Adios America, Hola Adventure

The time has arrived! We're finally leaving! Here we go, passports, luggage, and cameras in hand, ready for just about anything. Oh yeah, by the way, we're nervous!

First we take off on the most exotic leg of our journey: Pocatello to Salt Lake City. I know, how will we ever make it in the vast jungles of the northwest United States? We'll be careful, promise. Here in Salt Lake, we decide to take a gamble on what some might decidedly call Dick Clark's greatest endeavor. That's right. We ate at Dick Clark's American Bandstand Restaurant (surprising good and fairly cool.) So the lady that got seated at the table next to us is carrying this huge political sign that says "Jesus Christ for Lasting Change." We remember that have some magazines packed in Kelsey's carryon and begin planning how to start a conversation with this lady. We started by agreeing with her and a wonderful conversation ensued. She took the magazines, as we told her it would be just the thing to entertain her on her way home to Elko, NV.

On our way now to another wild destination: LAX. Don't worry, friends, though it will be much later while we're there, apparently LA isn't known for it's intense nightlife...well, at least not inside the terminals! :) In fact, the extent of partying consists of eating a single scoop Haagan Daaz ice cream cone and watching a friendly old Mexican man make friends with multiple strangers.

Now on to the REAL adventure: the three hour flight from LA to Guadalajara. Wait! We almost forgot to tell you one of the coolest (and unexplainable) things that happened to us so far. We got upgraded to first class...for free! No, we didn't bribe the lady, NO we didn't even have to kiss the pilot!!! As you might imagine, we slightly overjoyed when we got to our insanely spaceous seats with pop-out tray tables, adjustable lumbar support, pillows, space-age televisions that appear and disappear from the ceiling, and of course a well-rounded meal. Did we mention it was FREE??

Now we've just arrived in Guadalajara. Unlike the other airports, we exited the plane onto a bus. We made friends with a local woman who just got home from business in China and Europe. She was very helpful. As soon as we got our passports stamped, we went to baggage claim where our bags were literally strolling toward us as we walked up. That almost NEVER happens!

By the way, no need to worry about us little Americanas, there are more than 30 different Starbucks here, a luxury of which we take full advantage at the first oportunity, before we even leave the airport (I know that was your main concern.) You thought Starbucks was expensive there? We got two caramel macchiattos for 70 pesos (about $7).

After enjoying our cafe delicioso, we head to the taxi booth where we are welcomed by several anxious bellhops eager for tips. They were very "vigorous". Soon we're on our way with a more-than-accomodating taxisto who doubled as a tour guide... and a personal land-lord-finder since everything went so well and we were here much earlier than expected, in fact, it was still dark and we were a little nervous. He stayed with us and knocked until we were greeted by a nice Austrailian woman who checks out today, then our landlord Ezra. So now we're "home" at our casita bonita, it's about 8am and we're just waiting for our apartment to be ready, taking advantage of the opportunity to post to all of you!




Don't you feel like you were there?

Love you all,

Kate and K3LSO

PS: Though it says this was posted in July, we really just posted it September 9, 2008 at 7:54am.