New asador

We had a carne asada party a week ago with Harris and Audrey and the construction crew. We used his big asador even after putting it under the overhang because of rain. They live on the third floor and have a small balcony so small is good, They told me they bought a small one like above at Cristaleria Gladys for 90 pesos but they had no more with legs. I ended up with the Cristaleria just down from Hawaii. They wanted 139 pesos and I had to buy a grill for 60 pesos.

Harris bought some marinated pork (like carne asada) and it was super good. I bought some and tried to pan fry it and it wasn't even close. I had a large asador but the sheet metal bottom burned and rusted out. I decided to buy the one above. That's the grill, starter fluid, and the carbon. 3 days now and have yet to use it.

What a rain

Coyota slept in the bodega to avoid the rain

Look like a river bed? It was last night

Sewer pipe uncovered

We should have paid attention to the Internet weather because our backyard carne asada party got rained out yesterday. We cooked under the overhang and took all the food inside. Still had a great time and good food.

The big holes (charcos) coming back to Pinal Villa were full of water and as we came into Pinal it turned into a river. I turned into the community to avoid the section of road in the fotos. The water was easily over a foot deep and really moving. It rained again early this morning but the weather channel says it's over. Sun for the next week. Relief because I'm picking up friends at the airport this afternoon.

Cumpleaños de María

A kiss from Danny

Un beso de Danny

Cut the cake Grandma

Birthday was Saturday but we had the party Sunday. At what age do you stop with candles I don't know but you'd need both cakes for 86.

Very good carne asada, lots of kids and good conversation. I finally had to leave after our stream of consciousness neighbor came over to bogart the airwaves. The final straw was him telling us about the millions of dams in the United States being decommissioned because they were no longer financially effective. Oh well !!

Last Saturday for Carne Asada

The construction project in West Melaque has come down to the last week so we decided to have a carne asada party on te last Saturday. Only about two months work this year because of a mix up on Seguro and a troublesome Presta Nombre. Next year should be smoother and be able to work for a full 3 months. Workers can only work while the Canadians are here to oversee the work and to pay them and Seguro.

Harris and Audrey bought the meat and for the first time I had marinated pork asada (adobada). I bought all the veggies, avocados, carbon (charcoal) and a cubeta (bucket) of cerveza. After plenty of work and plenty of food, everyone was too tired to drink many of those small Coronitas (small Coronas). I came home with 5 of the 24.

So Thursday will be the last day of work and Harris and I will get lessons on how to paint the rebar with a cement wash. We were thinking to paint with the usual orange protection paint but the Maestro says the cement won't stick to paint. When they are ready to work again and go higher .... just tap the rebar and the cement will fall off. 

Chef for the day

Beef, pork and onions

Serve yourself

Cooked and to be cooked

Carne Asada party

I should have taken pictures a little earlier because this one just barely worked. The table full of Oscar and his family out in the garden didn't come out at all. A bunch of kids were using my computer for the Internet. Five gringos and nine Mexicans had a great time and dinner. Lorena did her famous butterflied and breaded shrimp and Hugo did the grill cooking. 

Nahima's Kitchen

It's got everything

A stove, fridge, sink and coffee maker

Nahima with Linda's doll present

There is nothing religious or sacred about Christmas for me. It's just vacation time and time to make some kids happy with a few presents, especially the younger ones. We went into town yesterday for a number of things including a trip to the Mirador and that is where Nahima is standing. Lorena had put the kitchen on "lay-away" and they snuck it into the back of my car so Nahima wouldn't see and then hid it in my bodega. I had a vague idea what it was so bought a large package of kitchen utensils. 

Linda brought the hippy doll down from Canada and a pair of long pants. Nahima wants to sleep in them. Yare got a colored pencil set and some clothes .... and Euriel got a Hotrod magazine.

Gonna have about 15 people over tomorrow for carne asada and shrimp and I think we have most everything, but I need to pick up friends tomorrow so will get what we forgot.

Bigger than I thought it would be

Larger and taller than I pictured but that just means more shade. It also hides the tinaco on the bodega behind it. Putting up the palapas (palm fronds) yesterday pretty much took over the yard so my cement workers had to take a break along with helping the 'palaperos' a little. Very nice work in my mind and I would recommend these guys to anyone in the area. Including the wood frame and palapa the cost was 8000 pesos (about $700us).

After they left we gathered under the palapa, had a few 'cubas' (coke and tequila) followed by tacos de carne asada. Very satisfying day. I'll post some of the construction fotos on the house building Blog soon.

Posada after work

Carne asada, friends and music. We quit work around 2 yesterday and started up the bar-b-que. Hugo brought over a bottle of Tequila, I bought some beer and people started to arrive. Didn't party late as many wanted to spend the evening with family