•1 month ago•
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The alleyway smelled of jasmine and grilled corn, an impossible combination that somehow made perfect sense in Oaxaca. I'd been following the sound of marimba music for three blocks, weaving through streets too narrow for cars, when I stumbled upon a courtyard I'd never find again.
An elderly woman sat on a plastic chair, shelling black beans into a metal bowl. The late afternoon sun slanted through bougainvillea, painting everything in shades of amber and magenta. She looked up, unsurprised, as if wandering strangers appeared in her courtyard every day at exactly this hour.
"¿Tienes hambre?" she asked.