Wandering around way down in Mexico
I really enjoy trackchasing outside of the United States. It takes quite a bit to pull one of those trips off logistically. Then, when I get to where I’m going, there’s going to be a little bit of racing, quite a bit of touring, and just soaking up as much culture and good food as I possibly can.
If you’re reading this with a travel interest, I think you might be able to pick up a few tips on the kinds of things that I do to make my trip more comfortable and successful.
If you’re reading this with a racing interest, I think you’re going to like the idea that what we see in the United States with NASCAR is being nearly replicated in Mexico.
For whatever reason I’m glad you tuned in today. Sit back and imagine you are right next to me on this trip. Would you be tugging on my sleeve and asking me whether or not we should be doing this or that? Maybe?
Did you know there are hundreds of people in the hobby of trackchasing? They’ve all submitted a list of their tracks showing the world where they’ve been. Of course, there are an equal amount of people, if not more, who have been to a large number of racetracks and never took the time to submit their lists.
Of course, Mexico is in North America. Most trackchasers live in North America. Most of those people live in the United States, but not all. More than 90% of track visits that have ever been recorded came from the United States and Canada.
Trackchasers do not go to Mexico! Of all of the people in trackchasing only about five trackchasers have seen a race in Mexico. In every one of those instances, they only went to one track.
This weekend I am expecting to visit my 13th different race track in Mexico. If all goes well when I am finished, I will have seen racing in eight of the thirty-one Mexican states, and the Federal District which is sort of like Washington DC. Here’s the list.
Aguascalientes
Baja California
Federal District
Jalisco
Nuevo Leon
Puebla
San Luis Potosi
Queretaro
Yucatan
I have what I call a “classic” Mexican trackchasing schedule. How does that go? I try to fly into Mexico on Friday. I reserve Saturday for doing as much touring as I can possibly fit in a single day. Then I’ll go to the race in Mexico on Sunday and try to get back home on Monday.
Some folks ask me why I am comfortable doing so many short trips. There are a couple of reasons that come to mind. I take about 40 of these adventures every year. Can you imagine if I spent two weeks on all forty of those trips? That wouldn’t work out numerically, would it? I would rather spend 2-3 days in forty places than two weeks in three places. Of course, we do take four or five 1-2 week trips each year as well.
Of course I have a video of my interview with my Mexican Uber driver AND from the Mexico NASCAR racing series. Click HERE to check it out. Also, you won’t want to miss my photo album. You will see it all and the photos are captioned. Click HERE for the photos.
This weekend I’m heading to San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The city of San Luis Potosi is in the state of the same name. Thank New York, New York. San Luis Potosi is the 12th largest city in Mexico with a population of around 1.3 million.
Did you know that I live just 74 miles north of the United States/Mexican border and the city of Tijuana, Mexico? I’ve read that Tijuana is the most dangerous city in the world today. Ensenada, just an hour and a half south of Tijuana is also mentioned as being a top ten most dangerous city. When the kids were small we went camping for the weekend all the time in Ensenada. I’ve even been in an ambulance there but that is a different story for a different time.
Can you believe that when I first started in business and we had a meeting in San Diego my friends and I would go into TJ at night for dinner and drinks and merriment? I even drove my Ford Granada company car into downtown Tijuana at night. Yep. Those were the days.
San Luis Potosi is more than 1500 miles southeast of San Clemente. It’s just a little bit north of Mexico City. There was no way I could drive there.
In the past, I have flown into Mexico City from Los Angeles and taken a bus to the racing location. Most of those bus rides were two or three hours long. I am a white guy. There are not a lot of white guys who ride on these Mexican over-the-road buses.
For this trip, I discovered that I could fly from Los Angeles to Dallas and then fly nonstop from Dallas to San Luis Potosi. That’s what I did. I will have a totally different transportation plan when I head home.
I had a five-hour layover in Dallas. I used that layover for three things. First, I got my steps in so that I could make sure I walked four miles for the day. After finishing an entire year of walking four miles or more every day my new goal is to do four miles six out of each seven days a week. That allows just a little bit of a break for me.
I have something called Priority Pass. It comes with my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. Priority pass lets me stay in airline clubs, eat at airport restaurants, and visit a place called Minute Suites when I have the time. All for free! Priority Pass costs 75 bucks a year and I literally get back thousands of the year. The first year I had PP I got more than $10,000 in freebies. If you know me…you know I don’t exaggerate stuff like that.
