The trip started out pretty damn good so far. Left my home Texas on Wednesday, June 20th. My first destination was the family ranch in the state of Jalisco in central México with a stop in Zacatecas; one of my favorite mexican cities. It's a small city; most of the city that`s of interest to the traveler/tourist can be covered on foot for those that aren´t too fat/lazy. I was going to only stay 1 night there in Zacatecas but I met some good people there and stayed an extra day to spend some time with them and do a few things that I´ve always passed up when passing through here (El Teleferico, one of the silver mines and the Mask museum of Rafael Coronel). I have to say, I can´t believe I passed up these 3 attractions for this long given how many times I´ve passed through here. They were well worth it. I`m sure I`ll be back on the Teleferico again.
The one thing that I skipped was a zip-lone up on La Bufa that is above Zacatecas close to the teleferico. It runs above a huge depression in the ground that isn´t for the faint-hearted. Don´t know why I didn´t do it. Maybe subconciously I knew I needed to save it for the next time I would pass through on my way down to visit my family (you never know who you`ll run into and have some fun with).
I arrived on the ranch Saturday the 23rd. Hadn´t seen my aunts and my grandma in 3 years. I missed them. I finally figured out my grandma`s birthday and age. My cousing was showing me some of her medical records and it turns out she celebrated her 90th birthday the 10th of this year (my sis`s birthday). I knew she was old but I never knew her exact birthday.
That following Sunday, some of kids from a neighboring ranch were passing through a part of my family´s land when they found one of my aunt´s cows laid out in a small creek. She was still alive and partially-submerged in water. It was getting dark when the kids came running to the house to let us know about their "find." I was in the middle of a big plate of beans, cheese and tortillas when I had no choice but to get up and help that heifer out of the creek. I hadn´t finished my food, but it was probably for my own good since cheese doesn´t sit well with me and I had already had enough.
It`s a 15-minute walk from the house to the creek where the heifer was stuck. Luckily, some neigbors from a nearby ranch were visiting so we had help in picking her up. It wasn´t anything like I though it would be. We had plenty of rope and plenty of hands, but she just couldn´t get to the point where she could stand on her own. It was nearly midnight when we gave up and decided to come back in the morning.
That next morning when we came back to pick her up, she was already dead. I thought we were going to have a feast, but we didn´t cut her up for meat. They didn´t know what actually killed her. Whether it was from the fall or if it was because she was sick that made her lay over. It´s a damn shame, because they don´t eat much meat on the ranch (it`s a luxury and very expensive for them). I had helped to slaughter a cow the last time I was there, so I knew my stomach could handle it. I was ready for it. Maybe next time.
They pulled the dead cow out of the creek with a tractor and for reasons unknown to me at the time, drug the cow to the front of the ranch right next to the main road next to a neigboring rancher´s land and left her there.
