The day before new years eve the beach was hoppin busy, I help out at the Old Bull all day, it was a great day for the restaurants on the beach, the atmosphere was electric. We hadn't seen that many tourists on the beach this winter yet and you could feel the moral of the locals had lifted. There was singing in the kitchens, laughing, everyone was effected in the new positive vibe, it ran through the palapas like electricity, right from the guy that rents boogie boards, to the lady selling beaded jewelry to man selling Mexican blankets to the guy delivering tortillas, to the water guy, to the man selling hats, even my Mexican cousin that delivered the coconuts was dancing and laughing...he did have a lot to be singing about, he almost free felled (is that a word) off a coconut tree that morning, he were laughing so hard when he was telling the story I could hardly get it all. He was on the tree with a rope tied around his waist and his assistant was on the ground holding on to the rope, when he was ready to lower himself to the ground, he yelled "are you ready?" the guy said "yes" and then for some really funny reason he let go of the rope, I couldn't understand what happened to make him let go of the rope but dude on top had a fast fall until he hit the tree beside the tree he was on and then the other guy got a hold of the rope again. Everyone laughed and laughed, except for the guy that had let go of the rope, he was just sitting there sheepishly grinning. We joked that maybe he wasn't paying his assistant enough. He replied that maybe he should start charging for delivering coconuts every morning and then he was reminded of how often he eats here without paying. We joked throughout the day that the price of coconuts might go up. End result, just a very bruised leg.....and a funny story to tell.
I am getting better in the kitchen now, my sister can
actually send me for stuff now and I come back with the right thing...almost
always. Now when she asks me to hand her a knife I don't bring her a spoon
anymore. When the waiter asked me for an extra plate I bring him a plate and
not a banana, I know how to unplug a drain with a straw, I know not to throw
the eggs of the fish into the trash with the rest of the guts (fish eggs are
yummy) I know how to make a band aid from an onion peel, and I am much faster
at peeling shrimp without losing the tails. This is Spanish immersion at its
best. I even know how to say "you are such an ass" in Spanish,
teehehe.
As the day ended it started getting really windy and cold and
a pot of hot chocolate was put on the stove. After we had cleaned up and closed
up we pulled a little table into the kitchen in front of our fire and 5 of us
huddled in around it and ate our supper, we hadn't had a chance to eat all day.
Past the palapas you could see nothing but darkness, you could hear the ocean
but not see it. The beach was pitch dark. We had a single light bulb hanging
above our table as we ate rice, beans, tortillas and some left over shrimp and
sipped our hot chocolate, we reminisced about the day and thanked God for the
business that he had blessed us with. It was a very cozy and peaceful setting.
As we are getting ready to leave sister got a text from a
friend in Culiacan that said a storm was heading our way. The wind had really
picked up and it did feel stormy. We made sure the fire was out, normally we
just let it die on its own, but we didn't want the wind to spread a fire
through the palapas. We secured everything that could possibly blow away. We
went home to wait for a storm.
The storm never came, it was windy all night and we got a few
little showers of rain throughout the night and the next day, it was just
miserable enough to keep the people off the beach on New Years Eve. A very
disappointing business day. We prepared as usual in the morning, built a fire,
made a pot of rice and beans and a batch of salsa....these are the staples in a
Mexican restaurant and home. We did not have a single customer, but as family members
stopped in throughout the day the food disappeared. We sat around and chatted
all day. I had brought my big book of 501 Spanish verbs with me a few days ago and
they helped me and gave me tips. At one
point the waiter jokingly told me to sit at the table with my book and not get
up until I was fluent, I asked if he was willing to bring me food for a year or
so, although I think it will take me longer than a year to master 501 verbs. I
almost made a new years resolution to master one verb a day for the rest of the
year...almost.
I did learn how to marinate beef for carne asada tacos.....this, along with the rice and beans recipe will change my life. Will share this information on a separate food blog post.
The locals celebrated New Years Eve with small family parties/gatherings at their homes, not a lot of fus and mus, I was invited to a few different gathering but declined all. I have a hard time with Spanish when there are big groups of people all talking at once. I was in bed by 9 pm and at midnight I did wake up to fire crackers and fire works and I think some pistol shots (even though no one is allowed to have a gun here on the Island), the noise lasted for about 1/2 hour and then I fell asleep again. At about 2 am someone realized that they forgot to set off their fireworks and decided better late than never so there was about an hour of banging and that was it.....Happy New Year to us all!
I'll leave you with some unrelated photo, I know I don't like reading a blog post without photos.
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| I bought this vine off of the plant guy that drives around with his truck full of plants, no idea what it is called . I am still hoping to make a trip to a greenhouse to the mainland. |
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| I found a new water jug, just like the one I broke a few weeks ago, except with a pink flower, I preferred the other but I can live with this. Now I can stop storing my water in plastic yogurt containers, the price was right at 50 pesos. I think it holds about 4 litres of water. |
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| My poinsettia is still alive |
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| If I had a Mexican nickle for every time I've seen a child being transported in a milk crate I would have ......a lot of nickles. |
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| Finally one flower in my garden, fighting the ants is a never ending battle |
