Diane Pearl Gift Shop

Morning Walk in Downtown Ajijic

Ajijic Weds. Market

For the last couple of weeks I took photos of these two little girls dancing up a storm. They were having a wonderful time until this week. This week they put a hat down for tips and all the fun was gone. Check out their expressions. They are suffering from performance anxiety. Now it is a job...... I wonder whose big idea it was to put down that tip hat. It looks like a man's hat. Probably the dad.

Chico got a Haircut

Warm weather is here. I know because today Chico got his summer haircut.   He looks so much more comfortable.

Morning Thoughts ---The Molcajete

Here is my new molcajete. I bought it at my favorite health food store in Ajijic across the street from the Hospital Ajijic. I was assured that it was handmade out of lava rock. She even showed me a photo of the man who made it. I bought the most expensive one she had, 150 pesos.  It must have taken him several hours to make it. 150 pesos is a little less than 12 American dollars.   I spent part of the afternoon grinding white rice into it to cure it. This morning I used it for grinding some different twigs that I use for tea...  It feels like it belongs here and is an essential part of my so called kitchen. What a treat for me.

This morning I am going to the spa again. I hope to make it there twice a week. Several friends are going to meet me there. I am looking forward to soaking in the hot mineral water. It helps my constant backache. I am getting old and breaking down. I wonder who will end up with my molcajete after I pass away. I can't see my son carrying it back across the border. It is very heavy.

 I am thinking this because on the web sites they stressed the fact that Mexican women hand down their molcajetes from generation to generation. The older it gets, the better. Not like our bodies that get worse. The various spices and flavors stay in the pores of the stone and whenever you make something in it, those flavors come out.   I had better not grind my Epazote in it. That is a nasty smelling and tasting herb that does wonders for the health. Why can't chocolate cake be healthy instead of epazote?

My new diet calls for lots of beans and the epazote deactivates whatever is in beans that causes people to have gas. A real wonder herb.  Mexicans use it often in their cooking. It is hard to find in stores where expats do most of the shopping. I am off to the spa now.

Morning Thoughts-- The Elusive Perfect Molcajete

I already revealed in my last Morning Thoughts posting that I have a lot of free time by admitting that I enjoy looking through my spam folder on my e mail account. Now I am going to admit to day dreaming about purchasing the perfect Molcajete. Just in case you don't know what that is, just think of a grinding bowl made out of stone. It is used by the Mexicans for making salsas, guacamole and other things that I haven't discovered yet.

If they are made out of concrete to look like stone, then they can be dangerous. Food ground up in it can be poisonous. Thus the search.   But they all look the same to me. I have several friends with them but it appears to me that they are never used. They just become decorative items, more things to clutter up their kitchen counters.  I hope that doesn't happen to me. I don't have a kitchen, a kitchen sink or kitchen counters, yet I think I need a molcajete.  I have strange values.

So today I am going to the local health food store to scope out what they have on hand. I have seen them there and the sales person assured me that they are genuine Mexican molcajetes and not China knock offs made with cement and ground stone and formed in a mold. Busy day by my standards. I lead a very simple life here.  I like that.

Sunday at the Ajijic Plaza

Chico finally realized that his picture was being taken. That is his tense yawn. Like me, he hates having his picture taken.

Karin and Carolina

 

Sunday on the Ajijic Malecon