My husband lost all his clothes with the loss of that suitcase, but now is completely excited about purchasing an entire wardrobe consisting only of "Cabo San Lucas, Mexico" tee shirts. So far, the best deal he has found is two for six dollars US. He can also find shorts in the local tourist shops (our abode here is right in the heart of the tourist district) - but underwear, not so much. Our wonderful consierge, Senior Raoul, told us that he buys all of his underwear at- where else? - Wal Mart! Even Mexican Wal Mart is apparently just beyond the borders of town, so we could not walk there, however we had noticed a steady stream of old school buses with different destinations painted on the windows, driving through the one stop intersection. "Wal Mart" was the most common destination scrawled in white paint on the windows. We could be normal tourists and take a cab, but we don't like to be normal tourists, so this morning I- rather nervously, actually- waved at the bus with "Wal Mart" painted on the window and got on!
The man said it was 8 pesos (about sixty cents US), so I gave him a ten piece and he gave me no change and I didn't argue, just went and took my seat with husband and child in tow. It wasn't until the ride back that I realized it was 8 pesos per person, and I ripped the first driver off! Sadly. (The bus driver on the way home was a more assertive fellow. Perhaps this was because he had the Blessed Virgin on his side, in the form of a little gold plate image of her stuck up on the windshield.)
Anyway, the bus ride was very enjoyable. It was clearly an old American school bus and even still had the stickers inside showing school children (in English) how to correctly cross the street in front of the blinking stop sign, which was of course completely missing off of this bus. The bus was dusty, but relatively clean, and just three locals were riding with us on the way there. One of the people was a woman about my age with a three year old on her lap. The three year old was a girl, sleeping rather awkwardly. Behind the two of them, at one point, through the dusty windows, was the sandy beach, the deep blue sea, and a gigantic cruise ship resting in the water. The juxtaposition between the woman, the child, the school bus, and the amazingly large pure white cruise ship on the blue blue sea was something I won't soon forget.
My little girl was beside herself with joy to be riding an actual school bus!
In my normal life, I never shop at Wal Mart because it scares me. This Wal Mart wasn't as big as the ones I'm used to (or the ones I can't get used to, really) so it wasn't so bad. The people were very nice. The one guy was a little too nice, and suddenly started trying to sell us a whale watching cruise. He was a lot like the vipers at the airport, only he was in the beverage aisle of Wal Mart!
On the way home, the bus didn't go exactly the same way, but we got off close enough to our place to make it all worth while. It was quite the nice adventure. Here is my Tender Lovin' Banjo Player's hand, proudly displaying his new pair of Mexican undies:
Muy guapo, ¿no?
* Don't worry about the chickens.
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