Minute Suites is sort of like a mini hotel located in the airport. They offer a room that is small, maybe 8 or 10 ft.². The room has a bed, internet, desk, and electricity. Today I used the Minute Suites at DFW to rest for a while and charge all of my electronic equipment. Priority Pass allows me to stay there at no charge for one hour. I think if you wanted to use one of these overnight the total expense would be about $200.
Then I went over to the Club @ DFW, which is an airline club with a very nice bar and a buffet-style selection of light hors d’oeuvres. I relaxed in the club for nearly 3 hours. While I was there I watched the Los Angeles Angels play the Boston Red Sox on my laptop. I have a subscription to MLB.com. I can watch every major-league baseball game live on my laptop or iPad or iPhone. If you ever wanted to travel as I do you would likely enjoy all of these conveniences.
My flight today from Los Angeles to Dallas was three hours long. Then from Dallas to San Luis Potosi, Mexico another two hours. I watched the Netflix miniseries regarding the Malaysian Air flight that disappeared. That plane has never been located. I must admit it was a little weird to be watching and listening to stories about plane crashes when I was on an airplane myself!
The San Luis Potosi airport was sort of a one-man operation…literally. When the 100 passengers from our airplane landed there was only one customs agent processing everyone through. It was approaching midnight. He was fairly fast, but you can imagine how long it took for 100 people to get admitted into Mexico with only one agent.
The signs say you are not supposed to take photos in the customs area of most places I visit. I like to think of that policy as a suggestion. I mean how many people reading that sign have a newsletter? If you are a subscriber to a newsletter aren’t you going to want to see what a single border control agent looks like checking in that many people? Of course, you are!
I will not rent a car on this trip. I will use Uber. I’ll go everywhere I want and the cost and convenience will be less than half of a rental car expense. I’m a big fan of Uber.
Tonight’s Uber driver was a woman who carried a 4.96 rating. That’s a pretty strong rating. Do you know what YOUR Uber rating is as a passenger? My Uber rating is 4.84. I think it should be a five! I am always respectful and a charming conversationalist. Seeming, some drivers haven’t seen it that way!
My experience with my driver tonight wasn’t all that great. She arrived much later than what was expected. She told me she had gotten held up, not literally held up, at a crowded gas station. That seemed like an odd statement on her part. When I looked over I saw the yellow fuel light flowing brightly on her gas gauge.
I noticed she also had only one operating headlight. I mentioned that but because she didn’t speak English I had to resort to Google Translate. Then once I was in the car, she took off from the airport to my hotel at a high rate of speed, doing her best Mario Andretti impersonation. I think she was the only Uber driver I’ve ever had where I worried about the driving speed.
For the next three nights, I will be staying at the Courtyard by Marriott in San Luis Potosi. There are a lot of Courtyard-branded hotels in Mexico. They are just as nice as anything that I see in the United States.
Nevertheless, the staff didn’t speak much English. When I check into a hotel at a Marriott Property, I’m going to try to use my frequent stay status of being a Titanium Elite member to my fullest advantage. I figure I have stayed in a couple of thousand Marriott hotels in my life. I might as well try to be rewarded for that.
Tonight, I was able to cajole the desk clerk into an upgraded very large room. I didn’t get a suite but I came close. After he gave me my room key, I reminded him that “Titanium people” normally get a complimentary breakfast. Soon he was giving me a free breakfast for the next three mornings. Next, I reminded him that Titanium people get their choice of more frequent stay points or drinks and snacks from the Marriott store. Tonight, that request was worth 100 pesos or about five bucks. For one hundred pesos I scored five packages of M&Ms and Oreos. I think if I were trading cigarettes for soups in prison I would do pretty well. I operate by a simple life strategy. If you don’t ask you don’t get.
SATURDAY
As I mentioned to you, Saturday is my day to tour whatever Mexican city I might be visiting as part of my classic Mexican trackchasing weekend.
I started with a very nice cooked-to-order breakfast at no charge in the hotel. You might recall that a little bit more than a year ago I lost 33 pounds using the Nutrisystem eating plan. Since that time, I have gained 10 pounds back. That’s not good.
This being the case and not wanting the problem to get any worse I am now in my second week of a 28-day Nutrisystem eating plan. During the first week, I lost 6.6 pounds. Nutrisystem tells me after the first week I should lose 1-2 pounds each week. If I do that, at the end of 28 days, I will have knocked out most of my 10-pound slippage. As you know, successful weight loss is not easy. If you plant corn, you get corn.
