Adios Melaque

Tonight was our last night in Melaque. We had a lovely supper. Went out with our friends Carol and Max and sampled molcajetes which we had never had before. It's a stew which can have any number of ingredients including the meat of your choice and it comes steaming hot in a preheated lava bowl which you literally cannot touch or you will have a nasty surprise. Needless to say the unusual presentation is half the fun.
I have a few farewell thoughts to share on Melaque.
If you're into a laid back vacation by the ocean which won't cost you a bundle of money Melaque is definitely the town for you. Of course there are a few things you might have to be willing to put up with which are not so different than what you might encounter in many other Mexican towns.
Although they've made somewhat of an effort to spruce things up it's still a fairly dirty town but it's not as dirty as it used to be so that's a plus. There's even a bit of an effort made towards recycling plastics which is a scourge and a blight in all third and second world countries. We can thank petroleum for that wonderful gift.
Melaque has a lot of dogs which equals a lot of shit some of it pretty stinking big since although they love chihuahuas it's not their shit that gets noticed, plenty of other pedigreed and non pedigreed specimens around. They love their roosters. Mexican roosters don't go by a certain timetable, anytime of the day or night is good for crowing, you have to learn to tune them out.
Where we are there's also a goat and she adds to the general cacophony, once in a while the mule also kicks in for good measure. There's an army barrack near by and they play the trumpet regularly bright and early every morning, needless to say the playing is not concert hall material not by any great stretch of the imagination.
In Mexico and in Melaque there is no escaping the loud, boisterous parties which might be weekly occurrences, Mexicans love to party and they don't mind sharing the noise at all whether you want to party or not. Many people bring earplugs I just can't be bothered. When in Mexico....well you know the rest of that saying as well as I do.
You will never want for a place to eat, taco stands abound. There are pastry vendors on the streets at night selling slices of cakes and what could almost pass for creme caramel, not quite as good as the original but still very tasty. Of course there are also churros to fall back on,
fattening and greasy but I do enjoy the odd one or two.
The beach is lovely with waves suited to all abilities, great big monsters, medium size waves and gentle waves which lap and nibble at your toes. The weather is always hot and the sun is always shining. There is poverty here but there's also a lot of freedom and happiness, it's not all drab and hopeless. We're always amazed at how even tempered the vendors on the beach are. They plow that beach back and forth carrying their stuff that not too many people want, suffer through countless rejections and yet don't appear angry or even disappointed when you say "no gracias".
I would have put a bullet through my head a long time ago. We were trying to imagine an alternate scenario where all the vendors, mostly indigenous, sit under the palapas drinking beer, eating basically enjoying their "dolce farniente" while the gringos would be out there plowing the beach looking for potential customers. It did stir up some pretty humorous pictures in our heads even if it's never going to happen and truth be told I wouldn't want to trade places with them. It's a hard way to make a living, very hard.
I haven't blogged too much since being here because life has just been sweet and easy with nothing too much out of the ordinary to blog about. We've enjoyed it but we're getting itchy feet now and it's time to move on and explore new vistas. The beach can only sustain us for a while, we need to be stimulated anew, there's nothing like the thrill of discovery when you're traveling and that's certainly what I enjoy.
We're moving on so adios Melaque and Hola Guanajuato.