GIFTS

Today was a day of gifts.

The gift of waking up to a glorious day without a cloud in the sky.

The gift of a perfect cup of coffee. Those who know me well know what a coffee snob I am. One of the things I was dreading here is that I did not like their coffee. When you only have 2 cups a day they need to be spectacular! Than, on that trip to Costo on the day I landed, what were they sampling?? FABULOUS COFFEE!! HAPPINESS!! So, yes, Susana, I have found my coffee!

The gift of two, extra strength Tylenol.

The gift of a great internet connection at Esquina. Yesterday there was none.

The gift of finding a 1987 white Jeep for sale. No doors. No top. $1800. Will check that out tomorrow when the gate restraining this potential prize is unlocked. This is my dream vehicle for here. Would prefer a 2007, but this one may do just fine.

The gift of three little plants left for us in our, soon to be driveway. An algave and two little cactus. Just sitting there in their cozy little home made containers.

The gift of going into our, soon to be neighbor’s kitchen, to receive what she made for us. Her name is Pillar and she is Coco’s wife. She had a bag of deep fried tortilla looking things that she said she only makes for New Years. They were hanging in a plastic bag, in the opening of their mud kitchen. The stove top was made of mud. Everything was made of mud. Not smooth mud. Rustic mud with twigs and stones. She removed the bag, took 6 of these items from it and placed them in a smaller bag for us. Than she removed, off the mud stove top, (which is really not a stove, but a hole where they burn wood in) a pan filled with a “sauce” for these tortilla things. She said the sauce was cinnamon, water and some type of root that is sweet. Of course she did not say water, but aqua. She did not say sweet, but dolce. You get the idea. Anyway, she was looking for something to put the sauce in and she found a old mason jar with a lid. I told her I would return it and she said, please.

The gift of loving this food she gave us. Reticent to try it, for all the obvious reasons, we felt we really needed to. AMAZING! Now I need to know how to make these fried things and the not-really-sweet-but-oh-so-tasty-sauce.

The gift of the ever morphing beach. At the bottom of our cliff is the ocean. Last year the beach was such that we could partially walk in front and into a cave. We discovered today we could do the same thing but what we realized was that the entry to this cave was now about 10 TO 12 feet lower. We figured, well Maurice figured, the sand has been taken away by whatever causes sand to be taken away. It was so cool to realize this! Before we had to bend to try to get in. Now it was a very large opening. Not sure how long this will last but it is cool to keep track of this stuff.

The gift of fish. Coco, the potter, told us to stop back after the beach for some fish. He had a lot he was cleaning and he would send some with us for dinner. We came back with 6 fish. Maurice scaled them and cleaned them up, the way WE would clean a fish and they will be our dinner tomorrow night.

The gift of a surreal sunset. Late afternoon clouds rolled in. Clouds that looked like stretched out pieces of cotton. Stretched so it was ripped in lots of places and so the clouds looked like cotton that was fluffy, yet transparent. When the sun set it threw different shades of red all over the clouds so the sky was filled with brilliant clouds, on fire, everywhere over the ocean. If you saw it painted in a frame you would not think it could really be a true sunset.

And lastly, to end the day, the gift of no TV cause if we had a TV I would never be writing this blog!!!