Bus Travel & Essence of Fall
First, Rudy's wistful comment on today's show about how Greyhound
could improve its service makes me think that he should check out bus
service in Mexico, where car ownership is much less prevalent than
in the US and where the number of competing bus lines is staggering.
For many routes, there are three classes of travel--second, first,
and primera clase de lujo, luxury first class. For the latter two
classes, seats are reserved, so that if you buy tickets in advance,
you don't have to worry about being separated from your travel
companions. A luxury first class bus, in addition to the
air-conditioning and the bathroom, frequently will have a stewardess
handing boarding passengers a plastic container with a pastry and a
bottle of water; free sodas are sometimes also available. On one
trip, my seat featured a leg rest (looking like a pint-sized ironing
board that folded down from the seat in front) as well as a foot rest.
The down side for me, however, are the movies--shown on video
monitors placed on both sides every couple of rows and without
headphones. These are usually American action films, apparently
chosen because it doesn't really matter that the English subtitles are
too small for all but the nearest passenger to see.
Re: the essence of fall - I have several times been traveling in
Mexico or Guatemala in late October and early November, where
November 1 and/or 2 are important dates in the holiday
calendar--November 1, the important day in Guatemala, being All
Saints' Day, and November 2, the more celebrated in Mexico, being the
Day of the Dead. In either case, the holiday is a time for the whole
family to go to the cemetery with flowers and perhaps a wreath, to
clean around the grave, to say prayers, and to spend time thinking
about the dead.
In one prosperous indigenous village in Guatemala
where I found myself one year, four-piece bands were playing in front
of some of the larger mausoleums...My favorite tradition is carried
out at two other, poorer and smaller villages in Guatemala, where
groups of young men craft circular kites, made of tissue paper on
wooden frames in unbelievably elaborate designs and the largest
maybe 8 feet across, which are flown above the cemetery at one
village, above the soccer field in the other. Apparently there was,
or still is, a belief that the kites communicate with the spirits of
the dead. Here there are masses of people and ample food and drink
stands to service them. It's a fabulous spectacle.
Louise
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