 The youngest children of the village lined up impatiently to take turns swinging at the pinata while the older boys swung it around with the rope. (I took one photo with a flash, and one without.) Lee said these kids have no TV, no Internet, and have never seen computer games. At the conclusion, a frenzied scramble for candy that would put blase teenage American trick-or-treaters to shame. Rudolfo said he snagged a candy which he recognized as having mild narcotic properties - he called it a Miguelito. After the first pinata burst the kids put out a second for the adults. Rudolfo carefully instructed us to swing hard but not puncture the pinata, leaving it intact for our host. This instruction was superfluous since, blindfolded, the five of us made hardly a single good contact with the bobbing pinata. As we took our swings the littlest kids shouted "Bajo!" and "Arriba!" to confuse us about the location of the unseen pinata, which the big kids were raising and lowering with the rope. I didn't make a single hit, but I got my chance anyway when shortly after a corner of the pinata came off the whole thing became entangled in the rope about 8 feet off the ground. None of the Maya come above about 5 feet, so I got to jump up and pull the thing down to kid level. No sooner had I hit the ground than a mass of little ones were at my feet and all around scrambling for treats.
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