B.J. Murrey - World Orphans, Central America

Well, it's official. I have left for Guatemala. Leaving Castle Rock, CO on Nov. 1st, I drove down to Dallas with Jenna beginning at 5 a.m. We made it to Dallas by 5:30 p.m. (800 miles & 11 hours with the time zone change). Not a bad day's drive! She & I met my parents for dinner in Commerce and were pleasantly surprised when her brother was nearby and invited him to dinner & to hang out for a bit. I was glad I got to see my mom, dad, bro & sis in law before heading out. That night I slept in Rockwall at Jenna's parent's house so I could make it to church the next morning. What a blessing it was to stay there. I love the Howards & their inexacerbateable hospitality! Sunday night, Jenna flew back home to Castle Rock and Monday morning I left with Brian about 5 a.m. south toward the border.

We drove through Laredo, and made it with no problems and in quick time, but once on the other side of the border we spent about 4 hours running around and getting truck permits, immigration papers and the like. It was a frustrating experience, especially since I wanted to make it to Monterrey before dark so we could get settled and some go out to a nice eatery. The sun was now setting and I was getting impatient. It took less time in Texas driving, and I budgeted for an hour at the border, so we burned our surplus time and then some in Nuevo Laredo. However, on the  way to Monterrey (is that the name of a song?) we decided to just drive all through the night to Queretaro, another 10 or so hours south.

We arrived at Queretaro at 5ish a.m. and crashed for a while - exhausted. None of my 3 debit cards worked at the hotel so we thankfully had cash. After about 4 hours sleep and a hot shower we walked and drove around the beautiful city for a few hours, just relaxing after a 24 hour marathon drive from Dallas. We were amazed by this place - entirely middle class, quite clean and safe. It's a big city, near the Mexican capital. I got a hair cut there ate some street vendor tacos that were INCREDIBLE and we went next door for a drink. While inside we saw on T.V. that a plane had JUST crashed on top of some cars in the capital - our next destination. Looks like we aren't going to tour the capital city but just drive through it now...

We left about 11 p.m. toward the east, to Mexico city and didn't stop until well in to the wee hours of the morning. At one point, after 2 1/2 days with only 8 hours sleep total, we pulled over and slept for 10 mins. on the side of the road, utterly spent. Running low on energy we powered through the last 5-6 hours of drive, getting stopped twice by the police in the same city. That's for the next update though. For now, I am alive and well in San Cristobal de las Casas, in Chiapas, on the border of Guatemala in southern Mexico. Tomorrow is a rest day and we will be doing some touring of some mayan ruins called Palenque. They are supposed to be magnificent! I will post pictures when I get to Guatemala City!