A copy of the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez was the one possession which kept Kylie Bretag sane as she languished in a cramped cell inside a Mexican jail.
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Ms Bretag read the book, which she now admits was an ironic choice, twice in four days as she awaited news of her fate after being detained for entering the country without the proper stamp on her passport.
"It actually was the best book to have in there.
"If I was reading there was something else to focus on."
Ms Bretag returned home to Canberra on Monday after more than two weeks spent in limbo in Mexican detention centres, where she says she was treated like a criminal for what she says was an "innocent mistake".
Ms Bretag crossed the border from California into Mexico on foot to celebrate her 30th birthday with friends early last month.
"It was definitely cheaper to fly to where I was going from Tijuana but more it was that I thought it would be a really cool thing to do."
No-one stamped her passport when she crossed the border about midday on October 1 and she said her entry into the country was "really, really easy and straightforward".
"It wasn't as if I went through at some obscure time or I was being dodgy and trying to get through unnoticed, it wasn't that at all."
She prompted the guards to check her bag, assuming it would lead to a passport check, but they let her straight through.
Ms Bretag spent a couple of weeks holidaying by herself but was detained by immigration officials for travelling without the proper stamp when they boarded her bus and checked her passport in the southeastern town of Tenosique on October 20.
She was locked in a small cell with 20 other women and children and was allowed outside once in six days.
No-one else in the cell spoke English, it was filled with cigarette smoke, and Ms Bretag was unable to shower.
Her initial feelings of anger and frustration soon gave way to "total humiliation".
"They really hammer it in that you're in the wrong, it's your fault and it was your responsibility."
"I was freaking out the entire time."
She said immigration officials repeatedly told her she would be deported, but those plans never eventuated.
After six days in the jail she was moved to a second detention centre in Mexico City, where she remained until she was flown out of the country last Friday local time.
"I don't know what changed their mind but I could go back today and be welcomed.
"The whole thing from the very beginning, all of what came about, is completely ridiculous."
"Five years ago I would have been fined and I would have been sent on my way with a stamp.
"But with the change of government it seems to be more reactionary, rather than having people manning borders properly so this doesn't happen."
Ms Bretag, who now lives in Melbourne, arrived at Sydney International Airport via Tokyo early on Monday morning and was met by her parents, Colleen and Graham Bretag, and younger brother.
Mr Bretag, of Evatt, communicated with his daughter via email while she was detained and said the family was "just so relieved" she had arrived home safely.
"I think she's just trying to work her way through it mentally."
Ms Bretag said she loved her time in Mexico but recommended tourists hop on a plane, rather than risk crossing the border on foot.
She'd since heard of two Australians who visited the Australian embassy in Mexico City after they read about her situation and realised they also hadn't had their passports stamped when they entered the country.
