Our bus got us as far as Nuevo Laredo, just across the border. The bus station we arrived at didn't accept credit cards and neither of us were carrying cash so, with our backpacks and smaller-but-still-heavy food bag, we walked 3 blocks to another bus station that let Abby charge our tickets and off we were to Monterrey, where we arrived to one of the most beautiful sunsets I'd seen. Clouds hung low over the distant mountains and in intermittent holes in them, red, orange, and yellow sun rays fell onto the peaceful, outstretched desert. In Monterrey, we got tickets for the next bus to Mexico City, deciding to just make the whole 12 hour trip in one night, and, still without cash, we ate what resembled a dinner out of our food bag. I finally talked to Omar, who assured us he would be meeting us at the bus station in the morning.
We boarded the bus, watched a dubbed-version of Ratatouille and soon fell asleep. The ride was long, but I've gotten used to bus travel and didn't have much of a problem sleeping. Still, in the morning I was really out of it and it wasn't until we were walking away from the bus that we remembered: the food bag! I ran back onto the bus, but, alas, all of our Michigan food goodies were gone. Eh.
We waited beneath a giant Christmas tree for Omar, who arrived about 20 minutes after we did because his dad's VW beetle wouldn't start and they had to push it up the street to get her started. We crammed our backpacks and us in the back seat and Omar's dad drove us home, making jokes the whole way about how his house was high in the mountains and very cold, with only the stars for the cieling, and that we had better like living there.
