Our Man in Antigua

I’m indebted to Rob aka Plumb Bob, Alabama Bob etc for the above reference…referring to the reincarnation of Dale Earnhardt in the persona of Tom M, whose 96 Mercury Cougar(and us)passed everything but gas stations on the road to Quirigua a couple of days ago…my undies have been rinsed/washed and all is good again. The trip? most excellent..saw some villages not on any map, ate the best food i’ve had in this incredible country, smoked some of this and that, took some stuff that A-Bob shared, make serious inroads into Ron Botran 8 year vintage and got to see Quirigua again..been since ’09 for me and how the hell that Jades S.A finagled their own retail store in the museum is just another question…

‘clambered up/down the massive steps at the Acropolis(Quirigua-speak)for the main temple…look, i’ve got a 36 inch…inseam…meaning42 inches of leg from hip to ankle and I had to stretch, sweat and hike up/down…how the hell those little Mayan dudes made it up/down is beyond my comprehension (like most things, they say)…this morning, my gluteus maximus (butt speak)and quadriceps femoris (thighs) were having words with my brain…did that stop me from going out this morning to the most superb site of a great NGO called ‘From House to Homes’, out in ‘Aguas Calientes, up some narrow alley and then hiking some 200 feet up a steep washed out dirt trail? not no, but hell no…these guys(FHTH)are the real deal, building little concrete block houses for $1750, using volunteers from all over the planet and doing exactly what they promise…yep, there’s an article or two coming outa this, plus the aforementioned excursion to Guano/Guana/wtf? with mike D(he leaves us monday)senor Wheat and Tom Richard Petty Martin…the working title is “Four Pigs and a Land Rover”….thanks to Dale Petty, we returned to Guano for lunch at some hidden mecca, where they served tortilla wraps, aka churrascos…large freshly made tortillas, lightly crisped, filled with beef, green onions, cheese, vegetables..tasted vaguely like a chinese thing(food) and totally irrestible..yeah, i think i could find the place again…

Caffe Bourbon? closed on a Thursday night? por que?…the wandering minstrels we know as mariachis were poised in front of TacoDispenso tonight…no word if they were free-lancing or paid….great conversations, as always at the 5-6 ‘drink ’em quick’ hour at Ocelot..drug talks…yes, there are old timers in the ‘biz’ in northern californicate..yes, i know some of them…yes, a friend’s LSD lab was about to be busted, so he ‘gave’ me a paper bag full of 7 million hits of acid…fine..thanks for creating large scale paranoia…to make a long story short, the eternal question, never answered…’how many hits in a teaspoon’?…’never, ever lick your fingers..’

and it looks like there’s a second parting of the ways:despite two explicit emails, texts and exhortations to ‘go out and sell’ as requested by the party of the first part, a box of 25 copies and so on…’another failure to communicate’…alas…she was a visual treat and did get me into the largest book store in the City…but…o well…it’ s Chinatown, Jake…as i’m wont to say from time to time..if nothing else, Equal Librium for all!