 |
| Salisbury Mills Train Station |
Our plane connects through Houston. The plane from Newark is delayed but then so is the plane departing for Tuxtla Gutiérrez. BTW: None of the United Airlines representatives or stewardesses can correctly pronounce "Tuxtla Gutiérrez". It is pitiful. Sure, it's an unusual name for English speakers to get their tongue around. But give us a break. United flies there every day. And they can't even come close. Maybe they should just give up and just refer to it as T.G. until they can get it right.
(Another tip: If you are traveling with only carry-on luggage, the on-board, overhead luggage bins on the Tuxtla-bound plane are mercilessly small and narrow. Not much will fit. Be prepared to check anything larger than a laptop.)
The Tuxtla airport is small, easy to navigate. We arrive on the first floor where the baggage claim and customs are located.
As we wait for our luggage, we strike up a conversation with a fellow passenger, David. He has flown in from New Mexico; he is to meet his wife Sonya at the airport. She has been living and studying (in a college program) in San Cristóbal since January. They have not seen each other in over three months. He asks if we want to share a taxi to San Cristóbal. We say sure. It is cheaper to share one cab among four than to take two cabs. And we will get to hear - from his wife - what it is like living in San Cristóbal.
We also meet Penny, a teacher from the States, who needs help carrying several massive suitcases through customs. She will be teaching a seminar for teachers in Tuxtla over the long Easter weekend. Her suitcases are filled with puppets (?) she tells us.
Sonya, David's wife, is waiting in the front lobby of the airport. Before we arrange a taxi, I need find an ATM. Obviously, I have no pesos. There does not appear to be any ATMs on the main level, nor is there a cambio - money exchange. The only ATMs are on the second floor. The second floor is open, though deserted. It is the departure level; there are no departures scheduled to leave this late in the evening.
In "The Lawless Roads", Graham Green writes about the first time he arrived in San Cristóbal: "Suddenly we came out of the forest on to the mountain edge, and there below us were the lights of the town - the long line of streets laid out electrically. It was extraordinarily dramatic to come on a city like this, eight thousand feet up...a city of fourteen thousand inhabitants with a score of churches, after hairpin bends around the mountainside.."
Well, the hairpin bends have been straightened and the city now has a population of about 250,000, but it is still "extraordinaily dramatic to come into a city like this". That has not changed.
Sonya and David drop us off at the entrance to our hotel before heading on to their place. (A tip about tips: in Mexico, taxi drivers do not expect a tip.) When we arrive at our hotel - Hotel Rincón del Arco (http://www.rincondelarco.com/index_e.html). It is late - after 11:00 in the evening.
The hotel has been enlarged and upgraded since our last stay. It is almost unrecognizable to us. We are given a room in the newer wing of the hotel on the second floor. It is a comfortable, clean room but has only one window - and it opens onto a hallway. The hotel seems full with guests. Yet, it is quiet. But I find it difficult to sleep. I am excited. I can't wait to see the hotel and the town in the daylight.
It is almost 1:00 in the morning when I last remember looking at the clock.
