As briefly mentioned below, the start of this Mexican adventure began with my father and I hightailing it through the border at Nogales (where the border agents didn’t even turn away from their conversation to watch us pass) and on into some not so tourist visited towns in Northern Mexico.
The main highway through this part of Mexico is a two lane affair with a definite lack of shoulders to at least set ones mind to rest. And for a freeway, there are a large number of speed bumps laid out to slow one’s progress to Hermosillo. There are speed bumps to slow you when you reach an agricultural check, speed bumps to slow you down when you reach a drug check post and speed bumps to slow you down when you reach any number of small, poverty stricken towns that cling to Mexican Highway 15. An admirable market has arisen in these towns. When a car is forced to stop at said bumps, a flock of people approach the car from both sides and attempt to sell you any number of things, but mostly what appeared to be tortillas.
There’s a rumor that in some of these places, if you’re true of heart and lacking of any form of common sense, you can buy bags of “fresh” shrimp while you travel this magical highway.
The landscape in these parts is desert to be sure, but not the fun “Wile E. Coyote” desert, nor the biblical lose-and-find-yourself-in-a-trial-of-the-soul desert, but a long stretching, wasteland of desert. There are saguaro cacti growing in some places, but more often than not there is dry and empty spaces filled with scrub brush and wire fences gone to disrepair – but there is not a billboard clogging the view of nothing.
Except… I did see, as the only form of billboard out there in the desert, a couple of little red squares (about the size of a typical stop sign) with familiar yellow arches and two simple words: “me enchanto.” It definitely sounds far more sexy than “I’m lovin’ it”, particularly if you say it all slow and breathy with a come fuck me look on your face.
All of this empty desert would be great for letting you mind roll undistracted, if it weren’t for being forced to listen to the playlists your father is so gosh darned proud of creating on his iPod. *More on this to come – all week I would guess.
On realizing that we were probably going to be late in reaching Hermosillo to pick up my brother from the airport, your main man driver Billy here fell back on lessons learned driving the mean streets of Southern California. I reached speeds of 110, severely unsafe for the state of the roads, the state of the other drivers on said roads, and ultimately all for naught as we were late picking my brother up.
Hermosillo? Nice town, but having spent a large number of years in Southern California there was something very familiar about it. I did notice that for the most part, all of the buildings were single story affairs, except for those built specifically to deal with the infestation of Americans feeding at the NAFTA tit. Such as the gaggle of Ford reps who were also staying at the high rise hotel Fiestamericana. See what they did there with the combining of Fiesta and Americana? It’s like a taste of being in a Latin American country without the discomfort of being outside of what you’re used to.
To be continued…
*Musical note: Dad explained to me how he had made these playlists on his iPod as if he didn’t already know that I myself have an iPod. Proud as a new parent, he explained that he had taken all of his Jimmy Buffet songs and put them on a playlist without a single repeated song. He had also done a “Super Eagles” list where he included the entire Eagles catalogue, as well as solo songs from Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Glenn Frey. This was the sort of thing that I was forced to sit through as I cruised the arid countryside of Mexico – save for the hour and half respite where I specifically requested that we listen to The Band. Some things I learned from this musical journey that first day:
- Elton John has recorded several versions of “Candle In the Wind” and all them can bite my ass and call it candy.
- That the audience captured responding to the live version of “Hotel California” I heard were so frigging stupid they couldn’t realize the song for what it was – and cheer at the recognition – until about 4 minutes in. That being said, this audience was at an Eagles show.
- Kenny G has recorded a version of Celine Dion’s “The Heart Will Go On”. This is like shit covering shit. This is like a shit burrito drowned in shit sauce. This is shit meeting shit head on and causing a massive shit vortex that pulls anything in the vicinity into it and turns it to shit.
Feb(r)uary Song Of The Day: Another twofer Tuesday with “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” by Pink Floyd and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” by The Beatles (I love that there are essentially only those words in The Beatles’ song and it’s one the heaviest (also in the title) songs they made).
1 comment:
Me enchanto.
Post a Comment