It has been 6 nights since Maurice has left me. He flew to Canada last Wednesday for his neice's wedding. One of us had to stay here and for obvious reasons that person was me. Tomorrow he flies to San Diego to check on our solar shipment and the lucky guy gets to see Claus and Laurie twice in 2 months!! Not only did I miss our family and friends in Toronto, I am missing them in Calfornia,too! He is a lucky man right now!
The obvious issues. I do not speak Spanish and that is what I am forced to do all day. The issues and questions and decisions have not gone away with Maurice. That leaves me to try to figure out the questions...well me, with a few phone calls to our friend Keith. "HEY KEITH!! TALK TO THIS GUY! I DO NOT HAVE A CLUE!! WHAT IS HE SAYING??"
Keith speaks Spanish.
Next issue is having to make those decisions!! I am not sure how Mauricio (his Spanish name) has done ALL this for 7 months. Seriously! Everyone wants an answer and I can see why sometimes he says to me "TELL THEM I AM NOT HERE!!!" The crazy thing is how seldom he does that!!
I have to run the generator to charge the batteries. This has to be done for about 3 hours a day. Maurice has set it up to make it much easier for me then it is for him. The difference is it sits by our door SO IT IS LOUD!!! I try to do it when I walk and then I head up top. This still leaves an hour or two with it SCREAMING in my head. I still have to fill it with gas daily, but at least I do not have to schlep it all the way in the back. That is hard! I think I am going deaf though...
WHAT??
Of course I am here with only Retro. We are really isolated and me staying here alone frightens most people; except me. A worker offered to camp here which was sweet. One of the store owners downtown asked who was staying with me. When I said no one she was surprised. I told her if I am afraid to stay alone in my own house then I am living in the wrong place. It has been great, albeit lonely.
The last issue was that I do not have a computer. Mine is still being fixed and Maurice took his. Then yesterday the local guy who fixes computers, and discovered mine was fired, gave me his wifes. I asked if he had one for me to rent. He, and she both, gave me her personal computer. No charge. I think they were almost insulted I offered to pay. Have I told you the people here are INCREDIBLE!!??...unless they are in my fairy tales..then they are evil. Lucky there is only one evil-fairy-tale person in our world here.
So for now I say good night. I will write more tomorrow and fill you in on what is happening on Arriba de la Roca...our dream come true!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
NFL
Sundays in Mexico are pretty much like they are in the US or Canada; that is of course if you are in the Sand Bar. Helen, the owner, has three TV’s, all playing different NFL games. The regulars are there on Sundays, as well as “tourists”...groups of “20 something” guys who must notice the “NFL GAMES” sign that is out on the road. In they come looking for a burger, a beer and a little camaraderie. Normally you would not find me in the Sand Bar on a Sunday. I mean without ALL YOU CAN EAT PIZZA what is the point. I do not really need camaraderie, and Maurice and I are pretty darned happy in our world on Sunday. It is quiet, there are no workers and it is a good day for us to be together.
Today was different. I arrived at the Sand Bar just after 10:30am and stayed there until after 6. My word!! Almost 8 hours in a bar on a Sunday. A busy bar! A bar where a few orders of chicken wings, some grilled chicken breast sandwiches, and about 20 cheeseburgers where prepped, grilled, served on toasted buns with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, ketchup and mustard, all my ME! Not only was all the food cooked and served by me, so were all the drinks and beer consumed during these 8 hours.
Gabe, the normal bartender there is out of town for a week or so and I offered to help Helen since she is not a bartender. It was fun! Something different to do with our Sunday. (Maurice was not there as he stayed in the bodega getting ready to head to Canada on Wednesday. He is going there for his niece’s wedding and to visit everyone back home.) So I made drinks, washed glasses, cooked, waited tables, chatted with a bar full of NFL fans and got 320 pesos in tips! 320 pesos!! This is about $25. Funny how exciting it was to count my tips at the end of the day...Then I went to the gas station and spent most of it on gas for our generator.
