"On the Trail"

The Journals from the Road

April 27:   New fruits, pig fat, and a family of friends! Fruit Stand of Maria, Campeche

Today was basically an all-day ride along the water, much of the time the wind blowing against me. But I must admit that it was much cooler than it has been inland and that was a relief.

I made my own fruit cocktail, as they are called here, of a pineapple, banannas, two apples, some oats, and honey. I also downed a cucumber with cheyanne pepper and salt on it in a fashion learned in India. I passed out a few cards to folks at Champoton. One boy kept hanging around near me. At first I suspiciously thought he was waiting for a chance to sneak something away from my bags. Finally, I got tired of giving him the evil eye so I walked right up to him and introduced myself. Over the next hour we worked together to purify my water, fixed a flat, and even laughed together a bit. Manuel and I left as friends. I think he just wanted a new friend and didn´t know how to start it up. He said he didn´t like to write but I thought I would put in a few good words on his behalf.

About an hour later my back tire (the same one I had patched earler) blew out. The nozzle seemed to have just given up and cracked open at the connection point with the tube. These tire liners are a mixed blessing. They have so far protected the tubes but now they have both cut through the tubes and created a blowout of their own. If this happens once every two months I guess that is worth it. The fiesta tire count is now at 27 for those of you keeping track on your frig.

I stopped at a fruit stand for a snack at the end of the day and ended up staying the night with Maria, Irving, their sister, el tio (I forgot his name.), and little Adrian. We had many good talks and got to share our photo albums. Maria made me some beans and rice for my send-off lunch. As I was savoring them asked her what she put in them to make them so savory. She told me that she just added onions, salt and a bit of PIG FAT! I thought maybe she meant butter but she showed me the yellow, gooey stuff in the plastic jar. The rest of the beans were eaten a bit more slowly.

Tio (Uncle, that´s what they all called him) let me taste some new plums, and a couple varieties of mangos. Fruit Sampler was a tough job but he had found the man for it.

On the trail,

TAD