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December 26, 2002

ok, had some time to

ok, had some time to cool down, caught myself up on what i realize is one of the most worthwhile internet sites i´ve ever seen, true porn clerk stories, i´ve linked to that site before. Today when i read to the end and realized it was done i was a little sad. we were discussing internet culture last night, i still laugh at myself a little when i realize that i´m privy to a significant portion of it, then grimace when i think that hours of my life were spent in front of a glowing screen to get so savvy, but i regret it not.
lots of good things have happened since i´ve been back in san cristobal, i got back here three days ago, on christmas eve. my busride from tulum in the yucatan was semi-hellish, sitting next to the toilet at the back of the bus sitting next to the lady who´s your and squirmish daughter got her fidget on for a large portion of the night. i just gave her some or my mandarine orange and thought about how much i love mexico, and how i was travelling around the same way as the mexicans do, not on separate tourist busses like i was forced to do in cuba.

i arrived the 24th, and returned to doña rosita´s, she´s the lady who owns the hostel i stay at here. she had a christmas tree and informed me that she was cooking all of us at the hostel a dinner cause we wouldn´t get free breakfast the next morning, christmas day. i met up with anthony and saw how he was doing, he´s getting fed up working at the restaurant but he´s enjoying living in this town still. i got my nap in, a few hours at least so that i´d have energy for the evening. at 6 we all helped set the table, then rosita ushered us into the courtyard of the hostel for the ´posada.´ i asked what that was, it turned out to be us splitting into 2 groups, one representing the virgin mary and jose her husband as they wandered through bethlehem looking for somewhere for her to have the baby jesus, (who by the way i´d like to wish a happy 2002 to) and the other group representing the people in the houses who told them to get lost. we were all issued candles and sparklers, and the piñata, a yellow chicken, hung pregant over us as the singing began.

in my group, representing mary and joseph, there were exactly two of us who knew the tune to the posada song. that left about 12 of us limping along in a quieter yet still enthusiastic voice to the song. the other group had a few singers who knew how it went, but on the whole it was pretty hilarious. rosita was literally glowing she was so happy, and when the part of the song came where whoever it was let mary into their barn to plot out the lord said she could come in, we all ignited our sparklers and rosita busted out this ceramic jesus in a blanket. the doll must have been dropped, it was broken in several places, and she paraded it around it front of us, the awesome short native featured lady that she is, with the biggest smile ever. a spanish girl was elected to smash the piñata with a broomstick, and she beat the hell out of it, so that soon we were showered with oranges and chunks of sugarcane. i whipped out my knife and sheared off the stalk of the sugarcane, it chewed like gum for about 15 seconds, then the flavor was gone.

we all cruised back into the room we had set the tables in, there must have been almost 40 of us. earlier i had been dispatched to go buy tequila and beer, and we poured said tequila into classes half filled with the ponche rosita had made us, it was a punch with citrus, sugarcane, jamaica, and some other stuff. served very hot and with tequila, it helped to cure my congestion a bit, and rosita encouraged me to drink plenty. the dinner was quite good, cream of carrot soup, pasta with homemade sauce that was damn tasty, and avocados smothered with mashed potatoes on top. I of course gorged myself, sitting and talking with the spaniards and this cool couple from truckee. we sat fondly thinking of the snowboarding we would miss this season, i think next winter i will make an effort to take some powder runs somewhere. i miss it bad.

after dinner we all headed over to la doña restaurant, where anthony had just finished cooking the christmas dinner buffet. quickly i found shots of tequila in front of me, and before long 3 english folks and i were trying to remember the lyrics to the fairytale of new york by the pogues. the mexicans gave us bemused looks as we raised beer glasses and mojito glasses and shouted the few verses we could remember, it was excellent, reminded me a bit of back at the katherinehouse drinking with brooke walker, singing along to rum, sodomy and the lash.

anthony mentioned that we should head off to a party at the house of one of the waiters, so he, i, and the truckee couple piled into a taxi and headed away from the center of town. the driver, who´s red eyes quickly betrayed him as a fervent bob marley fan, had no idea where we were going. apparently there are 3 streets named calle santa cruz here, and we were nearly four-wheeling up one of them into the hills before he realized that it wasn´t the right one. after yelling out the window at several street pedestrians we found our way there, to see about 7 kids standing in front of the house, lighting off fireworks.

everyone else headed down to the house but i stayed up on the street, very excited to be part of the firework action. the had little bottle rockets and these strings of firecrackers that sounded like automatic weapon fire. their favorite was to wait until just before the things went off, then throw them out of their naked hand at the neighbor´s house down the street. i chipped in 2 bucks and they came back from the corner store with a pile of fireworks, they all told me their names and were laughing hysterically, it may have been the highpoint of the evening.

eventually i went down into the party, the waiter and his 7 brothers and their wives and girlfriends were all there, drinking and eating and having a grand time. i was given a glass of beer and with deft movement avoided the plate of chicken sent in my direction. the family was great, we sat around and chatted for quite a while. anthony was a little drunker then i and his burgeoning spanish descended into calling everything pinche this and pinche that. i cringed when i realized that he was seated next to the mother´s of one of the brother´s girlfriends, but she seemed not to mind so much that his usage of her mother tongue had crept towards pure profanity.

the sounds of firecrackers continuing on into the night, we bid our fairwell and stumbled off down the street, in search of a cab. when one did come by, i was nearly outraged when the driver wanted 20 pesos, or two dollars, to drive us home. it always costs 1.50$, and i told him so. unfortunately everyone else was already in the car and i had to go along, but i hate getting screwed by cabbies and vow to take it out on the next one unfortunate enough to get me in his car. just kidding. the night ended with my tearing off my shoes and falling fast asleep in my dorm bed, still quite a bit resfriado, congested. it was ok though.

yesterday anthony and i went wandering around some parts of the city i hadn´t seen before, away from the touristy center. the best was seeing the kids play soccer in a field with a cow standing near by and also watching the clouds turn their amazing colors from next to the second hilltop church. it was christmas day and mass was starting, which didn´t stop some hooligans from lighting off a large number of big bottle rockets, they would arc into the sky and explode, and the sound would echo all around the valley. the people standing in the doorway of the church were not amused, though i was laughing my ass off.

this morning i was awokened at 9 oclock to translate a document for the network of indigenous nations of north america into spanish. it was about a page and a half, but it took me more then 2 hours, including the time i had to enlist a nice mexican girl to correct my few (!) grammer mistakes. it was actually deeply satisfying, made me miss my translation class from university and good old professor rojas.

ok that sorta catches me up, tonight gonna watch a my new friend from truckee play guitar at anthony´s work, the owners had to let the cuban band go cause they couldn´t afford to pay them, and the dishwasher hasn´t been paid in a month, but i still always end up there. probably cause i sneak food when the waiters aren´t looking, and cause the mojitos are 2 for one, though they come nowhere near the mojitos of cuba. concerning cuba, i´ll write about viñales next time i get on a computer, that was our favorite town and the place i remember the most fondly.

ok a little browsing for you all, first, a christmas letter from landover baptist.
actually that´s all.

Posted by bendan at December 26, 2002 02:18 PM

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