The long road home.

El-Paso

Because the Corolla's tires refuse to gain traction Sam and I have to push it up the hill, by the time we're halfway I start sweating and at the top my skin is purple-red, Sam also looks and smells like a tomato which is kind of odd; he grins, "I am so not used to the heat." I nod because exercise and heat stole my lungs and try to think about ice, snow and penguins.

Sofía shifts into the passenger seat and I jump in the back. Before I can ask Sam turns the air conditioning to frosty and cold refrigerated air begins to pass over our faces; Sofía doesn't seem as heat-affected as us and laughs when I mention it to her; "I'm a Mexican baby, heat is in my bones."

I poke my tongue out, "I wish my bones were made of ice right now," and Sam grins in the mirror, I give his chair half a kick, "Is that the coldest this thing can do?"

After ten minutes the car becomes bearable and I fold backwards in the back seat, without the heat's distraction I'm free to survey the land we pass through and it is absolutely stunning. Post card material.

Sun cropped hills and dry cracked plains spread out as far as I can see, with little oasis's of population spread in between. I had no idea that such landscapes existed in my country, in fact I wasn't even sure if they existed outside of discovery channel, I wonder about the people that live in small blue and tin houses around the sun cropped hills; Do they end up blind to their surroundings? Going through each day without noticing the beauty that backdrops their habitation?

I realise, that maybe they might think the same thing about the town I live in, and that perhaps the best thing about traveling is that your eyes open to things that are invisible to others; even those that see them every day.

Amidst all this deep thinking I see my first cactus and point it out to Sam (When I say point I mean shove my arm in front of his face and scream in his ear.) He slams on the brakes and pulls the Corolla onto the shingled road-side. Before the Corolla has stopped moving we both jump out and half-run to the cactus, within seconds I am sweltering again in the Sothern heat.

Sam lops the head off the cactus flower and victorious I place it on the dashboard of the Corolla, we both smile and Sofía calls us maniacs, "They'll be plenty of them where you're going," she says.

I shrug.

Sam laughs.

We don't care.

It's hard to believe that we drove all the way from our freezing home (Sam thinks that we have driven over a thousand miles and honestly I think he's right). I smile at the cactus and get a surprise when it appears to smile back. Maybe Sofía is right, maybe I am a maniac.

****

In the middle of the afternoon a large road-sign appears and I squint to see it, heat waves shiver across the road and distort my vision; seconds later Sam and Sofía are copying me. The road dips slightly and we all hold our breaths as the sign disappears from view.

The road begins to slope upward and we emerge to a bright green and red sign that brings a smile to our faces- 'Welcome to El-paso'. The tree of us let out a cheer that football fans would be proud of, the gate-way to Mexico; we actually made it!

El paso begins to spread out before us and I stare through my window like the sun-crazed tourist that I am; Yep, definitely a maniac.

Everything is different here; hotels and eateries line the main street, locals and tourists mingle as they crowd around bars and restaurants sipping at iced drinks and laughing at each other's jokes.