# The Secret to Success is to Know When to Move On



## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

"_What is happening down here is the wind have changed,
Clouds roll in from the north and it starts to rain, 
Rained real hard for a long long time, 
Six feet of wáter in the streets of Evangeline"_

_Louisana 1927 _Randy Newman (1970s)

April is the single most beautiful month in Chiapas with crystal skies and temperatures in the mid-20sC but soon ,sometimes about mid-May, the inundations will commence as they do almost every year and as in Randy Newman´s _Louisana 1927 _as depicted above, it will be time to take the bus out of Chiapas before the roads collapse.


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## Justina (Jan 25, 2013)

Do you never get tired of all that driving?


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

_


Justina said:



Do you never get tired of all that driving?

Click to expand...

_Indeed it is tiring for a 72 year old goober and soon I may not be up to that anymore, especially those jaunts into the mountainous Chiapas backwoods over demanding and often poorly maintained roads but the fantastic rewards are there if one undertakes the journey. I keep my spirits up by observing the impoverished, carless indigenous villagers carrying essential wood for cooking, wáter and other essentials up and down steep and often primitive roads and pathways over often great distances and that´s during the dry season as I will not drive those dangerous roads during the summer rainy season when their tasks of gathering and transporting supplies on foot are even more daunting. 

I guess that, when driving becomes a bit too much, we can fly between Guadalajara and Tuxtla Gutiérrez and take collectivos into the mountains or maybe skip the backwoods altogether and pour another tequila blanco while watching telenovelas in the sala.

By the way, one of my more exhausting drives was from Madrid past your adopted town of Cadiz in the heat of August a few years ago. Thank God for tapas bars.


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## Justina (Jan 25, 2013)

Truly, I am/was curious about your trips. I never ever made it to Chiapas, one of my great regrets so I do enjoy yours.
What spurred me to ask you was reading a book by Penelope Lively called Dancing Fish and Ammonites, a British writer who talks of her reflections at 80, and she wrote at length, at least at the beginning, of how she was done with travelling. I truly felt that she was looking over my shoulder. 
Don't know too much about tapa stops from Madrid to Cadiz cos I only take the train and by the way, once you are a resident here, a Mexican driving licence is not valid here. After 50 years of driving, without an accident, he has to do the whole caboodle.
Cheers..


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## Justina (Jan 25, 2013)

I meant the old man, ie. my husband. I never ever wish to behind a wheel.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

Justina said:


> I meant the old man, ie. my husband. I never ever wish to behind a wheel.


You remind me of a good story, Justina:

A number of years ago, my wife and I decided to rent a car from Hertz on Penang Island in Northern Maylasia to drive to Singapore. The Clerk in the rental car agency gave us the following warning in all seriousness:

"Now, if you have an accident en route to Singapore. especially if that accident results in injury to a local whereever you may be on the península. do not stop, as you might in America, and await resolution of the problem but flee to the nearest pólice station to seek protection because, especially if you have injured or killed a child. the locals will lynch you on the spot and ask questions later."

After having lived in Mexico for over 13 years, we see this seemingly rational action of running away in utmost haste to be a practical solution to all traffic accident related problems as is the common occurence in Mexico as those involved in traffic accidents, whether at fault or not, flee the scene without hesitation and the cops don´t go looking for these guys. You must be kidding.


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## Justina (Jan 25, 2013)

So, not only in Mexico, eh? I used to pass through an area at the time kids were coming out of school and it was so hairy scary that occasionally once passed it, I used to say to myself, there but for the grace ......
A little like some years back in a villagenot so far from where we lived two very drunk thieves were caught in the local church trying to steal some gold or fantasy type necklets draped around one of the saints. The men were caught and lynched and our ex governor of Mexico City justified the lynchings as that we had to 'respect the customs of the people'. Si como no.
Saludos.


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