My friend and I are vacationing where we are possibly the only non-Latin American faces on the crowded malecón, the tourist walkway beside the beach, when I discover that I’ve lost my wallet.
Near-panic ensues — I practically carry my life in that wallet.
Cell phone rings.
¿Es esto Maria Jordan?
Si.
Fast deluge of Spanish I don’t understand.
Working together, we figure it out and meet.
I have named my anonymous caller, Mujer de la Verdad — Woman of Truth. She found my number and, using her own phone minutes, called to return the wallet and its contents.
My friends tell me I’m crazy to live in Mexico. Drug wars. Beheadings. Murders.
I continue to find Beauty. Joy. Peace. And honest, caring People.
I am grateful.
“Genuinely good people are like that. The sun shines out of them. They warm you right through.”
― Michael Morpurgo, Alone On A Wide Wide Sea
¡La Vida Es Rica! ~ Life is Delicious! 
Did you give her a reward? The same thing happened to Cory. Someone pick pocketed his wallet in a crowded bar. The next day, someone came to our house to return the contents of the wallet in a wet plastic bag. The money was gone (not much), but Cory gave him a reward. Putting all the puzzle pieces together, Cory discovered that this guy had been at the bar, had helped him search for his wallet, and later found the contents scattered along the beach. There are many good people in the world.
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I gave her all the money in the wallet (about $100 USD, in pesos) which she did not want to accept. But having my credit cards and driver’s license back certainly allowed me enjoy my fin de semana (weekend) more comfortably — I’m hoping that the cash allowed her and her friends to do the same. Losing the wallet was a wake-up call for me – so I’ve now taken your advice (via your blog. yay!) and keep my credit cards and “important stuff” separate from the wallet.
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Mary, I agree with you. Our local news posted 8 cities about the same size as Cancun in the US who have higher crime rates than Cancun. And PM of course is just a village!
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Thanks, Lois. And. This was not Puerto Morelos which has a lot of ex-pats and North American tourists — this was Kino Beach on the Sonora side of Mexico, where the vast majority of tourists were Mexican. Yes. Good people everywhere.
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What a truly beautiful story,Mary. Proves that.there is more good than evil, particularly when you look for it.
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