Luis

Sergio offered to introduce us to a friend of his called Luis today. Luis has travelled the world and was now back in Xalapa and retired and likes to meet foreigners. Sergio knows we like hiking and Luis organizes weekend excursions with local guides every weekend. We were keen to meet him.

Sergio said it was fine just to drop in on him so we headed down the back streets of Xalapa in search of his house. His street was blocked with a bollard, but Sergio thought it would be OK to move the bollard and go on through. David did the honours (I should have taken a picture) and down we went. His “house” turned out to be a hostel. We aren’t quite sure what the story was, but the surly youth at reception said he didn’t live there anymore so off we went to the other side of town to his new house. I was expecting another hostel, so was taken aback at the big house in an upper class neighbourhood. Luis and his wife Rosalia welcomed us in and we chatted about the upcoming day trips.

Luis has the demeanor of a man who is used to being listened to. We listened. Atentamente. Luis described the excursions as mini adventures and that you never quite know where you will end up or what will happen. He likes to go with local guides for a number of reasons. He counted them off on his fingers. Firstly, they know the best routes. Secondly, your car will be safe outside their houses. Thirdly, you can usually have a meal with them afterwards. Fourthly, you have access to water and bathrooms. Finally (which did make me feel a little alarmed), if you inadvertently stumble upon anything related to the drug trade, no one will bother you because you will be with one of the locals. That’s good then. he emphasised that the trips were "muy muy rustico". That's OK, we can do rustico.

There were excursions planned for Saturday and Sunday and we said we would join Sunday’s trip where the rough plan was to learn about how the locals of a small town irrigate their land.