November 14, 2008

Lalo calls himself an archi-d.j. – he is an architect by day and by night he has mixer and music and will travel. Tonight he was set up under the stars (and a couple of perfectly placed strings of light in a palm frond) just outside the kitchen/living room at Casa Caprice for the party that just seemed to materialize out of thin air!

Lynda was scheduled to arrive this afternoon at 4:00 so Mitch, Viri and I went into Zihuat earlier in the day to take care of all the “city” business that Troncones doesn’t really cater to....things like grocery shopping and banking.

Viri and I began the city junket at the Centro Market where we purchased enough vegetables and fruit to last for at least a week and probably even two weeks. I even managed to purchase 1 kilo of cheese on my own (well, there was a little tutoring from Viri before I went to get the cheese if I tell the truth). While we were loading up on fruit and veggies, Mitch was taking care of some business dealings in town. Once we had our purchases stowed into the back of the truck, I made my way to the bank ATM since it was just down the road and there is no ATM that I’ve seen in Troncones and all purchases here seem to be cash only so.....M/C and Visa are no help at all and you all know how I hate to be short of money! I had a little misadventure at the bank. All of the instructions were in both English and Spanish so I had no problem knowing what buttons to push until the time came to decide how much cash I’d like to have. The choices all looked like this $50, $100, $200, $500, $1000, $2000, $3000, $5000. I thought about selecting $3000 but then got worried that it would give me 3000 dollars worth of pesos so decided to err on the side of caution and hope that if I chose $500 it would spit out 500 dollars worth of pesos. I guessed wrong though and ended up with only 500 pesos which is about $50 Cdn. I was able to remedy the situation by just getting another $3000, but the downside is that there is a charge for every transaction so that first 500 pesos ($50 Cdn) cost me quite a bit more than 50 dollars to get – a good lesson though!

I found a new fruit in the market but can’t remember what it is called. It tastes like a cross between a sweet potato and a papaya. It is very expensive by the standards here so I just bought a couple for us to cut up to share. It was the first time several people (oh yes....the crowds began to arrive about the time that I was cutting up the fruit for us to try) had ever had it. I had a few more ‘firsts’ tonight too. For dinner Mitch made something called camaronillas. (Shrimp, onions, tomatoes, garlic and cheese wrapped in a flour tortillas that is then deep fried and served with a Maggi sauce for dipping) a lot of work to make but they could be described as ‘unbelievable’ or ‘outstanding’ or ‘could I please have the recipe’. Gabby, the neighbour from across the street was helping Mitch in the kitchen and she made some spicy shrimp that were equally as good as the camaronillas. Viri made the salads (salada en espanol) and they too were delicious. Her home made dressing consisted of mayonnaise, chipotle, ketsup, garlic, salt and pepper. Hugo (pronounced Ugo) had contributed two huge fillets of fresh tuna that he rubbed with salt and pepper, wrapped in foil and then turned over a slow fire till done to perfection. People seemed to be arriving constantly and at the final tally there were only about 15 or 20 but it felt like there were a lot more than that at times....not because it was crowded but because of the festive air.

People were mingling and chatting and swaying in time to Lalo’s music that had the ocean’s heartbeat as it’s rhythm instrument in the distance. It was a party to remember and what a welcome for Lynda! She was able to spend some time with friends she hadn’t seen since she left in April and meet some new people as well. Mitch and Viri are great hosts and everyone chipped in to help. The party was a real communal affair from start to finish and by the time it wound up around 2 a.m. there wasn’t even a lot left to clean up. People had helped chop and cook at the start of the night and others had helped pick up bottles and dishes at the end. This party will be a highlight of my week and probably of my trip.

Hasta luego,
L

p.s.
Mom, you’ll never guess who is here.....Dad is still finding parking spots for me in Mexico. When we arrived at the Centro market, there was our spot right at the front door. I told Mitch and Viri that they needed to say thank you and why and Mitch admitted that never before had they had a spot right near the entrance so we all said thank you and I’ll bet the man who carried all of our veggies out for us said thank you too! Go figure....I never would have thought that Dad would like it here but I guess he does.
L