Travels In Mexico - In Search of Tex Rainbolt!
January 13th, 2007The Travel Blog of Ed Rice:
Third day of journey from Reynosa
Woke up at the Acapulco Hotel in Xalapa, Veracruz. The morning is dry and sunny.
The problem, as we precieve it, is that Mexico possesses a mysterious and alluring quality. One day you head out on a writing assignment, the next day your 500 miles away - wondering how you got there and what it is you’re suppose to be doing. This is not the first time the mesmerizing quality of this enchanted land has taken Tex into unintended hiding. It just goes with the territory. It’s easy to get sidetracked in the this land of mystery.
I took the pills I was supposed to take this morning, went in search of something that would serve as breakfast. Potassium pills I understand are especially important to take with the food here, otherwise I don´t believe the food adjusts in your system quite right.
I wandered down the picturesque street full of tiny shops selling everything from bags, bolsillops to customade shoes to the many and assorted fruit and yogurt shops. Found a little shop sellling ham and cheese sandwiches for what amounts to about 50 cents back home. It quickly bit into the potassium.
In Xalapa you constantly live under an inactive tropical volcano that many times you can see and many times you can´t for reasons of weather, smog, haze, and pollution. The best view is in the early morning.
Storekeepers are just washing away yesterdays dirt from their front step. It´s all very calm and peaceful. Walking down a narrow street i come upon a little park. I can see the volcano very clearly now. The summit is covered in snow this time of the year. it rises more than 18,000 feet. Global warming, of course, raises it´s ugly head even here in Mexico. This is certainly worth more investigation.
The plaza principal workerers were hard cleaning up the streets and park. In spite of what many think, the average person works very hard here. Police are everywhere to be seen, some with automatic rifles. State police and also some federals as well. I did see one with enough military hardware to go to war in Iraq. I think that he was military. People seem not to be to afraid of them.
There are, of course, two types of mordida, one where the guilty get off with a payoff extra judicially and the other where the innocent or not gulty are shook down and extorted.
More later on the search for Tex Rainbolt, Man of Mystery…