I knew I would be doing quite a bit of walking when I toured downtown San Luis Potosi. Would I get four miles of walking in each day? I didn’t know. I headed down to the hotel’s health club and knocked out a mile and a half just to be safe.
Next up I ordered an Uber to take me from my hotel to downtown. I was looking at my Uber stats because I have a lot of time on my hands and discovered that I have used Uber about 150 times. To show you just how much time I have on my hands this is a list of the states and countries where I have used their service.
Mexico
Australia
Argentina
New Jersey
Czech Republic
Germany
Netherlands
Tennessee
Pennsylvania
Massachusetts
Colorado
Indiana
California
France
Kentucky
Minnesota
Florida
Canada
Saudi Arabia
Nevada
Portugal
New York
Belarus
Louisiana
Ukraine
Washington
Missouri
Croatia
Hawaii
Washington, D.C.
In Mexico hiring an Uber driver is really cheap. Last night’s nearly 30-minute ride from the airport to my hotel cost me about nine dollars. Today’s 15-minute ride into downtown was only four dollars.
Today’s Uber driver spoke English well. That was good for him and me. He spoke English so well that I knew I could count on him tomorrow to take me to the races and pick me up when I needed him. The driver’s name was Ulises. He and I agreed on a number that he would charge me while operating outside of the Uber system. That meant more money for him and a slight discount for me. I was happy that worked out.
I don’t speak Spanish. People in Mexico don’t speak a lot of English. Today while exploring downtown San Luis Potosi, I was on my own. I didn’t see another person see or hear another person who looked like me or who spoke any American English.
I really love taking pictures when I travel. I used to carry a big clunky 35mm camera. Today all of my picture-taking is done with my iPhone. Mexican cities have so much architecture and culture and unique, passionate people settings that are a picture taker’s delight.
I hope that you take a look at my photo album. Being from a Mexican city, it’s going to be one of the best that I share.
San Luis Potosi has a number of large old, beautiful churches. I stepped in one and found myself in the back row of a wedding. I’ve done that in the past.
I just kept walking with a plan to eat tacos. I’m comfortable eating “Mexican street food”. However, my preference is going to be a mom-and-pop Mexican eatery. That’s what I did today. Five chorizo tacos cost me a grand total of 45 Mexican pesos. That’s just a little bit more than two dollars U.S.
I also bought a piece of Mexican roasted sweet corn from a street vendor. When I spoke in English my server replied in Spanish. Once we got that little song and dance out of the way we went to pointing and nodding our heads. We got it done. I would never starve for lack of being able to speak the local language.
That brought back memories of being with another one of my Mexican drivers on a previous trip. We hit it off so well that he took me home to meet his wife and kids. Then we went for a ride and all of us stopped to eat roasted corn on the cob from a small street cart vendor.
The current exchange rate is roughly 18 Mexican pesos for one U.S. dollar. When I go on these trips, I always ask Carol if she has any local currency from our previous trips that I can take with me. In almost every case she does. She gave me $300 worth of Mexican pesos. I know I won’t use that much but just in case it’s good to have more than what you think you need.
There were a lot of street vendors, selling all kinds of food most of which were sweet options. These included churros, donuts, and ice cream treats. It was fun to see the appliance stores offering their merchandise in settings that didn’t look like the appliance stores I’d been to. San Luis Potosi even had a Sears store. I thought they went out of business years ago.
There was a good amount of armed police presence. At the same time, I didn’t see any situations whatsoever that made me fearful. There were a lot of families with small children milling about the downtown area on a Saturday afternoon evening.
I love riding those big red double-decker touring buses in just about any city. San Luis Potosi had its version of that. The bus almost seemed to be homemade with wooden seats and no shocks.
I hopped on for a one-hour tour. The sun was setting. That’s a great time to take one of these tours. The commentary would be exclusively in Spanish. That wasn’t a problem. I was on the top deck simply to take pictures, relax and enjoy the ambiance.
These tours are incredibly inexpensive. Today’s regular rate was 100 pesos which are about five bucks U.S. However, the guy told me that folks older than sixty got a 20 peso discount. I guess it pays to be old. Again, don’t miss my photos from the top deck of the San Luis Potosi tour bus.
Just when my tour was ending there was also a major musical concert nearby in the city square. I’m going to guess there were 2,000-3,000 people, maybe more enjoying themselves. Again, everything felt safe.
