Postcard 4, based on article by Rosalie

Dear Rosalie,

Another postcard, this time it is sent from Mexico. I have been here for 2 days now and I am planning to get out of here as soon as possible. I’ve had nothing but bad experiences since I got here. It started straight away, at the airport. Somehow the guards must have thought I looked suspicious so I had to leave the queue and they took me for further examination. I was asked all kinds of rude questions about myself, about drugs, etc. This whole ‘escapade’ took about two hours, and then they let me go. I was absolutely horrified, insulted and really tired. I decided to find myself a hotel as quick as I could, near the airport. I wandered around for about an hour without seeing any hotels. I started feeling quite desperate.. Luckily, after another hour or so, I saw a tourist information office. As I walked in I wondered what I could expect; friendly people who were able to help me out or people similar to the ones at the airport..? As soon as I got inside I knew things were bad.. There was a sitting man behind the counter, sleeping. I wasn’t sure what to do but I decided to wake him up. He was not amused but he decided to help me, since he was awake now. I starting asking him about some hotel nearby and he looked at me as if I had become crazy. It turned out that the man could not speak English, just Spanish. He gave me a brochure on hotels and tried to explain (all in Spanish, or course) where I was supposed to go. I decided not to waste any more time on this disaster and so I started walking again. After 1,5 hours I found a small hotel, near the centre of the city and I went in. There was still a single room available and after checking in, I went to sleep for the rest of the day. I simply didn’t wake up until the next morning. After taking a good look at the room, I noticed that I couldn’t find my bag, with my passport in it. After searching EVERYTHING, I figured out that my passport has been stolen. I went down to the reception and told the man behind the counter about my passport. He looked at me with big eyes and told me that nobody could possibly have been in my room since I was the only one with a key. Let me tell you this; I got soooooo mad. This was too much for me to handle, first all the struggles at the airport, and now my passport was lost. He told me to look for my passport one more time and so I did..and I found it! It turned out that my passport was hidden between my clothes. I couldn’t remember doing that, but once I saw where it was, I remembered. I must have been so tired that day. This is my second day in Mexico. Now that I have written this down I feel a lot calmer. Maybe I should give this country a second chance.. You will be hearing from me soon!

Love,