I've lived in the Phoenix area now for five years, but we rarely see mariachis here.

But, in San Antonio, you can't go to the ATM without hearing "La Cucaracha".

                ]


One thing that you notice pretty quickly is that mariachis are always well fed. You'll never see an anorexic mariachi.

It might have something to do with their tendency to hang out around Mexican restaurants, though. Some of these places use so much lard that, just by walking around in them, you're exposed to second-hand fat. OSHA oughta do something.

One of the things that I noticed about mariachis is that they come in threes. There will be a guitarist for chords, a bass guitar for rhythm, and then one of three choices - violin, trumpet or mandolin - to handle the melodic element.

(N.B. - the entry subject line comes from the fourth scene in Joe Vs. The Volcano, in case you were wondering)

This will be my last entry written in Arizona for a while - we're leaving on Sunday morning for the condo. You don't see many mariachis at 9000 feet in the Colorado Rockies. Black bears, marmots, elk, snow in August - yes, you'll see that, but mariachis, not so much.

I'd love to get a gig as a mariachi; I would consider that as a retirement option, except for the fact that (as noted above)  you don't see a lot of mariachis at the ski hill. But wait a minute - there are a lot of Mexican restaurants in Durango. Maybe I've found a market that's waiting to be exploited? I could find two friends (no, really - if I start now, I might find two friends by the time I retire) and we could be Los Tres Gringos Musicanos : )