Let’s see. One gas can will run the generator for about 6 hours. This will charge our batteries for two days as Maurice charges them for about 3 hours each day. So if I was really working here to survive in this world I would have to work, for tips, for 4 hours each day just so we could have electricity. Oh Oh...I have to stop writing this blog. It is 3 am and I need to unplug the computer and turn off the lights....there are no more tips in my future!!
Today was different. I arrived at the Sand Bar just after 10:30am and stayed there until after 6. My word!! Almost 8 hours in a bar on a Sunday. A busy bar! A bar where a few orders of chicken wings, some grilled chicken breast sandwiches, and about 20 cheeseburgers where prepped, grilled, served on toasted buns with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, ketchup and mustard, all my ME! Not only was all the food cooked and served by me, so were all the drinks and beer consumed during these 8 hours.
Gabe, the normal bartender there is out of town for a week or so and I offered to help Helen since she is not a bartender. It was fun! Something different to do with our Sunday. (Maurice was not there as he stayed in the bodega getting ready to head to Canada on Wednesday. He is going there for his niece’s wedding and to visit everyone back home.) So I made drinks, washed glasses, cooked, waited tables, chatted with a bar full of NFL fans and got 320 pesos in tips! 320 pesos!! This is about $25. Funny how exciting it was to count my tips at the end of the day...Then I went to the gas station and spent most of it on gas for our generator.
Let’s see. One gas can will run the generator for about 6 hours. This will charge our batteries for two days as Maurice charges them for about 3 hours each day. So if I was really working here to survive in this world I would have to work, for tips, for 4 hours each day just so we could have electricity. Oh Oh...I have to stop writing this blog. It is 3 am and I need to unplug the computer and turn off the lights....there are no more tips in my future!!
Friday, September 24, 2010
QUIET
Wednesday night...not a peep. Not a baaaahhhh, not a scream, a whine, a chirp, a cry..nothing. Totally quiet.
Where did they all go??
Back in the earth already?
This is the strangest thing....100's one night....ZERO ZIP NADA the next....
Weird....
Ribit......
Where did they all go??
Back in the earth already?
This is the strangest thing....100's one night....ZERO ZIP NADA the next....
Weird....
Ribit......
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
RIBIT
Georgette has passed up by. In her wake she left lots of water, tons of mud, some broken palm branches, a very rough road to drive on and frogs.
Frogs?? How can tropical storm LEAVE frogs?? That was MY question.
Monday night we heard them. The sound was such that I had no idea what I was hearing. Sometimes the noise sounded like a sheep “baaaaaaing”. Sometimes I thought it was the wind whistling through the trees. Sometimes it just sounded like a scratchy whine. I heard it throughout the night, along with the rain, but did not wake Maurice. In the morning he asked if I heard the frogs. I exclaimed, “FROGS!” How could there be frogs here. He said he did not know but last year, when he experienced tropical storms there were huge frogs leaping around. Hmmm....
Last night as soon as the dark day turned into a darker dusk they began again. This time there were 100’s of them. The noise was deafening. The sound seemed to come from everywhere. I still would not have thought of frogs, but Maurice was of course correct. They scream, they whine, the sound is a mix between high winds blowing through a pipe and sheep “baaaaaing.” They kept us awake most of the night. I kept saying to Maurice, “WHERE DO THEY COME FROM??” I mean Georgette did not “rain” them here. We live in the desert. Now the pools of water are filled with huge frogs signing to each other like they are in a crazy amount of heat!
Today we searched on line and found that yes, they are frogs. There are three, although probably many more, types of desert frogs. They vary in the manner in which they retain moisture in their bodies, but they all have one thing in common. They bury themselves in the earth and come out when it rains. If you have ever been in the desert you know the earth hardens and then cracks like concrete. Try to dig a hole in this soil and it is very difficult as the earth is too solid. How do frogs bury themselves in this stuff and then come out when it rains??!! It may rain here a couple times a year...or it may rain here once very couple of years, yet we have frogs. Loud, barking, baaaing, whining frogs.
