Often the most mundane daily sights and routines are the most lasting in memory, or the most jarring to newcomers. I made the routine drive into town today (with A/C on full blast) for groceries and an ATM to pay for them. Always nice to see the Canadian "Scotiabank" here --- they are the most international of Canada's banks, especially prominent in Central America. They earned our everlasting gratitude and loyalty years ago in Belize when a Scotiabank exchanged our mysterious multi-coloured Canadian dollars!
Did I say "jarring" above? The most jarring experience driving in Mexico are the "topes" (pronounced TOE-pace) These are basically full-width speed bumps placed all over the country to slow traffic down near schools, crosswalks, town limits, and anywhere else someone decides to put them. They range from a mound of asphalt to steel-reinforced bone rattlers, to 6-foot wide mini-hurdles. They could be newish with a warning sign. But most are old, broken up, and pop up like an internet ad when you aren't expecting them. Stop signs are an insult to manhood here, but ignoring a topes can destroy a car's suspension and rip out mufflers or worse. So every vehicle respects them and passes over in this Mexican national dance:
Slow Down /Crawl / Front Over / Crawl /Rear Over / Speed Up Again
Repeat. Often.
The effect is so scary if you hit one at speed that Pat has taken to calling out "Topes!" like the Titanic should have called out "Iceberg"!
Between all the topes on the road back to our place are the fishermen selling right on the beach, and the mucho, mucho "collectivos" --- minivans that you flag down for a shared ride into town. Cheap at 45 C cents, and you can wind up riding with pet rats or old Mayan women in their classic embroidered hupile dresses. Watch for "Punta Sam" on the windshield ---- that's our stop!
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