A man of incredible wisdom once said, "Whenever Phis travel in groups, boundless possibilities make themselves known." I have had the singular fortune of traveling to mystic lands with such groups during my time at U. Va. - Boulder, CO; Montreal and Quebec City, and Oxford/London all spring immediately to mind. But few things could have prepared me for the outrageous delight of Spring Break ’09 in Tampico, Mexico.

The idea was conceived in October of ’08, when I (A. W. Simmons, ’09) shared a class with David William Bobo Mullens III (’11 - hereafter ‘Bobo’) and we discussed his family, who live full-time in Mexico. Heavenly light shone upon me. All was understood. Staying with brothers who live in exotic locales? No brainer. This was to be my spring break.

Myself, Bobo, John Karunakaran (’10), Sam Pierce (’10), Buddy Gray (’10), Edward Lindquist (’09), and Alec Toth (’09) were on the team. While Toth and Edward zipped direct to Bobo’s home in Tampico, Mexico, We Five flew commercially to the border to meet Bobo’s father (David Bobo Mullens Jr.), also a Virginia Beta Phi (’81), to cram into a single-engine Cessna which would carry us the rest of the way. Mullens II is owner and operator of an agricultural business in Tampico, hence the family’s residency. After a warm welcome of endless tamales from Bobo’s saintly mother (and American school principal) Judith, we settled in for the Real Deal.

The break’s motto was ‘Mexico - where you almost die every day.’ Over our six-day adventure, we survived outrageous traffic patterns, a sandstorm (while beaching it up on the Gulf), precipitous peaks (hiking the 2,300 ft. promontory Bernal), deep-sea fishing on the Gulf, visiting the pre-Aztec ruins at El Tajin, and exploring what many of us thought to be the most beautiful place we’d ever been, the Tamul waterfall. I flew a plane, Buddy wore too much sunscreen, a cat peed on Karunakaran while he slept, and many, many more things occurred which space and basic human decency disallow from recounting here. An incredible trip, with incredible hosts. Just one more element of fraternal life that I will miss terribly upon graduation and not soon forget.