I stopped at Miguel's for a Happy Hour drink after running a couple errands downtown. From 7 to 8, he sat with me and talked, since there were no other customers.Before I stopped, I had visited the SuperExpress, which had two check outs open and a total of 6 people between the 5 items or less and the other lane.
I passed by a Asia Caribe whose owners came out with a sample of sticky ribs and asked if this is normal for May - a lack of people. It's being reported as 23-25 percent occupancy. Others reckon it's more like 20 percent.
There are a number of closed stores, a number of closed eateries and reports that many more will close for June.
So Miguel is not doing so well either. Oh, last weekend was OK. Then, it seems people just left. No one followed. The New Orleans-Pensacola Regatta is very small this year.
His rent is $15,000 pesos a month. My 100 peso tab will pay the cook. Some folks dropped by looking for conch. No hay! Maybe somewhere else.
Another person dropped by, looked in and left, not seeing any action.
"It is going to be hard. Some say, wait until July, when Mexican vacations start," he began. "But after two terrible years of swine flu misconceptions affecting their livelihoods, Mexicans have no money for Isla Mujeres."
And he is fully aware there is more. "Greece, the falling Euro, is going to keep Europeans away in August," he said. I added the bad PR from the drug lords war and law enforcement's lack of success in fighting them, too.
So, how will you manage?
"I don't know," he said. Then he drifted off into listing the high protein edible plants that grow in the Yucatan, plants few people know about. I told him about my Malabar spinach removal and that I have a pile of seeds. "Sure, I'll take some. I have soil in my back yard."
