Miles to go before I sleep...

Planes, trains, automobiles, bicycles, newspaper taxis appear on the shore, waiting to take you away. It's about 36 hours travel time between the Bajio and Saint Petersburg.

Mexico City Airport

Adios Mi Chaparrita

Said goodbye to my loving wife Aurora in  Mexico city and flew the big steel bird to Cancun.

 I couldn't believe it when I ran into my cuñada Lourdes in Cancun. 

 Hadn´t seen her for years, since before Philo died. I had sent her a facebook message hoping she would come. We caught up on old times and she helped me get the immigration documents for leaving Mexico.

It was good to see her again after all those years.

. Flew away across the ocean to Germany. Nearly missed my connecting flight.  With no electronic boarding pass I dashed around the Frankfurt Airport to Terminal 2. Raced upstairs and took the shuttle train around and around and around. To D. broke olymic records with 20 minutes to go arrived at security. I could see D7 from where I stood. Only pass security and I'm in.  But suddenly there's 500 chinese people on holiday trying to pass security. I'm doomed. With 5 minutes to go I make it through. I get to D7 and an astonished Russian flight-person can't believe I don't have my electronic boarding pass. Everyone's already on the plane!  She goes to work on telephone, computer, fax machine, email and instant message. 3 minutes later she prints my boarding pass. I race downstairs. A huge bus awaits me to take me to my connecting flight: a classic airbus "Rosiya Airlines." Whatever. It's half empty. When I find my seat I get the whole row to myself and try to catch a few zzzzzzs.   4 hours later finally reached Saint Petersburg.  As I write this I don't know if it's day or night and I feel the chair gently rolling with the turbulence as if I'm still at 30,000 feet.

I reached St. Petersburg and fell into the welcoming arms of Prithu Das. He and Vijaya Raman are waiting for me at the airport in a compact car with a huge Tilak sign on the roof. They are the sweetest, most affectionate devotees of Krishna you could possibly meet. We throw my stuff in the back and we have a long rambling conversation. Prithu offers me some kind of organic aloe verae drink that tastes like cactus juice. I'm dehydrated so I guzzle it happily. We discuss Mexico, Russian Politics, the Mexican educational system and Angkor Wat. 

Tomorrow we begin celebrating the birthday of Bhakti Sundar Govinda Maharaja, the founder of the Lahta Petersburg Temple. I knew Govinda Maharaja and have been invited to speak on this great occasion. But since I can feel the floor rolling underneath me, it's time to get some rest.