Getting on the Bus to Mexicali
On January 6th, 2021, I departed from Hermosillo very early in the morning. The central bus station was nothing like the ones I’ve seen before in Mexico. It felt a bit unfriendly and colorless. It reminded me of the Soviet-era how some of the eastern block countries would be portrayed in the western media. Everyone had straightforward, inexpensive clothing on. Although I am wearing the same clothes since I arrived in Latin America in 2017, I have nothing fancy besides my Taylor guitar sleeve; I still felt out of place. People around me were all dressed more modestly than I was.
When it was time to register my bags, I noticed the person in charge of getting me the coupon for my bags was drunk. He attached the coupons to my bags, but he ripped the coupons in the wrong way since he was too drunk. Both numbers to identify my belongings stayed with the bags. All I was given were a couple of pieces of ripped paper without any number of them. This situation could lead to some problems later on in Mexicali. How was I going to recuperate my bags without the corresponding vouchers?
As I tried to explain my problem to the driver, he started to give me a hard time with my guitar, telling me that I could not have it with me inside the bus. According to him, I had to register the guitar as well. I told the driver that I had traveled the whole country with bus rides, and I knew how to travel with my guitar between my legs. The driver suggested that we go inside the bus and ask the person sitting next to me if my guitar bothered her. The whole situation started to smell very fishy to me.
I remembered the lady selling me the bus ticket, the drunk luggage guy, and the bus driver having a little chat before all this circus started. I figured the lady selling me the bus ticket perhaps had communicated that I was a foreigner to the other two. Maybe they wanted my bags to “accidentally” stay in Hermosillo? In the process of demonstrating how I managed to sit with my guitar between my legs inside the bus, I realized that the driver had no bad intentions, and the only problem was that the luggage guy was completely drunk on the job.
I seized the opportunity to tell the driver about my problem with the wrongly ripped coupons. I asked him if he was the one driving up to Mexicali. He told me no that he was going to end his shift before. I told him that I would never recuperate my belongings with the coupons I had missing the ID numbers. He agreed. We both went outside of the bus and found the drunk luggage guy. The luggage guy was furious that we told him that he did a lousy job ripping the vouchers. At one point, I thought that he wanted to fist fight me because I was not too fond of the way he pulled the coupons.
The driver asked him to put a new pair of coupons on my bags. This time around, the drunk luggage guy made a considerable effort to rip the coupons in a way where the identical ID numbers stayed on both parts of the voucher once ripped apart. I may be a foreigner, but I think I now have more traveling experience in Mexico than most Mexicans. I am super careful with all my belongings and the process of registering my bags, so none of my stuff gets lost. I am not a tourist who goes home after this trip. This trip is my life.
Checkpoints
I knew that going north from Hermosillo towards the US border, we will have several checkpoints. This route is the hot spot for international drug trafficking. The first checkpoint was early on after we left Hermosillo. The bus waited for about an hour and a half in line before our turn would come. First entered a military person with a German Shepard. After he went through all the seats, he visited the bathroom with the trained animal and started to take apart all the cabinets. Once he was done with his part of the inspection, he left the bus, and soon after, he went back inside the bus with two other military officers. I saw one of the military tap on the back of the seat in front of me, stating non verbally that I was staying inside. He then asked everybody to get out of the bus except for two other passengers and myself. We were now three passengers kept inside of the immobile bus. Each of us was interrogated by one military officer separately. The two other guys getting interrogated looked to me like low-level young drug smugglers I’ve seen in some documentaries on the subject.
The officer took my passports and started to ask me questions on my passport’s expiration date and other specific information to make sure that the passport belonged to me. He then asked me if I was playing Mexican music with my guitar. Once they were done with our integration, they let us go outside the bus, take our bags and pass them through x-ray scanners. The sun had started to rise. It was cold. Scanning the bags was a straightforward process. I don’t like to be sitting for long periods. I decided to take advantage of the whole checkpoint process to get some movement, stretch up my legs, and not be annoyed by the regular stops we’ll make during the trip.
We had two more checkpoints until Mexicali, one right after the first checkpoint and a third one, I believe, at the border between Sonora and Baja, California. After passing the three checkpoints, the bus followed the US-Mexico border wall for miles. It was impressive to be that close to the wall. Seeing the US territory across the wall brought back some touring memories on interstate 8, while I was touring with Channing Cope and later on With Kenseth Thibideau Band. It was a fantastic feeling that almost ten years later, here I was still following my passion in the same area.
Mexicali, Baja California
The supposed 10 hours bus ride ended up taking 15 hours. Mostly due to the time the bus had to wait in queue at each checkpoint. I wasn’t able to charge my phone inside of the bus. For some reason, my phone would not recognize the USB present on the individual TV monitor. Inside the bus terminal in Mexicali, there was a station to recharge the cell phones. I put in 10 pesos. The process was pretty long. While waiting, I saw another station selling some WIFI time. Since I don’t have a cell phone plan, I decided to purchase a QR code that would give me access to the internet.
