Mexico. Day One

we arrived at the maiquetía international airport near caracas at 4am and we were very sleepy but excited of course. the complete crew included the four billies, alz, jarz, carlz and myself, oscar the manager, ezra the second manager/photographer and marcos our sound engineer. travelling with marcos was a real experience. he's one of the funniest people i know and he just won't stop talking, and he'll make up some of the weirdest things you could ever imagine. he's such a character. i knew then that this was not going to be a boring journey. just when we were having our passports checked to leave caracas, he was already inventing a new traditional venezuelan musical instrument that was able to create cheese while being played. you just had to be there. we got on board and we were doing a stopover in bogotá, colombia. it was a short flight and it went really fast.

in the bogota airport one thing that caught our eye was the number of policewomen inspecting you... and hey, very beautiful women. you just don't see that in venezuela.... beautiful policewomen. anyway... that was a nice greeting. our stay in the airport was also short and then we moved on to the mexico plane.

now of course, this one was a little bit longer, like three hours long or something like that. the airplane was pretty empty, so we just sat where we liked. i ended up seating next to alz the vocalist. we didn't talk so much as we prefered to sleep, listen to music or watch the movie which was pirates of the caribbean 2: dead man's chest. i hadn't seen the first one so i didn't understand parts of it, but hey, i rented it two days ago ;)

anyway, we arrived at mexico city around 1pm, and there was a van waiting for us. nice. very nice people, very calm and relaxed. they left us at the hotel... a very nice hotel, he had to separate into three rooms, two 2 bed rooms and one 3 bed room. oscar and marcos went to one of the 2 bed rooms. the other one was occupied by jarz the guitar player and his brother ezra (because they were sharing a suitcase) and the 3 bed one was taken by carlz the drummer, alz and i.

ok, it's important to point out that i was burning hot with fever. two days ago was bryan adams concert and i was already feeling really bad. after the concert, backstage, alz (he's a doctor) gave me a shot to stop any virus from invading my body. i guess it was too late, cause it didn't do sh!t, and so there i was, first day in mexico, and i was burning hot with fever. but hey, that wasn't going to stop me.

we went out to check out the place where we were going to play, the spanish cultural center, and it was next door, just next door. excellent. no tiring walks, no money spent on taxis :P after seeing the center, we decided to just walk around the hotel, and see where we were staying.

we were at the zocalo, a great big square, a point of reference, of protest, of ritual and of national celebration. it has a very big mexican flag and it's just in front of the National Palace. very beautiful. it's a very clean place, a little worn out and damaged by the times, and we fell really safe. there were some streets where we were told not to go to, but here we were alright.

ok, now this is the part where we forget our place in space and time and just let ourselves be devoured by the consumer's pitiful world. we found a record store. ok, let me explain, here in venezuela we have record stores, of course, but it's really difficult to find good cds, things that you relly like. if you're looking for something that's out of the top 20s.... the latin top 20s, you're going to live through hell trying to find it. so, understand me when i say that finding a record store in mexico IS a big deal for 7 venezuelans :P

yes, we found lots of CDs. I could have bought 15 CDs that first day, but this was my logical thinking... "i'll stay here 4 days, i if buy everything today... i'll feel miserable the other days, cause i'll want to buy more and i won't be able to... so i'll spread this 10 cds through the course of my trip and i will return a happy man". hell.... it worked :) so i just bought two that day.

anyway.......... walking and walking..... and eating, of course.... we went to a mexican restaurant... don't ask me the name, and we had our share of traditional food. remember... i was burning hot with fever, so i just had a big soup... don't ask me the name... it had everything. chiles, rice, cheese, meat.... very very good. after our long long meal, we bought some beers and went to the hotel. yes, we are responsible. we had a long day ahead of us, with an important event, and we didn't want to stay out late and get destroyed. our room was next to a little terrace, so this guys stayed there drinking and drinking until 2am... i didn't go with them... i was in bed... hoping that i wouldn't feel so terrible the next morning...

... to be continued