Hitchhiking gets two thumbs up!

Cross another form of transportation off my list: hitchhiking.

Ok, so I didn't hitchhike in the true sense of me actively flagging down a random ride. But this morning while waiting for the bus at Primeros Pasos to head back to Xela, a woman in a Ford Explorer with a baby sleeping in the backseat pulled up and asked where I was going and if I wanted a ride. She was going my way and it was faster, easier, and cheaper than the bus, so I said yes.

Her name is Ingrid and she lives essentially next door to the clinic and says she and the other neighbors often give us clinic folks a lift if they pass by and are going into the city. We made small talk as she drove, what I'm doing in Xela, how long I've been here, what I do at the clinic. When I told her where I lived in the states she said she had a cousin living in Boston that she had visited before. She mentioned the Freedom Trail, Harvard, and MIT. It was kinda cool to chat about home for a minute with someone who had been there. She herself had lived in Miami for six months to take ESL classes and also has family in Arizona, New Jersey, New York and some other states.

Our ride was only 15 minutes or so - and in a funny coincidence it turned out her husband works right near school in my part of the city, although she wasn't headed there this afternoon. She dropped me off at the same spot the bus would have and I walked the rest of my way home. All in all a very pleasant experience from a very friendly neighbor. My first hitchhiking experience was a definite success!