Month: February 2024

I think I’ve written about this before many years ago but perhaps it’s time for a recap.

Because of all the family and new friends in town, we have been finding ourselves forced to go to one of the favourite watering holes in town. It’s known by many names but we like Cowpuchino. In Spanish, they call it Parajetes. This is a Mexican tradition and you can see these places all over Mexico.

It works like this: The place opens at 8 am and after saying ‘Buenos días’ to the lady in charge you present 30 pesos and in return, she gives you a plastic cup with sugar, chocolate, and coffee in it. You can then add vanilla, cinnamon and of course, the reason we came, moonshine, but not too much as it is still early.

Then you stand in line and wait for the next available cow to be ready. All the time watching out for dogs, chickens, goats and the odd niño getting underfoot. When the next cow is due it’s a good idea to get out of the way as she heads straight for the feed bucket ready to be tied down. The cows here still have their horns so you don’t want to get in the way.

Then her calf comes charging up to get a feed before we get all the available milk. In the meantime, a goat is chased away from the feed bag several times before it can eat it all. For the rest of the time we are there, it continues to try and steal some feed. At one point it got ticked off and went to stand in the middle of the road as an act of defiance.

Eventually, your turn comes and the guy fills the cup with milk right from the cow. After giving it a good stir, (we now know to bring a spoon with us) you take your first sip, delicious. If you want, you can have goat’s milk instead. I don’t fancy it but a few of our friends say it’s great.

After we get our cup full we usually find like-minded people and settle in for exchanging news, gossip and general BS. After a while, though that darn cup turns up empty, so you just have to have another one. And so you wend your way home hoping that some relative or friend will want you to take them again before long, and of course they always do.

It’s been crazy busy the last few weeks. Rosalie’s family are all here. There are twelve of us altogether. Lots of friends have been arriving and the social scene is a little crazy. One day, six of us went to the beach and we ended up with 15 at our table, mostly people from Spider Lake Springs Resort in Canada.

Our afternoon visit to the beach to cool off is often still a part of our day. There are lots of beach vendors and Rosalie knows most of them by name. One, by the name of Mark Anthony, gets large bags of pistachios, breaks them down into smaller packets and sells them for 50 pesos each. Bolivar sells hammocks and veggie totes. One of his hammocks is on our rooftop patio; sometimes his Dad works the beach too.

Christina sells cinnamon buns and walks the beach with her son. She is a beautiful woman but needs to smile more. Christiania, I’ve mentioned before and we still see her with her squeaky little voice. There are many more that are encountered daily but too many to mention.

While sitting on the beach the other day there was a sailboat race underway so that gave us some entertainment for an hour or two.

The mornings are a bit cooler now, so I have had to light up the chiminea a few times. The wood supply is getting low but there has been a bit of rain so I’ll hold off until it’s all over with.

There is a lot of new road construction going on here. They seem to be finally tearing up some of the old rock-laid streets and replacing them with concrete.

We went to a seminar a few weeks ago about Mexican culture and the differences between hot and cold cultures.

For instance, if you invite a Mexican to your house they may or may not show up. They think, to say no is more of an insult than to not turn up at all, which has happened to us. Also, if you invite someone to your home, expect them to bring their whole family along. If you are invited to someone else home the last thing you want to do is show up on time as that is when they just about start to get things ready. You can show up at any time and you will still be on time.

Mexicans are more interested in relationships than time. There is a story of a Mexican visiting a friend in Vancouver. They met at lunch time and the Mexican was quite insulted when the friend had to go back to work. The idea of putting work before him was insulting.

Our water guy Juan promised to deliver in twenty minutes. He finally got there several hours later. It’s similar to DHL deliveries, online they say a certain date but that rarely coincides with the real delivery time. Sometimes it’s earlier, sometimes later, or not at all. For instance, I had a package due to be delivered yesterday, it arrived today along with another package due for delivery tomorrow. Most of the deliveries are early so thats a bonus. They say delivery before 8 PM but we had a package delivered at about 9 PM by a guy on a motorbike with his ladyfriend on the back.

