Jicacal

The 21 and 22 of March, a number of exchange students came to Mina to join up with a larger group of Rotarians and their children from the surrounding cities. We drove up through the relatively hilly countryside towards the mountains and the beach to a place called Jicacal, a tourist destination beach populated by Paisanos and scavenger dogs. The objective of the trip was to clean the beach, though that seems to have been a false pretext, as there is some doubt about whether the beach was cleaner before we got there or after we left.

I went with my host dad and brother, and an exchange student from Belgium named Denis. On the way there (the trip is about two hours by car and fifteen minutes by boat. We decided to drive.), however, the back left tire was punctured by a gigantic screw in the road, so we drove back to the nearest town (Tatahuicapan), still quite close, and they set to work to repair it. However, when the mechanic took the tire off, he broke three of the five lugs that hold the tire on, so my host dad spent the afternoon taking buses and taxis around to different small towns looking for replacements. This was really fine; the three of us just sat there and ate and watched things all day, and we got out of doing any work all weekend.

Denis and our invisible tire.

My host father, El Doctor Erasto, and brother Memo.

Me posing in front of people leaving church.

Finally my host dad did manage to find the parts and everything was straightened out, and so we got there just as the few people who did any work were finishing up, and dinner was ready.

This is the view looking out from the beach where we slept at night, at sunset. The stars were the most beautiful and worthwhile part of the whole weekend, but it is very difficult to take pictures of them. A few of us from Mina sat around a campfire and dined on oranges and bananas and pears, listening to Veracruzano guitar music. Very nice. On the other beach, the Rotarians and other exchange students were drinking and yelling and singing poorly.

Having went to bed fairly early that night, I decided to get up and see the sunrise, around 5:30. I crossed the little strip of land where from the beach were we were staying (from which one sees the sunset) to the beach on the Caribbean (from which one sees the sunrise.) To my surprise, I found a group of kids there. They were all children of Rotarians from Acayucan, who had not slept all night and had decided to stay up to see the sunrise. I stayed there with them until we got hungry, and then returned to my campsite. Incidentally, the firepit where the Rotarians had been the night before was surrounded by empty bottles of tequila and beer, and I dont know as if anyone ever did clean that up or not.

We spent the day there on the beach, eating, chasing shade, and taking turns on Capitan Pablo's jetski, and went home fairly early.

A really big fly-type insect that dove upon us around midday.