Gina Tour on Saturday

Gina, the tourism goddess.
Gina has a tourist 'hut' on the corner near the beginning of the tourist strip. We often stop just to say hi and to see what's happening during any week. She always has some suggestion. She is very outgoing, experienced, and her English is excellent.

This morning we joined her, and three other couples for a walking tour of the city. One couple was from Calgary, one from Tennessee and one from Vermont.
Her first order of business was to take us out for breakfast. She chose a very nice place right on the beach. Here we had local coffee (grown for years in the local mountains, organic simply because it has always been, and it has a nice mild flavour. Lots of 'mud' in the bottom of the cup.

When our plates of food came we were treated to some soupy black beans (wonderful flavour) and on the rest of the plate was a pile of cook napoles (cactus leaves). They had been cooked just right so were good too. Along with that was a big plate of mild, fresh salsa and baskets of corn tortillas. We rolled the beans and napoles and salsa in the tortilla and had a yummy 'real' Mexican breakfast. Gina is trying to encourage locals to take pride in their local dishes.


So, after brekky we started walking northward. We stopped at the big Catholic church and she shared some political/church stories that suggest they still work hand in hand down here even though church is supposed to be separate from the state.
We walked quickly to keep up with Gina, she had a mission to accomplish and that involved quite a few stops.

First stop was at a tamale shop. One family spends every day making tamales to sell. Huge pots of chicken cooking in herbs, huge pot of fabulous smelling mole that will be mixed in and all will be wrapped in corn husks. We will be sure to go back some afternoon and buy some for a meal.


Next we stopped at a little shop where two ladies were busy grinding. They had 6 grinders and each was dedicated to its own purpose. We saw them make a hot red pepper with garlic sauce (the aroma was enough to clear your sinuses). She ground some corn into meal in another grinder, another was used for coffee, one for chocolate which she mixed with almond and the others were for other grains.
From that stop it was a quick paced walk to the mercado a few blocks away.


We had been there a couple of weeks ago but what fun to go with Gina. First stop was for us all to get a shopping bag. Now off we go to the various stalls. She shows us unique spices and fruits and we taste quite a few things - even nicely spiced grasshopper - honest. By the time she left us we had a bag full of items that she had purchased for all of us, and some were gratis to her too. Peanuts, pumpkin seed, French grand pepper (smells like allspice) huge piece of loofa, sweet tortilla shells and tastes of a variety of fruit.


So we paid Gina for her services and she departed (to go back to her tourist stall). We wandered around the market for a little longer, buying fruit, flowers and local cheese.

One more stop at the bank because it's nearly time to pay our rent for Feb.
By the time we got back to our abode we were happy to have a little fruit and yogurt for lunch and then siesta again.