My Saturday “touring day” worked out perfectly. The nighttime weather temperature came in at about 70°. Shorts and a T-shirt worked fine for me.
I know a lot of people think Mexico is a dangerous place to visit. I commonly tell my wife there are not enough criminals in the world to commit all the crimes that people imagine happening. Then some folks will reply, “It only takes one”. Well, if you’re staying at home for fear of encountering that one bad experience I believe life is being wasted.
SUNDAY
Today’s word of the day is, “ambience”. The definition of ambience is “the character and atmosphere of a place”.
For some trackchasers, the main point of the trackchasing hobby is to see a race. That’s not the case with me. For me, trackchasing is all about ambience and drama. If I get those two things I’ve had a good day. Today I had a good day.
Yesterday I contracted with my English-speaking Uber driver to pick me up this morning. Ulises would drive me 36 km from my hotel to the race track. Then when the races were finished, he would pick me up. We agreed that he would do this for 300 Mexican pesos each way or about $30 in total. That seemed like a good situation for both of us.
Just as planned Ulises was waiting for me on a sunny Sunday morning in the Courtyard by Marriott parking lot at the appointed time. I like people who arrive early, ready to do their work.
Whenever I come to Mexico or any foreign country for that matter and don’t rent a car I will be using Uber if it’s available. If, early in the trip, I find a driver who can speak English and understand English I will hire him to be my private driver. Ulises was just the man for the job.
Of course, it should go without saying that I would hire a woman as well. When I was in Algeria I met a woman who worked at the Sheraton. I knew she could fit the bill as my private all-day tour guide. The next day she and I went all over Algiers to see the sites. We had a great time. When I returned home she told me she had been fired by the Sheraton. Seems they didn’t like her being a guide for Sheraton customers while she worked for Sheraton!
It wasn’t long before Ulises and I arrived at the Super Ovalo Potosi racetrack. The Super Óvalo Potosino (formerly Autódromo Potosino) is a half-mile paved oval.
I owed Ulises 300 pesos for the ride to the track. When he returned to pick me up I would owe him another 300 pesos to take me from the track back to my hotel. I paid him the entire 600 pesos when we got to the track this morning. I feel I am an excellent judge of character. I wanted Ulises to understand that I had full confidence in him. I knew, despite having been paid in full for a job half completed I would see him after the race.
The Super Ovalo Potosí track was opened in 1983 as a 0.770 mi (1.239 km) road course. It was built by Promotodo, an enterprise owned by Michel Jourdain Sr., which organized the defunct Marlboro Cup, which was arguably the most important racing series in the country at that time.
In 2005, after several years of not being used, the track was rebuilt as a half-mile oval to host NASCAR events. In 2009, due to the swine flu outbreak, they canceled the race that was supposed to be held. The track surface looked like it had recently been re-paved.
I didn’t have a ticket. I figured I could buy one at the venue. That has not always been the case when I have visited Mexican race tracks in the past. However, after a little bit of confusion at the entry gate, which was entirely focused on the language barrier I was able to buy a ticket. An older Mexican fellow overheard the conversation and told me the admission price today was going to be 150 Mexican pesos or about $7.50 U.S. That was very reasonable.
The track had a huge grandstand. It must have been 40 rows high. There were a few things happening today that weren’t exactly spectator friendly.
I had intended to eat lunch at the track. Unfortunately, there was no hot food being served anywhere. I am addicted to Coke Zero. It is quite common in Mexico, not to serve diet drinks. They didn’t have any today. I was at the track today for about five hours. All I had was about an ounce of pistachio nuts.
The toilet situation was solved by a series of porta potties and a permanent restroom area. I was one of the first to arrive and to use the permanent restroom at the track. I walked into the permanent restroom and selected the side marked with a big “M”.
I was a little surprised that they seemed to be identifying this side of the permanent restroom building with an “M” for men given the fact that we were in Mexico. Normally they would’ve said something like Caballeros. Nevertheless, I went about my business using one of the porcelain toilets. I did make a mental note that there didn’t seem to be any urinals of any kind whatsoever. You may know where I’m going with this!
Later in the day, I was back at the permanent restroom during the track’s intermission. When I entered once again I was the only person using the facilities. When I finished my business a few moments later, I exited my stall, and lo and behold there were 15 women in the building, and another fifteen waiting in line to get in. I tried, unsuccessfully, not to look any more conspicuous than I already was. I was more than willing to accept the accusation that I was an old codger and simply didn’t know where I was. Being older definitely allows me to use the “age” card whenever I do something pretty stupid as I had just done at the restroom. I still don’t know what the “M” at the restroom entrance stood for, but it’s not “men”!