Since we still have lots of water on the ground I am assuming tonight there will be even more of them joining in song. Thank heavens tonight is pizza night. A few margaritas and maybe I will be able to sleep for a couple of hours!
Ribit!....by the way...frogs do not really say “ribit”...at least these crazy-cement-boring-creatures don’t!
Frogs?? How can tropical storm LEAVE frogs?? That was MY question.
Monday night we heard them. The sound was such that I had no idea what I was hearing. Sometimes the noise sounded like a sheep “baaaaaaing”. Sometimes I thought it was the wind whistling through the trees. Sometimes it just sounded like a scratchy whine. I heard it throughout the night, along with the rain, but did not wake Maurice. In the morning he asked if I heard the frogs. I exclaimed, “FROGS!” How could there be frogs here. He said he did not know but last year, when he experienced tropical storms there were huge frogs leaping around. Hmmm....
Last night as soon as the dark day turned into a darker dusk they began again. This time there were 100’s of them. The noise was deafening. The sound seemed to come from everywhere. I still would not have thought of frogs, but Maurice was of course correct. They scream, they whine, the sound is a mix between high winds blowing through a pipe and sheep “baaaaaing.” They kept us awake most of the night. I kept saying to Maurice, “WHERE DO THEY COME FROM??” I mean Georgette did not “rain” them here. We live in the desert. Now the pools of water are filled with huge frogs signing to each other like they are in a crazy amount of heat!
Today we searched on line and found that yes, they are frogs. There are three, although probably many more, types of desert frogs. They vary in the manner in which they retain moisture in their bodies, but they all have one thing in common. They bury themselves in the earth and come out when it rains. If you have ever been in the desert you know the earth hardens and then cracks like concrete. Try to dig a hole in this soil and it is very difficult as the earth is too solid. How do frogs bury themselves in this stuff and then come out when it rains??!! It may rain here a couple times a year...or it may rain here once very couple of years, yet we have frogs. Loud, barking, baaaing, whining frogs.
Since we still have lots of water on the ground I am assuming tonight there will be even more of them joining in song. Thank heavens tonight is pizza night. A few margaritas and maybe I will be able to sleep for a couple of hours!
Ribit!....by the way...frogs do not really say “ribit”...at least these crazy-cement-boring-creatures don’t!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Georgette
Talk about never knowing what a day will bring!!!!....
For the past 24 hours we have been experiencing different levels of Tropical Storm Georgette. This came as a surprise since we have no TV so we got no warning.
FUN!!...my first Tropical Storm!! I am guessing our house “Arriba” is not as happy as I am. We have no windows or doors there yet and the floors are 99% in…the painting is 99% complete and now the whole thing is being battered by winds and rain. Looking out across our land down here I see various sized lakes all over the place. A few months ago we had a large portion of the land in front of our bodega graded and filled with absorbent soil in preparation for storms like this. I am here to tell you clearly we did not do enough grading or bring in enough absorbent soil! Our land and the surrounding areas are swimming in water oozing with mud.
I even got to drive in a tropical storm as earlier today I had to drive to Todos Santos to cover some checks we wrote over the weekend. I needed to exchange USD for pesos. Our money flows from Canadian dollars to USD into pesos….we are often on the loosing end of the exchange rates, but that is a story for another blog. Anyway, for this reason we play the “exchange” game and try to move money when it is the most beneficial for us.
There is construction from here to Todos Santos. Todos Santos is about 20 km or 12 miles from us. They are making a 4 lane highway all the way from Todos Santos to Cabo and we sit on this path. About 80% of this road is now torn up…most of it still unpaved. The ride there, with the rains and the mess took over ½ hour. I am coming back and the rain had taken a short repreive. It is humid so I roll down both my windows. I am driving along in a line of about 10 cars. Everyone is going so slowly. The road is rutted, muddy and dangerous. All of a sudden some guy who must have been VERY important decided to pass all of us. He races be splaying mud and water the whole way. When I realize what is happening the whole side of the truck had already been totally covered in mud. The mud was thrown against the truck, through the truck and out the passenger side window. Everything in between was covered in mud. The steering wheel, the car seats, the dash board, my head, hair, face, my neck, my shirt, my purse, phone..even my bra got mud on it! It was crazy! Maurice could not quite figure out what had happened to me when I got home and climbed down out of the truck!
