The Old Bar And The Walking Dead

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I don’t recall if I told y’all this or not but, I retired from SAC this semester, (cue the fanfare and party whistles).  If I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be teaching a class, terrorizing a student or dealing with administration wants/needs/demands.  But no.  Nope. Nada.  Now we’ve got the time to take off to Mexico and whatever happens at SAC will stay at SAC.

It’s 5am and we’ve set a course towards West Texas and the state of Chihuahua.  As for me, the drive was uneventful.  That’s because Sharon drove first and I can fall asleep anywhere.  I arose from the hum of the motor haze somewhere around Alpine, then commandeered Tammy the Honda to the border at Presidio, Texas and Ojinaga, Mexico. It’s a small but busy office on the Mexican side where we had to get “our papers in order”.  We’ve done this so many times you would think it would be a mindless process for us. Yet after an hour and a half of miscommunication and newly discovered processes, we met all the qualifications and exited towards Ciudad Chihuahua.

We made it to Doroteo Hotel Boutique before 4pm, our home for the next 4 nights.  This puts us only 4 blocks from the action in the main square but, more importantly, only 2 blocks from La Antigua Paz, the oldest bar in Chihuahua. Pancho Villa peed there once or twice.  If the show “Cheers” was made in Mexico, this would be the bar.  I became Norm while Sharon was “la vida de la fiesta”.  This place is so inviting that we became daily fixtures during our stay in Chihuahua.

La Antigua Paz is predominately a men’s bar, but all the men took interest in la gringa with blue eyes.  It’s a welcoming, old, tattered, cheap bar where the only white couple brave enough to enter can hang out with the regulars like high school buddies.  This is where we watched a couple of the World Series games, shoulder to shoulder with fans of “Los Dodgers”. 

On the first night, Sharon tried to figure out some loud dice game that was a combination of Yahtzee and Texas Hold ‘em.  It made no sense at all but Sharon sure made those viejos feel like she was interested and wanted her to know all the uncomprehensible details. 

The little kitchen, the size of a small walk-in closet, conjured up some amazing bar food. Twice we sat at the bar and had their caldo and asked about things we saw on other plates.  Of particular interest was a purple-ish meaty looking disk that was served with a hamburger.  The guy eating the burger, along with the bartender, the boss and a random patron all gesticulated with protracted explanations of what the mystery disk was.  Then, from the cochina closet appeared a purple, sliced up orb on a saucer.  The bartender presented it to us, added a pinch of salt and splashed it with fresh lime.  What we were given to try for ourselves is known as “Betabel”.  You would call it a beet. Yeah, a beet. But this was the best damn savory beet we’d ever consumed.  It was an inspiring beet.

The main square of Chihuahua was all decorated up with a “Dia de Los Muertos” vibe in full effect.  The weather here is nice and crisp.  There’s an occasional coolness but otherwise exceptional and comfortable.  After a day of walking and shopping in the various markets, we descended on the square and followed a main street south into the path of the Dia de Los Muertos parade.  We came armed with glow sticks for Sharon to surprise little local kids with.  They were bewildered in unfamiliarity but the parents were thankful.  That’s one way to win over the locals.

The next day was filled with confusion as we tried to interpret the right way to ride on the El Chepe train through the Copper Canyon. I’ll save that story til next time.

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Donnie Meals

donnie@editpointstudios.com

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