Potchutla is a classic supply town. A place where you go to buy 2 miles of barbed wire, 300 kilos of rice, get your tooth pulled and try to get the hell out before the christian evangelists get you. It is a place that I suspect only exists during business hours. I would not be surprised to know that the town vanished at sunset. I am here looking for a car part. No luck with the part but lucky to get out of town early. They can't all be picture perfect mountain towns with atmospheric zocalo and trees filled with phosphorescent butterflies. No there must be the towns for utility as well. Potchutla is such a town.
I am back in Mexico. It is a country with well known problems. I drove through Taumalipas. The locals have taken to stopping long haul buses, removing the occupants and killing them after what I assume was an ordeal. I stopped in a town where the bodies of 177 bus passengers were found on a farm. It seemed a normal place. My next stop was Veracruz. I arrived the day the entire police force was fired. When you fire a Mexican policeman his government cheque stops but it is unlikely his gun and uniform are returned to the state.
Even with my jaundiced eye I continue to encounter a wonderful people here. There is a saying that the mafia use to gain cooperation. "Quiere plata o quiere plomo." Would you like silver or lead. Earlier I wrote an article called "drug war" on this blog. It stands. The people who live and work endure through this difficult time. They welcome me into their homes and we fight and argue. As ever the Christian evangelists are preying on the disorder they find so convenient.
Mexican History Lesson. After the earthquake of 1968 in Mexico city many of the churches were destroyed. In the rubble it was found that the slaves the priests used to build their monuments to imperialism had stashed Mayan and Aztec icons. The natives were standing in front of the statue of the Virgin and paying homage to the Mayan god. No god is good but it is interesting that they endure.
