Smart Stupidity

It is good to occasionally do something so stupid that it dissuades you from doing many smaller stupid things in the future which, in summation, would be stupider than the thing you've done such that you have, on the balance, made a smart decision. Unless of course it works, in which case it was a very stupid idea indeed.

I'd been wanting to put Hobbes on an irresponsibly small boat for a while, just to see what would happen, and the mangrove island of Chacahua was just the excuse I needed. There is hardly one dirt road on the tiny island, so this was a purely academic exercise. I found a boatman willing to take a motorcycle for 300 pesos, but he didn't realize it would be 500lbs of German gestalt. A bit reluctantly, he gathered a few of his homies, and with some difficulty the five of us got Hobbes onboard. Disembarking, I gave him 500 pesos for the extra effort, and to ensure that he would be willing to give me a ride back in a few days. After he sped off, the bike wouldn't start - it would later dawn on me that the popping sound I heard was the clutch microcontroller being yanked out by one of the pallbearers, as it were. Thus the bike would only start in neutral, but start it did. However, on the sandy hill to the campsite my chain derailed. But I had nowhere to be, and neither did any potential thieves, so I left Hobbes where he was, standing upright with his rear tire buried in the sand.

A Brazilian traveler shared a saying: "Do some drugs, have some salad." And so after those antics, I stayed put on Chacahua, where time passes like warm sand between your toes. I used the days to relax, read, and do my taxes.

Chacahua is an Afro-Mexican community populated by the descendants of a wrecked slave ship. You can see its history in the visages of its residents, some of which display distinctly African features, while others belie generations of local intermarriage. Many buildings sit on stilts above the tidal waters, giving it a very Caribbean feel. Surfers bob up and down on the undulating horizon, perhaps unaware that they (and I) are the vanguard of a much larger horde of foreigners who will upend this town within the next few years.