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Back in the land of fluorescent lights (repost)



MONDAY, MARCH 12, 2007



This was formerly titled Motel Sanchez, but after I somehow hit the wrong buttons it was gone, so I am back in the sparkling clean Internet Café, awash in fluorescent lights, it’s got about twenty stations, and primarily it seems to serve as IM heaven for all the teenagers in town but it’s close and the boxes seem to work properly.

I have been living at Motel Sanchez for nearly ten days now, it’s clean, cheap, and simple (so it should not be confused in any way with “the dirty Sanchez”), at first I was just happy that the bathroom door was big enough to roll through but it has proved to be a great little home away from home. It’s safe, comfortable and secure, there is no real need to lock the doors, and my car has been entirely unmolested since its arrival.


Primarily people stay there on the weekends and traveling through town, with a few notable exceptions, it fills completely when the wind blows, (we are taking about 6 to 8 bodies to a room on those nights}. The most noteable exception is room 3 which is apparently a sin bin for the local chief of police, and as much as I miss sex with a partner, I have to say the ho dujours that he is rolling through there make life alone seem satisfying indeed! (my guess is that they are in room 3 working off the fines for being nasty individuals with high self esteem who treat the staff and everyone in their path like shit.

When I say that is has become a home away from home, I really mean it, as most of you know I am somewhat of an expert at life on the road, and in general hotels are fairly cold sterile environments but here everyone is like family, they have meals together and have been working together for between 7 and 16 years and treat it like it was their own. It is set up mission style, only the front wall of the mission is a giant candy store, “La Dulceria Maylu” it’s essentially the Costco of teeth rotting substances, where all that candy gets sold is a mystery to me but if ever you wanted a tacky piñata this is certainly the spot to find one. The motto emblazoned on the back of the delivery trucks is La no es Drogas, La Si es Dulci, or something to that effect, (when I see the screaming children being dragged out the front door by their parents I am thinking a little drogas in their wax soda bottles might be a good thing) though the other three walls are rooms, there are 30, and there is a beautiful old pepper tree in the middle of the big gravel courtyard/parking lot (which btw the owner rakes using an old VW Baja Bug with two old rakes dragging behind attached to a 2x4 frame, it’s very rube Goldberg, definitely no OSHA approved, buts it’s efficient and quite a sight to see.

Speaking of owners, they have been really good to me, Eduardo and Estella. Estella’s father arrived in Vincente Guerrero in 1961 selling candy to the farm workers from the back of his old Buick. Evidently don Sanchez was good at what he did and when he passed he left her and her brother a pretty sizeable chunk of town. They spend half of their time in Chula Vista (near San Diego) and half of their time here. Judging by the way people react when they see them in town. They are really good people. They have 33 years of marriage and still act like newlyweds, to hear them speak of each other is just what we all wish for.

Saturday Eduardo gave me a tour of the place, He is a really proud guy, showed me all around, his little shop, the boiler rooms, all the inner workings of La Sanchez. It was a really nice gesture. Then we jumped into his little Baja Bug and went for a long drive on the beach. It was so refreshing, not to just drive to the beach, but be able to actually drive on it.
On the hill there is a big group of gringo mansions, they run a cool little restaurant right on the sand, it’s built of ancient timbers and driftwood, very funky and quite possibly the best margarita I have ever had, but the real scene is La Playa. It is just a cool little local scene down there. All the families are having picnics, clamming and surf fishing. I reminded me of clamming with my dad in Ventura when I was young, that was a welcome happy memory.

As soon as La Chingadera is operational again I am going to drive the beach to San Quintin. There are 6 volcanoes that you can drive right up and onto.
Eduardo knows all the fisherman so we picked up some fresh barracuda which he made into an excellent cerviche that he shared with the entire staff and I for lunch on Sunday.
As far as having an operational car goes that will hopefully happen by Wednesday or Thursday with any luck. First they wrote down the wrong credit card number so that delayed the shipment, then we got that straightened out and I gave them the wrong address, hopefully they will be able to redirect or are back in their hands by now. I am sure it will all happen when it happens though.
My new friend Genarro went and I picked up my trailer today and brought it to me so now I have my power chair, my thumbs are happy and I can get out and explore the town without looking like pigpen.

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