Continuing the To Be Continued (or Part Two)

As Scorpy has mentioned on the last post, TBC are a pain in the ass. Especially for the person who imposed the stupid TBC because, well what happens when they don't want to continue the story and wants to start writing about Mexican food (of which I have done on my other blog, btw).

Nonetheless for the sake of continuity, I will continue entertaining you with tales of my misfortune.

Let me set the scene. I am alone in the Los Cabos, Mexico, airport with no money to get to town, sitting around and hoping my parents will show up.

Which they don't.

After a while, a few of the white-clothed Mexican salespeople started to take pity on me. One young guy with cool shades told me that he would just give me money if they didn't show within the hour. I took that with a grain of salt as he kind of said it casually and in passing. Then another worker (Carlos) told me he would give me a ride to the hotel in a bit. He had a van with a hotel logo on it and a matching shirt so I assumed it would be OK.

So, I continued to sit there, feeling a bit better about my situation although I was a bit uneasy at the same time. Then along came Irak (or Riko, as his friends call him). A genuine, nice-looking guy, Riko sat down next to me for about an hour. I told him my situation and he couldn't help but laugh (as I'm sure all of you have done). But he was also very concerned. I told him about the Carlos fellow offering me a ride...and from earlier on I could see that Carlos and Riko knew each other.

Riko shook his head, "You know, most of these guys are my friends but I wouldn't trust them to take you back to your hotel. When Carlos offers you a ride, he doesn't mean in his hotel shuttle with the other passengers, he means in his own car after work."

Ahh. That figured.

Riko and I continued to talk and I started to feel a bit better knowing that at least someone was looking out for me. That's not to say I would home with Riko either, cuz I do have some traveler's wits about me, but it was nice to just unload on him. Riko made a great companion because he spoke fluent English. In fact, he got his Bachelor of Business at the University of Berkley up in San Francisco. He was going to get a sweet job with UPS too who was also going to pay for his Masters degree. It was all lined up until Riko caught his best friend in bed with his Sicilian wife and all hell broke loose. Riko busted up the guy pretty badly (ah, the passion of the Mexicans) and had to go to court for it. I don't know what happened after that, if he got deported or not, but in the end he is back in Mexico and working on commision at the airport for a timeshare company, trying to lure tourists with a free breakfast at one of the fancy hotels.

Amazingly, Riko also speaks fluent Russian and is going to Russia next year for three months (he also is interested in Russian architecture). When asked if he plans on using his degree in Mexico instead of working at the airport, he told me he makes more money here. The opportunities in Mexico aren't so abundant, which explains why so many of them move to the States.

Finally, after about an hour, Riko looked at me and said, "I don't think they are coming."

I knew that already, but still, what the hell could I do but wait?

So Riko dissapeared for a bit and came back with a small envelope. Inside it was enough American money to get me on the bus and to the hotel.

I was overwhelmed at the generosity of this guy, who obviously doesn't make all that much money, who was just handing the money over to me. Now, normally I wouldn't accept it (or I would think there was some kind of catch) but this was no time to be polite. I just thanked him (over and over again) and told him I would be happy to take him out for dinner or lunch on my credit card.

He just waved me away, told me not worry about it and to just get on the bus.

Then Riko dissapeared and I never saw him again.

Of course, when I went to go buy the ticket they somehow had jacked up the price in the last hour so that what Riko had given me wasn't enough. But low and behold, the other dude with the cool shades swooped in at the last minute and plunked enough money down on the counter to make up the shortchange and thensome. Before I could even thank that guy, he was gone too, swallowed up in the sea of tourists who just arrived on another flight.

Overwhelmed with generosity, I finally made my way on the almost empty bus and started to finally relax.

Just before the bus took off though, one more person bordered. I looked up to see a nice-looking white guy get on board. By himself...which I thought was interesting because so far I was the only traveler I had seen that day traveling by themselves. Because, let's face it, who goes to Mexico alone? Anyway, the guy smiled at me (intrigued to see another lone traveler and a blonde to boot), sat across from me, and this is how I met Jessie, who would go on to be yet another saviour of mine.

Because, of course, the hard part wasn't over yet.

To be continued...mwahahahaha.