Word of the Day - carteles de la droga

When he walked into the restaurant I jokingly asked our waiter Daniel if the guy was mafioso...es que la mafia? The man did not look like he was from around here or even Hermosillo for that matter. He had on a brightly-colored shirt and his thick black hair was styled back away from his face. Because he was short, I joked that maybe he was Chapo Guzman, the notorious head of a drug cartel.

A little while later the man did a most unusual thing (for here anyway). Daniel returned to our table and said the gentleman would like to buy us drinks. After a brief debate - we'd already had two drinks, did we want another? - we said okay. When our drinks arrived we raised our glasses to the man in a salud/thank you gesture.

Those drinks were barely finished when another round arrived.

Then the man arrived at our table too.

The man spoke no english but no problema because PJ's spanish is really good and all night she'd done a great job translating and keeping me in the conversational loop. One of the things we learned from the man is that he's a lawyer in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Monterrey. The city where the attack on the Casino Royale took place.

Um, I don't mean to be overly suspicious but a lawyer with slick clothes and slick hair? Lawyers in Mexico don't make a lot of money. Then again, it depends on who they work for.

So when he invited us to have lunch with him today I had an easy out - too much work. Not sure what PJ decided. But I tell you what, on Sunday I'd watched two different shows on two different channels about the drug cartels in Mexico, so there's no way I'm going to have lunch with a man who looks like he works for a drug lord. Although I'm sure it'd be really interesting. Maybe I can talk PJ into going.