sector 9 in mexico

i have to write about this now while its still fresh in my mind- so this whole trip we have julie and i have been spotting out dreddies here and there and its been kind of funny to see em around just b/c its such a taboo thing here, so we just went to eat- we went pretty late and the entire square closed down pretty much- on the return trip to the hotel we spot a dreddie with gauged out ears- i would say about an inch or a little more- he and his lady had 2 large blankets laid out with all stuff they made. so we stop to take a look and he happen to speak english- his name was maya(forgot his last name)- i assume he was mayan being his name. he had jade, black jade, chunks of amber with bugs in it and she was making stuff out of hemp and colored string. he finds all of his stuff and carves it down into pipes and necklaces and what not. the stuff was better then what we have been seeing in the stores for 3-4 times as much not to mention the commercial stuff has seemed to have lost some sacredness along the way. so we got to taking and there was just a whole good vibe about him. his main concern was not selling us anything but to meet us and just to talk about our trip, why we were here. he said that many mexicans are not welcoming to foreign people in general but they are just stupid, and he wanted to welcome us to the country. i think the most interesting thing he showed me were the works in progress he had. he had a huge chunk of amber that was around 2x3 that he was making into a necklace- it has 2-3 ants in it. ever since jurassic park i have been in love with seeing amber and how bugs and what not get trapped in it- then they are there for millions of years. we went to a few places that had the carvings but most were machine done and the hand done ones were in the $2-300 range just for a small carving. pretty much a tourist rip off- buying something from the guy that found the rock, carved it down to something of beauty and then pretty much travels around mexico and the US selling this stuff just felt like a much better buy then the people that sell out their culture to turn a buck. he asked how we have been accepted during our trip here and we told em about how we have been freaks of nature- he said that they are viewed the same way by the mexicans and are run out of places b/c he is not "normal" - pretty much to sum it up he does it for "the love of the game" and to see north and south america while doing it. sounds like many people i know except he has no music to follow- he just tramps here to there with his lady and dog(go figure, a puppy puller in mexico) just to be out there. i think the most interesting thing was he wanted to keep in touch with us- he was glad to have gained one friend- so thats all i got about this experience but i must say i came away with so much from it- i am sure he woulda made for some good skull talk too but i forgot all about it @ the time