Thursday, December 27, 2007

Mexico Shots

I've lived and travelled in Mexico long enough now that not much surprises or shocks me. But every so often, I do see something that just screams DIFFERENT CULTURE to me. Not necessarily in a bad way, more in a would-you-look-at-that kind of way. Case in point.

I was standing on our balcony at a downtown hotel in La Crucecita, Oaxaca at about 6:30 AM one morning. I heard a truck tailgate open and looked down. What did I see but somebody's dinner waiting to be served. Just lying there in all its' glory in the back of that dirty, blood encrusted truck bed.






It didn't take long for the owner of this truck to lift this beef hindquarter out, heft it onto his shoulder and deliver it to his waiting customer. From his direction, I think he was probably taking it to the local market, just a few doors down.



I thought I was the only one who found this interesting or maybe out of the ordinary. Guess not. When this woman saw him, she screamed and jumped closer to the security of her man.




Really, it wasn't all that scary.

3 comments:

John W said...

I love that in Mexico, we're all so much closer to our food. I'm still a carnivore unlike some of my Buddhist friends, but scenes like the one you photographed sometimes give me pause.

A while back, I was considering eating some of the tacos at the stand near Espino's. Then I saw a pickup truck full of cows' heads parked in front. Took me over two years before I finally overcame my revulsion.

Tacos de cabeza aren't my favorites yet, but at least I'm eating them now.

Honduras Sprout said...

This doesn't look right. My husband works in the meat business and says that this is most likely a poacher selling his stolen goods.

It's a big problem here in Honduras. And sometimes the ranchers take matters into their own hands.

Interesting blog. I came across via La Gringa.

Islagringo said...

John, even thinking about eating tacos de cabeza gives me dolor de cabeza.

Sprout, not sure why, but I really don't think it was a poacher. I have seen this kind of thing all over Mexico. I just happened to be in the right place for a pic this time.