July 18th 2011
This trip has been very healing, I got to see my friends Veronica, Laura, Monica, Karina and most important I got to see Gaby, she's always been very raw, intense and hardcore, but she's reliable and above all, she's a very good friend, I've known her since middle school, I'm her confirmation godmother, I met her only child when he was just a baby, couldn't meet him before because she lived in Tijuana during her marriage, We've travel to Puerto Vallarta together and we were roommates while she worked for a bank and I was a student and worked for a tequila company.
During this short trip I got to talk to my friend's nephew about his upcoming move to Guadalajara, he's from Monterrey, currently lives in Austin but is moving because he met a Tapatia and fell in love with her. I think he's not ready for a committed, monogamous relashionship but I didn't tell him, because the only way we learn is experiencing our failures and accomplishments. We drove from Austin all the way to Guadalajara, it was a fun drive, except the usual corruption of the Mexican government employees, I.e. The customs agent hinted us not to pay taxes on Juan's belongings to avoid the linde to the customs forms person and the bank to pay the tarif and just give him a tip but we decided against it, what's even better, Juan is so naive that he didn't get the hint. As soon as were finally done with the whole customs ordeal, a "transit officer" pulled us over, right as we pulled out of the custom check line and requested to see the import papers for the belongings, not the truck, even though we know is outside his jurisdiction/duties but we didn't want to argue with him and showed them to him; he probably thought we didn't pay taxes and was going to blackmail us, some people might fall for it and think he can do something about it. After he saw that he had no ammo against us, he said: "algo pa'las soditas", which means: "got some cash for sodas" code words for a brivary, we told him we didn't have anything because we had just paid the custom officers. That's the only time I felt unsafe or scared during the whole trip, because a lot of people in norther Mexico work for the zetas cartel as "halcones" (hawks), they job is to inform the cartel about military or police movements but also to let the low ranks zetas know about potential victims for kidnapping, robbery, human trafficking, mules or a whole variety of crimes. This happens more often in Monterrey than in Nuevo Laredo but it happens.
The trip was going smooth, we crossed a few of police and military checkpoints but were flagged down only once and not blackmailed.
I told Juan that as soon as we got to San Luis Potosí the speed limit was 40 kilometers an hour and it meant 40 kilometers an hour, that I've been blackmailed there before and that even though I didn't fell for the cops request, it was very uncomfortable to have to stay there and "dialogue" with the cops. Soon after I warned him, when we were driving through a narrow road in San Luis Potosí outside a company named "logistik" we were pulled over for speeding, the officer didn't even know the speed limit, and after a long game of good cop-bad cop, Juan had to pay 300 pesos, I told him to let them have his driver's license, specially since it was expired, and get the ticket instead, but he ended up bribing them. After that everything was pretty good.
We got to Guadalajara at about 9 pm and there was a lot of traffic, I guess due to Friday night outs. He dropped me off at Gaby's apartment, I took a shower and got ready to go out, my friend Veronica called me and told me there was a "party" at "La copa de champagne"' with one girl and two guys friends, I told her I was not in the mood to meet guys, that the girl was ok but I didn't feel like putting up with guys mainly because my divorce is not finalized yet and because I'm not yet ready for a relashionship of any kind. She mentioned that the owner of the place was one of the guys, I told her I didn't really care, she insisted and said it was very hard to get in that place, I told her I was ok going to another place, it didn't matter the place, I just wanted to be with my friends. I also told her that my friend Gaby was going to join us, she said that she only had reservations for me and her friends, which made no sense whatsoever, if we were going to hang out with the owner, I thought an exception could be made, she sounded mad, she also wanted me to stay over her house that night but I had already told Gaby that I was going to stay with her. Veronica was very upset and I told here we would meet her at the place, when we got there it was not full, we got right inside and waited, Veronica arrived first then her female friend, the ambience was not as fancy as I thought, it was kind of like a piano bar and the bartenders were singing very beautiful old school songs, which was the best part of the whole place. We ordered drinks, which were overpriced, a tequila with grapefruit soda for 85 pesos, Gaby and I ordered that but with different brands of tequila but when the waiter gave us our drinks didn't even ask which one belonged to who; Veronica's friend ordered a brandy with club soda on the side but got it mixed and paid 90 pesos. Veronica ordered an 85 pesos juice, virgin, no alcohol. Smoking is prohibited in clubs and restaurants all across Mexico but in this place even with signs posted, people were smoking, what is worst, a guy was smoking cigar, we had to move to a less privileged table but the smoke was unberable and my eyes were burning from all the smoke, the service was horrible, even after we paid and the waiter didn't bring our change back, we were supposed to get some kind of paper stating we paid so they would let us out of the place, which not only sounded ridiculous but I didn't comply.
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