Field trip: so much more than a hardware store

Published August 2, 2023

It was a simple project, I thought: renovating a cat-scratching post made by a handy friend some years ago. My two cats had made much use of it, and the hemp rope needed to be replaced. An easy Saturday project, I thought.

Ever the optimist, I headed off to what I think of as my neighborhood hardware store. I’ve since learned that this kind of shop is actually called a tlapalería; more about that later.

Sure enough, in the back of the store were spools of different thicknesses of hemp rope. A salesman had spotted me as soon as I walked in and followed me to what is probably an unlikely area of the store for a gringa to be by herself. I confidently pointed to the rope I wanted and told him — also confidently — diez metros, or 10 meters.

Well.

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