Cooking Fire

Early in the morning, Volkswagen vans start clacking up the hill that stands above the city of Taxco. The engines strain as the incline grows steeper. Near the summit, the paved road gives way to a dirt path, and passengers are lightly tossed up from their hard seats by ruts, gutted out by previous night’s rainstorm. Wagonload after wagonload are deposited at the forest hilltop to search under stones and wet logs for beetle-like insects called jumiles.