Fish

Monday was my day off and I felt like I just had to get out of town. It seems rare for me to even get very far out of my neighborhood so I was getting really claustrophobic. So I decided to take a bus to Tuit0 which is a town about an hour southwest from here.

I wasn't even aware that we'd gotten to Tuit0 because the bus just stops where some shops are next to the highway (bear in mind that "highway" here means a two laned paved road with a line in the middle with cars travelling in both directions). We were stopped for a few minutes when the ticket boy said "Tuit0". Oh, I guess I'm here. I asked where the plaza was and he said it was 2 blocks down a road. Ok great. I stopped at a local little store and picked up a Gatorade and asked the cashier how many blocks and in which direction (just to confirm which is something you must get in the habit of doing when travelling). She thought it was about 12 blocks. 12 blocks? I asked if I could walk that; she said I could.


I started walking down a little road and liked the feel of the place. It was quiet, with very few cars passing by and not even too many people around. There were little local restaurants, a stationery store, a place selling yarn and other sewing supplies, a bar, etc. but nothing too exciting. I asked at another store if I was going in the right direction and she said that I was, and that the plaza was about 5 blocks away. I came to the main square and there wasn't much to see. It actually felt like the place had been recently refurbished and many places that could have been stored were closed doors.


I looked off to my left and saw a road that looked like it went out to the country and didn't have any stores so I followed it. I got a familiar feeling of "where the heck am I? and where the heck am I going? and what the heck am I doing strolling off into nowhere?" But I've done it enough times that it actually feels a bit comfortable. There were a couple houses but very quickly I was in farm country. I could look out onto huge fields and just see mountains in the distance and maybe a little pond. And no sounds except for cows mooing. It was awesome.





I came to a ranch and saw a little path in a field next to it so I decided to walk down. I came to a beautiful view of the open sky with the sun starting to set and a little pond and cows wandering home. I was at least 10 feet or more from the pond, but when I looked down I saw a fish. At first I thought it must be dead, but then I noticed its mouth moving. I looked further and noticed a little wound in its side with some blood. I looked around me because it was so surreal to see a live fish on the ground with no one around. I acted quickly to pick it up. At first I tried and it felt slimy and I apologized and told it I didn't know if I could pick it up, but I wanted to save it. So then I tried again, and it didn't move much, and I walked over to the pond (as close as I could get with the barbed wire fence) and threw it back in the water.

I wandered back into town and checked out the church and had some local yogurt with arrayan fruit (not sure exactly what it is, like a sweet and sour berry with little seeds you have to spit out) which was tasty. The sun started to set and the sky was a bright pink and I started wandering back to the bus stop.



Unfortunately the bus didn't come for an hour and a half. I had asked when the last bus was on the bus going out there and they didn't know. And even people in town weren't sure if it came every half hour or every hour and didn't know what time they stopped. It was even unclear where they stopped. (Ah, Mexxico!) But I ended up talking to a guy from a mariachi band and the time passed pretty quickly. He had another hour ride ahead of him once he got to Vallarta so I didn't feel so bad.

The little trip made me realize how I'd really like to see more of Mexxico. It's a beautiful country. But I'm really sick of travelling alone. I'll do it and it will be fine, but I'd love to find someone to share it with.