Under the Volcano

At the Salón Ofélia, the Consul drinks heavily while Hugh and Yvonne get ready to swim in the pool. The Consul is drinking mescal and believes that it is helping him to sober up. He receives a tour from the owner, Cervantes, and the sight of the Virgin Mary reminds him of the previous night, when he and Dr. Vigil found themselves at a church and he prayed for Yvonne to come back to him. He returns to Yvonne and Hugh and hears them discussing a climb up Popocatepetl, and the three of them sit down to order food. After looking across the table into Yvonne’s eyes, the Consul finds that he has miscalculated the number of drinks he’s had that day and blacks out, during which time he hears bits and pieces of the conversation between Hugh and Yvonne.

While Hugh and Yvonne discuss the man on the side of the road and how they believe that they encountered him earlier that morning, the Consul reads an informational text about Tlaxcala. Yvonne and Hugh theorize about what happened to the man after they saw him. Meanwhile, the informational snippets the Consul reads primarily focus on religious sites and the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish.