realreally

The breezeway of the train is noisy, windy and hot. I’m sitting on a cooler that’s no longer full of beer, my brother, our friend Kirk and 4 Mexicans are all sitting with me between cars on the Spring break train from Nogales to Mazatlan. We had seats at one point in our journey, but we switched trains at one junction and our seats were gone when we rebounded. In fact, our entire car was gone. So, for the balance of our trip we are sitting in the breezeway in the sweltering heat. We try and communicate with our companions but it’s pretty simplistic since they don’t speak much English and we don’t speak much Spanish. You can imagine. But we do find a way to connect. At the next stop along our 18 hour train trip our Mexican friends hop off just before the station. We thought they were leaving. Kirk and I hop off to buy beers and barely make it back to the train as it pulls away, each of us lugging a case of Dos Equis cans. As we climb onto the train, from the other side of the cars, our friends reappear. Apparently they were avoiding the Federales. They share smokes and we share beers and for a couple of hours the trip isn’t so bad. Amigos.