Now we are inside watching and listening to the storm. It comes in waves. You can hear it beating on our metal roof. There are gusts of wind we feel through the open windows as the storm moves from south to north. Our windows are on the east and west so we can have them open. We are safe in our concrete block building. Retro is on the porch in his cage, climbing deeper into the corners of his cage, but seemingly fine, or we think he would be at the door wanting to come in.
For my first tropical storm, Maurice has lived through them before when he was here alone, I have to say I am enjoying the freshness in the air, the change from hot sun and dry desert. You can almost see things starting to bloom. Tomorrow there will be buds beginning to grow on the cactus. Everything will start to come back to life...a life that only rains like this can provide. All things dormant will begin to stretch, yawn, and wake themselves up; welcoming the change. After a while the sun will start to burn them back into dormancy where they will wait...just like I will...for our next storm.
For the past 24 hours we have been experiencing different levels of Tropical Storm Georgette. This came as a surprise since we have no TV so we got no warning.
FUN!!...my first Tropical Storm!! I am guessing our house “Arriba” is not as happy as I am. We have no windows or doors there yet and the floors are 99% in…the painting is 99% complete and now the whole thing is being battered by winds and rain. Looking out across our land down here I see various sized lakes all over the place. A few months ago we had a large portion of the land in front of our bodega graded and filled with absorbent soil in preparation for storms like this. I am here to tell you clearly we did not do enough grading or bring in enough absorbent soil! Our land and the surrounding areas are swimming in water oozing with mud.
I even got to drive in a tropical storm as earlier today I had to drive to Todos Santos to cover some checks we wrote over the weekend. I needed to exchange USD for pesos. Our money flows from Canadian dollars to USD into pesos….we are often on the loosing end of the exchange rates, but that is a story for another blog. Anyway, for this reason we play the “exchange” game and try to move money when it is the most beneficial for us.
There is construction from here to Todos Santos. Todos Santos is about 20 km or 12 miles from us. They are making a 4 lane highway all the way from Todos Santos to Cabo and we sit on this path. About 80% of this road is now torn up…most of it still unpaved. The ride there, with the rains and the mess took over ½ hour. I am coming back and the rain had taken a short repreive. It is humid so I roll down both my windows. I am driving along in a line of about 10 cars. Everyone is going so slowly. The road is rutted, muddy and dangerous. All of a sudden some guy who must have been VERY important decided to pass all of us. He races be splaying mud and water the whole way. When I realize what is happening the whole side of the truck had already been totally covered in mud. The mud was thrown against the truck, through the truck and out the passenger side window. Everything in between was covered in mud. The steering wheel, the car seats, the dash board, my head, hair, face, my neck, my shirt, my purse, phone..even my bra got mud on it! It was crazy! Maurice could not quite figure out what had happened to me when I got home and climbed down out of the truck!
Now we are inside watching and listening to the storm. It comes in waves. You can hear it beating on our metal roof. There are gusts of wind we feel through the open windows as the storm moves from south to north. Our windows are on the east and west so we can have them open. We are safe in our concrete block building. Retro is on the porch in his cage, climbing deeper into the corners of his cage, but seemingly fine, or we think he would be at the door wanting to come in.
For my first tropical storm, Maurice has lived through them before when he was here alone, I have to say I am enjoying the freshness in the air, the change from hot sun and dry desert. You can almost see things starting to bloom. Tomorrow there will be buds beginning to grow on the cactus. Everything will start to come back to life...a life that only rains like this can provide. All things dormant will begin to stretch, yawn, and wake themselves up; welcoming the change. After a while the sun will start to burn them back into dormancy where they will wait...just like I will...for our next storm.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
You never really know what the day will bring...
