Wednesday, January 17 Bob Delaney picked us up at 6:25am. What dedication! The Delta flight left on time at 7:50am en route to Atlanta. The flight from Atlanta to Mexico City also left on time at 1pm. In Mexico City, we succeeded in persuading the immigration official to give us 120 day visas rather than the standard 90 days. That will save us the hassle of getting an extension -- last year it took us essentially a full day to struggle through that. The Mexicana flight to Guadalajara left on time also. No problem getting our checked luggage in Guadalajara -- we had 3 large checked bags. Actually with the 3 carry-ons (24 lbs, 37 lbs, and 40 lbs), our luggage total weight was 275lbs. We got a porter to haul the luggage to a taxi. Also got cash from an ATM in the airport. The exchange rate on ATM transactions seems to be better than at banks or change bureaus. It is about $9.9 pesos to the $US. The taxi took 30 minutes to get us to the Central de Camiones for 100 pesos. Another porter took our luggage up to the check-in for the luxury bus line ETN. We bought tickets to Colima (165 pesos each). I had been corresponding via email for some weeks with Isabel Jimenez, of the Office of Academic Interchange and Scholarships, on the logistics of the visit. She had instructed me to telephone Raul Ocampo at the University as soon as we arrived in Guadalajara, to tell him when to meet us at the Colima bus station ("Central Camionera"). Once we had our tickets, I telephoned and left a message for Don Raul, telling him that we were due at the Colima bus station at 9:45pm. We ate some rice with veggies and tortillas from the bus station cafeteria. Checked 4 bags this time. Paid 250 pesos for their extent of overweight (only 25 Kg per person is allowed -- we had 100 Kg to check instead of 50 Kg.). We got on the usual ETN luxury bus, which was almost empty and very dark inside. Couldn't see much outside either. We watched the movie -- "Sixth Sense" with Halley Joel and Bruce Willis. Arrived at the Colima Central Camionera on time. Got our luggage, and rolled it out to the waiting room, where Raul Ocampo met us. He helped roll the bags to the van, and delivered us to the home of Maria de la Paz. He also helped haul the bags up to the 2nd floor (actually the 3rd; there is another "ground level" floor). Maria met us and got us settled in our bedroom. We also met her nephew, Edgar, and his wife, Rachel, who live next door. We got to bed, exhausted, at 11pm (midnight Eastern Standard Time).

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