Aaah…woke up to the sound of the propane dude’s recorded trumpet charge and declaration: “You’re a GOD!…you’re a god.” Atleast that’s what it sounded like to my gringo ears. Some mornings it sounds like “You’re a DOG!…you’re a dog.” But this morning “I’m a god!” And I must say, it feels great. The sun is shining; a rooster’s crowing; dogs are barking; a man’s whistling; a dump truck just drove by full of rubble, and someone in the street just asked “Como esta?” Becky turned the fountain on; Nemo grabbed his Frisbee, and I hear a shutter tripping. She must be taking photographs of her yellow calla lilies.
Yesterday, we worked in the garden until noon—pruning, potting, planting—then walked down to the Friday market at Plaza San Francisco in search of flower pots. Ran into our dear friends Santiago, Bob and Rosa, who were loaded down with plants from Uruapan. After a nice visit and plans to get together we marched into the mercado to stock up on produce. Love the mercado in Patzcuaro; it’s a maze of narrow streets covered with colorful, plastic tarpoleums that go up each morning and come down each evening. Always bustling with people shopping, men delivering boxes of fruits and vegetables on dollies sporting multi-colored ropes, men carrying sides of beef on bloody shoulders, and women carrying sleeping babies wrapped in dark blue rebozos. Yesterday, it seemed everyone was eating a big bag of changungas (a type of yellow cherry). Saw the most amazing little mangoes the size of walnuts, others the size of cantelopes, and fresas and blackberries and tiny, smooth-skinned aguacates. The mercado is full to bursting with produce but also other essential items and services one needs to make it thru each day, including: bootleg cds, giant bags of cheetos, dirty comic books, machetes, and an impressive number of little barber shops. At the epicenter of the mercado is a cool building containing carnecerias and florerias full of busy people chopping and arranging. Near Super Pollo there are always three or four Purepecha women in traditional dress sitting on the floor selling amazing handmade tortillas, and usually blue corn tortillas. Rico! Our pink vinyl shopping bags maxed out with a week’s worth of goodies, we hit Rive Pan for pastries, bought a couple of rotesserie chickens, then headed home for a delicious comida and siesta.