We love Sundays and Mondays. The majority of the workers are not here. It is quiet. It is a good time for us to relax or run errands.
Sunday morning I excitedly ask Maurice what “we are doing today?” He pauses, and says...we’ll see. He says that we can never really know what the day will bring. Ya Ya..blah blah..I wanna know!
He is just hanging around so I take Retro up the beach by myself. Then I get back, shower and we are sitting listening to the remnants of a party that began last night. It started early evening...let up around 4:30 am and started again at 7:30am this morning. Music. People. Noise. More music..Folk music. Local musicians playing their hearts out. Come to find out it was the Quinceañera of a local girl. This is the Mexican celebration of your daughter turning 15. It is huge here...much like a Bar Mitzvah, or Bat Mitzvah would be. So we sit listening to the voices and the music that seems to be right in our living room, but in actuality is about ¼ mile away.
So here we are. We are chatting about my fairy tale story and its antagonist. I am hot from my walk with Retro and I am sitting rather unclothed in our bodega. In pulls a Jeep. This is so common, as I have said before. We have many visitors weekly, many we do not know. So this red Jeep pulls in and I say, “Maurice, who is THIS!” He peers out the door and hesitantly says, with a questions mark attached, "The Sheldon’s??!"
THE SHELDONS??!! Keith and Sharon?? Our friends who we caravanned with up to the border with a month ago? Our friends who are in Vegas until the end of October?? Our friends whose plants I am watering and we just spoke to 2 days ago?? YES!! Here they are in our driveway. They decided, spur of the moment, and some 1350 miles later, to come back!! OMG! How exciting for us! Here they are. We go have breakfast, get caught up, swim in their pool, hang around...
Maurice says, See...you never really know what the day will bring! This day brought to us our long lost friends!!
Note to self....
Week of September 19th...Highlight is not pizza night at the Sand Bar. It is the surprise arrival of our dear friends, The Sheldon’s! YEEHAA
Sunday morning I excitedly ask Maurice what “we are doing today?” He pauses, and says...we’ll see. He says that we can never really know what the day will bring. Ya Ya..blah blah..I wanna know!
He is just hanging around so I take Retro up the beach by myself. Then I get back, shower and we are sitting listening to the remnants of a party that began last night. It started early evening...let up around 4:30 am and started again at 7:30am this morning. Music. People. Noise. More music..Folk music. Local musicians playing their hearts out. Come to find out it was the Quinceañera of a local girl. This is the Mexican celebration of your daughter turning 15. It is huge here...much like a Bar Mitzvah, or Bat Mitzvah would be. So we sit listening to the voices and the music that seems to be right in our living room, but in actuality is about ¼ mile away.
So here we are. We are chatting about my fairy tale story and its antagonist. I am hot from my walk with Retro and I am sitting rather unclothed in our bodega. In pulls a Jeep. This is so common, as I have said before. We have many visitors weekly, many we do not know. So this red Jeep pulls in and I say, “Maurice, who is THIS!” He peers out the door and hesitantly says, with a questions mark attached, "The Sheldon’s??!"
THE SHELDONS??!! Keith and Sharon?? Our friends who we caravanned with up to the border with a month ago? Our friends who are in Vegas until the end of October?? Our friends whose plants I am watering and we just spoke to 2 days ago?? YES!! Here they are in our driveway. They decided, spur of the moment, and some 1350 miles later, to come back!! OMG! How exciting for us! Here they are. We go have breakfast, get caught up, swim in their pool, hang around...
Maurice says, See...you never really know what the day will bring! This day brought to us our long lost friends!!
Note to self....
