1) Take a ferry to Belize, bus up the Carribbean coast. That was the original plan. but the guidebook had no info about buses in Belize and we were once again low on $$. And everyone says that Belize is expensive. So instead we decided on
2) Bus back to Flores and retrace our steps to Chetumal and Cancun.
We catch an afternoon bus to Flores, and buy tickets for the morning bus to Chetumal. We now have about Q120. Hm. The cheapest room would be a dorm at the Los Amigos hostel, Q25pp. The time was about 7pm, our bus leaves at 5am. Getting a bed would be such a waste of $$.
We decide that we were not going to get any accomodations. Instead, Parque Centrale would be our home for the night.
The park is simply a small plaza in the middle of the island of Flores. There's a taco stand, a restuarant, an icecream stall, and a basketball/soccer court. Since it was Christmas, there was also a huge lighted Christmas tree perched atop a big red Gallo box. Gallo (rooster) is the local beer. We'd seen the tree the last time we were at Flores, but now we had the time (8 hours) to really appreciate it. We realised that Gallo really went out of their way to decorate this tree. There were big lighted Gallo icon ornaments, and even a huge rotating Gallo sign at the top.It was Friday night, and many people were out at the park. There was some sort of street soccer tournament going on, and also a mirimba band.
at 10 plus-11, the soccer was over. the band stopped playing. We think there was some party somewhere else cos we heard music... we hang out on our park bench, trying to pass time. We tell each other our life stories.
Our lives are either very short or very boring, because we were done and it was only 12.30 or 1am. We bring out the cards to play dai-di (big 2). We see some drunk singing guys walking past.
This one guy comes up to us. He looks very happy and interested in our cards. He makes little exclamations of joy, and watches us play. then, 2 drunk guys appeared and asked for money. "One quetzale!" the guy pleads. we pretend not to understand. wtf... we were not going without a bed that night just to give all our money to this guy to buy beer....
The happy card guy argues with the drunk guys. He tells them we have no money. We are very confused. who is this guy? is this some sort of ploy so that we give the happy guy our money instead? We decide to continue playing daidi while the animated verbal battle rages around us.
The 2 drunk guys leave. the happy guy stays. we remain confused.
The happy guy asks, "No dormir?"
"No", we tell him.
"PORQUE?" (why) he asks with a dramatic flourish.
we try to tell him about our lack of $$. he doesn't seem to understand. "mi casa" he says, pointing to the house next to the park. "PORQUE?" he wails, intermittenly.
He gestures to our cards. "Chung king?" he asks.
"No.... um.... big two?"
hm. he takes our cards, shuffles them. "ok. Chung king". He launches into a stream of spanish. We shrug helplessly. After some time I think he realised that we are very confused and have no idea what's going on. He places several cards face up. "Yes, yes, yes", he says to each card. He takes out other cards: "NO! NO! NO!" He doesn't seem to like those cards (8, 9, 10). In fact, he ferrets out all the 8s, 9s and 10s, and puts them in a pile under my bag. He shuffles the rest, and starts giving out cards. "nueve (9)" he says at the end. The rest is in a pile at the center. He looks at his cards. "YES! YES! YES!" he exclaims, clutching them to his chest. "Very good!" He beams. He opens the top card on the pile. "You!" he points expectantly at Charmaine.
She is Very Confused. I am Very Confused. You could practically see the question marks coming outta our ears.
he sighs. He takes out several cards. there were three 7s, i think. "yes" he says, pointing to them. He also groups together a 7, J, Q, and a J, Q, K. "Yes." He points at those too.
After a few false starts, we were surprised to find that we were understanding how to play this game. It's actually some version of Gin Rummy. But the best part was this happy guy. He was hilarious. Incredibly dramatic, he would either be estatic over his cards, or abjectly despondant.
"NOOOOOO!!!!" he would practically sob. "Nada!!" he would wail, looking mournfully at his cards.
Charmaine was a little slower at getting the game (probably cos I had 3 chpts of spanish on her), so sometimes he would help her play and be deliriously happy when she won.
"Champion!" he pumped his fists in the air.
He talked to us a little. He said he was 23. He didn't believe Charmaine was only 19, and firmly told her that she was at least 21.
He played cards with us from 2-4am, then went home, but not without another "No Dormir??? POR-QUE?"
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