On January 16, 2013, my father and I rode out of Ojinaga, Chihuahua. With no contacts, friends or family in Mexico, we simply knew we had to go south. We had no idea where we would be in a week or where we would sleep that night. To say that we were scared is an understatement. For an entire year I had been told I would be killed in northern Mexico by the drug cartels. Now here I was, on a lonely road in the middle of the Chihuahua desert.
I am a big believer of following your instincts. Mine had always told me everything would work out. And at the end of our first day, as we ate hamburgers with a family in the small village of “La Mula”, those instincts proved true. The simple family welcomed my father and I with open arms into their adobe home. They fed us & our horses, showed us some of their local customs and offered us a bed to sleep in.
From La Mula to the state of Veracruz, where I am now, we were hosted by kind-hearted Mexicans like this amazing family. The people in this beautiful country are some of the most hospitable I have ever met. It is common to hear a Mexican say his name followed by the words, “here to serve you,” when being introduced for the first time. And they mean it too!
In a way I feel as if I have been adopted by Mexico. These past 4 months I have eaten, partied, slept and lived as a Mexican. It has been a tremendous opportunity not many tourists get.
Now as I sit 400 kms from the Guatemalan border in the small town of Acayucan, I get to live with one family for an entire month.
If I have learned one thing from this journey, its that you must listen to your horses! For the past few weeks they were telling me they needed a break. So, they are getting one!
Once again my good friend Vidal from Celaya came to the rescue and put me in touch with some family members he has down here. The ponies are now sitting in a beautiful green pasture simply being HORSES. Until the end of June they will have nothing to worry about but eating and drinking.
The Reyes family has adopted my ponies and I for the month :). After having lived with families from Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, Queretaro for two or three days, I will actually get to see what the day-to-day life is like in a Mexican household. I am super excited for this opportunity and can’t thank this amazing family enough.
