facing the music

In fact, we face directly on the open-air disco 1/2 block away. It started it's annual Easter holiday blast last night. The gigantic speakers blare out the most repulsive noise (aka music) beginning at 7:30 or 8 o'clock and keep it up at full tilt until anywhere between 2:30 and 4:30. Last night was just a warm-up, to test the volume and grossness of the selections. We have discovered, however, that if we completely seal up the bedroom by closing all windows and the sliders, pulling the drapes shut we cut down on the sound enough to sleep. It's so cold and windy at night that this is not a problem. I started out using my Bose headphones but found it too uncomfortable to sleep with them on. I discovered all the glass muffles the racket and it's almost bearable. I think the reason they started last night is that yesterday was Benito Juarez's birthday, a national holiday. There were quite a few people here for the long weekend. However, most of them had retreated back to where they came from by last night. I didn't see a soul on the malecón or in the disco. It might just possibly be quiet tonight, then start up again on Wednesday.

I took a stroll along the beach and through town this morning to see the second city that has sprung up throughout the town. For these two weeks this place is Trinket City; lots of stalls, up one side and down the other, selling used clothing, cosmetics, jewelry, all sorts of beach toys, bathing suits and sandals, sunglasses (always a big seller), -- you name it. And everyone who has a cook pot opens up a food stall selling everything from boxed-mix pancakes and grilled bananas to steaks, ice cream and a sickly sweet rice pudding. Several stalls sell huaraches, big, flat sandwiches with meat, cheese and hot sauce that indeed look like the shoes of the same name. I tried one a couple of years ago and decided I'd rather wear the shoes than eat the sandwiches.

At the tiangues on Monday, this gentleman was selling some sort of cure-all snake oil. He had a great spiel about the myriad diseases that could be not only treated but cured by this elixir. I never did learn what were the ingredients in the bottles of red liquid he was peddling, but if you had high blood pressure, insomnia, gas (la flatulencia), head ache, cramps, sore muscles and, of particular interest to me, diabetes, this was what you needed. It's probably good for gout and dandruff, too.



As you can see he had gathered quite an audience for his show.