city and a county. He, understanding our true destination, ignored the GPS directions and drove us through the streets of Guadalajara towards the shop and art gallery laden area. We thanked him effusively. He told us what a pleasure it was for him to help us as it gave him a chance to practice his seldom used English skills, which, by the way, were excellent. We all but dropped to our knees and kissed his ring as we exited the car.  Across the street was an ATM, I was still peso penniless. Hoping for the best we walked up to a machine.We asked the gentleman at the next machine if he spoke English. He did. We asked him if he would help us out after he was finished with his business. He would. His business consisted of making multiple withdrawals and putting the cash from each one into a different pocket. I...

 For the sake of convenience we had breakfast at the hotel the next morning. We went out, ordered an UBER to where we thought we were going which turned out to be not where we were going. A guidebook had misled us.  We ended up by a beautiful, venerable cathedral. It was Sunday. There were a couple of black robed monks outside, the sounds of a mass emanated from within. We stood in the doorway, mindful of the service, and looked at the grand interior. We wandered through stalls outside the cathedral courtyard walls and started walking down a road that seemed right though we were soon to discover that it wasn't. We suffered several moments of total desolation and utter futility. I suggested we put the neighborhood in as a destination as opposed to a specific address. We got a hit, a driver would be meeting us shortly.

 What's travel without a little adventure, right....right? Our adventure began with the taxi from the airport. The driver told us what it would cost in U.S.dollars and we settled in for the ride to our hotel. Along the way a policeman on a motorcycle rode up beside the cab and asked the driver something in Spanish. The driver replied, gesturing to us in the back seat. The back window was rolled down, the policeman peered at us, the window rolled back up and we were allowed to proceed. Arriving at the hotel we tried to pay with 3 different credit cards, 2 of mine and one of my Travel Buddy's. All were declined. We paid him in U.S. dollars the amount we had agreed on, checked in and were shortly receiving fraud alerts on our phones. The cab driver had attempted to charge us over $400. The next half hour was spent on the phone straightening out the whole affair.  Next order of business, getting pesos. Nowhere in the vicinity of the hotel could we find an ATM that allowed translat...

 I don't recall how the idea formed. My Travel Buddy swears it was my suggestion to go to Guadalajara, he suggested San Miguel de Allende and we both came up with Mexico City. By the time all was said and done it was a 15 day trip. As soon as possible post tax day, my Travel Buddy is an accountant, we woke up exceedingly early on a Saturday morning and were taking off by 7:30. In the classic movie All About Eve Bette Davis utters the infamous line "Fasten your seatbelts everyone, it's going to be a bumpy night." Exchange the word night with flight and you get a description of the next few hours of our lives.  The 2 male flight attendants looked like they might frequent bear bars at home. I imagined plaid lumberjack shirts packed next to their polyester uniforms in their flight bags. The tiny bathrooms made me wonder how anyone of size could fit in them. Smaller than phone booths I conjured up an image of Superman attempting to change into his supersuit in them. I alwa...