Guadalajara, Mexico, December 27th 2002

I met Carlo in Mexico on a Mexican sunny day. He was a beautiful Dutch tourist and the minute we saw each other we had quite an spectacular mutual physical attraction. It was just fireworks. He symbolized the prototype of physical perfection for me at that time. He had the cutest little nose ever and had a nose ring, two big tattoos on both biceps and long, long dreadlocks. *sigh*. We became lovers and he became somewhat a regular visitor to my country.

After years of not seeing each other, I got an e mail from Carlo telling me that he’s got two friends coming to Mexico and asking if I could give them some orientation around town and an incandescent light bulb flashed instantly over my head and I thought that their timing couldn’t have been better because the Chili Peppers had just announced two shows in Las Vegas for the New Year’s Eve in the end of 2002 and the awakening of 2003 and I had been desperately and unsuccessfully looking for somebody who would take shifts with me on the road trip from Guadalajara to Las Vegas. There was no way I could have driven for 3 days on my own because 1. the North of Mexico is the heartland of the biggest drug cartels of the country and therefore a massively military controlled area, and Mexico being the corrupted country it is, that’s nothing to feel cozy about; 2. even my uncommon common sense wouldn’t have allowed me to do it, not to mention my parents and 3. and most importantly, I couldn’t afford it

I e-mailed the Dutch boys and told them about this amazing road trip to Las Vegas I was planning to make, how amazing the north of Mexico is, and how much fun it would be to cross the border and spend the New Year’s in Las Vegas. I must have described it a lot better than I just did because they were thrilled and full of joy to do it. They arrived to my house late in the evening and next day at 6 am we were up and ready to hit the road, the poor boys still jetlagged. "Shark", Thaijs and me, leaving the motel room

It was such an amusing experience to suddenly spend so much time together with a couple of total strangers. Sometime during the first couple of hours I explained my real reason to be going to Las Vegas and I don’t think they were too thrilled about it at all but I promised that on the way back I would take them to a paradise beach in the Mexican coast of the Pacific Ocean and they seemed happy about it and decided to continue the trip with me and help me on my mission to meet Anthony.

The Dutch boys and I in the Hoover Dam driving back to Mexico

We took turns for the CD player, the deal was 1 album each. They were playing Johnny Cash and other Dutch bands and I was playing…well, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We spent the first night in Mexican soil, in Los Mochis, where I have an auntie that gave us accommodation and breakfast early next day.

We drove through the most amazing landscapes: roadrunner-style deserts with giant cactuses, dry reddish mountains and vultures feasting on road kill and all. We experienced the unavoidable military forces (3 times) who searched for narcotic substances underneath the car, inside our cigarette packages, and any possible hidden little corner, and asked about the strange concoction of passengers in our car. I pretended to be a foreigner too and not to speak any Spanish so they just let us go. When the night was falling and after a 2 hour car queue we crossed the border through Nogales and spent night two in Tucson, Arizona. We had dinner in the “Waffle house” and shared the Motel room and also the boys shared their fantasies of who would they drive 3 days for. We had a lot of fun just talking endlessly and they were just very curious about what was it that was so amazing about Anthony. I am sure they were sorry to ask. I didn't stop for an hour.
Next morning we were up by 7 am, the boys exhausted and I so excited, we drove through Phoenix, through the breathtaking Arizona desert and through the biggest traffic jam I’ve ever seen in my entire life: the one at the Hoover Dam. I Never understood why it took us more than 2 hours to cross the infamous dam, specially because there wasn’t much to see at night.
I was so nervous already, I had no life insurance, no ticket to the show, no idea of what I was doing, no car insurance either and it had been a painful 8 hour drive, it was cold, my urinary bladder was completely loaded and it was already too dark… and in the middle of the hopelessness a sudden explosion of light in the far distance: The city of Las Vegas where the Chili Peppers would be playing next day.