John Wayne

Today we drove by John Wayne´s ranch. Well, its not his now, he being dead and all. Folks say its his brother´s. We took a bus out to a town called Chupaderos (sounds like "Chupadedos" which means "Finger sucker") because we heard there were old Western movie sets there. Sure enough, there were. What used to be an old Western movie studio has been overtaken by a locals. I have a picture of a boy riding by the O.K. Cantina. A kid came strolling out of the General Store asking me for a peso. There was a Ford Taurus parked in front of the funeral parlor. Bizarre.
From Chupaderos we hitchhiked two kilometers to a town called Villa Oeste (Western Village). The Villa is walking distance from John Wayne´s ranch. It is another movie set, but has been transformed into a tourist spot. We sat on the porch of the town bar while watching actors perform scences from a western spoof in the middle of the dirt street. During a pre-performance audience warm-up, Ingrid won a prize by guessing the date of a John Wayne movie. She is so competitive. All these Mexicans are yelling out different dates, and then Ingrid, yelling louder than anyone in town, shouts out a date a decade away from any of the other guesses. The town went nuts because the gringa lady won. She won a carriage ride, an order of fries, and the admiration of a couple dozen Mexican tourists (we were the only gringos).
She´s not even a Western fan. She got the answer off a sign at the enterance.

Mexico beat Holland 4-0 and is going to the finals (of soccer, Fourniers). So there.

Su Pepino Vaquero,

P.S.