A treat for breakfast – café con leche in a vaguely posh restaurant in town, + then, as usual, descended upon a panaderia for the remainder of our breakfast. Somehow, we managed to annoy people all morning. First it was a café (previous to the one where we ended up) when we attempted to find out the cost of a coffee, and the stupid people started to prepare it, without telling us how much. Then, when we discovered it was $20 a cup, we left. No 1. We bought some bananas in the market, and got the woman there pissed off when we broke up a bunch in order to get 4 decent ones in the middle… no 2. And the bloke in the post office got really stroppy when, because of our weak Spanish, we weren’t very clear about the stamps we ordered… no 3. Ho hum.
Also went to the bank… tho’ without incident. We’ve decided to try to limit ourselves to $US100 a week, + Tuesday is our day for changing a travellers cheque. Then back to the hotel, pack up, pay, and go. The train station is about 2 miles out of town, so that meant a walk. Though in fact the walk was good. It was a dirt road, + there were all sorts of people transporting produce, mainly by donkey, tho’ there was also one old man carrying a great heavy bundle by means of a strap wrapped around his forehead. There were also 2 donkeys so loaded up with brush, that from behind they looked like 2 slowly moving haystacks.
We were in good time for the train, + had a pleasant wait sitting in the warm sunshine. The journey itself was uneventful, except for some people who were transporting a couple of chickens, but already such things don’t seem strange. Arrived in Mexico City at about 8.30, rather earlier than we’d hoped, since we intended sleeping there + it was a drag just sitting in a pretty dismal station. We were both pretty hungry, so in the end I went out to see if I could buy something. Not a v ery successful expedition, since it took me ages finally to pay more than I intended on a couple of pieces of cake + tortillas (tho’ I’ll confess I treated myself to another café con leche.) Val got a bit worried about me, but after we ate our meagre fare we lay down with everybody else + slept.
The usual sort of confusions, nearly all coming about because of language difficulties. Otherwise, becoming used to Mexican culture. Very pleased that we were able to continue our practice of sleeping in stations, even in Mexico City, which did save us a good deal of money – a constant preoccupation.
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