Dennis’s Take Today!

I must admit, Cindy’s comments on the blog are right on. Right on regarding Jim and my doing research here in Ajijic. You would think with it being a relatively small town of approximately 10,000 people, everything would be close by. Well, as it turns out distance is much more deceptive in Mexico than it is in Bloomington or for that matter, the whole USA in general. I’ve concluded that it must be because we’re much closer to the equator here.

Let me give you an example: while hiking through town yesterday to study Aztec architecture more closely, Jim and I happened upon a building that contained four rectangular felt covered tables. We were puzzled. What could they be? Some sort of sacrificial Aztec Altar? Oddly, there were some ancient sticks and what appeared to be balls of ivory with hieroglyphics painted on them. One was black with what looked like an 8. We were told by the inhabitants that we should to gather the balls together and then try to knock one into a pocket (six actually) located around the sides of the table. We thought, why not experience the local custom? They also suggested we try drinking a local “herb” while doing this to better experience the game. So we did. Here’s one of the oddities — the more “herbs” that we drank, the longer the table got and the more difficult it became to knock a ball into a pocket. Hmmm, how odd. The second oddity happened after consuming quite a bit of “herb.” The trip back became much longer and more confusing. “Didn’t we pass this corner about ten minutes ago?” I inquired of Jim. After struggling to orient ourselves we were finally able to locate our abode. Needless to say, a nap was necessary after all this research. Tomorrow we plan to try the same experiment to see if it repeats itself, all in the pursuit of science. It’s a sacrifice but one we are committed to endure. The “girls” (Karen & Cindy) are not as dedicated as we. Go figure.