NASCAR is the most successful and popular racing series in the United States. NASCAR also has a racing series in Mexico. I don’t think most race fans know much about that. I discovered the series several years ago. I try to attend one of their major events each year. Why not do more? I want the Mexican racing experience to last for as long as I can.
Today there were two different classes racing. The first race would be for trucks and would be one hour long starting at about noon. The second race and the main event of the day would be for the NASCAR stock cars. The stock car race started at 2 p.m. The race distance was scheduled for 200 laps or 100 minutes whichever happened first. The NASCAR series in the U.S. doesn’t do it this way. They schedule their races for a number of laps, no matter how long it takes they will run that number of laps.
Please take a look at my video from today’s truck and stock car racing at the Oval San Luis Potosi race track. That video will also include my interview with my Uber driver as he dropped me off in the parking lot. That was fun to do.
One of the most notable experiences of the day was just watching the food and drink vendors go through the stands. They were like locusts they were everywhere all the time.
As the day progressed from a late morning temperature of 70-75° with a 15-mile-an-hour wind the skies got cloudy. The temperature dropped. The winds increased to more than 30 mph on a constant basis.
I was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. As the day got progressively colder and windier more and more fans went to their cars to get a jacket and sometimes a winter coat.
I was dressed for temperatures in the low 80s with no wind. When the weather changed I was simply wishing for the race to get over as quickly as it could. I was freezing to death. I had planned to walk into the pits after the race. Ulises was coming to pick me up at 4:15 p.m.
I couldn’t believe how much Cerveza aka beer was being sold in the grandstand. Who wants an ice-cold beer when the windchill is 48°?
I have never in my life seen anybody work harder than these vendors. This was especially true for the beer vendors. They walked up and down a 40-row grandstand with a tray of 20 large beers perched on top of their head.
Imagine doing this in a 30-mile-an-hour wind with a tray on your head with 20 beers. Then trying to make change for your customers with one of your hands filled with Mexican paper currency.
I saw the vendors deftly reach over their head and pull out a beer or two and give it to the customer. Then, while holding the tray above their head with one hand, use the other hand to make change and move on down the line. Doing all of that in this weather for literally hours was one of the most impressive work feats I’ve ever seen.
At one point in the second half of the race, I’m going to guess at about lap 125 of the 200-lap race the weather began to spit rain. The rain got strong enough that the cars were pulled off the track and put into the pit area to wait out the rain. NASCAR doesn’t race when it’s raining on an oval track.
With that being the case, I decided to go down below the grandstand in hopes of finding some form of shelter, mainly from the wind, not the rain. A rain delay like this can take 15 minutes or well over an hour. Often times when the rain stops and the track drying process is nearly complete it was begin raining again and the entire process begins again.
Just as I got to the bottom of the grandstand, the rain began to pick up. I immediately sought shelter in a canvas race merchandise booth with a roof on top. This was the at the track retail location for Sears. They were selling shirts and sweatshirts.
The space might have been 25’ x 25’. The winds picked up. There was lightning and some very strong thunder. The rain came down making the outside dirt surface a mud pit. The wind was now blowing at nearly 40 mph. The fans were fleeing the grandstands at a dizzying pace.
I called Ulises and asked him to come immediately. My request was about an hour earlier than we had expected to meet up. Despite the last-minute change in plans, he told me he was on his way.
For the next hour, I stood in the Sears booth trying to stay out of the wind and the rain. Sometimes the thunder was so loud that it felt like it was going to come crashing into our canvas tent. I was cold!
Ulises got to the track as quickly as he could. It wasn’t easy for him given the bad weather and that thousands of people were beating a hasty exit OUT of the track. By the time he arrived, the wind had moderated just a little bit, the rain has stopped, and the weather was returning to a sunny day. I never heard any race engines once it started raining. Almost all of the crowd had left. However, I later found out they waited out the rain, dried the track, and completed the race.
Ulises and I had thought to exchange phone numbers earlier. That helped when he was trying to find me in the mad muddy rush of the rainout. On the way back to the hotel I told him I wanted to do a drive-by in some of the neighborhoods we had passed this morning. That’s all part of the ambience of the trips I take.
