Visiting the Paparazzi in Guadalajara

We wake up after a terrific night's sleep in tequila and ready to explore!   Turns out we spent most of our day trying to get our new telcel internet stick to work...but walking from store to store is still exploration if you're basing your path on directions from the locals.  Ask three locals for directions to a store on the same block you're on, guaranteed to get three different answers all 2+ blocks away.  We finally realize that we either need to fix the problem ourselves or wait until we can hit the main telcel store in guadalajara.  We go back to the only place we know we can sit and get online in town and three tequilas later we have new blog posts and are online via the usb stick.  Mission accomplished at the price of tequila.  Score!  We drive out of town on the back roads again tracing the trail through tequila country and winding through agave field after agave field.  This feels exactly like all of our wine country trips if you simply replace the grapes in your mind with the image of giant blue agave.  Instead of a group out plucking grapes from the vines we see jimadors slinging razor sharp coas back and forth as they cut the leaves from the fruit.  As we feel ourselves leaving the thick of it we pull off at an open gate to drive into the field and between two rows of plants.  How else will we test our agave camo for color correction?

We both snap some photos and then relax for a few moments sipping tequila among the (soon to be) tequila and knowing that the farmers driving by probably didn't even see us cloaked among the plants.  Were it not for having plans with the paparazzi in Guadalajara this would have made the perfect stealth camping spot, except maybe the pricks from the swordlike leaves on each plant...surely a menace in darkness given the number of scratches I got in broad daylight.

We pull into guadalajara excited to finally reconnect with the paparazzi and so happy that they are willing to drop everything to see us despite being the final week of semester.  We have an amazingly chill, relaxing and fun evening with the group in ana's courtyard.  So great to see everyone, catch up on what they've been doing since we connected in vancouver and catching them up on our trip.  We have so much to learn from this group and their friendship.  My aha moment of the evening came when after thinking for an hour about the last delicious slice of pizza that remained untouched in the box (but not wanting to be the guy to take it- especially since they wouldn't even accept money from us to help pay for it) Juan Carlos grabs the pizza and takes a bite- then passes it around the circle so that everyone gets to enjoy a bite of the final bit of food.  "Everyone's been thinking about it" he says, "im just the one to do it".  The same later happened with the last beer, the chips, etc...  Sharing and community at its finest.

After a long evening of catching up that flew by in what felt like minutes we retreated to the street and setup camp in the bus.  We hope our paths cross with these inspiring and awesome individuals again!