Crossing the Border

Amid alarming and exaggerated reports of a ¨Civil War¨ between the drug cartels and the Mexican government, I finally crossed the border today. After our trip to Biosphere 2, Levi dropped me off at a Mexican bus station in Tucson, and we joked that we were speaking the ¨last unaccented English¨ I would hear for a while.

I walked into the bus station, surprised people by speaking fluent Spanish, and felt like I was already home. It says a lot about the sorry state of mass transport in the US that the Mexican bus lines are now expanding northward, some reaching as far as Vegas or LA. Rather than driving everywhere (or flying) like we do in the US, in Mexico the normal way of traveling from one city to the next is by bus. This is mostly out of necessity of course, but the effect is that you can simply show up at the bus station whenever you please (within reason) and probably be on your way in less than an hour and at a decent price.

I hopped on the bus and headed South. Almost immediately, I struck up a conversation (in Spanish) with the girl in front of me, who I quickly discovered spoke perfect, unaccented English. So much for that!

We crossed the border and cheered when the random search button said we could go through with no hassle. Within a few hours I was in Hermosillo, where I went kindergarten, greeting my cousin Milly and her family. I was home.

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