After not finding a hotel in Bufadora Mike and I continued south. For the first time the road was not good. Pot holes, speed bumps, signs to beware of cattle in the road, and no shoulder. It got dark fast. We were exhausted from all the excitement with the Bufodorians. We stopped in several villages, occasionally there was a sign for a hotel on the side of the road. Mike would pull into the gravel yard and I would do the “on site evaluation”. Often times the whole family would come out to show the room and I would feel horrid explaining that I needed a blanket or “the place looks great… is there a door”? I felt like a picky gringo and made another mental note to get out our “Learn Spanish in 3 days program”. I told Mike we might do better sleeping in the car. We bumped along.
The next village featured a hand painted hotel sigh with Christmas lights. The lights were on. There was an arrow pointing up a steep washed out sand road, we were tired and determined. Up the road we went. Half way up the hill we could see another Hotel sign, again with Christmas lights, this time they were blinking. Mike said “this is a good sign”. I agreed and he pulled over at the top of the hill. There was some kind of village up there but being pitch dark we couldn’t see much. The hotel was totally fenced. When we arrived; a solid metal gate rolled to the left and a fellow waved me in. Mike said “I’ll wait in the car”. I stepped into the compound. There were 6 rooms built into the hill, the parking lot was on the downhill, with one car. There was another small building on the right with a door. A woman came out and shut the door. Again, a puzzling language barrier. I asked if they had rooms to rent. She looked at me and tilted her head like she didn’t understand. I pointed to the hotel sign outside the gate. I can see Mike in the car scrunching his eyebrows. She looked me up and down and walked across the parking lot, she went up the steps and opened a room. I guess this was the site evaluation. I followed. The room looked clean, there was a bed with a blanket, a bathroom, an overhead light and a door. Looks great I said, how much? We worked out 300 pesos ($20) punching the numbers on my cell phone and made a deal. I gave her the money. She motioned for me to follow her across the parking lot into the little room. There were 5 people in there laughing. There were hundreds of strings of lollypops hanging from the ceiling. The lollypops obstructed their vision. It was a fun house come to life in the weirdest part of Mexico. Maybe I was just tired. She handed me a key and a remote control. I’m thinking TV? I didn’t see one.
Mike and I loaded our gear into the room, we settled in. There wasn’t any food to be had but Mike came up with a couple beers and some crackers. I started thinking about those lollypops. What were those people doing in that little room? Mike turned on the TV. An image of Alice in Wonderland came on with very bazar Spanish people in crazy outfits working out the basics of the story. We turned the channel, the same program showed up, turned the channel again and the same program again. We turned off the light and went to sleep.
The rumbling started around 1 am. The room shook slightly and it sounded like thunder. We peered out the window and saw the lollipop people rolling the gate open and shut. Cars and trucks came and cars and trucks went. These weren’t bad looking people, just kind of strange. The gate continued to roll and the whole bunch started drinking beer on the steps. The lollipop people became quite lively. I expected a full out fiesta.
The next morning we woke early. The lot was full, the gate was closed, there were lollypop wrappers everywhere. We were a little worried about the gate. Mike nudged the car forward. I saw the lollipop door crack open. Out came the gate keeper and we were on our way.
