Hard labour
Trip Start
Sep 16, 2007
1
15
87
Trip End
Ongoing
Cuatro Casas,
Mexico
Saturday, October 27, 2007
This was a little hostel run by the Richard, a San Diego boy, gone native in Baja. I tell you, the Yanks that live down here are a breed apart. A whole subspecies. They're all good people, but there's all manner of freaky folk living south of the border. They run at about 2mph. If you ask them what the time is you'll get one of two replies: "Daytime!"or "Nighttime!". I met one fella in the last town who talked like a hillbilly. He said he'd spent the last four years building his house. It was only half-started! Turns out our man does 15 bong hits a day. He probably bangs in a nail a day for good luck then goes back to his hammock and his bong. There's no hurry...
Well Richard's a lot more hard-working than that. At least he runs on two speeds: "High"and "Off". I offered to help him out on my second day there as I was alone in the hostel: he gave me a whole bunch of cement to mix and haul upstairs, walls to sand and plaster, floors to sweep, tiles to carry around, amongst other jobs. It worked out well: I worked at sunrise, buggered off for a surf mid-morning (the point broke right under my window: 50 yards away!), worked a little more, stopped for a beer, got fed hot tacos by his wife, played with his 11-year-old adopted kid, and slept for free.
I'm not spending anything. And it's a beautiful place.
