- Hello from the bus terminal of Guadalajara, Jalisco
but not for long. Pretty soon I'm gonna be hopping on one
of these luxury buses and heading to my beloved Queretaro.
Before getting on this bus,
there was a guy who took my bag, put a tag on it.
And then I got the little stub
so I can pick it up after the fact.
And there was somebody doing security.
One guy got patted down after his stuff
was looked through.
Another guy, he just looked through the bag.
Mine he barely looked in it at all.
So there's some amount of security,
but...oh are we leaving?
Oh, this bus is like super empty.
There's like, no one.
Cool. So I've got all this space
to myself. To make things easier on myself
and to make sure that I got to pick the exact seat
that I wanted right up here in the front.
I bought my ticket online.
You can either buy it as a fixed seat, fixed time
or you can get an open-ended ticket
so you can come here and travel whatever time you want.
But like I said, I wanted to pick my seat.
And for this five-hour bus ride,
it cost shoot, what did it cost?
(static)
It cost 653 pesos, which is a pretty dang good deal
if you ask me, because you're sitting in here
in these super reclining, very comfortable seats.
In front of you, you have a large screen to watch
I think movies, shows, you might be able
to play games on them.
I'll have to play around with it a little bit and see.
And if you're thinking, Maddie, wow
you look really tired today.
It's because I am very tired because last night
apparently it was one of my neighbor's birthdays
and some loved one or friend
of theirs decided to rent them out
a five-man mariachi band
which started playing very loudly at midnight.
(mariachi music)
It actually startled me out of sleep.
I was not sure what the heck was going on.
I like literally my reaction was to sit
up super straight in bed, bolt out of my room
because I don't know why I thought it was
like my phone going off or some type of an emergency
but I ran and they were pretty good though.
The only problem is they played for like an hour
and then I had a really hard time falling back
asleep after that.
So the great thing about picking one
of these seats that's in the very front row is
that you don't have anybody leaning back
into you because these seats really...wait.
They should theoretically...
Okay, (speaking Spanish).
It appears this seat might be broken, but they do lean back.
Oh jeez.
Quite far.
And what should happen is this, this thing also comes out.
So you can really like super recline.
But thankfully, as I mentioned, the bus is completely empty.
So I have my pick.
I can sit over there.
I can sit in the back.
I can sit in the middle.
I can sit with the driver.
No, probably not.
So basically these are meant to be
like those really awesome lay flat seats that you get
in those super, super first class of airplanes.
If they work, I just tried mine
this one and that one and no dice.
It has been an incredibly pleasant bus ride.
So far we're only an hour of the five hours in
but the scenery has been absolutely gorgeous.
It's mostly a cloudy day.
So there's been some like mistiness and fogginess.
But my goodness, the landscape in
I think we're still in Jalisco.
Oof. Gorgeous.
Well, it looks like we are getting here
to the bus terminal about 30 minutes early.
So I think that means this drive took about four hours
and 10 minutes or so.
Awesome. Super uneventful, very smooth drive.
Nice bathrooms.
Quiet.
(speaking Spanish)
Not gonna lie
it feels very weird to be back here in Queretaro.
So if you're new here, you're probably like why on earth
is it such a big deal that you're going back to Queretaro?
Well for three and a half years
I was making Mexico travel vlogs with my then boyfriend.
We finally decided to settle down in this city
but a few months after getting a house together,
we broke up.
He wanted kids and I'm not sure if I ever do.
And yes, we both knew
that very early on in the relationship,
but he kind of thought I would get baby fever
and change my mind.
After the breakup things got extremely messy
to say the least.
I ended up deciding that the healthiest thing
for me to do would be to move out of the house
that we were currently sharing,
sell my half of Tangerine Travels to my ex
and move to a new city entirely.
Unfortunately, that did mean leaving all my friends, my dog
who was originally Jordan's dog
and the city that I loved behind.
So being here is kind of heavy
but I'm also very excited to be back.
Well, I'm waiting for a friend
of mine to get off work right now,
but can I just say I miss that Queretaro is so dry
'cause it went in Guadalajara
from hot and dry to still kind of hot, but really humid.
