The Arrival
Rudy, a stalky guy in his mid-thirties wearing giant black aviator glasses, picked me up at the airport. He loaded my bags into the hostel’s minivan and we sped off towards the city center. He drove as though he were trying to evade people chasing us, while talking on his cell phone. Watching the signs, I could see that the city center was nearing when Rudy swung in the opposite direction only to whip a u-turn a block later. Maybe he thought it’d be faster to do that instead of waiting at the left-hand turn signal, or maybe someone really was chasing us! - (Just kidding to those who may worry at reading this!)
We turned into a more densely populated area of mostly one-story buildings covered by rusty tin roofs. Without signs or numbers adorning the facades, it was hard to tell which one might be a tienda and which one might be a house. We came to the top of a hill and started to descend a very steep, narrow and hastily paved path through what seemed to be someone’s back yard. I thought: either Rudy’s lost, or Rudy really knows his way around the city, or someone IS chasing Rudy!
We took a quick left at the bottom of the hill and stopped in front of an enormous orange tin façade topped by coiling barbed wire. Where’s the pool, I thought? Rudy started honking. I could see a tiny, head-high window slide open just before I heard what sounded like a train passing – the metal gate slid open, and I found…
