Akil 21

There was nobody about in the house when we got up from our nap. Maria and the girls were next door at her brother Wilbur’s house. His wife is a hair dresser. We found out later that Lupe had decided to put a red dye in her hair for the festivities. So the women were all off doing hair stuff.

Juan and Wilbur were both out front. Juan and Wilbur were having I don’t know what number beer of the day. Carlos was lying on the couch in the living room, doing what most men do. Using the remote to wonder aimlessly up and down the TV channels, never stopping long enough to even know what a program is about. I accepted a beer and settled down for a friendly chat with the guys. Juan went to make B a Margarita.

I don’t know why, but Juan suddenly decided that it was time to paint the front of the house. He disappeared somewhere in the house and returned with a five gallon pail of the Jade Green paint and a paintbrush that I would have thrown away years ago. He took the top off and began to spread paint on the house. I must admit, it was an improvement over the original cement color! He did stop once in awhile to open a new beer for energy. He had just barely finished the wall he was working on and it started to rain. Of course, the rain ran down the wall and totally smeared his efforts. He was undaunted by it and said he would just repaint when it stopped raining. Out came another round of beers.

The women returned and we oohed and ahhed at the red highlights that were now just barely visible in Lupe’s very black Mexican hair. She grinned from ear to ear and thanked us for noticing. It was hard not to notice that something was going on because she returned with soaking wet hair and a red dye stained towel wrapped about her shoulders. At least she did not have far to travel since Wilbur’s wife’s beauty salon is just next door. Off they disappeared into the house and soon the sound of hair dryers and mother/daughter chatter drifted out the door to us.

Finally everybody was cleaned up and we were ready to head off “downtown” for the big party. But first Juan had an important job to do. Unlike here on the island, which is very laid back compared to the rest of Mexico, one cannot publicly drink alcohol on the streets or on the plaza of downtown Akil. Not even beer, which is even more popular than water in most parts of Mexico! This created a dilemma for Juan and I since we are beer drinkers. But Juan and B devised a devious plan to circumvent part of the problem. Juan went behind his bar and soon whisked up enough Margaritas for B to fill two GatorAde bottles! Honestly, it looked just like lemonade flavor GatorAde and no one would be able to tell what he was really sipping. Little would people know that he was not an American health nut as it appeared! We all marveled at Juan’s ingeniousness. Unfortunately, we could not figure out a way to smuggle beer for us! We were just going to have to let the pleasant little buzz we had been developing all afternoon and evening wear off. With Juan leading the way and me following in the Jeep, off we went to the main plaza.