Mezcal

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Took a taxi into Crucecita to buy my friend a bottle of mezcal. I asked around and found out there is a store that sells only mexcal. I was almost there and came across an old man sitting on a box on the sidewalk. He saw me looking around and he said, "What are you looking for?" I said mexcal and he said two blocks up and on the other side of the street.

I soon found the store, and went in. On the back wall, they had to the left mexcal and to the right, tequila. The young Mexican man told me about which bottles were aged in oak barrels and so on. I told him I wanted a bottle of the best mexcal in the store, and he spun around, pulled a bottle off the shelf, and set it on the counter. They were giving free sample shots, so I had one. Smooth and smoky, very nice and I bought the bottle.

A couple days later I was walking the sidewalks of Crucecita and heard a voice say, "Mexcal?" It was the old man sitting on the box, and he remembered me. I said no, but I would like to buy you a shot. He went into the store and came back with a small bottle exactly like the one I bought. He thought I had said I wanted to buy him a bottle. Oh well I thought, what is another 150 pesos?

The farther I got from the town center, the rougher the life was. I saw a man and woman and their baby riding a motorcycle through town. Then there was a woman changing her baby's diapers on the sidewalk. I tried not to look, but caught a whiff of the diaper, so glanced down and it was a baby girl. The diaper was not like Pampers, but a real diaper like my mom used to use on me. Anyway, the woman dipped the diaper into a 5-gallon bucket of water and washed it right there on the spot. You don't see that in downtown Redmond, Washington.

I caught a taxi back to the house, and the taxi driver was a speed demon. He got flying down hte road. I looked over his shoulder at the speedometer, and it was about 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph), on the city streets, through a busy round-about, and making lane changes, going around everyone. We came within inches of several vehicles. I told him to pull over (aki) and I got out unharmed.

On the way home, they were pouring a patch of cement sidewalk. The next day it was dry, but full of deer footprints. Haven't seen any deer, but I guess they're out there at night.

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