My land lady's uncle eithers owns or manages one of the restraunts on the beach, it's a fairly upscale place and caters mostly to the tour guide companies that bring tourists over on guided tours from the Golden Zone in Mazatlan and to the crusie ship people. So most of their clients are there with reservations. For 3 years now he stops me on the street when he sees me and ask sme if I have eaten at his place yet, so far I never have, I really have no desire because places like that usually annoy me but yesterday he asked me again I figured that just in case it means a lot to him that I eat there I needed to go over there and have a meal or two, so today was to be the day. I would go over there for breakfast before all their tours got there. I was surprised that they open for breakfast because all the other places on the beach do not...tourists don't usually get here until around 10 or 11 am. As I leave the house I go to grab some money I am thinking that it will be about 3 times more expensive than the places I usually eat at, at first I had a 50 peso bill in my hand, which is kind of what I thought their breakfast would be but then I thought I might not have anything left over for a tip so I grabbed a 100 peso bill instead and put it in my pocket, thinking that would be plenty even for an expensive breakfast. I get there and find out that any breakfast with meat (bacon or sausage) is over 100 pesos...wow, and does not include coffee. So I guess I will just be having eggs and coffee. I order coffee con creama and he brings me just coffee...no cream, so I ask for cream and he bring me the powdered stuff that I call heifer dust, I am not sure what it is made of but cream it is not, and not made of anything close to cream...no closer to cream than the sand between my toes is. Now this is normal in any Mexican tourist restraunt but not in a real Mexican restraunt (memeber....not my first day here) Now I already know what will happen if I ask for cream or milk, he will bring me a glass of milk and charge me another 20 pesos so I decide to just leave it alone and not drink my coffee because I just cannot drink black coffee. I would have liked to just guietly dump it under the table in the sand so that I don't have to explain why I didn't drink my coffee but you cannot do that in these kinds of places because you have 2 waiters standing at each of your elbows hovering....this is why the food is so expensive. Most tourists like this type of catering, it makes them feel important and pampered but to me it is just annoying (and of course it brings up the price of eggs) It's just like when you go into a store in the mall at home and before you have even stepped in the door the sales clerk is in your face asking "can I help you"? And I feel like saying "well gee I haven't had enough time yet to get my self into any trouble so I really don't need help just yet, but stick around I might get myself stuck in a really tight pair of pants yet...then you can help me". So..no slipping the coffee under the table here. The worst part of it all is that uncle isn't even there to see that I am finally eating in his restraunt.....do I have to go again now? Now don't get me wrong here I am not dissing this place it is a very nice place, the place is clean and pretty, the food was very good, the eggs came with the usual beans and rice and tortillas, the service was prompt and polite there was just too much of it for me, but I
can have the same good food for 1/3 of the price elsewhere and get creama for my coffee. Next time I go I will come along the back way and see if uncle's truck is there before I go in. Soon as I got home the watermelon truck came by my house....get this! I buy a watermelon for 10 pesos (that is just under a dollar) and a cantalope for 5 pesos (something like 40 cents) ...unbelieveable! We Canadians must learn to grow out own food somehow otherwise we will forever have to pay up the nose and the hummhum for stuff. Driving down here I saw fields and fields of greenhouses, why can't we have fields of greenhouses? Is it because that would be way too easy and that is why no one has thought of it, or is it because it is way more complicated than my uneducated head can understand?
Yesterday I had a special treat, there is a husband and wife that drive around on Wednesdays and sell tamales out the back of their truck...shrimp tamales, my favorite. There is also a lady ( my land lady's mother) that sells tamales on some Saturdays and they are sooooo good. Her shrimp have the heads and tails and shells on them which is always a bit of work to eat but sort of good for me because it slows me down and lets me really savor the taste if they weren't whole I'd snarf it down so fast and end up missing the enjoyment of eating. I was told that the shrimp taste much better if they are cooked whole instead of headless,tailess and shellless. The Wednesday tamales did not have heads, tails or shells and there is a big difference....oh yes, not as juicy and saucy.....would never have thought that it would make a difference. Had I never had the Saturday tamales I would have been very satisfied with the Wednesday tamale and I will still buy them on Wednesday but I will look forward to Saturday's tamale much much more. I will take pictures next time I promise. I love how everyone drives around here and sells their wares, I always say that if you are patient enough everything will eventually come to your door, the other day a guy was walking door to door selling pillows and a lady was walking around selling dolls. Then I saw a truck driving around selling PCV pipe, all lengths and sizes. 2 days ago I opened the door to my house and the glass in the door fell out and shattered....what a mess I had. I went to find my land lady and asked where I could buy a new piece of glass and she said I had to wait until the glass truck came by some day. So, until then I put in some card board with duct tape. Life here is about relaxing about things, nothing is ever a rush or a big deal. I'll tell you what is a big deal though...iguanas eating my plants, now thats a big deal. I have chased them with a broom for days now, I even put bleach and water in a spray bottle and squirted one in the face but he keeps coming back. So now I am busy all day moving my plants around to confuse him, I play musical plants. This must be why people don't have gardens, too much compitition. I always wondered why when a family is always starving would they not plant gardens. I learned in Africa that is is just way more complicated than that and maybe that is also why we don't have commercial greenhouse at home, maybe it is not as easy as it looks to me just like growing a garden in Africa is just not as easy as it looks, and why having a poinsetta here is hard work. These Iguanas however have picked the wrong garden to eat in because unlike the rest of the people here I have nothing else to do than chase Iguanas around with a broom and move my plants every few hours. But I have to go now it's 4:30 and it is hammock laying time but first I want to quickly gather up some more horse poo for my compost pail.
