Lunch in Mexico: Waiter and Animal Guide
One of the things I love about travelling is that there is often a lot more to meals than just the food.
I visited a town near Oaxaca, Mexico with a small group of people from my Spanish School. The town has several interesting things to see, including a bustling market, Mayan ruins - unmolested by archeologists - and a priest with an axe buried in his head. Or at least there’s a statue of him in the local church.
The boy who sets the table and brings the food must be about ten or 11. Between restaurant chores, he likes to introduce the guests some of his favorite things.
For me, traveling used to be technology-free (apart from my camera). OK, and my short-wave radio, my immersion heater so I can make tea in my room, my digital watch, my calculator … and one or two other little things. It used to be mostly technology free. Not any more!
I arrive just in time for lunch. In such a small town, at such a small hotel (three rooms), it is always just in time for lunch, providing of course, that the women running the place are around. If not, it is either too early for lunch, or worse, too late. In such a small town, there is no other restaurant.
3:30 am. Can’t sleep. Just as sleep seems likely, I hear a noise. Not the noise of the rats on the roof as they scuffle, scratch and squeak their life away. There’s a rat in my room - I don’t like this at all! The funny thing is, I thought I had blocked the large gap in the corner under my door with that pad lock.