Week of September 19th...Highlight is not pizza night at the Sand Bar. It is the surprise arrival of our dear friends, The Sheldon’s! YEEHAA
Friday night
Back in July I had a posting called “The Milestone”. It mentioned our temporary web site and a couple of other stories. One of the things I talked about was eating goat at a man named Javelin’s house. If you look at the pictures there you will see one of a man with blue eyes. He is the only Mexican I have ever seen with blue eyes. I am sure there are more; it is just that I have not seen them.
His name is Raphael. Last Friday he and his wife, Julietta, (pronounced WHO LEE ET A) came here for a visit. They brought some friends fishing and waited at our place for them to be finished so they could take them back. They sat with us for a couple of hours. It was nice...BUT...I speak so little Spanish I missed lots. At least I was competent at being the server of the coca cola and the cerveza for Raphael and Maurice. When they left they told us they were coming back the next Friday, last night, with homemade tortillas. Of course she did not know that I had attended tortilla school and was a WHIZ at making tortillas!! We said, YES PLEASE!
Yesterday comes. I clean the bodega. Bring out the chairs. Go buy beer, as Raphael likes beer. About 3pm Efram comes. He is the son of Javelin, the man whose place we were at when we ate goat. They have a blanket factory 5 minutes north of here. Efram stops by on occasion. He is WONDERFUL! Seriously!! When Lynda and Scott were here a couple of weeks ago he sold them blankets, a purse, a tablecloth and hammock chair for next to nothing, because she was my sister. We love this guy. Yesterday he stops and visits then proceeds to go fishing. We told him Raphael and Julietta were coming later on. He was surprised!! He was anxious to come back after fishing and see them. He knows they are great people, he told us.
It is 5 o'clock. Here we all three sit. The bodega is clean. The chairs are lined up. We have cold beer. No one is coming. 5 o’clock comes and goes. 6 o’clock comes and goes. 7 o’clock comes and ALMOST goes when in they pull. The have a large, very nice white pick-up. In the back, standing straight up, is their 9 year old daughter, named Julietta, after her mother, so I call her Julietta Dos. I start pointing to my wrist and shaking my head cause they are so late. The funny thing is though, I KNEW they would come. Even after the time passed and we talked about whether they forgot or not...I just KNEW deep inside they would come.
Come to find out Raphael is SO SICK. He is on anti-biotics. He has been sick since Monday. He is coughing and wheezing and is miserable...but they came. They had to come. They told us they would bring tortillas. Not only did they bring tortillas, they brought home made cheese from a ranch where they have friends. They had to drive there to get the cheese which is why they are so late. They invited us to go there with them one day soon. So we all eat tortillas wrapped around freshly made cheese. Maurice was in heaven!! We drink coca cola (ours had rum in it) and we chat. Julietta Dos remembers meeting us at the goat eating party but she does not speak one word of English. She stares at me. (Blonde hair here is a rarity) She is ADORABLE!!! She asks to ride in our Kawasaki Mule. I take her but it is getting dark. I ask her if she wants to drive. Of course I can not say, “Do you want to drive” so we work it out in my limited Spanglish. She is calm, collected, totally fearless, but respectful of the machine. I find out it is the first time she EVER drove anything. Her parents were surprised when she drove us back in the deep dark dusk of the night. She was proud!
Just before they left it was 8:50pm and very dark. She wanted to go one more time. We invited them back next Friday to eat pasta with us and we told her she can drive again then. They asked if they can also bring their two 20-something sons...for pasta, not to drive the mule! Julietta Dos was smiling, a shy, absolute stunning smile. I will take pictures next week and post them. Come to find out her birthday is the day after mine; she will be 10 on December 6th.
Yes, in my fairy tale not all is good. We have run into a character or two that needs dealing with, and we will. But seriously, the people here are genuine. They are honest. They are happy and we have a great life living amongst them. We are totally blessed!
As a post script...every Saturday there is a guy that comes by here. He travels all around the area selling fresh fish out of the back of his pick-up truck. He has coolers filled with various types of fish and shrimp, scallops etc. Today we bought a large piece of sushi-grade ahi-tuna that I will sear tonight for dinner, along with two large fillets of red snapper that we will eat tomorrow. It cost us 100 pesos...about 8 dollars.
