Locations > Oaxaca > Cantina
… what beauty can compare to that of a cantina in the early morning ... All mystery, all hope, all disappointment, yes, all disaster, is here – UTV, 50.

… a beautiful Oaxaqueñan gourd of mescal de olla – UTV, 337.

The walls of this cantina (in Mitla) depict the bright gourds typical of Oaxaca and the agave cactus from the piña of which mescal is distilled.
Could one be faithful to Yvonne and the Farolito both? - Christ, oh pharos of the world, how, and with what blind faith, could one find one's way back, now, through the tumultuous horrors of five thousand shattering awakenings, each more frightful than the last, from a place where even love could not penetrate – UTV, 205.

A modern photo of The Farolito, a cantina in Oaxaca within stumbling distance of the Hotel Francia, which became for Lowry and the Consul a symbol of the lighthouse that invites the storm, the sanctuary and paradise of his despair. This Oaxaqueñan Farolito is Lowry's primary one, but there were two others by that name in Cuernavaca, and the labyrinthine structures of another cantina in Cuernavaca, at the junction of Calles Salazar and Humboldt (close to Lowry's bungalow) contributed to the chinese-box effect.