Hola friends and family,
Left Ocosingo, couldn`t convince Ardell to stay another day. The mountains here are spectacular. There is no flat land whatsoever. Corn grows on very steep hils. To Maya don`t use animals, they carry everything themselves. Stalky and sturdy, they must have great cardio systems.
Picked up a maya woman who needed a ride. I coudn`t understand where she wanted to go, the names she gave weren`t on the map. All I could understand was Guadelehara. Was she running away from home? Gave her a couple of bananas to eat, then she fell asleep. We were worried we would drive by her destination. Eventually, we slowed down to buy some stuff, she woke up, and asked to get out. That was her stop. Ardell has her picture.
There are lots of army checkpoints on the highway. Sometimes they pull you over for a search, sometimes wave you through. They are looking for guns and drugs. Why can`t they buy them like everyone else?
We drove through to San Christobal, a very old town with those streets 2 cars wide, yet they park on both sides. Have to watch your mirrors don`t collide. Toured the downtown on foot, but it wasn`t to our liking. Heard later that it is a great place to live. So we drove through to Tuxtla to spend the night.
Found a motot hotel which is nice because you can park your car in your own garage (with a beautiful tiled floor). Very large and nice. They refer to these as sex hotels because people can have their adulterous flings and no one knows you are there. They have a room service where they deliver the food in a large thingy like a milk shute. Condoms in a basket. Porn on the TV.
Because we were in an industrial area we couldn`t find a restaraunt so we headed for a mall to see what the food court was like. Parked at the Sears enterance. Ardell asked some clerks where the rest of the mall was and the clerks started to phone for an english-speaking clerk. We left and found the rest of the mall. It was just like being in any mall in Canada or the USA. Same stores. The food court was just like home, and the prices were too. I am ambarassed to say we bought Big Macs. And also embarassed to say they tasted great. Maybe have been eating too many tortillas. Browsed in a bookstore for 30 min or so. Returned to Sears and the english speaking clerk was waiting for Ardell. He didn`t understand her either, but it didn`t matter, just great service from Sears. I finally found a $5 orange juicer and the clerk was right there to help me. Actually 4 clerks were there, all dressed in black and white uniforms. I couldn`t remember the name for cashier, and couldn`t get across that I wanted to pay. Finally I held the juicer up and shouted "La quenta por favor" They all had a laugh and all 4 took me to the cachier (caja). It was a great experience, finding lots of staff to help you in a store. Unheard of in these times of labor shortages.. And we finally got the juicer!
Thats all for now. Will follow up with another installment later.
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