For starters, I did not take this picture, I do not know what it is, nor have I seen it in person. I googled Guadalajara and this came up. You see, I did actually fly last week . . . once. It was a quick turn to Guadalajara, Mexico. I didn't have time to do anything, so there are no pictures and no unique stories to tell other than the randomness of it all. I got a phone call that morning, went to the airport, flew to Mexico and back, and was back at my sister's before she got out of work. While this sounds very exotic and exciting, I experienced nothing in Guadalajara other than a struggle to understand English in Mexican accents while using the radio.
My previous posts about flying out of Minneapolis may have already shed some luster from being a professional airline pilot, but even when the destinations aren't Grand Forks or Iron Mountain, there are about four ways I can fly somewhere and never really "see" it.
1) A quick turn (We land, deplane, board immediately, and jet out to some other destination)
2) A long sit (We are limited to waiting in an airport terminal while we await our next flight)
3) An overnight by the airport (Though in this scenario we leave the airport, we don't get far due to transportation limitations when the airport is very far from the city it serves *cough* Denver.
4) A short overnight (Arrive late at night, leave early morning)
This week I received a three-day assignment that will experience all four of these obstacles. I have just completed the first leg and am now in the middle of a long 3.5 hour sit in the Austin Bergstrom airport. I have been to Austin before, fortunately, so I have at least experienced what the city has to offer. I tried to make good use of my time and had some Texas bbq at a place called Salt Lick, located in the middle of the terminal. It is a well-known bbq place in Austin, but the ambience of an airport food court is not quite the same. Now, I have just one more flight and will be spending the night in "Denver," or more accurately within about 15 minutes of Denver International Airport and an hour from Denver itself.
Today marks my first international overnight. After an early morning flight from Little Rock to Houston, we continued on to Guadalajara. We arrived around noon and I had the rest of the day to see what Guadalajara had to offer. It is a big city, but our hotel was not exactly in the city center. Nevertheless, I took a stroll around the neighborhood for about an hour and a half. There weren't really any sights to see and the city doesn't really seem to be a tourist hot spot. This made it all the more appealing to me and I took satisfaction in the fact that nobody seemed to think I was out of place. I don't like to stick out in public, so while folks in Cancun might be wearing socks with sandals, and Hawaiian shirts with big cameras dangling from their necks, I ventured out in 86 degree weather wearing my jeans, as this is apparently what people do. Since I wasn't going sightseeing, I didn't take as many photos as I might usually do.
I walked by a statue called Escultura La Estampida. I don't know if it has any sort of deeper meaning other than being a stampede of horses, but it was interesting to see nonetheless. All of this walking was making me a bit hungry, so I went into a mercado to get some snacks while trying to peer at the registers to see if they took credit card. I grabbed some cookies that can double as my breakfast and some mango juice. I also stared for several minutes at some fresh baked empanadas.They were out in the open and I couldn't find any tissues or bags to put them in, so apparently people just grab them with their bare hands.
I could hear my mother's voice from thousands of miles away yelling each time I moved my arm toward the empanadas. Surely some discerning empanada connoisseur had touched them all in their search to find the finest specimen. I let mom talk me out of it. Also, I didn't want to put a bare empanada on the conveyer belt. I had a chance to use my limited knowledge of iPad app spanish at the register. I understood that she asked, "Is this all?" and then wanted to see identification when I wanted to pay by credit card. She didn't bat an eye at my California license . . . perhaps because she didn't really look at it.
Around 4:00pm, I met up with the rest of the crew to get dinner at a nearby restaurant. The captain said he had eaten there during his previous visit and didn't follow it up with a story about uncontrollable, projectile sh*tting, so I figured it was even safe enough for mom. I had some sort of carne asada tortilla concoction with shrimp, peppers, onions, shrimp, and cheese. All of this was piping hot including the cheese. I currently do not feel the effects of the meal, so I guess I'm ok. The restaurant had an interesting vibe. It was open air with thatched umbrella roofs. I would normally say this kind of joint was a tourist trap, but the clientele was all workers finishing their shifts and celebrating with coworkers. After that, I did the usual ironing of the shirt and got everything ready for a very early flight out of Guadalajara tomorrow morning.
