The Weekend on the Island

Friday afternoon I set off to the beach in search of a table and some chairs, and I wanted to buy a blanket from one of the beach vendors, I’ve been wearing my wool sweater at night. I had just stepped on to the beach and my new friend from Toronto (he’s the guy that forgot to go home 14 years ago) came up and introduced me to his father, his parents spend the winters here. I was invited right away for a spaghetti dinner and an evening of playing SkipBoo, I love playing SkipBoo. Since all 3 of us would not fit (we don’t know this for sure I was unwilling to try) on his moto-scooter thing I was chauffeured on the back of Pepe’s quad (Pepe rents out quads on the beach to tourists) There is not much action for him on the beach these days as it is still very cold here, has not been this cold in 10 years. Mother was embarrassed when I showed up as she wasn’t dressed for company, like I was dressed to be company. She said she had gotten all dressed up yesterday and no one came over. (Hate when that happens) We had a great evening of awesome spaghetti and about 6 rounds of SkipBoo and I went home with a borrowed table and 2 chairs. If I could have won one more round I could have had their microwave...next time. I have defiantly made some new friends again, it turns out they live very close to me, actually everyone on the Island lives close to me.
Island people are very interesting to me; if my Spanish was better I would be Miss nosy body on this Island. I want to know everything, most of all I want to know what people do with all that coconut milk. Everybody is tearing apart coconuts in their front yards and pouring the milk into containers but I have not seen coconut milk for sale anywhere or fresh coconut, what are they doing with it, where is it going? Also, they are pushing wheelbarrows down the street all the time and I want to stop them and say “hey, what you got there or where are you going with that?” Of course I can’t do that, remember.....the whole nicety routine would have to be followed again. Most people here make their living in some part of the fishing industry, you can tell who the fisherman are they wear tall rubber boots, have their pants tied up with fishing line and most homes have an overgrown dead boat with about 8 cats sleeping on it in their yard. Some of them even have that pirate look which can be a little intimating but I am finding out that they are really not that scary at all. One time when I was getting on the panga ( the little boats that take us across ) I was sure we were going to be hijacked when 2 pirate looking dudes got on, seriously, they made that little pirate guy that’s on Pirates of the Caribbean look like a wimpy boy.....no hijacking, they were just ordinary dudes. Speaking of being Miss nosy body, as I’m writing this I have to keep getting up to look out the window and see what’s happening across the street, they’ve brought out a PA system and are setting up chairs in the street....so I have to keep on top of that. There is just never a dull moment, this afternoon my neighbour’s son was sitting on the front step with his guitar, he was picking in a very Spanish sounding way......not the cowboy Spanish way but more like the Spanish from Spain, his voice was awesome as well, he kept me entertained for an hour or so. As noisy as this place is during the day with the music, the guitars, the quads, the motos and the honking sales people it is amazingly quiet at night. Everything seems to shut down at about 6 or 7 pm. Thursday night I came home at 9 pm from my taco excursion (that story is coming soon) and I stuck my head out my window and there was not a sound, I could hear the breeze rustling the leaves in the trees, aside from the roosters and the occasionally squawking of a cat you do not hear anything in the evening. By the way, the cats are wild and scary looking here, they all look crazy and are fighting and squealing everywhere but the dogs look beaten battered and tired and just seem to laze around and mind their own business.
I did my laundry this morning and as I was washing my blouse that I wore on Sunday I had to laugh a little. The kids at Villa Union love it when you pick them up and hug them; the little ones just cuddle right into your neck. I noticed on Sunday that they also take that opportunity to wipe their snooty noses on my shoulder. Oh well, I like their cuddly little hugs and they need a clean place to wipe their nose, we all get what we need. I didn’t let that bother me; it was just funny when I saw the crusty shoulder on my blouse this morning......it washed out.
I am trying really hard to conform to buying food for the day only, but that is so hard and today I failed miserably. This morning my land lady’s dear sweet father ( Senor Papa) gave me 2 big papayas because they were ready to be eaten and he was going to go away for a few days (I think is what he said) Then in the afternoon I go to the general store and buy 2 big bags of groceries (which only cost me 98 pesos) on my way home with my heavy bags nearly yanking my arms out of my sockets I pass Senor Papa and he sees my groceries and I am sure he is thinking “has she eaten those 2 papayas already and had to buy more food?”.