The Spring AGU conference is often in Baltimore, MD. However, from time to time, they hold a joint conference with one or more other organizations, usually in their “part of the world.” This year was one of those years…the Joint Assembly was in Acapulco. My advisor suggested that I submit an abstract, which I did. Sarah was excited about coming along, too. We have a few pictures and lots of stories to tell. But, this is one of my favorite stories from the trip.
Since Sarah had to work and most of the equatorial/midlatitude ionosphere activities were early in the meeting, she elected to fly down part way through the week. The taxi that three of us shared from the airport to the hotel on the first day was a little pricey. So, for Sarah’s arrival, I decided to have an adventure. The bell boys at the hotel told me that I could take the “Coloso” bus line to a certain bridge, then take the “Aeropuerto” line to the airport. Total cost: 9 pesos (about 80 cents).
Through my own impatience and a little bit of confusion, I ended up at the wrong place. I was accosted by taxi drivers as soon as I got off the bus. I told them I wasn’t interested; but, they were helpful and told me that an airport bus would come on the other side of the street. Once on the other side of the street some more taxi drivers told me that it would be 2 hours until that bus arrived. I don’t know if they were pulling my leg or whether it was true…but, I relented.
“Cuanto cuesta?” I asked.
“Sesenta” (60 pesos, about $5.50, probably a little high; but, not outrageous)
“Esta bien. Vayamos.” I replied. Not knowing quite what I’d gotten myself into, I jumped in. We started having a nice chat. I was somewhat flattered when he asked if I lived in Mexico since my Spanish was “so good.” Right. So, anyhow, I had no idea what time it was and the clock on the dashboard said 3:21, which would mean that I was 20 minutes late.
“Es correcto?” I asked, gesturing toward the clock. He whipped out his cell phone, which said 2:36, whew. Then, he began to set the clock in the car. “No importa tanto,” I said, “estamos en Mexico.” We laughed. No sooner had I said this, I noticed that we were rapidly approaching a yellow light as he was fiddling with the clock. “Mire, la luz (se cambia)!” I said. He looked up and punched the gas, sailing through the now red light.
“Estamos en Mexico,” he said. We rolled laughing.
