Panchito

Hehehe. Yeah snail cream seems to be big here. They even sell it in the street. My boyfriend's mom actually has a pet snail and she has it crawl across scars, scabs and sunburns to heal them faster. Snail saliva (or whatever that is) is supposed to regenerate your skin. One day Vuko and I arrived from the beach and the tops of my feet were all burned so Tere and Pepe (Vuko's folks) convinced me to let Pancho the snail crawl across my feet and slobber on them. Unfortuately I think I poisoned him with the lotion I'd applied on my feet because after about 10 minutes, he, uncharacteristically, rolled up into his shell and stopped still, but not before leaving me a big white loogey with curative properties. It was pretty cool.

Vuko's friend Guillermo told me that his girlfriend's mom (la suegra) actually lets the snail crawl across her face to try to get rid of her wrinkles. I heard about this before my encounter with Pancho so it was kind of freaky and slightly nasty to hear. With a grimace, I asked him if it worked, and he started laughing and said it didn't work at all.