Ulises told me an “average” house in the area sold for about 400,000 pesos or maybe about $20,000 U.S. He also told me that Mexicans who work in the local automobile factories earn about 1.600 pesos a week which is $80 US. Folks don’t earn much down here but things aren’t very expensive either. Nevertheless, nobody seems to be getting rich.
Touring the residential neighborhoods was interesting. In Mexico, homes often sport exterior colors of bright blue, green, orange, and pink. There were also quite a few dogs roaming around in the neighborhood by themselves with no leash as they did in your 1950s and 1960 neighborhoods.
I invited Ulises to join me for dinner. I told him to pick out his favorite Mexican restaurant and the bill was on me.
Soon we pulled up in front of the Ed México de Frida restaurant. This was more of an upscale Mexican restaurant compared to some of the Taquerias I had frequented earlier in the trip.
The menu was extensive. There must have been well over 100 items to choose from. Of course, the menu was entirely in Spanish. Ulises was recommending I have the Zacahul tamale dish. I went with that. He chose his favorite enchilada dish. We also had some chips with very special peppers/cactus salsa. The hotter the better for me. All delicious.
The dessert menu for this eatery was extensive. They had about a dozen different desserts, many of which I had never heard of and all of which looked delicious. I had never seen a large dessert menu anywhere.
We settled on the Capirotada dessert dish. It reminded me of a cinnamon-based bread pudding and was delicious. I took a little bit of each of my choices back to the hotel for a snack later.
From there…Ulises drove me back to the hotel in good shape. It was a great idea to hire a driver at a fixed price who could take me wherever I needed to go. Not only do I get a driver, but a translator and a tour guide, and an advisor to tell me what things might be a little too “out there”.
Ulises and I spent a good deal of time in the car. Like good friends, we talked about all manner of things. He told me about his niece who was just finishing up an 11-year prison sentence after getting mixed up with a drug cartel.
I told him my ultimate “storyline” for these kinds of trips would be to get kidnapped and not murdered and be able to write that story. Ulises told me to be careful with what I wished for. He told me he had been kidnapped in front of his house in Mexico City for a few hours. He was tied up and later released. He thought the entire thing came from riding in a Mexico City taxi.
It was also nice that he and I could speak in English. I knew that he understood what I was saying, and what the intent of what I was saying was. That’s always important when speaking to someone whose native language is not English.
I told you that “ambience” was the word of the day. I’m all about the ambience and the drama. I guess visiting a restroom that turns out to be the ladies’ room and coming out of the stall to see 15 somewhat astonished women staring at me is some form of drama, isn’t it?
The ambience covers the Mexican vendors, and seeing what they do to make a peso. Watching all the people working in the wind and the rain when they were mostly ill-equipped was a sight to see.
I’ve certainly had my chance to meet up with local people who have always treated me so well when I visit their country. When I look back on those trips, it is those people many of which I still stay in touch with, that are the lasting memories of the places I visit.
As Ulises and I were returning to the hotel, I told him what my definition of having a friend was. I told him that I couldn’t really consider anyone a personal friend if I hadn’t had a meal with them, or played a round of golf with them. He replied, “Then we are friends”. I told him that we certainly were.
One significant aspect of the trackchasing hobby for me is simply being able to say that I am doing things that most people don’t do, wouldn’t do, couldn’t do, and might just be a little skeptical about doing in the first place. I’m suspecting that many people reading this are shaking their heads and vowing internally to never do many of the things I seem to take for granted. That’s O.K. If we all hit the road the airlines couldn’t handle the traffic!
Most people I know probably wouldn’t want to go to Mexico for fear of their personal safety. I don’t give that much thought at all. I know that I can fly into an airport, take an Uber ride to my American-branded hotel, and then take an Uber ride into the downtown section of wherever I am visiting during the daylight and not have any problems whatsoever.
I did see some very unique Mexican-branded hotels in San Luis Potosi. I might be making a mistake by staying in Marriott hotels simply because they give me so many perks. I might be better off, staying in some of these unique upscale Mexican properties. I think I’m going to consider that option when I visit future foreign locations.
When I got back to my hotel room, I relaxed and watched the NASCAR Cup race from Martinsville on my laptop. What? Do you say you can’t watch YouTubeTV outside of the U.S.? You might want to get a VPN. We recently switched from DIRECTV to YouTubeTV. One of the major advantages is that I can now watch all of my DVR recordings anywhere in the world with Y/T. I could never watch a DIRECTV DVR recording anywhere outside of my home.
