The Long Way Home

After spending a week diving in the Bay Islands, I knew it was time to head back. I had made the decision to stay in Utila longer and skip Belize and the few stops in Mexico that I had planned. My goal was still to cross the US border by land, but now I would be making the trip up much faster.

Out of Utila, Honduras I caught the Saturday 6am ferry to the mainland. From there it would be a whirlwind bus tour for the next several days. The ferry landed in the town of La Ceiba. From there is was onto San Pedro Sula, Copan, and finally Guatemala City at about 11pm. I stayed the night (sort of) in Guatemala City, but had to be back at the bus station at 5:00am for the bus bound for Mexico.

It was roughly six hours from Guatemala City to the border. Miraculously, I jumped off a bus in the border town and was able to immediately board a 19 hour bus bound for Mexico City. The busses were not bad at all. They even showed movies. However, most of them were in Spanish, so I had very little idea of what was going on.

I passed most of the time by reading and sleeping. Occasionally, we would stop for some snack/meals or people would just come on the bus and sell stuff. I had converted my Guatemalan currency into Mexican Pesos, but had been reluctant to change my $100 bill at the border knowing that the rate would be lackluster. That said, with the surprising lack of a wait in whatever town I switched onto the Mexico City bus, I found myself in a rural Mexico truck stop diner with only a credit card and a $100 bill. It turned out that Visa was not, in fact, everywhere I wanted to be.

The next morning we pulled into Mexico City. I promptly found an ATM and got some pesos and then food. As luck would have it, I only had a 30 minute wait until a 25 hour bus bound for Juarez, Mexico was leaving.

The bus to Juarez passed by much as the others had. Mexico as it turns out has more cactus than I have ever seen. The green things in this picture are cactus.

As the miles passed, I watched Mexico fly by.

The next morning we pulled into Juarez and as fortune would have it, I had another 30 minutes before I was off to El Paso and eventually Albuquerque.

After crossing the Bridge of the Americas, we had to get out and walk through customs. As the only American citizen on the bus, things went pretty smoothly for me.

It was interesting to be back. Though it didn’t really feel that different as I was still on a bus and the instructions were still being communicated in Spanish.

We did, however, stop to get gas and there, after months of being away, I was able to sink my teeth into some good ol’ gas station beef jerky. It was good to be back.

It was around 4:00pm on Wednesday when I arrived in Albuquerque. I had more or less been in transit since 6:00am on Saturday. I can’t say traveling this way is for everybody, but I’m glad I did it.

In Albuquerque I was lucky enough to spend a week with friends, slowly transitioning back to life in the U.S. We took in a little of the countryside and took a trip to the VLA (Very Large Array) or group of satellite dishes that search for aliens or listen to your cell phone or something like that.

The dishes were pretty impressive and I was interested to find out what kind of TV reception the place got, but that information was not provided on the self-guided walking tour.

After a relaxing and enjoyable week in Albuquerque, it was time to fly to Oregon.

It has been nice being back in Oregon. Most of my friends have been finishing up law school classes and preparing for finals. My taunting them about being done will be a nice test of our friendship and help determine if these are people I will keep in touch with long term.

As for me, I have been taking care of the life chores that one normally spreads over the year. I made a trip to the dmv, called my insurance company, got my car running (dead battery), picked up a new phone, did my taxes, and applied to take the bar exam.

Now I am mostly waiting for graduation and contemplating whether my stuff with still fit in my car for the drive back to St. Louis.

I am not sure if I will post again. Maybe I will put up graduation pics or the drive across the US. Stay tuned. Emails would probably make me more likely to do this. For those of you who have kept up with most of this trip, I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I know I did. I am not sure when the next trip will be. After being gone a long time, I am always hesitant to believe I will want to be on the road again, but then you never know. If you happen to live in one of the countries that are white on this map, I might be headed your way eventually.

Thanks for reading,

Ben