Roadside restaurant

Revisiting these slides from my childhood really makes me wish I had kept some sort of written diary so that I would have more than just very vague recollections of the many places I visited and all the wonderful people I met. Signs and billboards occasionally provide hints when they’re not too blurry to read. The billboard in the photo above, for example, includes a hand holding a bottle of Coca-Cola, but I can only make out parts of the message: “Bienvenidos … crucero 70, la … mexicana.”

My mom reminded me, after seeing last week’s image of the two of us sitting by the pool in Culiacan, that a giant palm frond came crashing down and nearly hit her on the head!

Volkswagen dealership, Zacatecas

I may have mentioned before that my memories of the beautiful city of Zacatecas are minimal and… not very good ones; every time we got near the place, I suffered from altitude sickness the entire time we were there.

Volkswagen dealership, Mexico City

Yet sometimes a photo brings back unexpected memories. I had been trying to figure out what sort of purse I was carrying in the image above — when a long-forgotten memory suddenly occurred to me last night. I was very proudly carrying a small straw basket with a double lid that opened on each side, like a miniature picnic basket. It was most likely purchased at the Mexico City mercado.

Seen along the highway, somewhere

Another example of a roadside restaurant; I have only extremely vague memories of this place, but I must have been 10 years old when these three photos were taken.

He’s chopping coconuts open to serve to customers