Below we mentioned the old pueblo Cuetzalan. What an interesting and old village. At the center, the zócalo, is a huge Catholic church. Huge and very old. They must have had quite a building fund a couple of hundred years ago. The elders and Mom went inside. I parked illegally and guarded the van. I guess it was illegal. A guy trying to show us where to park, for a fee, said it was. So did a cranky lady inside a little grocery store. But across the street was a very interesting store loaded with tools and TV's and binoculars and knives and appliances and everything else almost that you could think of including toilets and several kitchen sinks. The proprietor had to be Jewish. I asked if I could park out there. "Of course," he said. "Come in.... but only for 30 minutes!" In other words, "I want some of your money and then you should leave."

He knew that I was very interested in a machete hanging out front. I have looked for a machete with something other than a plastic handle. This one was steel and the handle was wrapped in leather. It was in a nice sheath, leather and was marked at 250. I asked if that meant pesos and he said that it did, but that today's price was 200 pesos. That is $15.3724, American. The best price I have seen for a decent working machete with an orange plastic handle was 550 pesos, no sheath. I pulled it out of the sheath and it was engraved! It was really more a sword than a machete. I thought for a minute that I had found the sword of Laban. Guess not. The guy had about 25 of them hanging there. The one I bought had some Spanish saying engraved on it which loosely translates, "Don't get your undies in a bunch." I will need to work on a more accurate translation. Elders Collins and Ricks returned with Mom from investigating Catholicism. The elders immediately went crazy and had to have one, too. Theirs say, "It is better to lay your burden on a burro than to carry it yourself." Wise counsel.