As the Carnaval came to an end in Tierra Blanca, so did my wonderful rest. On a hot Tuesday morning, the ponies and I trekked south to the small town of Tres Valles. Joined by the local escaramuzas and charros, we rode out of town as people waved us on.
Due to the extreme heat I decided to leave the pack behind in order to give the ponies a break. This meant traveling light – a toothbrush and a change of clothes is all I carried in a small backpack. The next few days were tough as the heat continued to rise.
With sugar cane to our left and right we rode past many small towns. For lunch I let the horses graze while I savored a fresh piece of sugar cane! A natural energy drink out here.
Late in the afternoon we finally rode into Tres Valles. In a matter of minutes, we had already found feed for the horses and they were rolling in a big pen. After getting them all set up I met Yassil, a young farrier who hosted me at his home.
“Man I’m so excited you are visiting us here in Tres Valles, lets go get some meat so we can BBQ,” he said as we jumped into his truck.
For the next 4 hours we sat around the BBQ, eating an abundance of meat and sharing stories! It turns out that Yassil’s girlfriend and her brother lived in the United States for a long time and just returned to Mexico. Like my friend Jose Maria who I wrote about a few blogs back, they too have taken the transition really hard.
“When we first arrived back here it was really complicated, I didn’t have any friends and people thought I was stuck up because I had lived in America for so long,” Diego Hernandez told me.
Now a butcher, Diego also told me how his father has returned to the US and is working hard to support his family here in Mexico.
After the BBQ I went to Yassil’s house where his family welcomed me with open arms. Sitting in their living room we discussed the migration of Central Americans to the United States, the current state of Mexico’s economy and the price of sugar cane. Yassil’s father and brother arrived late covered in black silt from their work on the sugar cane fields. Being from Brazil, I know a lot about the harvesting of sugar cane and can tell you it is one of the hardest jobs in the world.
“We started at 6am this morning and were out in the field until 6pm” Yassil’s brother told me as he ate his supper.
Sugar cane grows in tropical climates so when time comes to pick it, workers suffer hours in the scorching heat. Before the time comes to pick it, the fields are burned to make it easier to walk through the plantation and scare away snakes, which are many! This leaves the workers sweating profusely all day as black silt sticks to them.
“The dangers are many working out there (sugar cane plantation). People get bit by snakes, cut limbs with machetes from exhaustion…” he told me.
And all of these dangers are faced in order to make around $50 a month. Luckily, Yassil’s family cuts their own sugar cane so their profits are different.
I had a wonderful stay in Tres Valles and cant thank my new friends enough for their generosity and love.
