Saturday, February 21
Today we have another lazy day. We begin with breakfast at Los Olivos, just down the road. It is our second visit. The young lady who plates and serves the food is something of an artist. Each plate is beautifully decorated with a flower made from fruits and vegetables. G's plate has what looks like an orchid, the leaves shaped from paper-thin slices of carrot. I have french toast. There is a lot of cinnamon in the batter. It is delicious. We are served a breakfast postres, pieces of apple turnover on yet another beautifully decorated plate.
G and I do several loads of laundry and hang clothes out to dry. We will be starting out tomorrow with clean clothes. B and D go for a walk, to view yet again the devastation wreaked on the landscape by last September's hurricane. They report that a crew is working on a new house, right in the middle of it all. They have lined out the foundation with stakes and string, and are digging footings -- but not very deep, and the soil has not been compacted. It's mostly silt. 
G and I concoct a shrimp salad for lunch, and make tortilla chips from our stale corn tortillas. I also slice our remaining bolillo for toast. And we warm up last night's leftovers: one chicken taco and one fish taco.
After lunch, D takes his nap and the rest of us go to town. We wander in and out of several of the shops, looking at pottery and blankets and embroidered blouses. G finds a woven tablecloth that she likes. I like several of the bowls and plates painted with red chiles, but resist. Shopping yen satisfied, we visit the bank and Saul's, where we buy coffee beans and wine and a roll of paper towels. Such a marvelously lazy day.
Back at the casita, we pack some additional small items into the rooftop carrier. I have followed the time-honored tradition of putting my glass items (jelly jars this time, not wine bottles) in socks to cushion them.
We make the trek down dusty roads to Ray's for dinner. Ray left Cuba at age 9, and grew up in Sherman Oaks. He and G swap street names, as she lived very near there while growing up. Ray removed to Mexico some 15 or more years ago. His restaurant is justly famed for its fine cuisine. He doesn't have his signature dish, Oysters Rockefeller, tonight, but he does have Shrimp Pappagallo. These are very large prawns, split and stuffed with scallops, then wrapped in bacon. The guys go for a seafood sampler (one each of lobster tail and shrimp pappagallo, and some each of coconut shrimp, scallops, and fish) and G and I order skirt steak. The zucchini is grilled and dusted with cinnamon, and the baby carrots are tasty, as is the baked potato. The salad was good, too, with the house mango dressing.
The view from the second-floor dining room is stunning. For postres, we share a rice pudding, served dusted with cocoa and a drizzle of Kahlua. Ray brings us brandy alexanders after the meal. It's quite an experience.
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