We had decided to treat our selves to a fine lunch in a famous restaurant in Ajijic.
Looking forward to it, I envisioned white tablecloths, large linen napkins and maybe even a small bouquet of flowers.
I got dressed and put on some makeup to be beautiful, and checked the result.
Actually I look better at night with dimmed lights. Once you're over seventy, it's best to go out to dinner. But today it was lunch and I chose a wide brimmed hat and wore dark glasses.
We wound ourselves down from the hill and easily made a right turn at the Carretera. A few cars were in front of us, waiting for the light, but there was a lot of traffic on the other side of the highway.
That SUV in front of us blocked the view and we could not see that the garbage truck, a couple of cement haulers, and three trucks loaded with bricks, followed by the bus to Jocotopec were around the corner in front of us, until we hit a wide curve from where we could see the beginning of this unholy parade.
By now, we had undoubtedly passed the little restaurant with the white tablecloth and the large linen napkins, but we couldn't see past the opposite flow of traffic to be sure. The SVU had managed to escape and in front of us was now a red pick up without brake lights, which meant he could have been parked there, for all we knew.
At this point we had a magnificent view of the entire Mexican construction industry in motion, making the topes exceptionally visible by jumping that much higher then the rest of us.
Youngsters with bright red flags tried desperately to lure us into one of the lovely, lakeside restaurants, and we would have loved to eat there by then - but we suspected that their fish had been caught in Lake Chapala that morning. Rumor has it that fish eaten from the lake makes you glow in the dark.
I looked behind us and told Orrie that the line of cars and trucks probably went back to San Antonio and the one headed in that direction was at least that long. It would have been futile to try to turn and squeeze into that one to get back.
How long does it take a garbage truck with sideboards to get full? We didn't dare to come too close - like the guy who passed us who got showered with coffee grounds, curly apple peelings and fragrant diapers. These sanitation engineers knew how to stop at the exact spot where no one could pass from either the right or the left.
The Jocotopec bus finally stopped, giving a few pickups and a couple of cars which had waited for this on the right of the road for a chance to cut in. For such moments and for their protection, each bus driver has a picture of the blessed virgin or a rosary bouncing off his wind shield.
Eventually, the traffic thinned down. Some of the trucks with bricks had lined up on the side of the road. Perhaps they had lunch. The garbage truck had made a left turn, leaving some souvenirs of questionable value behind. The Jocotopec bus was on his way back to Chapala. We found a parking place next to the plaza.
The top of the table said "Corona" It was a bit dusty. The metal folding chairs had no cushions. The waitress was young and pretty and wore a huge all-purpose apron.
With it she wiped the top of the table and cleaned an ashtray for me.
My husband smiled from ear to ear." Are you ready for this?"
I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
We had goat meat with a HOT sauce and warm tortillas and drank "Corona", because we thought we should.
We saw the garbage truck on our way home. We waved. They waved back.
