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It all started out simple enough, a little break from the college routine, a Spring break from Chico to Mazatlan for some sun and fun. I had arranged for about 30 of us to join the thousands of students who gather in the Mexican coastal city annually for the rite of passage based on drinking, dancing tanning and chasing the opposite sex. The lovely brochure had said “join us for an all-inclusive holiday on the Mexican Riviera including round-trip transportation.” After deciding to go the details began to creep out. All inclusive meant a train ticket from Colexico to Mazatlan, a room and a few meals thrown in here and there, no bother we were heading to Mexico! I had always had an entrepreneurial slant and this company offered one free trip for every seven student I signed up, with thirty responses to my fliers I had garnished 4 trips, which I gave to a couple of buddies and sold a couple to some hot chicks I knew at a deep discount to make sure we had company on the journey. The journey is really where this story is going. We carpooled the thirteen hour drive from Chico to Colexico for the 7 AM train departure. On the drive we hit fog and had to drive by brail for several miles through the mountain pass by dragging my foot along the road reflectors, kind of scary as the cliff was never more than a few feet away, but we made it. This lovely tour included a free bottle of champagne as you boarded the dilapidated coach and then we were off on the 30 hour ride through the desert. Along with hundreds of student from the west coast were goats, chickens, and many Mexicans working their way into the heartland of the country. I later learned that we would be passing through some bad-lands where law was scarce and robbery was common, no bother, we were making the best and headed to a big party. Needless to say thirty hours on a train can be dull. I had the luck to talk with someone who had taking the trip the year before who told me to bring food. The train did have a dining car, but it was bad, I mean real bad, like most of the train it was soiled, stinky and not an appetizing place to be. Not one to miss and idea I had consigned my travel mates to carry a huge Igloo cooler I had filled with peanut butter, jelly, cookies and apples. We made an assembly line and cranked out meals for fellow travelers, at five bucks a pop. We sold out and sat back drinking Corona from our private cooler. Travel was going fine but boredom had set in, A day and a night had passed and nothing but sand and another ten hours to go until we could get down to some real partying. In Chico we played a lot of Frisbee between classes, I thought, let’s throw the Frisbee! Well after hitting innocent bystanders, scaring the goats and banging against the walls playing disk inside a train was not working out. No problem I thought, there is open space on the roof and we are going so slow we should be able to throw up on top, sounded good, a little adventure. On top of the train is a messy place, lots of soot and soil from countless trips to the Rivera. We were able to throw short tosses and amused ourselves for awhile, until we saw it. A jeep, with a machine gun mounted on top, bearing down a big dune right at us, looking very uncool, we ran. I knew this could not be good in any way and remembering stories of the Midnight Express it seemed a good time to stop playing. Fortunately members of my crew were also terrified so we decided to split up, change cloths and blend in. The jeep turned out to be Federalies AKA Mexican paramilitary types. Their job was to guard the train, seeing us on top they assumed we were up to no good, maybe robbing, who knows what they thought, but they stopped the train. After a long search and nobody admitting that is was us on top the men with guns drove off into the desert and we were back on our way to the party. It was very scary and a journey I will never forget, I did learn a few things on that trip, don’t #%&*@! with Federalies, hot chicks don’t like squalid conditions and always bring more cookies than you think you will need.

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