Crossing the border

 

I think some think I am fearless in my adventures but that could not be further from the truth. White knuckles, tight chest, and a lump in my throat all characterize my physoilogical response to my fears of crossing the border into Mexico. I have been to a few border towns before but have never driven in another country before. I have often even thought thought that I hadn’t really been to another country before because I had only been to border towns. This time was certainly different because I was driving and leaving the saftey of the US border. Driving also meant that I needed to know where I was going and that there were rules of the road to follow. That incidently, I DID NOT KNOW! This time I felt as if I were in a strange land. I could not read the signs and some how the spanish that I had mastered (in my mind) was not going to help me here. Which amounts to getting a beer, a shot of tequilla and finding the bathroom. However, what did help sooth my nerves was finding the similarities in my environment and starting to figure out what the road signs were saying. They were really saying the same things American signs say “Do Not Pass”, “Go this fast”(in kilometers though) and “someplace is over there.” The senery was similar to that of southern Arizona, then seemed to shift the further southwest we travelled. I recognized the volcanic rock amidst the plains of sand which, really made it feel like I was traveling to another state rather than another country. I started to relax until we came across Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point), Mexico. Then I started feeling a tightness in my chest, a lump in my throat, and white knuckles all over again. There were a lot of street signs and changing speed limit signs, and just a shit load of signs that I can’t read. Once there was a sign for a stop light which I understood until I got to the light that was blinking yellow and red. What the ---- do I do with that?