From Hummingbirds to Homos

This morning I step out the truck into the dawn to greet the morning sun and a hummingbird instantly hovers inches from my face as she eyes my hot pink boa. She must think she's in for the tastiest nectar in downtown Hermosillo ever instead of just greeting the sun together.

I spend the morning discovering a parque grande in what I believe is southern Hermosillo – it is hard to tell but the important thing is that I found the park. The park ranger or guard approaches my truck as I make coffee for myself and cut up my last pear and an apple for breakfast.

We speak in Spanish, I’m happy to say. I don’t know if he is so happy but I am! I don’t know how much we understand each other but he understands I'm heading to Chiapas and I understand enough to know he offered to be my chauffeur.

The park is huge with many, many baños and lots of water fountains. I believe the signs (and several fenced off equipment storage looking buildings) say this is the water supply for Hermosillo tucked in and around many kids playgrounds, tons of picnic tables, lots of shade trees and sand, long trails with exercise bars at given spots, and there is even a water park – which is closed for the winter.

Strolling through the park, I arrive at the opposite end finally and notice lots of bicyclers with numbers on their backs – a race! I return toward my truck to retrieve my Spanish lessons, watching & listening to the birds and thinking now I might be able to even learn the names of a few more besides morning doves, pigeons, crows, magpies, ducks and geese when I look up through the leafy green shade trees that I can’t identify to the brilliant clear blue sky and there soaring as gracefully and slowly as only she can, is a lone hawk.

I find a lovely shaded spot with a huge picnic table and study my Spanish diligently, having almost the entire park to myself, for several hours. Then I'm ready to try to find the swap meet and the organic restaurant where I'm going to ask for oil.

I drive to another part of Hermosillo, one new to me, and find Ace Hardware and Radio Shack – not to mention Century 21 of course – but not a Hector Espino Tianguis in sight! So I find the organic restaurant Pedro told me about and first attempt in Spanish to ask for used veggie oil.

The mujer at the counter calls for someone who speaks English, at least her English was a little better than my Spanish. After much going around, she came and told me to come at 8:15 Monday morning and pick up the oil. YEAH!!!!!

My next major success today is finding the one gay and lesbian bar in Hermosillo. The only thing I know is the name of the street it is on and that it has a large rainbow painted across the purple building.

Luckily, the street is not that long, about a mile or so. I begin walking where the street ends at a major boulevard. There is a lite purple building sitting there that seems to have two large darker purple triangles in the structure of the wall. hmmmmm. I can't find an entrance, the windows are dark, covered with bars, and nothing is written in Spanish or English. hmmmmmm.

I keep walking up the street to see if there are any better possibilities. A young man who is bi-lingual asks me if he can help me. I ask him if he knows of a building with a rainbow painted on it on that street. He hurries away wishing me a good day.

After walking the length of the street without finding a rainbow but seeing a huge park and many homes and stores, I return to the end of the street, thinking maybe it doesn't really end at the major boulevard. Maybe it continues on the other side.

I re-examine the first building I noticed, with the dark purple triangles and say to myself this could be it, this MUST be it. But where is the entrance? I walk around the small store that sits in front of the building, and come to what passes for a parking lot on the other side. The chain is down so I go in and see several "private" signs and a few doors on this side.

I yell "Hola" to no avail. Then I try a door and it is open. I enter the dark corridor to see a womon working with a mop and pail. I great her in Spanish and ask if this is "Secrets".

She yells for Jorge as I try to speak in Spanish. Jorge turns out to be the owner and welcomes me warmly when I identify myself as a lesbian of course. He shows me the months schedule - I've already missed the one Lesbian-only night sadly - and speaks with me in also a little better English than my Spanish. It is great speaking Spanish and English with him.

He calls his one lesbian friend Maria, who is meeting me tonite, with her gf, at the bar, which opens at 9pm. YEAH!

I pick up my truck parked several blocks away and go back to the very large city park I found closer to "Secrets". This park stretches over one large block wide and several blocks long (not as big as this morning’s park).

They are having an outdoor book fair in the park! It is quite interesting. All the books are in Spanish of course, with lots of children’s books. Then the park had an amusement park with real rides, that appear to be totally free, for the kids.

I’m not sure but it seems the universities are sponsoring the 2 week show. What a wonderful idea to have lots of kids’ rides there at the book fair.

I am now cooking dinner, parked on a side street about two blocks from the purple triangles. Jorge told me he’s only been open 2 months, dos meses.