Tonight, I took a little bit of time to buy an online bus ticket that will take me tomorrow from San Luis Potosi to Guatemala a five-hour bus ride. I’ve ridden Mexican buses in the interior of the country several times. I’m very much looking forward to the experience tomorrow.
When I get to Guadalajara, I will grab a late-night flight back to Los Angeles. I’ll land in Los Angeles at about 11 p.m. By the time I get home it will be 1- 2 a.m. in San Clemente but 3-4 p.m. in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. I don’t know if that plan is more ambience or drama. Maybe it’s both!
MONDAY
Today would be an interesting day. I was simply trying to get home from San Luis Potosi, Mexico to San Clemente, California. There were a lot of steps along the way. I definitely had to pay attention.
Last night I bought a one-way bus ticket on Primera Plus bus lines to travel from San Luis Potosi to Guadalajara, Mexico. From Guadalajara, I would catch a nonstop flight to Los Angeles.
Although not everyone would agree with this point of view traveling inside Mexico on their bus system is easy to do, very comfortable, and seems safe to me. I paid $36 U.S. for my one-way five-hour ride. I chose a window seat so I could check out the scenery which wasn’t much. It was sort of like driving from Texas to Arizona.
Of course, the bus had a bathroom. It was very similar to what you might find on an airplane. However, using the bathroom while the bus was in transit was like using the bathroom on an airplane in heavy turbulence. It was an E-ticket ride!
When I arrived in Guadalajara, I had a choice of taking a bus and then a tram to get to the airport or taking the easy way out and ordering an Uber. The bus idea seemed a little complicated and time-consuming. I chose to take an Uber ride instead.
When I got in the car, my driver asked me to fasten my seatbelt. That told me he spoke English. For the next 35 minutes of our $12 ride, we chatted back and forth. One of the reasons I love Uber is having the chance to talk to the drivers who often live a much different lifestyle than I do.
He had lived “all his life” in El Monte, California then moved to Detroit for a number of years after that. He was a truck driver. After 37 years of driving truck, he retired at age 62 last year. He is now living full-time in Guadalajara where he is originally from.
We talked about the danger reported coming from Mexico. He agreed the cartels were a real problem. He did say that most of the violence occurs at night. During the daytime in the major cities, the downtown areas things are as safe as you would want them to be.
He told me the best place to live in Mexico is outside of the big cities in small towns (above photo from today’s bus ride) where a “nobody bothers you”.
He also mentioned that most of the drug cartel murders are “bad guys killing other bad guys”. We both agreed that seemed like a worthwhile outcome from the violence. My friend used some very colorful language to describe the Mexican government. He told me that his long-term plan might be to live in San Antonio, Texas. He holds dual citizenship with both Mexico and America.
He was driving a brand new Nissan Sentra with just 7,000 miles on the odometer. He told me he paid US$16,000 for it which seemed like a good price. He also told me that he used his truck driver earnings in the United States to buy three houses in Guadalajara. He lives in the biggest house which cost him US$61,000! I have had some very illuminating conversations with the people of Mexico who were able to speak in English with me. These folks are hard-working and have a very positive attitude despite some challenging living conditions.
From there I checked in at the Guadalajara airport for my flight to Los Angeles. I was early, so I asked the gate agent if they had a good Mexican food restaurant in the airport. She told me my best bet was to go to an offsite restaurant just a few blocks away. This small restaurant catered to airport and airline employees.
The place was totally unmarked from the outside. I had to ask several people how to find the place. Once I got in, the tacos were excellent and certainly more than authentic.
I still had a little more time before my flight. I headed to the VIP Lounge inside GDL which is part of the Priority Pass program. I figured that since I was a Mexican I ought to try a little bit of tequila which was tasty.
This is been an outstanding trip. Everything, within reason, went as planned. I met a lot of interesting people and saws some awesome, unique architecture and tourist sites in general. I very much enjoyed the food. The entire trip wasn’t all that expensive. I’ll hope to return maybe one more time this year and certainly next year for one of the big NASCAR races.
As I mentioned I have a video of my interview with my Mexican Uber driver AND from the Mexico NASCAR racing series. Click HERE to check it out. Also, you won’t want to miss my photo album. You will see it all and the photos are captioned. Click HERE for the photos.
Thanks for tuning in.
See you next time.
Randy Lewis
The tall amigo