For some reason (I don’t know why) we slept late on Thursday. Springing from bed we quickly packed, breakfasted, checked out, and Ubered to the airport. We arrived in good time, cleared security very quickly and sat down to read for a couple of hours.

The flight from MEX to SFO was uneventful (mainly because I slept most of the way). United’s Economy Plus seats were most welcome on the four hour flight.

In San Francisco we cleared passport control very quickly (thanks to the free Mobile Passport app. You MUST get this app if your ever travel internationally. It makes reentry into the US so much smoother.), cleared security again, wandered for a bit, found a nice restaurant for dinner, and settled in for Another couple hours of reading.

The final leg was a standard SFO-BOI flight.

We landed at about 11:00 PM and were home a short cab ride later.

Thus ends another adventure. We learned some things:

• People in Mexico don’t tend to speak English. It makes sense. We had been told that was the case. But it was still a surprise. We’ve been spoiled in our European travels.
• Mexicans love speed bumps. It’s interesting to be driving down a divided four-lane highway and having to slow down for a speed bump.
• When students from Oklahoma we being oriented to life in Mexico they are told; “Your greatest danger isn’t being mugged or robbed or even pick-pocketed. It’s the sidewalks.
• This is a very old civilization. They trace their known roots back to Roman times, and their roots back to the time of the Pharaohs.
• The exchange rate for pesos is confusing. We rounded it to 20 pesos per dollar. It still was interesting to hit an ATM and withdraw $7000MX (about $350 US) – and to know that was enough money to last for a fairly long time.
• We saw virtually no homelessness. I din’t see anyone sleeping in a doorway. I only remember one pan handler. If someone was pushing a shopping art it was loaded with equipment for a mobile food stand. And it was a common occurrence to be approached by people selling things (food, water, trinkets). It was also common to see “windshield washers” an performers at stoplights.

I’m sure the reasons for this general industriousness are as wide and complex as the reasons for the abundance of homelessness in the US. So I’m not judging us, or vaunting them. I just thought it was interesting.

Finally, I want to thank daughter Kim for organizing our adventure and for giving us the reason to travel to this strange and interesting world.

Till next time,

R