Hello and sorry this is a bit late this week.........more of that later.
Let me explain the title. Here in Mexico the food staple is the tortilla-not the sort you can buy in the Western world but made fresh daily in the tortilleria (where else) . Fascinating system of mixing , pressing flat and then a conveyor belt that bake sit quickly. They are about the size of a tea-plate and made with either wheat or corn and neither really taste of much. There is no salt in!! They are served with ever meal and eaten rolled up tight to dip in to things or stuffed (fajitas)or stuffed and fried (flautas)-I used them in place of pasta to make like a veggie lasagna. But they are also fed to the sheep here in Koala-I offered them some veggies and they turned their noses up!! Chris is not having much success with his fishing so asked Rafa( he's about 8 but manages to get some) what to use for bait and you guessed it-Tortilla!!
My blog is late as the rainy season has arrived and on Saturday we had the mother of all storms- a cyclone had hit Acapulco and we got the edge of it. The rain was violent and the thunder and lightning amazing until about 11 pm when a huge crack of lightning took out our electricity. Luckily once the rain had stopped Chris was able to use Uwe's back-up plan (don't you sometimes love the Germans!!). We have a separate supply here but also have access to the camp electricity so we ran a line out to their supply -enough to run the fridge freezer, one fan and a light.
He modified it on Sunday to run the water pump for a shower. I needed to put the washer on Monday so we had to disconnect everything else for an hour or so. So no TV, Internet etc Whilst it got us through till yesterday afternoon, when the power was restored, we had wires everywhere.
I like to think the power was restored becuase I went into the electricity office in town and used my best Spanish to see when it would Be fixed as the call that was made on Sunday had not had much effect!! At least we have had a dry run as I think it happens regularly during the aguas.
The temperature has dropped a bit and we get a bit more cloud and have had heavy rain 3 nights and more of a shower last night. The rain has helped the mangoes fatten up and drop off the trees-I collect them most mornings. Today we have had fresh mango for breakfast, some mango aqua fresca ( like a watered down juice) and I'm making frozen mango yogurt too !! See pictures
Our walking route is getting muddy and I don't want to wreck my good walking shoes so yesterday set out to find some wellies.........Logically I went to the shoe shop! No hay ( Spanish phrase you hear everywhere when the shop doesn't have what you want, the restaurant has no beer, run out of something on the menu!!) She sent me to the little supermarket that also stocks material and more Mexican men's "cowboy hats" than you can shake a stick at. No hay try the hardware shop......of course ......................and they said..........would you like black or white!! I am now the proud owner of a pair of white wellies. the guy was going to clean the dust off but I told him it there wasn't much point given the mud here!! They cost only 180 pesos ( £9) rather than 450 in Walmart for flowery ones. Chris wants to know have i got a job on a pig farm or in an abattoir!!
Chris started his Spanish lessons on Sunday after church. We went to a house in SAMAO belonging to Maria and Chris had his lesson with Pedro, a university lecturer who teaches political science in Tepic uni. His lesson was 1 1/2 hours and I sat with Maria and her niece and spoke Spanish the whole time-I was exhausted but its the only way to improve is to practise. He has another lesson tonight but I will stay here.
Yesterday when I was in town for my massage thought i had arranged to get hair cut but she was gone to visit her aunt so will try again on Thursday.
Kinder was very quiet with only 3 children, the people who work on the site have had a bereavement. Asuncion's father was found dead in a ravine on Saturday-not having returned from work in the fields on Friday.
Our drumming neighbours have had to swill out their "house" it is not watertight so yahomi hasn't been to school either. Chris is hoping now that the rainy season is here they will go off somewhere else??
We had a lovely meal at Miguel's house before he set off home to Iowa for a break. Isabella made fajitas, flauatas and Napale (cactus) salad. It was all lovely, very tasty and spicy and I was grateful for the salad as so much of the food here is served without veggies. I popped up to town the next day to wish him Bon Voyage and had one of those " god how arrogant are those Americans" moments. I had e mailed him and said ........hope you are organised for your trip and he made a comment about my misspelling organised.........surely it is with a z!!
