Mexico Bus Tour Notes- Our bus is clearly not designed for Mexicos country roads. But these are the only roads that lead to Xixitla. Its an ancient town on top of a mountain, were scheduled to perform kirtan in the town square on a stage. Manoram tells us. A convent was built there in the fifteen hundreds, well be right next to it. The people that live there are descendants from the original Mayans. The road narrowed and the lookouts riding in the front of the bus shout Tope ! Tope ! Topes are speedbumps placed in towns to slow down traffic. They vary in size, sometimes marked with signs, sometimes disguised. Some are big enough to break an axle if you go too fast. Sometimes they are little, Topitos, little baby topes. We pass sugar cane fields and squeeze by oncoming trucks heavily loaded with sugar cane. They are as wide as our bus. I have to keep the bus between the lines with no room to spare. The shoulder is soft, lower than the road, almost enough to flip us over if I go off roading. I wince every time a truck comes our way, hoping we wont clip our mirrors or worse.Im glad theres no oncoming traffic here as I point to a section of road under construction. Theres no shoulder at all, just a sheer drop off to a four foot deep pit. I steer the bus to the middle of the road, away from the hazard, hoping no one shows up around the corner. Im perspiring with concentration, both hands on the wheel at all times, scanning the road for low branches, oncoming cane trucks, topes in the road, or perhaps the road giving out entirely without warning. One of the girls brings my bowl from the kitchen,Do you want to eat while driving or wait? Thank you. I think Ill wait. Just set it over here. I try not to sound sarcastic or overly concerned. Most of the passengers are impervious to the drama. I hear music, conversations and laughter behind me. 30 Hare Krishna kids are having a great time just being together. Cane truck traffic increases, pieces of sugar cane litter the road. As we climb the mountain, the road narrows even more. We have to park and take taxis from here. Manoram announces. As our little Nissan taxi arrives in Xixitla I hear a flute playing Christmas tunes and find the source, a second story open window, a pair of hands holding the flute is all I can see. I point,Look at that., but everyone is already caught up in the scene, Ive never been anyplace like this before. I didnt even know such places exist...except for maybe Disneyworld. Yeah, but this is the real deal. Llamas or alpacas would not have seemed out of place on the steep cobblestone roads with people dressed in traditional clothes. We made our way through the marketplace to the square and met the rest of our group. Market stalls were closing down, people packing up. I wondered what kind of crowd we could expect. These are working people, they cant stay up late for music and dancing like our other venues in bigger cities. As the night went on, the crowd grew smaller. Things were very quiet when we left. Arriving back to the bus, there was loud laughter, accusations and wild speculations. Pandu, our Peruvian guide, translator and mechanic had investigated something around the wheels of the bus. It looked like an oil leak. Touching a finger to it, it smelled like maple syrup. It tasted sweet.Well put this on our pancakes tomorrow, its good! Apparently we had created molasses from the sugar cane wed run over that day.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 20:11:34 +0000
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