Happy Valentine's’ s Day

Saturday, February 14

Quietly I place a Valentine’s heart onto Ramiro’s and Mom’s pillow before I leave for my early morning walk. Valentines day is celebrated in Mexico,with Balloon hearts, candy and Teddy bears, just like in North America. What is different in Mexico however, is a kissing contest, which we don’t have in North America.
So we should go to Guadalajara to take part in the kissing contest.
On our way out of Roca Azul, we stop by a house, which I have admired for some time. It’s well kept with a beautiful garden. We meet the owner, Marcy, from California and ask her a million questions about purchasing a home here. She has decided to make Roca Azul her permanent home and has lots of advise.
We ask if we may come back next week to talk to her some more. After all, we are on our way to the kissing contest and don’t want to be late.

As we get closer to Guadalajara we change our mind. We all know who’s the best kisser anyway, and besides, it would be so boring for Mom. Instead we drive to Tonala, where we hope to find some pottery. The wholesaler along the main road, is very happy as we make a huge selection. Even Mom, who is getting jealous of us with all the beautiful items we are able to purchase, decides to buy some pots, which, I convince her can easily be taken in her hand luggage.
We want to show Mom all the other stores and forgot where they are. We ask for directions six times and six times we get a different answer. We finally end up on a 20 block long fleamarket. I hate fleamarkets, but nevertheless get a kick out of the variety of items being sold here. From Chicharones, (fresh pork rind) to freshly plucked chicken. We work our way back to the car and insist on finding the place we went to last year. with the many shops. A bit cranky, we finally find it but must have lunch first. We received some feedback from the blog the other day, that lately, on every other picture, we are either eating or drinking, so you won’t see a picture of us doing either one. But I will show you the musician. Because It is Valentine's day, Ramiro is very generous and spends $10 Pesos to have the musician play a love song.

We have some more shopping to do and enter most of the stores with pottery, wall hangings, furniture, glassware, drapery and table clothes. Now we have the entire house furnished, all we need is a house. We love to dream and we both seem to have the same dream, whihc makes it so much nicer.

Too bad we have to go back to the RV park, we are having way to much fun.
But we don’t want to make the same mistake as yesterday and after all we have an engagement at 5 pm. It takes us a good 1.5 hour. This must be the busiest day and time of the week, the roads are terribly busy and we are not sure how to get back.
Let me give you some advise. If you ever plan on driving into Guadlajara, never drive on Saturday and especially not after 3 pm. Let us be the crazy ones.
Consider taking a taxi and let them do the driving.
With our excellent team work, we make it back only half an hour later than originally planned.
As we return to the RV, there is a business card from Ted from PA on the door. What a shame that we have missed him. But he plans to come back next week. We will make sure we are home then, because we never had a chance to say goodbye and have some things to discuss.

During the week, the Roca Azul park is deserted, but on the weekend it is full with visitors. We learn that this weekend is Dad’s weekend. They are dozens of Dad’s out caming with their young children. As we walk home to the RV, we see dozens of falshlights wandering around. What a treat for the Mom’s who get to stay home.
The RV park tenants have a potluck supper planned this evening and we were invited. I already made a Greek salad this morning, so we quickly grab the salad, some cutlery, plates and a bottle of wine and join the rest of the group. We finally get to know our neighbours and are having a good time. Even Mom is enjoying herself. The best part is the Chocolate fondue. However, I heard a lot of positive comments about the Greek salad and there was none left when we went home.

At least three couples are leaving tomorrow, it is going to be quiet here.
This is Mom’s last night with us, as she is leaving tomorrow. She spends the evening packing.