Mexico Road Trip: Price Points and Mental Deficiency
We take the toll road out of Coatza and for 50 kilometers the road is good but then we hit a bad stretch. I think it a bit odd that they could charge for a road that has so many potholes…ha! In parts we have to go much slower and I see the trucks are going slower too…everything slows down on bad roads and my Veracruz is famous for its bad roads. California has some bad roads too so maybe it just comes with the territory…ha…
I am a bit saddened as the sign says leaving Veracruz and entering Tabasco. I’m hoping it won’t be years before I return but it could be…my coming travel will be dictated by business. My sadness is tempered by my gladness at finding the road in Tabasco as good as any in the U.S.
We enter Villahermosa and I’m surprised at how modern it has become. I call Cuatehmoc on his cell phone but he’s on business in Cd. Del Carmen. Take a leisurely drive and stop and have some fish and shrimp on the way, he says, I’m tied up wiring a network and won’t be through until after 6:00 tonight…I’m staying at my office complex here in Carmen and there is plenty of room for you and your wife…as we say in Mexico, my office is your office! I haven’t even met him yet and already like him…
I make several wrong turns which is par for the course but we are soon right again and headed out of town. The scenery becomes swampy and I wonder what happens when it floods and how the mosquitoes are in the rainy season. Or any season for that matter…the further south one goes the greater the problem with dengue fever…
The plants and vegetation are clearly tropical and there are some fields of sugar cane and some pasture land for cattle…but it looks like these farms have to be taken from the swamp; not a pleasant task I’m sure. But interesting nonetheless…we see signs for the large natural preserve called Patanos de Centla; patanos are swamps and there appears to be a lot of them around here…
We stop for seafood in a town called Frontera and I wonder how it got its name though the obvious answer is because it borders Tabasco and Campeche. We have pan fried shrimp and it is delicious…I have a beer and notice that it costs the same as a soft drink. When I pick the restaurant, my criteria usually are where the truckers, bus drivers and construction workers eat. This restaurant had a steady stream of all three and I noticed all were on their lunch break and drinking soft drinks…hence, the price points, ha!
I walk to the bathroom to wash up and see a sign over the bar; “We don’t serve inebriating drinks to minors, those in uniform or the mentally deficient.” I can see minors, soldiers and cops but am not sure how they determine just who and what is mentally deficient. I was going to ask the waitress but they were very busy and didn’t have time for silly turista questions…so I’ll guess I’ll just have to ponder on that one for some time…another one of those vague, unanswered questions we face in life – ha!
We continue along the road and can now see the beach. The scenery is interesting but we have to keep moving though we stop for a few pictures. We cross the bridge and into Ciudad Del Carmen which sits on an island. I have never been here but am interested to see all the foreign service and equipment companies that service the oil industry. Carmen services much of the Gulf oil platforms and is known for being expensive, somewhat ugly and a boom town. Boom town it clearly is but I’m not sure it’s so ugly…but then I don’t think Cancun is pretty either. I call Cuatehmoc and he gives me directions to his office which is more like a warehouse.
These rooms are where my employees and visitors stay, he says giving me a key to what looks like a hotel room, my warehouse is your warehouse, he laughs. He introduces us to his wife and children and shows with pride his one month old. I take in the luggage and see the hammock hooks on the wall though there is a nice bed as well…we’ve finally arrived in the tropics…
I have to make a delivery, he says, perhaps your wife would like to visit with mine and you can go with me?
Angelica is already holding the baby and beaming away…no need to even ask.
Cuatehmoc loads a box into the back of his pickup and we are off.
We drive east along the coast and what has to be one of the prettiest beaches on the Gulf coast. It’s fairly developed just outside of town with warehouses and oil related companies with large fenced in lots with guards at the gate. Oil is big business and there’s a lot of business in Carmen.
The sun is setting and Cuatehmoc stops and we get out for a picture. The water is really calm and there are no waves whatsoever…the Gulf is like glass. The beach has no sand but is made up entirely of seashells…and it must last for 20 kilometers. We turn off the highway and head toward Escarcega and it is getting really dark. There is no moon but the stars are out and the windshield is getting covered with bugs. He laughs and drives on through what is swamp and jungle with long stretches of no lights at all…the jungle can be very dark. We drive through small towns named Chekubul and Chicbul and I realize we are in Maya country now…the folks I see in town are very Indian and short. Seeing the Maya makes me want to visit the jungle. I wonder what it must be like to live on a remote ranch in the jungle or a small town like Chicbul…
I have to admit I’m like that guy Chucho el Roto or sort of like our version of your Robin Hood, he laughs, but I do it with technology. We are delivering a computer to a secondary school in Escarcega; sort of my small way of paying back part of what has been my success…and I have been successful -- and lucky.
We arrived in Campeche with no money, few clothes and a new baby, he continues, that was twelve years ago. Now I have employees and offices in Villahermosa, Carmen, Campeche and Merida. And now I’m so successful I only work 80 hours a week, he laughs, and get to take my family with me when the kids don’t have school. In the last year I’ve turned down a lot of network and cable jobs…and given a lot of work to Genaro in Coatza. Life is good and my goal this year is to get my workload down to 70 hours a week, he laughs. I laugh too. Such is a life in technology.
I often come across some good computer units that need something small done to them to get fixed, he says, my clients usually run their businesses off computers so they are buying new ones every year. I take the rebuilt ones, add some pirated software and donate them to the poorer schools. I am responsible for building a dozen computer labs for poor kids…kids that are growing up poor just like I did. I think technology is a key to getting out of poverty, don’t you?
I agree.
We enter Escarcega and I notice a Burger King.
We’ll stop on our way back, he laughs.
I’m riding with a Mexican Robin Hood that believes technology is the way out of poverty for poor kids…another adventure down my endless road.
Jack D. Deal
