BUMBLING ALONG
Today everyone in the yoga group was in the air scattering to different parts of the United States. I stayed in my airbnb room all morning and then ventured out to find a good cheap, restaurant. One key to cheap travel is eating where locals eat. Among TripAdvisor’s Ten Best Cheap Barrito restaurants I found Los Barritos, at Calle 23 Hildago, only steps away from my Airbnb. It had good reviews. I had tried once before to find it and couldn’t, all I found were locked doors. Today, again I tried to find it and again I didn’t. I knew right where it should be and it wasn’t there.
So I went for a walk around the tree shaded square in the sunshine to warm up and get some exercise. I sat on a park bench and looked at my iPhone. There was the listing, Los Barritos, 23 Hidalgo, open till 5 p.m.. So I walked back down Hidalgo street, even numbers on one side and odd numbers on my Airbnb side but the two sides of the street not in sync with the numbers on each side going in opposite directions. Then I looked up and above a narrow doorway with only a counter inside was a tiny sign, Los Barritos, high above and suddenly a clear number 23, there it is was, a hole in the wall and not a restaurant. Either it had suddenly materialized by magic or I had been blinded by my expectations of what a restaurant doorway should look like.
There were a few tables inside and the place was bustling with ordinary Mexican, not dressed up tourists. Where beautiful Cafe Santa Ana in the town library was filled with North Americans, here there were none. The signs were all in Spanish, I couldn’t figure out how to order but was pointed toward the front. There fastened on the counter was a menu and a young woman behind glass with a cash register. I didn’t recognize anything on the menu, but pointed at a couple of things, was asked a question that I couldn’t answer, felt very confused, realized that she was asking what I wanted to drink, saw refresco on the menu and pointed to it and tried to pay with a credit card but she wanted cash so I paid cash and put a coin, not knowing what it was worth, into the tip jar then sat a table and waited for my number to be called. When it was I discovered that I had enough food for three meals, a giant double hamburger with French fries and a large burrito with a salad and a Pepsi. So I indicated that I needed a box to go, was given a piece of styrofoam and later a plastic bag. I ate in silence feeling like a bumbling gringo, a foolish North American. Everyone else there knew what they were doing and I didn’t have a clue. But I was in the right place, a place where local people eat, which is the key to traveling cheaply. And next time I come in I will know just what to do, including how much to order and what to tip. The effort will be worth it.
What I realized afterward is that this was an example of what I was writing about yesterday. In group travel I would have gone to a more expensive restaurant, the wait staff would have been able to understand my Spanglish, the food would have come beautifully presented, they would have taken a credit card and I could have clicked on a percentage tip and I wouldn’t have felt like a damn fool. But I would have paid three times as much. And I wouldn’t have been able to experience the culture directly in the Mexican way.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 