Nothing is what we think.

Ciudad Constitucion is a dusty town north of La Paz on the peninsula of Baja California in Mexico.

It is a town without much prosperity and it seems to live in another time and on another planet.

This comes to mind when making a long morning walk through the town and talking to some of the inhabitants.

It was a morning walk made because an effort to change money in the local Banamex Bank failed.
There was a line of 149 people waiting.
The plan is to arrive in Los Angeles next week so changing money in this bank could have seriously upset that schedule.

Therefore instead a relaxed morning walk in Ciudad Constitucion was made with an open mind and a ready camera.

First a gasoline station was spotted of which all the pumps were covered.


This covering of pumps of a gasoline station makes in other countries not much sense and as an innocent visitor, but there as well on behalf of many loyal and fervent blog readers, one definitely would like to know what is the story behind this weird situation.
Closer to the pumps labels were observed saying “Inmovilizado”.
Put there by the “Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor”.


A very simpatico Mexican explained the story behind the immobilized gasoline pumps.
This gasoline station, like all in Mexico, was a franchise.
A local family paid the Mexican State oil company PEMEX to run it.
But they were cheating.
Fiddling with the counters making their fellow citizens overpay their gasoline.
This became all so bad that eventually a Government organization stepped in and closed down the gasoline station.
This amazing story was possible because in Mexico there is only one company selling gasoline: Pemex.
They have a monopoly and no other oil company is allowed to run any gas station.
This results in fraud and cheating and swindle.
The case in Ciudad Constitucion is not unique at all.
Many of the frequent travellers in Baja California have stories to tell how they were cheated at Pemex gas stations.

When we look again at this Pemex gas station, our eyes attracted something else.



A banner had been put between the silenced pumps and it informs us about something extremely important.
“Jesus es la unica opcion”.
Roughly this translates into English as that Jesus is the only option.



In between those because of swindle immobilized pumps to find such a message makes one think.
We may question the marketing skills of the 7th Day Adventists responsible for this publicity stunt.
Is a gasoline station closed because of swindle a good platform for this kind of PR ?

But besides that, we also may question the slogan used.
Jesus is the only option.
It is of course OK if for a certain individual Jesus is the only option.
That’s fine and we are happy for him or her.
But to put that on a banner in a public place suggesting this is true for all of us is religious imperialism.
Well known from Sudan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran.

In any case, this banner makes no sense anymore because as we can see, inspecting the banner more closely, Jesus was the only option from the 21st to the 28th of April only.


Maybe the banner is left in place because Jesus looks really handsome on it.



Hardly recovered from the shocks of the corruption at Pemex gas station and the truth about religion, a new blow was received seeing this shop window.



In this shop window were seen what looked like space suits.
But a more close inspection and a chat with the sympatica sales girl unveiled that these were items to also swindle and make believe.
Kindly permission was requested and obtained to photograph these weird body wraps and it gives the fervent and loyal blog readers a rare and unique view behind the scenes of the Mexican woman.
This is how the ladies do it, gentlemen.











Returning to the faithful Fuso Santek from this morning walk in Ciudad Constitucion, rather dazed and confused though, one was reminded to always take good care when driving and making a turn.











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