Please Open That Bag, Señora

Yesterday, on our trip from San Miguel to Zacatecas our bus was detained at one of the many military stops that we often drive right past in our travels through Mexico. An armed soldier got on the bus and asked that we all please get off the bus while he looked at our luggage. The young solider then opened the luggage area and began looking and poking at bags. He selected two and took them off the bus. Lucky winner number one: ME! I am not sure what made my bag look suspicious, maybe the fact that it weight a million pounds at this point in the trip. So he then asked the crowed who the bags belonged to and I indicated that it was mine. I am sure he took one look at me, the little gringa tourist, and thought, well, I guess I don't actually need to inspect this. But one can't back down after making such scientific selections of suspicious bags. So he had me come over and open up my bag which he then looked through. He stopped a while at my clear plastic container full of wheat bran (I drink the stuff, it keeps things moving). "What is this?" he asked. I explained it was wheat, for drinking, you know, fiber. "Ah" the young man said, and moved quickly on to my dirty underwear pile. The whole thing took about 2 minutes. I was actually really really impressed with how polite the solider was and how careful he was with everyones baggage. Everything you hear about the Mexican military tends to be pretty negative so I thought I would mention our rather positive experience. That was my fun mexican military moment that I wanted to share with you all.