Tropic of Cancer

Pat and I walk through the busy sidewalk markets. The slightest show of interest leads to an invitation to stop and look.

Among other things, we see large glass jars with snakes in a clear liquid. I start to take a picture of one of them and the shop keeper stops me so she can wipe off a few finger prints and straighten the top. The next shop keeper meets us on the street and through gestures assures us that his snakes are larger and worthy of a photo. They are larger and I take a picture.

For a while, Pat walks about 20 feet in front of me. She is wearing neon green shorts and black bicycle tights. I have total freedom to take candid photos-every Chinese eye is on Pat.

As we get near the river, we say hello to a lady carrying some vegetables. Later we see her below us on one of the houseboats. She sees us, waves and offers us tea. It is a steep hike down to the boat and getting near dinner time so we decline.

Snake Wine

Three of us try snake wine with dinner. It is a beautiful light emerald green in color and it still tastes like medicinal alcohol. It is supposed to be great for arthritis; I am sure it kills the pain of anything that ails you.

The Chinese drink very little alcohol. The few bars we see in larger cities are essentially for tourists. Liter sized bottles of beer are usually served with lunch and dinner in restaurants. The alternatives are tea or local orange soda. The orange soda ranges from not-bad to terrible. A few restaurants have Coke; but, sometimes they charge extra.

Out on the streets after dinner, we see them making snake wine. A young man takes a live snake out of a burlap bag, puts his foot on the snake's head, holds up its tail, and uses a pair of florists scissors to unzip the snake's tummy with a singe cut. A second pass with his thumb nail and the snake is empty, a quick wipe with a cloth, a gentle splash into a large glass jar of rice wine, and a new batch of snake wine is started.

During our evening walk we meet an English teacher from the middle school we are scheduled to visit tomorrow morning. We walk and talk and sightsee a bit. Mickey says he will meet us at the hotel in the morning.

Day nine is a short 14 miles to Wuzhou so we have time to visit front of the room and introduces himself as "Emperor Steve." The kids love it and the energy level in the room starts to rise. Conversations start between some of us and groups of students. Students from near-by classes start to join us. Someone signs an autograph and suddenly all 19 of us are rock stars with a couple of hundred teenagers demanding our autographs. What an exhilarating feeling!

Eventually they go back to class and we walk back to our bus in the rain. It seems strangely quiet.

We return to the hotel for our bikes and then ride along the river in an on-again, off-again light rain-too light to even bother with rain gear. We ride into Wuzhou past a new hotel that is almost complete. It should be ready for those who come next year.