Breakfast Mexican style, new arrivals at Hacienda Contreras ......

Friday 3/22/13

This morning I wrote an email to family, as a kind of update on my where-abouts, on Barb’s computer because I’m still unable to post these blog entries until I have Mac wi-fi access.  I need to become conversant with various ways to successfully connect to the Internet when I’m traveling – Guatemala and now Mexico, etc, when there’s no wi-fi.

This morning a group of us went to the hot local breakfast spot and had a huge Mexican breakfast.  I ordered ‘café de oro’ (a regional specialty of black coffee flavored with a bit of cinnamon and just a pinch of sugar); I also ordered jugo de naranja (freshly squeezed orange juice) and una omeleta de jamon, pimiento y queso (known as a Denver omelet in the US).  It was delicious served refried beans and a side dish that I would describe as cut up crispy fried corn tortillas reheated with refried beans ‘til warm and softened - sounds a little strange but tastes great.  Also on the plate were three or four slices of the local white cheese – very mild flavor  -closely related to our cream cheese but a little drier in texture.  After breakfast, they served rice pudding (arroz con leche) with beautiful huge raisins and cinnamon. There were about 18 or 20 of us from Hacienda Contreras and we had a great time.  Once again, almost everybody in town is related to Sal – and each is very welcoming to us.

After breakfast, Nova Scotia neighbor, Jerry Gale, and I went to fill our propane tanks; I think I mentioned that I’d run out in only one week.  Well, they ‘filled’ the tank today with 10 liters, which is about what they’d filled last week.  So, when I got home I did the math …  It’s a 4.7-gallon tank or 17.9 liters.  So, the reason I’m running out so rapidly is that they’re only filling it about half full each time; I guess I can’t trust what my gauge says so I’m going to have to insist that they fill it until it turns off automatically – just like the gas pump for vehicles!

During the day six new RV rigs arrived; people (Mexicans and Gringos) want to get away from the beach areas because Sunday will be Palm Sunday, the beginning of Semana Santa, and college kids from the North, as well as lots of Mexicans visit the beach areas for the week and it’s just too crowded.  [Interesting, some gringos actually complain about the Mexican tourists “invading” their beach RV parks!  What?  This is their country]!!!!

Nancy and Doug have had Doug’s sister, Diane, visiting from Medicine Gap, Alberta, Canada for more than a week; they’re leaving tomorrow to spend the last three days of her vacation in Guadalajara – about a three hour bus ride from here. It’s a city I’m going to have to miss this year– but I sure plan to do it next.

A gentleman named George Lehrer, Jorge in Spanish, drove into Hacienda Contreras yesterday.  He’s the first male RV-er traveling solo I’ve met.  Lots of people ‘know’ him as he’s been writing a blog for ten years and has about 5,000 people who follow his daily posts.  He’s interested in hearing about Renate and my experiences traveling alone because, even in this day and age, single women traveling solo are still a bit of an oddity.  He’s been living in his RV full-time for over ten years and has no plan to ‘settle’ down into any conventional kind of living.  His ‘inmigracion’ card allows him to stay in Mexico as long as he renews it once a year.  Interesting – he’s still a US citizen; his license plate is from South Dakota.  He’s planning to be here about a week; so we’ll have more time to converse.

This afternoon Renate and I talked about possibly heading north in a similar timeframe, meaning we might ‘caravan’ as long as it’s comfortable.  Neither of us wants to be dependent on the other, but if it works out we could enjoy some things together while heading towards the US.  We talked about visiting San Miguel de Allende for the first stop.  [I’d really not been too interested in visiting SMdA as it’s a haven for ex-pats; but I’m told that it’s a beautiful Colonial city with a glorious history.  Also I hear that the ex-pats who live there are very interesting people – probably more Latinized that lots of gringos].