January 12, 2009

Well....here I am into my last week and I've been taking this opportunity to spend a fair bit of time lazing by the pool. This is the first time that I've really done that in the entire time I've been in Mexico so it's a pleasant change of pace and feels like a totally different vacation than I've been enjoying up until now.

Lynda's daughter, Lindsay and her fiancee Jared arrived on Saturday night for a one week vacation so it's been lots of fun to get caught up with Lindsay and to meet Jared. How nice for Lynda to have 2 of her kids and their partners here at the same time. Troncones is a wonderful place and when you add the family factor to that....it could only be better for her if the rest of her kids and grandkids were here at the same time too.

When you're just laying by the pool...there isn't a lot to report but there is time to reflect and to remember a couple of things that I've forgotten to mention at other times.

One of those 'forgotten' things is the way the full moon looked the other night. I've never seen anything quite like it! The sky here is different anyway....perhaps it's just that it is from another angle so the stars are all in different places but it also seems that the stars move so much further in a night here than they do at home. Perhaps that is because of our proximity to the equator or something...I don't know but regardless of all that....the new full moon a couple of nights ago was soooo interesting! There is was a perfect orb hanging in the sky with a huge ring all around it. The ring wasn't close to the moon...in fact it was a long way away from it but it was just as clear as the moon was. According to Berta (Roberto's wife) it is called the 'house of the moon'. Lynda said that she had heard from someone when she saw it here once before that it was a sign that something would be born that night. All I know is that it was eerily beautiful and that I've never seen anything like it before and I'll look for it every time I see a full moon from now on. Another interesting thing about the full moon here is that the Mexican's say there is a rabbit living in the moon (instead of the man in the moon that we profess to see). That is particularly interesting given that the Japanese also say that they see a rabbit in the moon. Another commonality that I think might be a challenge to explain away.

Another thing I meant to include in this blog was some of the instructions I've heard for making a couple of the things I've come to love on this vacation so I don't forget them as I plan to try to replicate them once I get home. One is coconut shrimp. For that you just peel and devein and butterfly jumbo shrimp, dip them in flour and then in beaten egg. Finally you coat them in shredded coconut before frying them in a lightly greased skillet over low heat till they're cooked and the coconut is a golden brown. The other thing is sopes. That is 2 parts of masa flour combined with 1 part of regular flour. Add water to make a dough you can work with. Make tortilla rounds and turn up the edges to accomodate the 'stuff' you'll put on them after they're cooked. Dry fry them to cook both sides and then fry them in some oil (both sides) when ready to serve. Top them with frijoles, chopped lettuce, tomatoe, avocado and grated cheese (fresco queso) and enjoy.

For now that's all I can think of so I'll sign off and head back to the poolside. Ahhhhh....it's a tough life but someone has to do it so I'll sign up for another day and do my best to survive the trauma of basking in the sunshine for another hour or so.

Till next time,
Lorrie