Thu, Oct 25 - A Sunny Day in Mascota

We awoke to a clear sky!!   Amazing!   Bob and I got up at seven in the dark and tried to communicate with the others who it turned out had met up with a horseman last night while we crashed, and had arranged to meet him at 8:30 to watch him train a horse. Since we had little interest in that, we walked down to the Mascota River which was full and cloudy after all the rain.

  We walked along a muddy path and saw several birds and lovely wild flowers.   We walked back to our hotel and had breakfast.  Thanks to WhatsApp we managed to find out that the others were going back to Ofelia’s to paint, and so Bob and I drove back up to the village of Yerba Buena, met the others, and I set up my easel to paint.  Bob took off in the car to explore and bird (and check in with the puppies he bonded with yesterday!).

Ofelia sent up a bowl of boiled Chayote squash with salt and Chile powder which we munched on while trying to capture the lovely light on the agricultural valley and mountains below us.

Bob returned around 2 PM and we all packed up and thanked Ofelia for her hospitality.  She asked Bob and me to give her a lift into Mascota which we did and we used our Spanish for a pleasant chat.  Bob and I returned to our room and found a split of wine along with a tray of fruit and nuts, courtesy of the hotel!  We ate in the warm sunshine snacking and napping!

Patty who owns, with some other relatives, a hacienda nearby, where Thomas and Filiberto are staying, is throwing us a party tonight with all the people to whom we have been introduced!  Bob, needless to say, was not looking forward to this, but as Thomas had asked him what he liked to drink and Bob knew that Thomas would have some rum and coke there for him, he decided to go for a while.  

We arrived at her address and entered a large open courtyard surrounded by 14 rooms with many tables set up.  Thomas took us to a bar where we made our drinks and settled at a table where a stream of food started to arrive: bowls of potatoes with salsa, a plate of boiled pork skin, surprisingly tasty, home- made chips fried in pork fat, beans, several salsas, chunks of roasted pork, tortillas, etc., etc.  

All of our new friends arrived whom we greeted, and then a group of mariachis came in the front gate blasting their music!

It was an unbelievable experience that can only be had when one lucks out and is a guest of someone from a village where everyone is related to everyone else!!   At one point a mariachi was singing a song when Filiberto joined him along with a woman in her eighties who was the school teacher of practically everyone in the room.  Too much!   The mariachis stopped after two hours and we strolled home, agreeing that it was a rare and wonderful experience!