Saturday in Town

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Many interesting things in town today. My first outing was to the local beach, came in the back way to avoid the the waiters. Hung out for an hour on my new yellow beach towel, watched the waves come and go. Got all hot and sweaty within the first 10 minutes. It was 96 today, and the ocean temperature is 83. The saltwater is good for my skin, seems like it makes my fingernails grow faster. I've heard that if you are standing on the beach, you can see for 12 miles to where the earth curves away on the horizon. The boats look pretty small out that far.

I was on my way back to the apartment when I heard a man call my name, "Ricardo!" It was Carlos, a waiter I met yesterday. I turned around and took a chair, oedered a water, and gave him a 25 peso tip. I drained the water in 5 minutes, got a cold Orange Crush and drank that too. Wow, I was thirsty. Had a cup of noodles for lunch.

After the mid-day siesta, I caught a cab to Crucicita, 25 pesos. (a dollar is 12 pesos). Walked around and did some shopping. Bought a bottle of mezcal with the worm.

A short beep of a horn is the sign of a cab driver coming up behind you. Intersections are a free-for-all. Some of the cab drivers drive more wildly than me, so that's sometimes scary. Another sound is the familiar clack-clack of a man running a loom. They are amazingly fast and accurate, spinning the spools of yarn between the main threads at high speed. They have to remember which spools to loop under which threads with every switching of the loom pedals.

I bought a 50-peso phone card, and after a while, figured out that you have to put the card in and leave it in, not like swiping a debit card.

Some of the teenage girls come to the beach and sit in the shade while getting their hair braided by older senoras, who charge some small amount. Fun to watch them braid about 20 sections of hair and put colored beads and ribbons all in a row. That's a skill just like being a waiter or driving a boat. Just for fun, I asked if she could do mine next. "No possible senior." You can't braid a bald head.

Yesterday I went for a walk along the road up towards the snorkeling beach. Put a couple of miles on my sandles, and got all hot and sweaty. The roads are very steep, straight up each hill, like hiking up to Rattlesnake Ledge in North Bend.

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Photos

The Local Scene
Laid back day