Mexico Lindo

It's sad that most Americans know Mexico from visits to border towns or tourist beaches... the interior of the country, rural Mexico, is full of quiet villages that are reminiscent of idyllic rural areas anywhere. Of course, they're not as aesthetically pleasing as the small villages in France - few places are - but they're similar in so many ways - the roses, the kitchen gardens, the impeccably maintained cottages, the healthy animals, the smiling children... but with a vibrance and charm all their own.

We drove last Friday from Bisbee with our friends Jim and Sara, following our other friends Karen and Adam on their motorcycle (they're obviously younger and braver than the 4 of us)to Banamichi, a Mexican village 135 miles south of the border. After a few wrong turns and misbegotten "short cuts", we arrived at the Hotel Los Arcos in the late afternoon. The horrors of the road were soon forgotten after a few cold Mexican beers and a taste of bacanora, the local agave brew, sipped in the flower-filled courtyard on a balmy, velvety evening.

And then - best of all - our hosts, Tom and Lynne, sent us to the tacqueria around the corner, which has no name...it's just Martin's place. Since it was Dick's birthday, we filed into Martin's with a bag of beer and ice. He looked up fearfully when we entered - (Ah, chingada! Seis gringos!) but threw several large slabs of marinated meat on the glowing charcoal grill. While we drank our first round, he grilled it, chopped it (loudly - on the chopping block by the grill) and put the resulting manna from heaven on homemade tortillas, which the waitress brought to our table... along with watercress, cucumbers, sweet onions, salsa fresca and a creamy avocado-green chili sauce. Oh, the bliss! Oh, the happy groans from the gringos as we stuffed ourselves... and all for the magnificent sum of $5 per person.

Yes, life was good - and got even better the next morning as we sat in the plaza on white wrought iron benches, by the gazebo and the 17th century church, watching as village life went on around us. In the early morning light, housewives stood sweeping their already gleaming porches. Handsome vaqueros on horseback rode out to herd their cattle, little girls rode by on bicycles, smiling young men in ball caps drove by in trucks, old ladies in black promenaded around the square, and the handsome old men sat in the shade just like us. And every one of them smiled and waved and welcomed us to their beautiful town.

Why we left I don't know - but we drove way too far to Magdalena del Kino, where we saw the reliquary (code for skeleton) of Father Kino and bought milagros. Milagros (means "miracle") are silver charms of various body parts - you can buy arms, legs, breasts, heads - that you buy if you have an ailment in particular part of your body - if you use the milagro charm and pray hard enough, you'll be healed. I was ambivalent about the Father Kino thing - he was, after all, the leader of the rapacious Spaniards who plundered Mexico and forced Catholocism on these handsome indigenous people. But the sun was shining, and families wandered the park that sheltered the reliquary in a festive mood, buying balloons and cotton candy - history forgotten in the happy present.

We were not ready to leave on Sunday, but leave we did. We entertained ourselves on the way home by counting the roadside shrines, usually created to memorialize someone who died in a traffic accident on that particular spot on the road... but often just to give thanks for some everyday miracle. We're at 94 shrines and counting...

The result of all this fun is that we're going back! We're leaving on Wednesday for Copper Canyon Parque Nacional... taking the train through the canyon and hiking through colonial villages. So we'll file our next post when we return. Hasta luego!