Absurdities

I saw an ant farm at Mega (super) the other day. We always hit Mega on Wednesdays, as, we’ve found from shopping the big four in Playa (Mega, Soriana, Bodega Aurrera and Chedraui) that Mega, while normally the most expensive store in town, has the cheapest veggie prices. Everywhere we’ve been in Mexico, Wednesday is fruit and vegetable day. This is the only day I buy tomatoes as the rest of the week they are $20 pesos/kilo and half that on Wednesday. Avocados never go very low (I’ve been told that it is due to the US somehow) and stay consistently during the summer around $35 a kilo. Both onions, tomatoes and avocados jump in price during the summer and then settle down during the winter. I cannot figure that one out.

So, I was at Mega and Ellen was DYING a grisly death in anticipation of spending the very last peso she owned. We headed to the toy section and to keep my brain from exploding from boredom I started looking at the toys. What child, anywhere on this peninsula, needs an ANT FARM? The dirt is copious and the ants are even more so, why on earth did something think this would be a great toy for a Yucatanean (peninsula) kid?

Same day, oh, that would be the day I picked up my FM3 (snuck up on you, did I?) I was waiting along the carretera for my ride and watched a long semi attempt a U-turn. Playa and Cancun are the only towns I’ve EVER been to in Mexico, and this is something you really notice when your 17 meters long, that makes left turns from the inner lane. Most towns have laterals on their peripheral roads, to keep the heavy vehicles off the center streets, and on those perifericos you have an inner (or more, Guadalajara has something like SIX?) lane and the outer lateral. All trucks, cargo, and vehicles considered cargo (like us) are delegated to those lanes. All turns are made from the laterals and this makes the U-turn possible for the long vehicles. So, the semi. In Playa. Kinda got lost on myself for a minute there. He’s no dummy. He needs to make a U-turn and the only way is from the lateral even though here it is done from the inner lane. Me? I would have headed into the ejido and pulled a 3-point turn at some point (175th or something) but he makes his turn from the lateral. ALL the buses and cars and colectivos and taxis in the inner lanes immediately begin honking like that will somehow create open space for them to move, and the great semi, slowly turns, blocks their lanes, heads over to the southbound lateral and rolls away from the whistle-blowing transito. Balls, man. Balls.