Story by former Coastsider Silvia Scheibli, who now lives and heads the English department at a school in Arizona. Silvia is also a well known published poet.
[Note: This weekend Silvia and four “experienced” friends, fluent in Spanish, traveled across the border into Mexico to buy special tequila– like “moonshine,” she told me because the alcohol is homemade. This is not illegal, and it is well known, but not a recommended adventure for amateur American tourists. Along the way, they passed through a fantastic canyon, that in February showed no sign of the huge murals she saw on this trip, her first. When they got hungry, the friends stopped at a small house and asked where they could have lunch–they were sent to an old woman’s home where she prepared a meal for the tequila-seekers.]
Says Silvia: I have some pictures from our trip to Banamichi, Arizpe and Cucurpe. All fascinating, sleepy little towns south of the border close to the foothills of the Sierra Madre where the marijuana is being grown, also known as the profitable crop. Saw a few narco homes, but mainly we stayed out of the dangerous areas.
I took pictures of old churches, pictographs, a modern hotel and murals in a canyon with wild horses and burros. The tequila we brought back is known as bacanorra and is home-made in the mountains. It can not be purchased anywhere else other than in this region. The business was in a house next to a cemetery.
A woman and her twin girls poured the stuff into a gallon water bottle for us and gave us a shot for the road. Instant buzz!
When we pulled out of the driveway, three adult males left by the back door. We had not seen them at all while we were in the kitchen and it was a very small place. The probably left to buy beer.