Yeh well it sure is if you are American but if you write and speak English it is with an SSSSSS .Sometimes I think they truly believe all of the hype!!
We had a trip to Tepic last week and on the way back there were loads of police -we were stopped once -two old gringos nah on you go!! There were about 20-25 armed police , all masked up at our junction off the main road. The next day i found out that 2 narcos had been shot in the second village up on the Tepic road. Its a place called El Arbol and it is the home town of the current President so any action requires a big response !! The police are a bit scary but our local ones are less so-they don't wear masks so obviously never kill anyone!! The guys that stopped us had on masks and sunglasses so you could never identify them-which is why they wear the as the narcos go looking for their families!!
The latest thing in the news is the number of decapitated bodies dumped in the last 3 months-82!!
After only 4 days of the Aguas we have seen the damage due to the run off, our little "beach" is half washed away and the road out of the camp is really muddy. Going to need those wellies.
Looking forward to our break in less than 3 weeks time-Chris is going diving for 3 days so i am going to chill in the beach club. Our planning for South America is going well-Peru mapped out (by Chris) , Bolivia just about sorted ( by me) , including one week at a language school, and Chris has started on Chile and I am doing Argentina. We only have a rough outline and have fixed only the essentials. Our trek to Machu Pichu and our trip to the jungle. The rest will remain fluid and we will book as we go.
Starting to think about where to be for Christmas and think we might try and find a help-ex or short house-sit so we can be with people. Don't really fancy Christmas in a soulless hotel.
So life continues on in La Laguna de Santa Maria del Oro , might try and get some pictures of wildlife for next time!!
Let me explain the title. Here in Mexico the food staple is the tortilla-not the sort you can buy in the Western world but made fresh daily in the tortilleria (where else) . Fascinating system of mixing , pressing flat and then a conveyor belt that bake sit quickly. They are about the size of a tea-plate and made with either wheat or corn and neither really taste of much. There is no salt in!! They are served with ever meal and eaten rolled up tight to dip in to things or stuffed (fajitas)or stuffed and fried (flautas)-I used them in place of pasta to make like a veggie lasagna. But they are also fed to the sheep here in Koala-I offered them some veggies and they turned their noses up!! Chris is not having much success with his fishing so asked Rafa( he's about 8 but manages to get some) what to use for bait and you guessed it-Tortilla!!
My blog is late as the rainy season has arrived and on Saturday we had the mother of all storms- a cyclone had hit Acapulco and we got the edge of it. The rain was violent and the thunder and lightning amazing until about 11 pm when a huge crack of lightning took out our electricity. Luckily once the rain had stopped Chris was able to use Uwe's back-up plan (don't you sometimes love the Germans!!). We have a separate supply here but also have access to the camp electricity so we ran a line out to their supply -enough to run the fridge freezer, one fan and a light.
He modified it on Sunday to run the water pump for a shower. I needed to put the washer on Monday so we had to disconnect everything else for an hour or so. So no TV, Internet etc Whilst it got us through till yesterday afternoon, when the power was restored, we had wires everywhere.
I like to think the power was restored becuase I went into the electricity office in town and used my best Spanish to see when it would Be fixed as the call that was made on Sunday had not had much effect!! At least we have had a dry run as I think it happens regularly during the aguas.
The temperature has dropped a bit and we get a bit more cloud and have had heavy rain 3 nights and more of a shower last night. The rain has helped the mangoes fatten up and drop off the trees-I collect them most mornings. Today we have had fresh mango for breakfast, some mango aqua fresca ( like a watered down juice) and I'm making frozen mango yogurt too !! See pictures
Our walking route is getting muddy and I don't want to wreck my good walking shoes so yesterday set out to find some wellies.........Logically I went to the shoe shop! No hay ( Spanish phrase you hear everywhere when the shop doesn't have what you want, the restaurant has no beer, run out of something on the menu!!) She sent me to the little supermarket that also stocks material and more Mexican men's "cowboy hats" than you can shake a stick at. No hay try the hardware shop......of course ......................and they said..........would you like black or white!! I am now the proud owner of a pair of white wellies. the guy was going to clean the dust off but I told him it there wasn't much point given the mud here!! They cost only 180 pesos ( £9) rather than 450 in Walmart for flowery ones. Chris wants to know have i got a job on a pig farm or in an abattoir!!
