Untitled

Dear Family and Friends,

We are still going strong, with just 3 1/2 weeks more to go. It is funny, but once March 1st hits, you really notice a slow down in the town. In fact, Thursday night at Roberto's, our waiter, José Luis, ask us when we were going home. He was relieved that we were around for nearly another month as he said business had really slowed. It is clear as you walk about the town and sit at the beach that February is high season and it is all downhill from March 1st on. However, we are going to be here for "Holy Week" (Samana Santa) this year and that is apparently a crazy time. We will try to capture a feel of that for you at the end of the month.

Yesterday has a little bit of different rhythm to it. I got a good walk in and was able to capture to 8 am Zumba class going on in the Old Town plaza. Seems to be real fun and I have been curious about particiapting, but the idea of "having" to be somewhere is not very appealing. So I snapped the photo and moved on for my walk.

We spent the entire morning in, mostly reading and doing a little straightening up of the apartment. We were trying to meet our landlord and make a deposit on next year's apartment which we did manage to do. So that is in place. Still waiting on a confirmation from our house sitter that he wants another year at our place. He is at least considering it

We did manage to wander down the hill to La Fuente for lunch. We shared a bowl of Tortilla Soup, which they put into two bowls and seemed more like two full bowls rather than a split. I enjoyed an order of frijoles and Polley took an ample portion of waht is called "Curtido." It is apparently a Salvadoran dish of fermented vegetables, a kind of Salvadoran sauerkraut. This particular one has carrots, onions and cauliflower. Polley loves it! Lunch was accompanied by, of course, the requisite margaritas. It was a nice change from eating in. I have, however, bought a pound of fresh shrimp at the market in the morning and boiled those up for our dinner tonight.

We went back to the apartment following lunch for a brief siesta as we were going to head up river to El Rio Barbecue to hear our friend Bobby. We had not been planning to go, but when we saw Bobby he told us he had passed up a high paying gig out of town because he felt he owed the people at El Rio. His heartfelt obligation was both to the owner who had organized a benefit for him, and to his audience, who had been so supportive through his wife's ordeal. When he told us that, I turned to Polley and said, "I guess we go up river on Friday!"

We caught a cab about 3:30 for the 4 pm concert. It was another strange day weather-wise. Warm, rather muggy, but cloudy. It actually made sitting out for the music quite pleasant as it can be very hot there and there is limited cover.

The music, as always, was great, But the wonderful thing was to see Bobby (on the right) back in his element. Music, for him, is the great healer. And from his performance, he is making a speedy recovery.

We caught an old Mexican bus back and took it all the way to the beach. We sat and watched the sunset at Langosta's. Actually, we watched the clouds that hid the sunset, but it was a nice evening. We enjoyed sitting with one of the waiters, Arturo, and talking about his years in American, living and working just outside of Aspecn, Colorado. He loved it, but returned to Mexico about 4 years ago and seems happy here as well.

Little was left once the sun went down. We caught a cab up to our place and enjoyed a few of the shrimp as we were still full from our lunch. It was a nice day and it was fun to go up river and have no social obligations at El Rio. Most all of the people we know have headed home, so we just sat on our own, saying very little and just soaking in Bobby and Roberto's performance.

One last thing, we did talk with a fellow who is a kind of manager at El Rio. He does it a couple of months a year, but actually live, if you can believe this, in North Portland, near UP. Small world. He is an African-American fellow, who calls himself "Holly" and runs a catering business in Portland. Very nice fellow that we may try to connect with at home some time.

I did think I would leave you with another cat picture. This one is Lucy, the second squatter in our apartment. Enjoy

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy