Day 3

Day 3 was town day. My godfather and my cousin took us there in their truck. Their truck is just a single cab so my niece, my godfather, and I had to ride on the bed of the truck.


To one side you see how the shaved the mountain to make the road. This is a dangerous area but it's one of the best paved.


But to the other side you can see this. We are literally standing on the side of the road looking down the cliff. The picture just does not make any justice to the magnitude of how high and dangerous this is.


Before the road it would take roughly four hours from Santa Maria to Pilcaya if we walked, and three hours if riding a horse or a mule. Now it's just a 45-50 minute drive. It is amazing how they slice the hills to build the road, it's a never ending winding road that in some areas is nicely paved and in others is just a dirt road. This roads are very dangerous due to the fact that to one side you have the mountain while on the other you have the cliffs. I was truly surprised to hear that not too many accidents happen considering the conditions.




Here in the US this may be against the law and totally unsafe. There it's a necessity and a way of life.





If it was a straight line, Santa Maria and Pilcaya are relatively close, but it's not a straight line and half ways through there is a canyon. Half the commute time is going down the canyon, crossing the river and then going up the canyon. The bridge has been there for over 100 years and I am sure was not intended to have car traffic but so far it's holding on. They are now building a new bridge made specially for cars to cross. Once that happens I am sure the old bridge will be forgotten.


The Bridge
It looks straight but I am actually at the bottom and it's a steep climb. Pictures can be deceiving.

We got into town and we decided to visit the church first. The church in Pilcaya is very old and is one of the few that has not been remodeled. It is not as pretty as other churches we visited but it certainly remains in it's original state.



The historic monument of mayor importance that the municipality has is "El Templo de la Purísima Concepción" finished in the year 1610 by the Franciscan priests in a baroque style.


A few minutes after visiting the church we started walking and this is where it got strange. As I was walking down the street a man riding on a bike parked it right in front of me, then looked me straight in the eye, smiled and extended his hand to shake mine. "I know who you are" he said then he added "You are Fidel's son". My jaw dropped open and I had to ask how in the heck he knew that. He said I looked like him. Keep in mind the last time I visited Pilcaya I was 9 years old, I am now 48. He then told me he is married to my cousin Irma.


We spent a good part of the morning saying hi to a lot of people, all whom at some level where family. Uncles, cousins, my mom's comadres. It was like the whole town was related to us. The few that didn't know who I was at first as soon as they heard I was Fidel's son they would immediately reply "Don't tell me you are Fidelito" (Little Fidel). It was weird that people would still remember me. Oh, some of you may be wondering, about the name. Just so you know, Jose is my legal name but at home among my family I am Fidel (my baptismal name)same as my dad's.

We did some shopping at the mercado where we bough food to cook in Santa Maria. We tried to halt our hunger with some tacos but this time the tacos where so salty that it was hard to enjoy them.


They looked really good, but unfortunately they were a little salty.


However, the fried taquitos at the mercado where extremely tasty. The lady let me have some for free as she said we were related, to this day I still don't know who she was.

After another hour and some more mingling with another bunch of people that knew us although I didn't know them, we headed back to Santa Maria where my tia Fabiela cooked a delicious caldo de pollo. It was good and tasty but all I kept wondering was, where was the water coming from. We spent the whole day with my godfather, who is also my mom's brother and one of the main reasons my mom made the trip to Mexico.