Last Day with Lynn and David

We perhaps have failed to mention Artemisa, a Mexican woman in town who cooks burritos, empanadas, chiles rellenos, gorditos and tamales (different item each morning) then drives house-to-house in her Jeep Cherokee, pulling up in front of the house, and honking to let you know she’s arrived. She sells each item out of the front seat of her car, still hot, for 15 pesos (about $1.25) and comes 4-5 days per week, at highly variable times, anywhere from 8am to 11am. Yesterday we meet her at one of the local grocery stores and she informed us she was cooking empanadas today, and we asked whether she could arrive early as we planned to leave home before 9am. So Artemisa arrived at 8:30 and we bought 4 empenadas for breakfast – yum! Good thing several of the 4 of us take cholesterol medication to counteract the effects of this deep fried food somewhat!

We pulled out at 8:30 and headed north to the town of San Antonio, about which you read a week or so ago (we met the two sisters, Xochitl and Marisonia at the Cultural Center there). We parked the truck on the square in San Antonio, then hiked up to the cobblestone and dirt road, approximately 5 miles to El Triunfo through the mountains, paralleling Mex 1. A couple week s ago we drove it, but wanted to do it on foot. We spotted a few birds along the way, lots of cows, and meandered our way over the distance in about 2 ½ hours, so a pleasant pace. We gained 600 feet of elevation, then dropped about 400 feet into El Triunfo. We made our way to El Triunfo Cafe, a place we’ve stopped for coffee or lunch a couple times previously, and had another delicious meal – pizza for David, Lynn and Cathryn, and Pork Loin Sandwich for Bob. Terrific cup of coffee to follow, then we headed for the “bus stop” in town to catch a ride back to San Antonio.

Backing up a little: yesterday we stopped at the bus station in Los Barriles to inquire about the bus schedule. We were informed the bus leaves La Paz roughly every 2 hours and heads to Cabo San Lucas where it arrives 3 ½ hours later, but there is not, really, a schedule for intermediate points at small towns such as San Antonio or El Triunfo. We were advised by the woman at the bus station that we should expect to flag it down in El Triunfo about 2:15 or 2:30. The waitress at the El Triunfo Café concurred in the approximate time. Just to be safe, we arrived in front of the kindergarten school on the highway at 2:00 to await the bus. It didn’t arrive at 2:15. It didn’t arrive at 2:30. At 2:45, still no bus, so Cathryn wandered around inquiring of various Mexican residents regarding what time we might expect the bus. Answers varied from 3:00, to 3:30 to 4:00, at which point we were beginning to despair a bit. Soon Bob and David took turns sticking their thumb out as pickup trucks approached the speed bump at the bus stop, figuring we could hitch a ride in the back of the truck to San Antonio 5 miles down the highway. Lynn and Cathryn suggested perhaps Bob and David should hide and THEY should attempt to flag a ride down! Soon enough 4 Canadians in a small rental car drove by – folks we’d said hello to at our lunch stop. We explained our predicament, and Cathryn hopped in the car with them to catch a ride back to San Antonio to get the truck and return to pick up Bob, David and Lynn.