My meetings have come to an end in the City of Puebla. My presentation was received positively. Somehow I ended up with considerable more work from this meeting than I anticipated! Below are a few photographs from Puebla. On Thursday, I will head from Puebla to Guatemala (pending unforseen circumstances).
The "ten minute" ride, as described by the taxi driver, turned into a forty minute snail's pace crawl through the city. We were fortunate to have plenty of time to catch our bus. At times, the taxi (actually a car owned by a friend of the hotel bellman, not an 'official' taxi) did not physically move with a green light due to congested streets. Traffic was literally bumper to bumper, horns honking, and random people trying to sell munchies and other propaganda to the people waiting in the cars. As we proceeded on our slow pace our taxi driver followed all the airport directions. The further we continued, the more we believed that he would drop us off at the airport, rather than at TAPO bus terminal. Just as we could read the welcome sign to the airport the taxi driver veered off on a side road. Our thoughts of arriving at the airport was dissolved upon turning on the side road as we could see the bus terminal, however, it was on the opposite side of the divided road/highway. Our innovative "taxi" driver pulled a U-turn at an intersection to put us within 100 metres of the bus terminal only to have the lights, sirens, and speaker phone of the local police come on.
I am sure everyone in the taxi wanted to simply get out, collect our luggage, pay the driver, walk the remaining distance and leave the driver to deal with the police. That however did not transpire! The police officer questioned our driver and requested to see all sorts of paper work. After 5 minutes of discussions (which didn't seem overly friendly from my seat in the car) the driver returned and we continued the final 100 metres to the bus terminal. After all said and done, we had only 10 minutes to spare to catch the bus from Mexico City to Puebla.
Unlike Greyhound services, the local bus to Puebla required all luggage and carry on items be scanned (similar to Canadian airports) and every passenger had to be patted down by a security officer before being allowed on the bus. The two hour bus ride provided an opportunity to rest. I have included a few photographs from along the bus ride.
After a frustrating discussion with a taxi driver (in my broken Spanish), we (myself and 2 other Canadians) made it to Centro Historico and our hotels. Unfortunately, the three of us were split into two different hotels. We knew that going in, so no big surprise (just wait though). The taxi driver dropped off the other two people at their hotel and then proceeded to drop me off at my hotel. When we pulled in front of the hotel, the lights were off, front doors locked, and not a person to be seen. After ringing a door bell and rattling the front door a hotel clerk arrived. The look on his face as he arrived at the door indicated there was a problem. In his broken English he informed me they have my reservation but no room for me! The water pipe burst in the evening and the entire floor was wet and consequently no room for me (or the other 20 people scheduled to stay on that floor).
There I am at 1:30 AM on a dark street chatting to the hotel clerk without a hotel room. The reason we had two hotels was a result of the high demand for rooms on Saturday evening (later found out there was an important soccer game on Sunday nearby). The hotel clerk was very apologetic and offered to arrange a reservation at a nearby hotel. After 15 minutes of standing on the street, the clerk returned with the name of a hotel 3 blocks away. He assured me the hotel would be of the same high quality and similar price. It is now almost 2 AM and I couldn't really care what the hotel looked liked - I just wanted a bed to sleep in!
Forunately, the taxi driver waited on the street. He agreed to deliver me to yet another hotel. When we drove up to the hotel, it looked promising. A hotel staff member was quick to greet me and get me checked in. The place looked respectable and it appeared a number of large celebratins were taking place in the meeting rooms. My opinion of the place dramatically changed when I entered the room. The room was very large, but with very few amenities so it looked quite empty. To get water running in the sink it required leaving the taps wide open for a good 5 minutes before you see water. I am not sure when the last time the room was cleaned, but I could have easily written my name in the dust on any surface. The security in the rooms was somewhat lacking, however, the arm chair was easily pushed up against the door for a litle added sense of security. Being so tired from all the travel I simply crawled into bed.
I landed in Mexico City without any incidents. The flight was uneventful and allowed me to catch up on some work and more importantly my sleep. The continuous flow of lights amazed me as we flew over the city. With over 20 million people I was expecting big, but the view of lights for as far as you could see was impressive. Two thirds of Canada's population was below me, in one (very large) city. I flew through Mexican Immigration and Customs in what I would consider record time. A balmy 14 C will greet me as I leave the airport.
