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In a recent trip to Tenancingo we almost ended up staying the night with flower producers who had come to the regional flower market to sell their bright, aromatic products. We were driving through town for other reasons and decided that since we were there we should stop and see the flower market which is the hub of a huge flower production region.

“A flower market. How nice!” we thought. So we asked directions on how to get there and drove until we knew we were close. We saw a bunch of trucks loaded with carefully stacked flowers stopped in the road and we decided to just park right on that road and walk the rest of the way to the market.

So we moseyed down the street marveling at the way the flowers were so carefully stacked. Some people were offloading flowers onto huge hand carts and we figured that the producers obviously sold flowers from the street rather than going all of the way to the market. There were producers relaxing alongside their trucks and chatting, but not this nor
the long line of stationary trucks blocking the road worried us. We enjoyed the market and bought ice creams from an ambulatory ice cream sales guy. On the way back my husband noticed that the trucks were still there in exactly the same place and started to think that it might be a bit hard to get out. I was still completely oblivious and happily snapping photos like a crazed (and rude) tourist.

Well, much to our surprise when we got back to the truck we saw that not only were the trucks parked in exactly the same place, the line had grown behind our truck for as far as we could see. We were no longer parked at the end of the line, we were parked near the beginning of the line.

“I think these guys stay here all night….” my husband said, but just as I was starting to wonder how I could get back to Cuernavaca to give my EFL class by 7:00 p.m. he popped into action.

Starting with the producer whose truck was nearest ours, he politely explained our situation. That producer indicated that he agreed to help us get out by saying that my husband would have to convince the drivers of the 3 trucks between us and the nearest cross street behind us to move too. So without hesitating he moved on and sweet-talked them all into moving for him. Thank goodness there was an open cement patio-like area along one side of the road, so what the men did was jockey their vehicles around so that my husband could angle his truck into the open area, then squeeze in reverse between the last truck and the wall of a building by driving on the sidewalk. There was about 2 inches of clearance on either side of the truck, but he’s become used to driving in tight spots after 6 years of living in Mexico.

Well, suddenly there we were, out on an open side street! I told him, “Only you could have gotten us out of there.” My husband’s country boy tact and super driving skills surely did get us out of a jam and a half that day.

I am including some of the photos that I took that day. Please remember that they are mine and don’t copy and paste them for your own use without my written permission. Copyright Julia Taylor 2008. I ignored a lot of serious looks on the part of the producers to get these photos. The right thing to do may have been to ask each and every one permission to take photos, but I was too shy to play the cute little woman. What I did instead was to try to only take pictures of people from far away and to focus on the flowers and trucks. Besides, the stares could have been because they were trying to figure out what the relationship was between myself and my obviously Mexican husband who was cruising along about 50 meters ahead of me. With a change of clothes he could have fit right in with them and it would have taken a lot more than a change of clothes to get me to meld in with their wives!