Our time in Melaque went very fast, so fast that I often
thought I should be posting more about the different experiences we had but I
didn’t have the time to sit down and type them up. We were going and doing, but
the doing was all part of a normal day. It didn’t feel like I needed to explain those
happenings.
Now that I am home and thinking about some of the things
that happened in our normal days, I realize that a normal day in Mexico would
not be looked upon as a normal day up here.
Take for example, Caroline trying to set up a surf trip for
Chris. As I remember it she started the project via a website called TomZap.
This site is the main bulletin board for the region around Melaque and
Barra. She posted that Chris would be
down visiting and wanted to surf. In
reply Caroline received tips that if she went to the Surf Bar and asked for Benji,
he could possibly help.
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| Linda and Claudio at Bigote's |
We all walk down to the Surf Bar located on Taco Row on the
second floor of one of the buildings.
The bar always has loud music pouring down upon Taco Row and usually
there is someone standing on the street trying to steer people up into the
establishment by offering two or three for one shots of tequila. To get to the bar you have to enter a flower
shop and turn left, walk down a hall and up some stairs. No wonder they have
someone on the street selling the good times.
Caroline disappears down the hall and up the stairs and in a
few minutes she reappears following a
young fellow who leads us down the block
and we end up at San Miguel Hacienda where we have to wait while he goes in and
gets Benji. Benji says that he can set
the surf trip up but he needs to talk to Lupi and that we should come back the
next night and meet Lupi at the Razteca Tatoo parlor.
The next night after drinks at Bigotie’s , Caroline leads a
rag tag group of half drunk Americans consisting of Linda, Don, Holly, Chris
and myself down to the Razteca on Taco Row.
We walk in and are greeted by and young girl and we ask if “Lupi“ was
there. We wait as she goes into the back
room. While she is getting Lupi we try
to look inconspicuous by scoping out the various tattoo offerings on the
walls. People walking past must have
thought we were all going for a group tat to commemorate our drunken night in
Mexico.
Lupi appears from the back and takes us all behind the door
to a dark back room where his tattoo table sits next to a computer. He shows us video clips of surf breaks and we
talk about what type of surfing Chris was looking for. After fifteen minutes,
by the glow of the computer screen, the deal was struck and Lupi told Chris to
meet him at 7:30 am the next day and they would surf. We all walked across the street and had tacos
at Pedro’s.
If you were to watch this on TV, the plot would follow the
same sequence of events, but you would probably find the group of Americans
being led into the dark heart of the drug world. In Melaque we were passed from surfer to another
surf buddy working hard to help find a board and allow a fellow surfer from the
US, add another break to his list of accomplishments. Everyone was very friendly and helpful and in
the end Chris got a chance to surf in Mexico.
