Maybe I’m learning. I arrived here a couple days ago, and have crashed in a hotel room for the two nights I’ve been here. It feels a bit daft, flying in someplace you’ve never been and spending the time in a hotel, ordering in room service and never seeing the sights, but I’m more mindful of burnout than I used to be. I’ve got a solid chunk of days scheduled here at the end of my trip, so I’ll be passing through for a while before I actually get to see anything.¹

I had thought I needed to be here for a couple days in case I needed to get my passport sorted out, but since I got that taken care of in New York I didn’t even need to head to the American consulate. So I stayed in. I had to chase off housekeeping a couple times² but otherwise caught up on some things I had been postponing.

I’ve begun to do this more and more, planning on doing just about nothing when I arrive someplace new. Or, more precisely, not beating myself up over doing nothing when I arrive someplace new. Travel can be exhausting. Part of doing it well is keeping yourself mentally fit, not overstressing yourself, taking the pace appropriately. That’s as true for a weekend trip as it is for, well, six months on the road.

It’s not like I didn’t get out at all; I always try to wander out into a new city the first night, if just to grab supplies and see what’s in the neighborhood. I wasn’t especially hungry,³ but I thought I might grab a bite to eat rather than wake up famished in the middle of the night. I had three goals: get money, grab snacks, and get some real food. I at least got one of those three.

Getting money out proved the most difficult. There was a bank nearby, and I tried repeatedly, but the transaction was blocked for “security reasons” by my bank. Fun fact: German banks apparently keep German support hours, or at least this one did. I could have hoofed it to another one, but the other close one looked kind of shady, so I gave up.

Restaurants, similarly, were somewhat tricky. Most of the close places proved to be Argentinian steak houses; not the best option for me. There were some other places around, but I didn’t want anything especially heavy, and general hesitancy —a smoothie sounded great, but juice places use a lot of unbottled water in their drinks — meant I figured I skip it for the evening.

Luckily, there was a grocery store which had what I needed, which was a working credit card machine, a wide selection of beverages,⁴ and a pack of jalapeño potato chips. Here’s a good travel trip: places with relatively lower costs-of-living have accordingly lower credit card limits on transactions. I escaped back to the hotel and crashed in my room.

Right now I’m on the bus to Zitácuaro.⁵ Today all I did was eat at the hotel⁶ and catch a cab to the bus station. By some weird luck I arrived 10 minutes before the next bus left, so I was able to buy a ticket and immediately hop on. The seats are plush and comfy (really, it’s nicer than the Amtrak I rode last weekend) so I’m settled in for the trip.

If there’s one thing that concerns me, it’s that my Spanish is truly abysmal. I’ve been through countries where there’s been a language barrier, but this is an extra level of miscommunication. The reaction when I indicate I don’t understand seems to be for the person I’m talking to slowing down and rewording what they’re saying, which still vastly overestimates my facility in the local language.⁷

I suppose I’ve spent most of my trip being surprised at the overall fluency in English; it’s overdue that I’d be surprised at how little there was someplace. I just kind of thought, with the proximity to the United States, there’d be more reasons to learn it.⁸

But I am a both stranger and a guest. I’m gratified to find people who do speak my language, but I’m not disappointed to find people who don’t. During my travels I’ve been alternately a stranger and a friend, a host and a guest, someone lost and found a dozen times over. Which has more to do with life than travelling. You might as well try to enjoy it.

Next: Zitácuaro to Mexico City
Prev: New York City (JFK) to Mexico City (MEX)

Footnotes

¹ For what should be obvious reasons, there’s a ton of cheap flights into and out of Mexico City from everywhere else in Mexico, and relatively few cheap flights traveling between any other two cities.

² Housekeeping at hotels is particularly annoying, since I’m almost always in mornings when they’re doing their rounds, and if I do venture out it’s typically afternoons or evenings when they’ve knocked off. It’s nice to have the beds made and the towels changed, but if I’m staying for less than a couple days it’s all a bit silly anyway. I’ll usually just hang the “Do Not Disturb” hanger on the door and leave it at that.

Of course, when I was in India I started getting worried phone calls from the front desk after about three days.

³ Somewhat stupidly, I ate an awful lot of trail mix in the lounge before my flight. Then had the bejesus scared out of me with a moderately turbulent couple of hours on the flight — not because the turbulence was particularly bad, but because I was worried it was going to get significantly worse.

⁴ Including an entire case full of Pedialyte, which I’ve only previously seen in drugstores, and certainly not refrigerated in a selection of flavors. Pedialyte was of interest to me after my run-in with India, so I tried the cherry flavor. It was … well, it wasn’t undrinkable. Kind of slightly less medicinal cough syrup.

Most disappointing discovery was that they had Fresca. But it’s not sugar free in Mexico.

⁵ Look, I really, really hope it’s Zitácuaro. I showed my ticket to the person in front and they nodded enthusiastically, handed me bottled water, and shoved me on the bus, so I’m hopeful.

⁶ A shockingly good breakfast buffet, as it turns out. Omelette station; selection of breads, fresh fruit and juices; rice and beans with two warm hot sauces and sour cream; hotcakes with caramel sauce; and one overly solicitous waiter who insisted on going to the omelette station and fetching bread and juice for me.

I typically avoid getting breakfast — I rarely eat it, and will often opt out if it’s an option — but this was included in the room rate and, hey, free breakfast.

⁷ To be perfectly fair, I have zero doubt this is the same thing that happens to foreigners visiting the United States, so I certainly can’t hold it against them.

⁸ Not that that proximity has put much pressure on learning Spanish in America, so maybe that’s unreasonable.