I put my coin of 10 pesos inside the machine. It started to print out the QR code on a piece of paper. At one point, the paper dispenser stopped emitting paper. Thinking that the process was over, I ripped the paper piece to scan it with my phone. It is when I realized that I had ripped the paper right on the actual QR code. After it was too late, I read on the machine the code needed to be scanned before being ripped. Who designed the machine and the printing layout did a terrible job. Both the recharging machine and the Internet machine were only accepting 10 pesos coins. I did not have any left. I tried to put together the piece of QR code I had in my hands with the part left on the machine and try to scan it that way, but it wouldn’t work.
The light motive of this trip so far was the falsely ripped coupons. I decided to wait until the end of the phone’s recharging process, although the phone without internet access wasn’t going to be much of a help to call a UBER.
I decided to take a cab. Lucky the cab driver had a cell phone, and we were able to call my Airbnb host to get the exact directions. For some reason, the apartment complex was on a dead-end sub street, and it did not show correctly on Goggle Maps. The driver was friendly and helpful. I usually try to avoid taking cabs, but with not having a cellphone plan, taking one becomes, at times, my only option.
Rough check-in
I had rented a wooden bungalow. On the platform, it looked cool, and I thought the place would sound suitable for my recordings and be a source of inspiration. After passing the property gate that would open with a code I was given early on, I could make it to the bungalow with my bags and my guitar. It was nighttime, and the place was very dark. I manage to make it to the main entrance of the bungalow. The host had left the iron gate open so that I could get in. Passing through the iron gate wasn’t the problem. The problem now was to open the sliding glass door. The door wasn’t locked, but it seemed to be off track from its sliding rails. After battling for five minutes, I somehow managed to get inside of the bungalow. I bit like a robber would sneak in.
Three days in Mexicali
On the next morning, I tried to explore the surroundings on foot. There wasn’t much around, and nobody seemed to be walking on the streets. I was still able to jog and exercise; I couldn’t figure out if the neighborhood was safe or not. I played my guitar all day, shot some videos with my cell phone, developed new song ideas, and recorded the arpeggios of the day. My initial goal was to go to Tijuana after Mexicali, but the possibility of recording my songs with the producer Kacho Olivares I had met in Hermosillo was too appealing. Now that I could not easily travel to Argentina to record my songs, this was a golden opportunity. Kacho had a bass guitar, a bass amp, and a drum kit on top of the recording gear. I could not pass on this opportunity. As much as the whole bus ride from Hermosillo to Mexicali was a challenge in itself, I decided to go back to Hermosillo. I messaged Kacho saying that I was interested in recording a song perhaps more with him; I just needed him to confirm his availability. We decided that we would start recording on Monday, January 11th.
It looks like only a crazy person like myself would do something like that, but with the experience, I acquired in rock music, I learned the hard way that when you have the opportunity to make something happen, you must make it happen on the spot. Many elements need to be aligned to record an album with other people that the opportunity may never present itself again.
Preparing my Return to Hermosillo
I decided to book an Airbnb in Hermosillo for several weeks. I decided to be strategic about it. Since I did not have a car, and with the recording, I did not want to deal with preparing food. I decided to look for a place to stay in Los Arcos, close to Madre Tierra. With that strategy, I could get the eating thing out of the equation and focus on recording and finding arrangements for my songs. Eating healthy food that I didn’t need to prepare would be a solid foundation for the recording session.
I was so excited to go back to Hermosillo; although I had one more night booked at the bungalow in Mexicali, I decided to take off on Saturday night to make it back to Sonora Sunday morning. That way, I would have an entire day in Hermosillo to rest before start recording. I did not know if riding the bus on that route at night was a good idea or not. I was hoping that going in the other direction wasn’t going to be as challenging as going from south to north.
Goodbye Mexicali
The last tragic-comic thing that happened to me in Mexicali was that the malfunctioning sliding door gave up on me entirely on my last day. I was trapped inside the house. There was no way I could get a good grip of the door from the inside to put it back on its rails. After battling a good 15 minutes, I found out that the bungalow had an emergency exit in the case of a fire. I used it to get out of the house. Once outside, I was able to fix the door for good and get back inside. I trashed the host on my Airbnb review. On top of all the inconveniences, the place was kind of expensive.
Although this trip to Mexicali may look like a big waste of time and money, it was positive in the sense of remembering old touring memories, practice my songs and take some pictures during the trip. I decided that the first song I will record with Kacho was going to be “Yollar Üstünde” which is about the story of a rock musician who spends his life on the freeways.
About Black Sea Storm
Black Sea Storm started as a recording side project in 2002. During that period, I was still actively playing bass in rock bands in San Diego, California. In 2011 Black Sea Storm became my sole musical outlet. In 2017 I moved to Latin America from Europe, and in 2018 I decided to live my life as a nomad and integrate touring as a significant component to my lifestyle.
With this blog, I am trying to capture some of the adventures of being an independent full-time traveling rocker. I am hoping that my writing will bring people to listen to my music. There is so much music available online that it becomes challenging at times to take the time and discover a new artist.
Through my stories, perhaps some people will have an opportunity to connect with my music. I have no pretensions of becoming a writer. I see writing as one of the rock n roll weapons in an independent DIY artist’s arsenal.
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