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The Early Days

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Explorer


No self-serve. Someone stood behind the counter then turned around and fetched items from stock.

"Dame doscientos grammos de arroz" (200 grams of rice)

"Blanquillos, seis" (six eggs)

"Aceite comistible" (cooking oil)

And be prepared to hear "No hay" (no eye -- they're aren't any)
For oranges, onions, carrots, cabbage, and a dozen other wished items)

In small villages in the south a piece of red cloth was hung outside to announce some unfortunate animal had seen it's end and was ready to be sold. This was done at a store called a carniceria. Back then, Patzcuaro was infamous for ova, sheep -- mutton which needed to be cooked special to minimize the grease. Quail, cordoniz, was common and inexpensive. Six or eight made a decent meal. Meat was usually chopped to smithereens automatically by the butcher assuming it had to fit into a folded tortilla.

Fresh milk was risky unless a trusted local gave it the thumbs up. Cream was sold in glass jugs. Butter was unknown as was margarine. The area around four corners had fresh butter sold by the Chipilo dairy.

Travelers toured with boxes of prized spices and condiments. Sometimes fresh herbs could be found. Fresh regional fruit in season was over abundant. A pineapple could be had for five cents and a coconut could be yours for a tip to someone to scramble up the palm.

There was fifteen cent regional beer and eight cent colas, both required a bottle deposit that usually cost more than the beverage. A scrawled note served as a refund chit -- but it was only good where you bought the beverage.

Few things were as sad as waking up to a spoonful of Nescafe (No Es Cafe) dissolved in a cup of boiled well water.

To visit a giant central market like in Mazatlan, or San Miguel was akin to an 8-year old's visit to Disneyland. Time to stock up on ocote (slender sticks of pitch pine used to start a campfire). Carlos V bars of chocolate, La Flor de Michoacan parlors to gobble sherbets and various flavors of ice cream. Real coffee was common in cities.

Baths cost about ten cents and a coconut husk fired "boiler" held about six gallons of boiling water. Navy shower time. Towels were furnished the size of a hand towel and a lump of alkali soap soon had skin glowing pink.

Two days in the city then plunge back into the rural country.

It was real adventure then but to be brutally honest I could not tolerate it at my present age. I dragged my first travel trailer an AJO south in 1972. It came apart at the seams.
5 REPLIES 5

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Explorer
Can a person go back to "The Good Old Days"?

I would say in the highlands of Oaxaca if the rig is maneuverable enough a person could find a small village with a flat spot just outside the gaggle of houses.

I would recommend asking the aguacil or alcalde (civil head of the community) permission and that you are there solely out of respect to see rural life and you have no interest whatsoever in timber or mining. You are a tourist. If he shakes his head and says "no" it is not safe, then leave. Many Mixtec, Zapoteco and other indigenous believe non indigenous would only arrive to steal natural resources.

But if they think it safe, it's time to start hiring. A woman to do the authentic cooking. Keep the patio area swept, and see about getting genuine tortillas and vegetables. And firewood for chilly nights.

Don't be surprised to be swept up in community events like weddings, the arrival of a tiny Tienda Rural on wheels, and even a fiesta there or at a nearby village.

Many indigena do not speak Ingles or Espanol. Stay a few weeks and spend a hundred dollars and your money will change the very economy of the local scene. I wouldn't get carried away with over-tipping and wages but ask "Cual es la costumbre?" What is the custom? I did this for a winter and they were sad to see me depart.

With today's scene, it's wise to detect any negativity on the part of villagers. It may be they are suffering under the thumb of people you do not want to meet. But they will be honest and forthright about it.

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Explorer
Order pork chops in a restaurant amd fifteen minutes later if you heard a terrific squealing you did your best to ignore it

navegator
Explorer
Explorer
Feliz cumpleaaรฑos viejo!

I would sing las maรฑanitas but the rivers would revolt and stop running, Conasupo was started in 1961, before that you went to the mom and pop tienda for some things and another for other things and the carnisero for the meat, and then you would either go to the next big town when the open air market was there known as tiangis or maybe your town was big enough that the tiangis was held in your comunity.

In 1952 my brother and I went camping with my dad between the volcanes El Popocatepetl, AKA "Don Goyo" and the Ixtacihuatl, dad pitched the tent just bellow where the car stop running, carburators would not run any higher, needed a different "needle" for high altitude, when the car stoped running he let it drift back and turned it arround when the engine caught, we camped a few feet from the car in a nice claring, with a nice little bon fire in front, tent camped unlil 1968 when i bought a VW bus with the spilt window up front that would open for air con, built it for camping, today we are pampered.

Those were the days.

navegator

MEXICOWANDERER
Explorer
Explorer
1964 was the 1st adventure. Didn't take long to jump the tracks and lose myself for months at a time. I had seasonal US businesses, which allowed me to escape.

Mexico is "easier" to navigate and easier to live in today than it was 54 years ago. From shopping to buying pesos is a cosmic difference. In overcrowded cities it was common to wait 45 minutes to exchange for pesos. Banco de Mexico.

It was in Chiapas that I found my first lettuce (Romanitas and butter lettuce) in 1974. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Mayonnaise, ketchup, limon juice and dried red chili for a dressing. Carved my first Halloween pumpkin in the mountains of Oaxaca sometime in the late seventies. It had a smile instead of a frown. My Mixtec housekeeper was afraid of it and nearly freaked-out when she saw it lit during Dias de Los Muertos. Wanted to know who I put the curse. on. She had the stature of a fireplug and knew more "green" risque jokes (chistes) than I can remember. "Where did these things come from?" she shook a sack of frijols that I arrived with me. "I will go to the house of Carmen and get good ones for you". I danged near lived on tortillas, beans, cabbage, eggs, tomatoes and machaca for two months.

Then there was the four strings of Christmas lights that were shinnied up a palm on Playa de Oro, Jalisco. The kid got stung by a scorpion. There were over a hundred lights lit during the week of Navidad. People walked for miles with their families to see the palm. There was no way to get the lights down but I'd bet they found a home a few hours after I departed.

To the south of Lake Zirahuen, in Michoacan I camped for a few days and found a stream a half mile upstream from the village that was loaded with ten in bass. Of all things they went nuts over a Mepps spinner. Fish fillets, wild onions, tortillas and pico de gallo salsa.

But the trips meant lots of labor. Erect this, level that, firewood, prepare meals, explore, and I cannot do that anymore. Time to reap the benefit of experience. In 17-minutes I turn 72 years of age.

Talleyho69
Moderator
Moderator
We weren't far behind you, 1982 in a tent and a VW type 3. Loved it? Live here permanently, with no trips ever planned to north of the border.