It's the dryness.
I like it.
It's fresh.
You're not sticky.
I definitely missed that right off the bat.
So I am now here with my friend
Mon that I actually used to live
above her in my old apartment.
And we had to come to Sonora Grill because first of all,
I'm starving, I actually haven't eaten anything today.
- Why? - It was early.
It was early when I left
and I brought an orange and no I ate peanuts.
I had some peanuts, but that doesn't count.
So we're gonna get some drinks and some food and catch up.
Cause it's been four months since we've seen each other.
And now it is (thunder) storming up a storm.
I don't know if you can hear that thunder
but this thunderstorm is glorious.
Oh my gosh.
I don't know, maybe it's because I'm from Phoenix
and like we only get monsoon storms once a year
but thunderstorms with lightning and all the rain.
It's great.
I had to order Rappi to get some water delivered here.
And I got drenched because this complex is very confusing
and I just ended up walking all over the place
trying to find my Rappi guy.
My Rappi guy was trying to find me, but I'm very hopeful
that I will get to see Laska tomorrow
because I miss her so much.
It makes me wanna cry.
I may have already cried, but anyway.
(speaking Spanish)
(dog barking)
Oh my gosh yes.
There she is.
(dog barking)
She doesn't even know yet.
Laska, Laska, Laska.
Do you wanna come inside?
Laska
Aw, hi!
Laska! Do you want to come in?
You can come in.
Wait.
Hi Laska.
Hi.
Hi, Laska come here.
Laska.
Hi! (giggles)
Wait.
Get down.
Come here
Oh yeah, there's so many news smells.
But how about this one?
How about this one?
Laska.
Okay, you have a gimp leg.
Oh my gosh
Laska!
You are such a troublemaker.
- [Mon] Maybe she's trying to figure out
if you've been here the whole time.
(laugher)
No I've been in...(Guadalajara)
Oh my gosh.
Hey, come here.
No, come here.
Settle down.
Hi. Oh, I missed you.
Hey.
No stop trying to evade me.
Love me.
Okay, bye.
So Laska was definitely distracted
by all the smells and stuff in this apartment.
I was told that there might have been a dog in here before
so she was definitely sniffing around all over the place
but I pretty much found the entire day
in the house napping, cuddling and ugh.
It's just been amazing to be back
and spending some time with her.
I cannot even express how much I've missed
this beautiful girl.
Did you miss me?
Are you mad?
Because yes, I was mom to Laska for six years
which is half her life.
So it's hard to be away, but of course
she was my ex's dog first, before we met.
So obviously that is why he kept her.
You wanna go for a walk?
Still with the cute head tilt ah.
Your leg seems better.
It's definitely different than before.
Well there's so many smells.
Yeah, it rained a lot yesterday.
All the smells.
So many smells.
(upbeat pop music)
- So for breakfast, I had to come
to one of my old favorite spots called Terraza La Grupa
because it is a rooftop terrace
which as you can probably see
it has an amazing view of all these churches around here.
Just really good vibes.
The food is awesome.
And I had to get a carajillo, guilty pleasure
of mine 'cause it comes with so much foam.
Oh, so good.
So I decided to get enfrijoladas
which are like enchiladas but with a bean sauce.
In this case, it's like a spicy bean sauce
with chorizo on top and avocado and cheese on the inside.
Mmm. So good little on the spicy side for me.
Not gonna lie
but I still get this every single time I come anyway.
Well, since I'm in centro of course I gotta do this.
Gotta, I gotta, I gotta do it.
El centro of el centro.
(upbeat pop music)
What the heck is this?
So I definitely don't know what the story is behind this
but it looks like an art installation made
from found materials. Aww, things like this that I really
really missed about Queretaro.
Also one of my other favorite things
that I've never seen anywhere else in Mexico.
I think one of the cutest things
the most little random awesome things
of Queretaro are that they've changed instead
of it being a walk, don't walk
hand sign they're little lele dolls
and lele dolls are unique to Queretaro.
They were created in a small indigenous town or well
they were created by indigenous people in a town
called Amealco, I believe.
