Day 57 - The infection on my elbow is now so bad that people on the street are asking me what's wrong with my arm. Thus I started a 10-day course of Cipro antibiotics today (bought OTC at the pharmacy). I am really worried, especially since hearing a story when I was in Lanquin of a girl who got a cut while vacationing in Africa, and had to have a doctor flay her arm open every day and debride the wound, or she would have lost her arm. :(

Paul and I went for a really nice hike today near Todos Santos, up to some small ceremonial caves. On our way back to town the skies darkened greatly and I kept thinking it would pour, but the rain held off.

We also snuck some extremely covert photos of the local Mayan descendants. It's really quite wierd seeing all the men with their pinstriped outfits. I mean that's all they wear! I kept trying to convince Paul to buy an outfit so he will fit in better (they sell the clothes to tourists too), but no luck :)

Tonight our innkeeper (a Swiss guy who has lived here for 15 years, married locally, and has two kids), told us the real story of the Japanese murder. It wasn't about taking a photo; it was actually even more crazy.

There had been rumors going around about a gang of "Satan worshippers" who were abducting children. Then, entirely coincidentally, a tour bus (painted black and grey no less!), full of Japanese tourists rolled into town. Out stepped a bunch of Japanese, some of whom were dressed all in black. They strolled around town for a bit sightseeing, and by chance a local girl tripped and fell next to one of them. One of the old Japanese men tried to help her up, and her mother, who apparently had been known for some mental instability, began screaming that the man was going to take her child and sacrifice her.

Of course the man let go, but some local guys stepped in and began roughing the old man. Then a young Japenese guy (30's I think), dressed all in black, tried to push them away from the older man. All the while the mother was screaming nonsense, but getting everyone riled up.

To make a long story short, the young Japanese guy got beaten to death, because they thought he was a "Satan worshipper" and wanted to sacrifice the girl. Then the townspeople wanted to search the bus for dead children, and the bus driver (a local Guatemalan) thought they were wanting to rob him, so he ran away. Unfortunately for him, they saw this as a sign of guilt and caught him and beat HIM to death.

A sad story, and the guidebooks don't tell it accurately. But it sure has cut down on tourists bothering the locals with taking photos!