Chris started his Spanish lessons on Sunday after church. We went to a house in SAMAO belonging to Maria and Chris had his lesson with Pedro, a university lecturer who teaches political science in Tepic uni. His lesson was 1 1/2 hours and I sat with Maria and her niece and spoke Spanish the whole time-I was exhausted but its the only way to improve is to practise. He has another lesson tonight but I will stay here.
Yesterday when I was in town for my massage thought i had arranged to get hair cut but she was gone to visit her aunt so will try again on Thursday.
Kinder was very quiet with only 3 children, the people who work on the site have had a bereavement. Asuncion's father was found dead in a ravine on Saturday-not having returned from work in the fields on Friday.
Our drumming neighbours have had to swill out their "house" it is not watertight so yahomi hasn't been to school either. Chris is hoping now that the rainy season is here they will go off somewhere else??
We had a lovely meal at Miguel's house before he set off home to Iowa for a break. Isabella made fajitas, flauatas and Napale (cactus) salad. It was all lovely, very tasty and spicy and I was grateful for the salad as so much of the food here is served without veggies. I popped up to town the next day to wish him Bon Voyage and had one of those " god how arrogant are those Americans" moments. I had e mailed him and said ........hope you are organised for your trip and he made a comment about my misspelling organised.........surely it is with a z!!
Yeh well it sure is if you are American but if you write and speak English it is with an SSSSSS .Sometimes I think they truly believe all of the hype!!
We had a trip to Tepic last week and on the way back there were loads of police -we were stopped once -two old gringos nah on you go!! There were about 20-25 armed police , all masked up at our junction off the main road. The next day i found out that 2 narcos had been shot in the second village up on the Tepic road. Its a place called El Arbol and it is the home town of the current President so any action requires a big response !! The police are a bit scary but our local ones are less so-they don't wear masks so obviously never kill anyone!! The guys that stopped us had on masks and sunglasses so you could never identify them-which is why they wear the as the narcos go looking for their families!!
The latest thing in the news is the number of decapitated bodies dumped in the last 3 months-82!!
After only 4 days of the Aguas we have seen the damage due to the run off, our little "beach" is half washed away and the road out of the camp is really muddy. Going to need those wellies.
Looking forward to our break in less than 3 weeks time-Chris is going diving for 3 days so i am going to chill in the beach club. Our planning for South America is going well-Peru mapped out (by Chris) , Bolivia just about sorted ( by me) , including one week at a language school, and Chris has started on Chile and I am doing Argentina. We only have a rough outline and have fixed only the essentials. Our trek to Machu Pichu and our trip to the jungle. The rest will remain fluid and we will book as we go.
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| The chicos who live on the campsite........ |
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| Mangoes straight from the tree..........and what we thought was a courgette but its a gourd!! |
So life continues on in La Laguna de Santa Maria del Oro , might try and get some pictures of wildlife for next time!!
Well that was an adventurous week Norma!I shan't complain about the storms we've had this week, even though I was soaked through in less than 5 minutes, and had to strip off in the hall so I didn't soak the carpets. At least we weren't in danger of having no electricity at all! You are certainly living a different life in Mexico, but you worried me with the stats for decapitations in your area! I think you should stick to plodging in the puddles in your new wellies! I'm loving the sound of your planned trips coming up, but check info on Argentina before you go as they are making rumblings about sovreignity again, and I wouldn't want you in the middle of a hornet's nest there..... Our summery weather has been shortlived, and we're back to what we're used to for summer - showers and cool breezes, so enjoy the heat while you can, even if it is a bit more than you're used to. Tell Chris to keep up the good work on his Spanish studies, I'm sure he'll improve speedily 'on the ground' as it were. My best to you both, Kim x
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