The following morning we had breakfast overlooking the square. Afterwards, we visited a traditional Mexican indoor market. Rosalie tasted and bought some Chongo, which is a sweetened cheese. Then we went and checked out.

There is a lot of travelling on some of these tours but this was broken up with frequent bathroom stops and meal breaks. The fields on either side of the road were mostly overgrown with agave. As we moved along there were lots of greenhouses growing peppers. Further along, there was nothing but sugar cane.

Just outside of Colima, we stopped at a beautiful restaurant right alongside another lake. The food eaten that day was quail, rabbit and salmon. Rosalie and I had the salmon but got samples of quail and rabbit from our friends.

As the tour got closer to Colima, Florencio took us to see a bull ring that’s built and disassembled every year. It’s built for the annual horse show in Colima, (our next tour, but next year). Only certain families can work on it and the tradition has been going on for 167 years. It’s all built by hand and the only measuring tools are a stick about a meter and a half long with four marks on it and various lengths of rope to mark out the circles. The amazing thing is that it holds five thousand people and they have never had an accident.

And so another tour came to an end. We are rarely disappointed with these tours and this was another great one. I particularly love the old-style Mexican hotels that we stay in. Next year, as well as going back to Tequila by ourselves, we plan to go to the horse show. It’s a three-day event and Florencio will be our guide again.

After checking out of the hotel Florencio took us back to Magdalena for the drive to Mazamitla. Things got a bit confusing as Magdalena was in the opposite direction from where we wanted to go. It all worked out though and we got to our next stop, the ruins at Guachimontones

The site is situated on a hill overlooking a lake. The guide gave us an informative tour and we left knowing a little more about Mexican culture.

Before continuing our journey, Florencio took us to Restauranté Monte Carlo on the edge of the lake. The ambiance was great.

Arriving at Mazamitla in the afternoon it soon became apparent that we needed to get into warmer clothes. The temperature was about 10C and I was still wearing shorts. I ended up wearing Rosalie’s hoodie. Before we left I checked that mine was packed, but it wasn’t mine it was Rosalie’s. That’s two tours where I left my hoodie behind, luckily Rosalie had enough clothes to keep us both warm. Mazamitla is another beautiful little Magical Town of which there are 177 in Mexico.

After checking in, we met up with some of the guys for drinks before finding somewhere to eat. There was a funky little hamburger restaurant run by two young guys right at the end of our block so we stopped there. The food was great and so was the service.

After going back to the hotel for a nightcap, we all turned in.

Breakfast was included today so we went with Florencio to a little cafe on the square. Rosalie and I sat on the balcony but it was a bit chilly so we went back inside. The temperature was about 10C.

While ordering our morning coffee we noticed an item on the menu for Cafe Mexicano. After inquiring what it was we had one because it was regular coffee with a shot of tequila. Great choice! It was a good start to the day and only cost 10 pesos more than Americano. Rosalie liked it so much that she swore to have two the next morning.

After breakfast, we drove to the town of Magdalena to dig for opals. After a quick visit to the mine owner’s store, we went mining. 

We all were issued with a hard hat, hammer, goggles and gloves. Then we headed for the mine face. 

After hammering and pounding for about thirty minutes with little luck, reminiscent of my time on the chain gang, I heard that Diane had found some. It was best looking on the sunny side of the pit, as you could see the opals shine. I got a few but they aren’t worth anything.

After a while, one of the miners came and showed us how to find them without all the hammering. By this time we had done a lot of smashing. I think that after we left they called the local quarry to come and pick up the crushed rock.

Afterwards, it was back to the mine owner’s store for a look at some very expensive but very nice jewelry. Then back to the hotel for free time.

That evening, Neil and Diane, Rosalie and I went to a restaurant on the corner of the square and sat outside listening to some blues music. There was a lady playing sax and a guy playing bass guitar; it was really good. Later we were joined by Jim and Ylda to finish up the evening.