I used to think it was just a doll of Mexico
but it's actually from here.
And I think they're adorable
with the ribbons in their hair.
It's the little things in life, right?
(peaceful guitar music)
So perhaps the most emblematic thing
of Queretaro is this beautiful 18th century aqueduct
I love coming here and looking at this
even in the time that I lived here for a year
because it's very like, you see the old
and the new it's the historic mixed
with these giant high rises and kind of root of the city,
the historic roots of the city
mixed with what it's developed into today.
So as I've been lazily meandering
around centro enjoying the historic buildings
and the sights wandering in
and out of various shops and whatnot.
I gotta say, I super miss how safe this city is.
Like I don't feel like people look at me for
any amount of time longer than like
oh look a person that's doing something with
this robot in front of her face or something like that.
Oh, a foreigner light skin, green eyes or whatever.
Whereas the vibe is certainly different in Guadalajara
and I am very, very happy that I'll be leaving there soon
for that reason specifically.
But yeah I truly don't know what the deal is
with Guadalajara but I consistently feel like
whenever I'm going out,
even in the daytime,
that I'm about to be the target of something.
Trafficking, getting robbed,
I don't know.
And the robbed thing has actually happened.
My phone got stolen right outta my hand
in broad daylight when I was with a friend.
But here, nope I don't get that impression at all.
In like most cities in Mexico, I don't feel like that.
So I feel like everybody's probably thinking
at this point, okay Maddie, what's the gossip?
When is she gonna give us the dirty deets
about this trip?
Maybe naively I thought I was going into this
like this is just gonna be a fun trip.
I'm gonna see my old friends.
I'm gonna walk around the old places that I used to like.
go to the restaurants that I used to enjoy and all that.
It has been emotional, more emotional
than I was expecting, more of a roller coaster.
You know, seeing Laska being back here,
being reminded of the life that I thought
I was going to have in a city
that I truly, truly do love.
I miss also the safety factor.
I don't know what this is that I'm walking by.
This is new. But I don't think,
I don't know if I really have chisme to share
certainly the emotions,
the roller coaster of emotions that I've been experiencing
doesn't have to do with my ex.
I think things happened the way that they needed to happen.
And so it's not that it's not
ah, I wish I could get back together.
Nothing, nothing, nothing like that.
But more like, being reminded
of the life that I thought I was going to have almost.
Does that make any sense?
The only way I can describe this is
like an out of body experience
and maybe I'm being dramatic?
Maybe.
But it's like these places that I used to go to all the time
this life that I used to have here, my friends.
It's like I'm like watching myself do all of this.
I don't know.
What I can also say,
something that I was pleasantly surprised by
on this trip in the past two days,
is going back to these places
that I used to go all the time.
Like I went to Dodo cafe yesterday.
I actually met Jenny and Kevin from
"Eat Baila Travel", their YouTube channel,
there, Sonora grill, and these other restaurants
like people remembered me when I used to go there.
Like I was, you know, kind of a regular at these places.
So that was cool.
Even after four months it was like, people are greeting me.
"Hey Maddie, long time no see.
Oh my gosh, you're back.
What a nice surprise!
Things like that.
That was cool.
Warm fuzzies for sure.
(peaceful guitar music)
So truth be told this trip did not go
how I was expecting it to.
I honestly thought it was gonna be all sunshine
and rainbows and happy times and making new memories.
I'm super glad that I got to spend time with my friends.
And of course I've had some visitation
with Laska while I'm here, but definitely being
in my old stomping grounds brought up a lot of emotions
that maybe I just,
I wasn't expecting to come to the surface.
Thankfully, no, there was no major drama
like fighting or anything like that
that you might be thinking with the ex situation.
But I think I'll be happy to go back
to my new normal life in Guadalajara
and kind of put some more distance to this situation.
But coming up less drama, more Mexico fun.
I will be going back to Mexico city.
So be sure to subscribe to my channel.
On the screen here is a video I made
recently in Guadalajara.
If you wanna see what my new life is like there
and one more thing.
(gong sound effect)
GONG that bell so you get notified
the next time I release a new video.
and I hope to see you there.