Amazing....
His name is Raphael. Last Friday he and his wife, Julietta, (pronounced WHO LEE ET A) came here for a visit. They brought some friends fishing and waited at our place for them to be finished so they could take them back. They sat with us for a couple of hours. It was nice...BUT...I speak so little Spanish I missed lots. At least I was competent at being the server of the coca cola and the cerveza for Raphael and Maurice. When they left they told us they were coming back the next Friday, last night, with homemade tortillas. Of course she did not know that I had attended tortilla school and was a WHIZ at making tortillas!! We said, YES PLEASE!
Yesterday comes. I clean the bodega. Bring out the chairs. Go buy beer, as Raphael likes beer. About 3pm Efram comes. He is the son of Javelin, the man whose place we were at when we ate goat. They have a blanket factory 5 minutes north of here. Efram stops by on occasion. He is WONDERFUL! Seriously!! When Lynda and Scott were here a couple of weeks ago he sold them blankets, a purse, a tablecloth and hammock chair for next to nothing, because she was my sister. We love this guy. Yesterday he stops and visits then proceeds to go fishing. We told him Raphael and Julietta were coming later on. He was surprised!! He was anxious to come back after fishing and see them. He knows they are great people, he told us.
It is 5 o'clock. Here we all three sit. The bodega is clean. The chairs are lined up. We have cold beer. No one is coming. 5 o’clock comes and goes. 6 o’clock comes and goes. 7 o’clock comes and ALMOST goes when in they pull. The have a large, very nice white pick-up. In the back, standing straight up, is their 9 year old daughter, named Julietta, after her mother, so I call her Julietta Dos. I start pointing to my wrist and shaking my head cause they are so late. The funny thing is though, I KNEW they would come. Even after the time passed and we talked about whether they forgot or not...I just KNEW deep inside they would come.
Come to find out Raphael is SO SICK. He is on anti-biotics. He has been sick since Monday. He is coughing and wheezing and is miserable...but they came. They had to come. They told us they would bring tortillas. Not only did they bring tortillas, they brought home made cheese from a ranch where they have friends. They had to drive there to get the cheese which is why they are so late. They invited us to go there with them one day soon. So we all eat tortillas wrapped around freshly made cheese. Maurice was in heaven!! We drink coca cola (ours had rum in it) and we chat. Julietta Dos remembers meeting us at the goat eating party but she does not speak one word of English. She stares at me. (Blonde hair here is a rarity) She is ADORABLE!!! She asks to ride in our Kawasaki Mule. I take her but it is getting dark. I ask her if she wants to drive. Of course I can not say, “Do you want to drive” so we work it out in my limited Spanglish. She is calm, collected, totally fearless, but respectful of the machine. I find out it is the first time she EVER drove anything. Her parents were surprised when she drove us back in the deep dark dusk of the night. She was proud!
Just before they left it was 8:50pm and very dark. She wanted to go one more time. We invited them back next Friday to eat pasta with us and we told her she can drive again then. They asked if they can also bring their two 20-something sons...for pasta, not to drive the mule! Julietta Dos was smiling, a shy, absolute stunning smile. I will take pictures next week and post them. Come to find out her birthday is the day after mine; she will be 10 on December 6th.
Yes, in my fairy tale not all is good. We have run into a character or two that needs dealing with, and we will. But seriously, the people here are genuine. They are honest. They are happy and we have a great life living amongst them. We are totally blessed!
As a post script...every Saturday there is a guy that comes by here. He travels all around the area selling fresh fish out of the back of his pick-up truck. He has coolers filled with various types of fish and shrimp, scallops etc. Today we bought a large piece of sushi-grade ahi-tuna that I will sear tonight for dinner, along with two large fillets of red snapper that we will eat tomorrow. It cost us 100 pesos...about 8 dollars.
Amazing....
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