HAMACA AND TITULAR DE LA VELA

So, yesterday turned out to be a shopping day. Which is huge for the frugal Wood Clan who tries not to collect stuff - I mean we do just have a camper van - right?!

However, this may be the last time we are in Mexico for a while and we do have a few things in mind that we would like to take home with us.

In usual fashion we could procrastinate, but since we always do that with fairly negative results, we are attempting to mend our ways.

One of the main purchases on our list is a hammock - or hamaca.

A few weeks ago Bernie - our cheese friend - came around selling raffle tickets for a hamaca. He is in a dancing group and they were raising money for their costumes. 

Yesterday he stopped in to say that today was the day for the draw. Interestingly, we were to be the drawers. But - we needed a witness. Manuel - on the left was the guy - since he was back here storing the banana boat and parasail. Bernie pulled out his camcorder for the event. 

Turns out I was to choose the number. Not sure what we would have done if I had drawn our number! Sadly, we didn't have to worry about that - I drew #20.

Bernie making the call to the lucky winner.

The hamaca we could have won. Based on the colour I can't really say I was too heartbroken.

That got us thinking about finding a hamaca to purchase. The last time we were here we saw a hamaca seller on the highway about 10 miles before Zihuatanejo. We thought to stop but decided to do so on our way out. Well, you know what happened right - when we left the seller was no longer there. We made it all the way out of Mexico without a hamaca. 

Derek asked Martin, the head waiter here at El Manglar, where we should buy our hamaca. He said that he had a friend that made them and he would have him come visit us. Great - he would come Monday.

And sure enough he arrived Monday afternoon - that's him on the right - Gusta (really not sure of the spelling of his name!). But first, here is Obed returning Bill's 1/2" socket. The socket was borrowed a few days before to help repair the guys boat - the one they use for the banana boat and parasail. You can imagine how the conversation went when he came to borrow the socket. Took Derek, Bill and Obed a bit to get that communicated!

Funny, we had to laugh when Gusta came up to our van. He's from the beach! So - we've spent the last month saying 'No gracias' to him as he makes his way around selling his hamacas. 

Who knew! 

He has both nylon and cotton. Although the cotton hamacas often don't last as long we think they are more comfortable. 

Here he is showing us the double.

We settled on a very reasonable 500 pesos. To be honest we don't really know the going rate for cotton - one of the guys said that 300 on the beach was good but we weren't sure what he was referring to for that price. Based on the fact that we saw a cotton hamaca downtown for 1,800 pesos, we thought we were doing good.

Actually, we were so impressed with his prices we are thinking of buying a few more - both cotton and nylon. Just so we have a few years worth.

Following a few hours swimming and playing at the beach in the afternoon, we decided to head back to Paty's Marimar. Derek and I have realized that Happy Hour is something we can appreciate. We justified the return trip because being Monday night - with Tuesday our shopping day - we were really low on food.

Lots of dead fish on the beach the last few days - not sure why. The water has also been very choppy for the last week or so. 

Since Paty's is at the other end of the beach we thought to put our walk there together with Derek's nightly walk with Rufus.

Cassia enjoying her Pina Coladas - sin alcohol of course! It's not very often that she'll let me put a pony tail in her hair. I'm just glad it's getting long enough that I can. Cassia's hair has only been trimmed twice in her 5 1/2 years. She has VERY slow growing hair!

Trying on the napkin hats to pass the time.

We enjoyed another great evening. This time we ordered a few Mexican specialities. We were stuffed on the enchiladas alone and took the chicken fajitas home.

While we were there - Angelica came over to sell us her titular de la velas (sure hope I got that right - I used the translator which doesn't always work!). Anyway, we had seen these candle holders before and I had mentioned to Derek that I wanted to get a few to take home. So - well, no time like the present. Angelica also had a gentle way about her so it was nice to purchase from her. 

It was difficult to choose so we bought two! 100 pesos each. 

We think we might buy a few more as gifts!

Monday turned out to be a busy day for us!

Yes, that's busy. Hey - when it's this hot - movements matter! 

Today we had a busy morning - we headed to el centro to visit a special place and then on to the Commercial Mexicana. 

Photos coming soon!

Teresa

Be a Fan