El Barrio Antiguo

MONTERREY, Mexico - You learn to appreciate the simple pleasures very quickly when trying to bus from Mobile to Nicaragua. I'm here at La Casa del Barrio hostel in Mexico's proudest city hoping my computer doesn't short circuit in my lap from all the sweat it's absorbing right now. A rare breeze has made its way into the room I'm sharing with the actress Roby Packer (who is downstairs eating a chorizo omelette) and the tingling hairs on my sweaty legs are telling my brain that this is ecstasy. Just a few days ago I would have shut the window and turned the AC lower in the comfort of my home in Alabama. But this is a whole different frontier, and I'm already good at sweating even in climate-controlled rooms. Sweat. It'll be one of the themes of the next six months.

My bus to Houston from Mobile left around midnight Friday and arrived at about 10 am Saturday. The last time I would look over my shoulder to see Alabama passing behind me there was a pink (waning) crescent moon rising over her. I had two seats to myself for several hours of uncomfortable sleep until the bus filled up around 4 am in Baton Rouge. I have to be exhausted out of my mind to actually sleep on a bus, and because of my 6-foot-4 frame it's impossible to get comfortable. People lean their seats back into my knees, which makes my legs fall asleep, which forces me to adjust with little space to utilize, which infuriates me, which ultimately makes me sleepy and doze off into some light trance just as the sun is rising and the bus is heating up again inside.

I was running on fumes when former Anniston Star reporter Nick Cenegy and his Laura Lee picked me up downtown and took me on an unexpected whirlwind tour of the city's best spots. I thought my 12 hours in Houston would only involve gazing out the windows of the Greyhound station downtown when I couldn't sleep on the metal benches, but instead I got to tour the Rothko Chapel (http://www.rothkochapel.org/), The Saint Arnold microbrewery (http://www.saintarnold.com/) and took a clutch nap in one of Houston's many outer lying cookie cutter subdivisions, on a street ironically titled Unique Court.

Roby and I were reunited for the first time in three years outside the Hobby airport around 5:15 pm, having last known each other as students at the University of Alabama, and Nick and Laura Lee took us to Montrose, a hip part of town that many would say is the only hip part of Houston, for some food, wine and storytelling. Soon enough it was 10 pm and me and the actress were back at the Greyhound station, tickets in hand and all points south. This bus was bigger and less crowded than the one I took from Mobile. We fell asleep at some point after passing through San Antonio and didn't wake until it was time to change buses at the border in Laredo. It was past 4:30 am, the bus was late, and our talks had dwindled down to incoherent mumblings. When the bus did arrive we thought it would be smooth sailing, but we hit the Rio Grande at 6 am and didn't get across it and through Customs in Mexico until about 9 am. The immigration official filled out two tourist forms for us and by the authority vested in him marked down that we were married. I had promised myself I would not get married in Mexico, but it appears I had no say in the matter.

Getting from the bus station in Monterrey (around noon Sunday) to the Barrio Antiguo where our hostel is was maybe the easiest experience I've ever had upon first arrival to a city in Latin America. Normally you can expect a maelstrom of fake taxi drivers with kids peddling gum and trying to pick your pocket in between the masses. Mercifully, we didn't have to deal with any of that and instead had the option to buy a $5 taxi ticket to take us right across town to what is supposedly the city's safest and most well-preserved area. We got a room at La Casa (http://www.lacasadelbarrio.com.mx/movie.html) and tried to nap but just sweated. The cold shower afterwards went a long way in making me feel better, but getting to eat barbeque pork cooked over a corn tortilla with melted cheese on top, a form of a dish called "memela," and downing some fruity frozen tequila drinks at La Casa de Maiz helped even more. Last night we went on a walk through the city's historic plazas, caught a little street theatre here and there, and ended the night at a cafe in the Barrio called 13 Lunas, where in the back you can take some winding rickety steel steps all the way up to the roof and drink surrounded by a gorgeous panoramic view of the city.

Everyone is so friendly here, it feels incredibly safe and I don't think I could have asked for a better introduction to Mexico Lindo. Today we'll be perusing the Contemporary Art Museum (http://www.mtyol.com/marco/) and hopefully catching a cable car up to one of the gorgeous mountains that surround this bustling city. We'll have to decide by the end of the day whether Monterrey is worth spending one more night in or if we should move on to Zacatecas, http://www.zacatecas.gob.mx/, the second of five stops I'll make with Roby before she flies back to Texas on August 31. After Zacatecas we'll go to John Wayne's old stomping grounds in Durango, followed by a week of Pacific beach living in Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta.

Ok my friends, time is of the essence, adios.