Roxy and David

Two women, mother and daughter, embarked on a journey to a faraway place. Upon their arrival, they took rooms in a quaint casita, guarded by a large dog with sharp teeth and a ferocious bark. His name was Lucas. Neither woman had been to this faraway place and neither spoke the language of the locals. They had to seek help to succeed in their wishes.

We knew Marinuska* had great power. She walked into the casita with a breeze blowing behind her, slamming the door shut. Lucas laid at her feet, mesmerized by her power. We had been promised Marinuska could take us to find that which we were seeking. In great detail, we told her of what we were looking. She assured us she would be able to help. For each location, she demanded a price of 1000 pesos per person and told us we would be guided to the locations we were seeking and that we would be fed along the way. We put our trust in Marinuska and gave her most of our pesos, assuring her we would deliver the rest the day of the adventure.

We didn’t give Marinuska another thought until four days later, the promised morning of the adventure. Much to our surprise, she didn’t arrive. Instead, a man named David picked us up. Again, we were most trusting as we didn’t ask any questions and got in his car. David assured us he knew what we were looking for and could take us there. When we let him know we had decided not to seek one of the locations, he told us it was our day and not to worry. He said as long as we had settled up with Marinuska, all was well.

With David, we drove into the country side for an hour and a half, him telling the tales of his people and giving a thorough history of the area. Finally, we reached out first destination, the ancient city of Teotihuacan. After learning the ways of the people of the city and having an early morning mezcal drink, we stopped for lunch. We ate the food of the locals and drank ancient pulque. David asked for payment for the meal, which was strange because Marinuska assured us we would be fed. David then told us he didn’t always know what those higher than him had promised and waved away our pesos.

Back to town we went, another hour and a half ride, where David took us to the second location. We arrived at the Dolores Olmsted museum in the afternoon and wandered the grounds, spying peacocks and ancient dogs all around. Again, David filled us with tales of history and adventure. We had intended to see three places and even without the third, we returned to the casita early in the evening, exhausted after a long day.

Before we’d even unpacked our bottles of mezcal, Marinuska blew into the casita. She is a small woman and yet, she stood imposingly before me, staring me down. I had no idea why she was there so I began telling her what a great day we had with David. She cut me off, demanding the rest of her payment. I explained we told David we only wanted to find two of the locations and that we did not see all three. She insisted it did not matter and we still owed 1000 pesos. I was under her spell. I nodded and climbed up the stairs to my room to gather the rest of the funds. I handed them over without a word and she was gone.

Disclaimer: The reason it took me so long to post this after my last travelogue day is, despite the fact I wanted to write this in as a pseudo fairy tale, I ended up feeling bad I was essentially portraying Marinuska as a witch! I shared this with my mom and her reply was, “Well, she kind of was.” Ha! Anyway, I have never booked a tour of this kind before and I’m wondering if a) that is the way tours go, even if you decide not to do something you still have to pay or b) we were duped by a tiny, scary lady! I do know that next time I am going to make everything very clear before I get into anyone’s car. Also, because we booked straight through Marinuska, there was no company we could go back to and ask these questions.

However! If you are looking for a guide in Mexico City, I would highly, highly recommend David. He was so full of knowledge and so passionate about the history and culture of his city. Contact me if you’d like his information. You can book directly with him!

*Not her real name!

My favorite fairy tale collections, etc.:

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