Several Years before the event below the fold took place, the Mexican Government had defaulted on some of its debt plunging the Peso, Mexico's equivalent of a dollar into a free fall. Millions of Mexicans that had been comfortably off were suddenly very poor. When the event started the Peso had been steady at 5 pesos to the dollar for awhile, at the bottom the peso was 8000 to 1. To better understand the experience imagine waking up tomorrow and going to the grocery store for a tomato. only to discover instead of $.50 a tomato now costs $500.00 what would you do? Think it crazy? I have seen a pound of tomatoes advertised for 3000 pesos. That same amount would also buy 20 tortillas, a quart of milk, or 5 pounds of beans. About 15 years ago the government dropped the zeros, 1000 pesos became one again with the introduction of the Neuvo peso. If before the crash you had $50,000.00 in the bank now you have $50.
Think about it..............
The year was 1998, my husband Tim and I were traveling south on that glorified goat path with long lines of semi trucks known as Mexico's Pacific Coast Highway in our 72 Volkswagen pop top. We had left the town of Barria Navidad that morning and as darkness approached were closing in on the town of Playa Azul. The plan was to head into the mountains the following day reaching our destination, the city of Morelia,Michoacan, the day after where my husband would once again go about his work of connecting the major cities in Mexico together via fiber optic cable. A couple of miles from Playa Azul in more dark than we cared to be driving in, the headlights suddenly blinked off. Tim slammed the breaks on, the first and last time that old bus ever laid rubber. Luckily we had just passed a dirt road, it lead into a pineapple orchard. Using a flashlight we backed the bus in and tucked it behind a tree. We walked up to the house, a grass hut very similar to the ones used on the east coast of Africa. We were greeted with glee, they don't get many tourists out there and the one on their doorstep looked, with his beard, mustache and semi long hair, suspiciously like the picture of Jesus on their wall. They would not take any chances so they invited us in
Their home was clean with a dirt floor, no running water, and a propane stove for cooking. They lived there with their four children, an elderly woman they called grandma and a view of the pacific that had it been located in the United States would have cost millions. They did not seem at all disappointed when Tim told them no indeed he was not Jesus, just an Norte Americano with a bit of bad luck they had suspected as much I am sure. Would it be okay to sleep in their orchard for the night, we would gladly pay rent. They invited us to dinner, and no they would accept no rent. In Mexico when someone invites you to sit at their table saying no is not an option, it is an insult, so we gladly accepted. After dinner and clean up Roberto the father of the family walked us back to our van. It was a long night in the land of iguanas, really big iguanas, that kept climbing down on the pop top and pushing it down into our faces with their weight.
It was barely sunrise when there was a knock on the slider. Roberto was back with the local mechanic and a couple of mullatos (tortillas with refried beans and scrambled eggs). This was our first experience with these gods of car repair. If it is broke they can fix it. They may have to hone down a Chevy piston by hand to put in your ford but when they are done it will run and run well. They are truly amazing and they waste nothing. Miguel was no exception as he tore apart our dash first the switch, it looked suspect, he took it apart and rebuilt it carefully recording the small piece of brass he used from his stash. That wasn't the problem. on to the fuse blocks, he popped the tops and low in behold dumped a bunch of water out. My husband let out a groan, fuse blocks are expensive, and the nearest one was probably a hundred miles away. No problemo. Miguel tore into them handing me a bit of duly recorded steel wool and firing off instruction in rapid fire Spanish that went right over my head. Seeing my confusion he smiled and repeated the instructions in clear English. Seems he spent a year of his young adulthood picking vegetables near Wapato, WA. As he went through the process of fixing the fuse block he showed us just how it was done. He then proceeded to fix our radio , hook down our loose floor mat, and repair the charging system for our refrigerator which have never worked quite right. When his messenger came back from someone's house with the piece of wire he needed to replace to get the lights working he installed it and we had headlights once again. The bill came to $15.50 with a 10% discount if we could pay in dollars we gave him twenty a ten and two 5s and considered kissing his feet so profound was our gratitude.
I still have that old van, I have rebuilt those same old fuse blocks 6 times over the years with total success using the instruction Miguel gave me. Each of these fuse blocks retails for about 78.50 at our local parts store there are two, you can do the math.
We gave Miguel a ride home, he had no car of his own. On the way he asked us to stop by the mercado the equivelent of a farmers market. there he carefully doled out some of what we had paid him and purchased a dozen eggs and a stack of tortillas. some milk and a small brick of chocolate. All of it came from local businesses. The chocolate a specialty of Mexico was a special treat grated and heated in milk for hot cocoa, The chocolate had been a bit of an extra from the milk man for paying in dollars which . at the time, was sort of like doling out gold for your purchases. We then stopped at a small barn here Miguel took out a couple of pieces of paper. They were drawing of two of his kids feet, they needed new sandals. Carefully he and the sandal maker inspected an old Goodyear tire and marked a section, this area would be the soles of his children's shoes he doled out some more of his cash. We arrived at Miguels house and helped him get his purchases out of the back. He still had $10 of the money we had paid. He was saving up to buy new tool he said so he could get some work fixing semi trucks that broke down on the highway. This way he could bring more money into town like he had done in fixing our van. This little beach town was a hundred miles from no where but they got by. Everyone had an angle a service or a product to offer that the town needed. The money they had traded hands many times around in circles keeping everyone afloat.
We said goodbye and headed off up the winding road toward Morelia. We would not see Roberto or Miguel the mechanic again yet the lessons they taught that day remain with me even now and seem especially meaningful in the times we now live.