Another day in the life of a Mexican Traveler

This morning I started off fromOaxaca at 8:00 A.M.  Determined to make the Guatemalan Border, I pushed hard all day. By 3:00 PM, I had covered about 200 kilometers.  7 hours driving to go 130 miles.  It started with a nasty traffic jam with nothing moving and everyone honking. I hadn't seen that here yet. then there was hours of driving on twisty,kind of slick mountain roads. Yota doesn't do well on slick pavement,so I must be very careful.

Then, mid-day, the police closed the highway, to run a road race. I was motioned to turn off the road.  Thinking, "Oh no,wat have I done now?  But, I noticed everyone was being motioned off.  OK, maybe theres been a truck jack-knifed.  Then with a roar of engines, the first of the cars came barreling through.
They had to come to a near stop right in front of us. (Speed Bump) So I have some good pictures.  (end of blog).  The race lastd about 3 hours.

After that, I went through a small town.  Almost every building (if you could call them buildings)  had a sign up.  "Fabrica de Mescal" or "Artesenato Agua de Mescal ". It sounds folks are making their own hootch and selling it on the side of the road.  Yota obligingly stopped, and I went to check it out.

There were three big vats, some other parephenalia, and burro whoose job is to walk in circles , powering a machine which crushes the mescal roots. They were selling the distillate in plain unmarked plastic bottles. "Will this stuff mess up my head", I asked.  "Oh yes, but you must ntry a little." The nice man gave me some in a traditional little cup shaped loke a sea-shell.  Wow, this was far better than what I had at the distillery.
"Do you like it?" he said. " Oh yes. it's sublime."  I don't know the word for sublime. but I made a fuss over it. He grinned happily.

"Now, I want to chew some of the root."  I had done this at the factory. and it is great stuff, a little like sugar cane with a slight apricot taste. And not sickeningly sweet  It has no alchohol content until it is distilled.  So he hacked off a nice chunk for me and i sucked it dry. "How much do I owe you?"   "Nada Amigo. My Pleasure".   "Wow, thanks, Adios".  I got some photos at the Fabrica de Mescal.  Downstairs.

The only other thing that happened was that I got pulled over at a military checkpoint. I had a total list of the Vehicle contents in Spanish (Thank you Mr. Halivan). so, it only took 10 minutes or so. Then they waved me on.  I have to pass through a little corner of Chiapas toget to the border and thats where I am now. The police and miitary prescence here is scary,and I was a bit unnerved. I am still some 250 kilometers from the border.Tomorrow will be more of the same.