It was another lovely day in PV, but rather than doing the beach, we were on a mission to find a birthday gift for our landlord's wife, January. She actually has a birthday in January! We have been invited to go to lunch on Wednesday, January 14th (report on that tomorrow) and felt we needed a little something for the celebration de Cumpleaños. The problem is that January hates anything Mexican, so I choices seemed rather limited!
We strolled about, stopping into every non-Mexican boutique we could find, with little or no idea of what to get. We felt we didn't know her or her style well enough to get jewelry and such. Finally narrowed it down to a couple of things: a very pretty journal, a fancy hair clip and some large, smashing sunglasses, all in bright colors. We wandered back to our little wine bar to think things over and then decided on the sunglasses.
Great fun!
Then the challenge was to find a card de cumpleaños. I am not sure of the customs in Mexico, but it now seems to me that cards are not one of them. We stopped in store after store and while we could find a few cards (mostly for children), the condition of them was appalling! The cards appeared to be older than the person we were giving it to! Dirty, bent, scuffed, a real mess. So early this morning a trip to Walmart will be called for to see if we can find something.
With our mission accomplished, we went home for lunch and some nap time. Also I was getting very close to the end of my book, the Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao (Polley is reading and enjoying very much The Monsters of Templeton) and was anxious for the conclusion. We just spent time indoors and then about 6:30 decided to go out for drinks.
We wandered down to Época for a couple of beers and a nice conversation with the owner. Learned that he returns to Portland every June and is one of the founders and producers of The Portland Bite! After some time there, we thought we would make another attempt to find one of the musicians from last year, Bobby. He is the hippy flute player from Scotland and a hell of a nice fellow.
We had tried on one or two other occasions to find him at La Palaypa, but had not connected. Tonight was our lucky night! Got there about 8, just prior to their first set and he was so pleased to see us. I took this picture which is a bit blurry, but gives you a sense of him.
We found a couple of seats at the bar, ordered two glasses of Malbec and settled in.
He is playing with a different group, since our favorite bar, Que Pasa, is closed. However, this was an excellent group that played a great mix of Mexican and American music. Very talented musicians all.
While they were playing, they did have a bit of competition on the beach, as young boys swung coils of fire about their heads.
Stayed for their first set (about an hour) and then bid them adieu and headed home. We strolled though the Mexican tourist Mercado and got this picture of it abandoned for the night, something you rarely see, as the vendors are their from early in the morning until late at night.
We got home for a little snack, very happy to have connected with Bobby and already planning our return.
Ed and Polley
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