Danny awoke on the floor and complained about Declan’s snoring. “Jesus man, you sound like a fuckin’ cougar”! We got up at 08:00 hrs. and went shopping with Danny at a local supermarket. It was packed with Christmas shoppers, and it was a battle to shove our shopping trolley through the masses.
We were buying food for Danny’s party tonight on Calles 60/79. We carried our cardboard boxes back to his digs in a garage where he worked as a mechanic on cars and boats. A great 1939 Mercedes stood in the driveway.
We had breakfast in the usual place and went out onto the hotel roof into the sunshine. Diego joined us with a collection of Spanish books and newspapers. We stayed here until 16:30 hrs. when the “tres bandidos” went to the liquor store and bought some beer which we drank in the Zócalo.
Mexicans took photographs of each other with the Mexican flag and the cathedral in the background. We chatted good humouredly with hammock sellers and Declan “pssst” the girls and swigged from an ice-cold bottle of black beer. Mexicans use the “pssst” sound to attract attention, especially a customer beckoning a waiter in a restaurant.
The sun slowly sank and there was a pleasant breeze. A young urchin boy in a scruffy T-shirt and shorts with broken waist elastic ran around kicking his rubber spider, his arse showing above his trousers. His mother walked endlessly around the plaza carrying his younger sister.
At sunset the army arrived to play some dreadfully amateur music and lower the Mexican flag. We went back to the hotel to meet Tina, another German, and await Danny who said that he would call for us at 16:30 hrs. By 20:00 hrs. he still hadn’t arrived, so we went to the off licence anyway and bought some beer and a huge bottle of Bacardi rum, which cost only 10,000 Mexican Pesos.
At 22:00 hrs. Diego and I went to call for Danny and met him en route in a pickup truck with two friends. We jumped in the back for a tour around the city and back to pick up Declan. Tina had got bored and pissed off so the 3 Bandidos went to Danny’s. Diego pestered Declan, believing that he must have murdered Tina! Declan got fed up with these accusations and returned to the hotel.
Diego and I tucked into the food, pasta and diced vegetable salad, and listened to a Deep Purple music cassette tape before returning. I walked back with Diego, who was by now absolutely legless. He staggered down the middle of the road clutching his bottle of “Corona” and shouting.
Back at the hotel I sat with an American Belizian resident and a Canadian on our usual balcony and drank dark Bacardi and Coke until the small hours. Danny came to the hotel and pretended to call people on a portable telephone. I went to bed and fell asleep instantaneously.
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