Monday, February 15
Today is a housekeeping day. We have a washer and a clothesline, and we make good use of it. But first, we walk down the road a short way to Los Olivos. Cliff told us that the breakfast special is something worth having. We find it is an omelette with a sauce of cream, corn and peppers. D has the special. B and I settle for huevos rancheros. Yummy. Bob walks back to the casita to answer a call of nature, and finds Daniel, who is to take us on a fishing and seafood-eating extravaganza tommorrow. Cliff said he'd find us at Los Olivos, but Daniel didn't get the word. So we are lucky that Bob went walkabout. We arrange to meet Daniel at 8:30 tomorrow, and follow him to the beach.
The rest of the day is spent in a leisurely fashion. B and D take a walk and end up talking to some of the local gringos (if there is such a thing). There was a big flood here in 2006 (a hurricane?) and a hurricane last September wiped out quite a few house and damaged many others. It's pretty sad. Some have rebuilt; some are taking compromise measures (building a palapa for an RV with an outdoor kitchen instead of a house), and some have just given up. And not everyone had insurance.
We see mostly gringos here, walking along the river. G and I do couple of loads of laundry and hang the clothes to dry behind the casita. A couple of workers are shoveling away at the pile of dirt that is behind the casita, spreading it in the drive there and into the potholes in the street. Every time we carry out the clothes, we remark on the diminished pile. The fellow allows that it is hard work.
We go into town and hit the ATM so that we can pay Cliff. We park by the hardware store (ferreteria) and that is convenient. D is looking for something to secure the stepstool we have hauled here (so that we can get into the box on top of the Jeep) to the top of the box. Elsewise, every time we open the tailgate, the dratted thing falls out. So far it hasn't landed on anyone's toes, but ... D also buys a nightlight, but more about that later.
We send the boys to the tortilleria to buy a half kilo of corn tortillas, and we stop again at the grocery store, spending less than $20, including another 6-pack of Tecate.Back at the casita, we lunch on leftover chicken, tortillas, fixings (cabbage, cheese and salsa), and PB&J. Nothing like jam on a fresh, warm tortiilla.The afternoon passes gently.
B and I walk toward the river mouth as far as we can go. On the big hill at the river mouth is the local Faro, or light. It still gives a signal at night. The road ends at a fish camp.
Pelicans roost (and poop) on every panga. There must be hundreds of them (pelicans, not pangas). Sometime late in the afternoon, we decide to try our hand at Margaritas. We have tequila and a big bag of limon, but no triple sec. B squeezes the limon on the big hand-squeezer that is perched on the kitchen counter. It does a good job. In the absence of triple sec, we add some Fresca. The margarita's are potent but muy puckery. G and I add a bit of sugar. The men soldier on with margaritas unadulaterated.
In the early evening, we head toward town with a plan; we will stop at La Tienda and look for a Spanish language calendar, and then head downriver toward a couple of restaurants, El Patron with views (we hear) from the patio, and Pancho Villa's. La Tienda has no calendars but does have a one-size-fits all beach coverup that will come in handy tomorrow. And they take credit cards, one of the few places we have found that does so. The proprietress is American, here in Mulege for 30 years now, married to a fellow from Mexico City.
We end up at Pancho Villa's, since the sun has already gone behind the hills to the west by the time we arrive. Pancho Villa's is a ramshackle two-story structure, bar upstairs and restaurant downstairs, except that the upstairs was pretty well blown out by the hurricane. There is no roof, and the flooring is a shambles. I know -- I climbed the rickety stairs to have a look around. We order the catch of the day, fish that, we are told, is sea bass. The other three have theirs steamed (in foil packets with veggies) and I order grilled. Dinner starts with a shrimp soup (delicious), then a salad. By the time the fish arrives, I am sated. We take a lot of fish home; Wednesday lunch will be fish tacos.
Dinner takes its time, as we were warned in the guidebooks. But everything is tasty. It does seem that every time someone comes to the table, it is a different person. We see the waitress who first took our order, the cook (I think), Pancho Villa (who arrives mid-meal on his ATV and soon leaves), and a gal who arrives with a car full of screaming children. It is an interesting dining experience.
We are back at the casita shortly before nine. D plugs in his nightlight, a standard plug and a plastic cover shaped like a butterfly. The bulb lights up green, then turns to blue and then to red. As a finale to its cycle, it flickers. When G elucidated the request for "luz noche" with "por le bebe", the hardware store employees were surely listening.
Tomorrow we go fishing.
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