Un viaje al país - A trip to the country

Omar, Esther, and Mario

We got to see countryside that no other tourists could ever hope to see. Esther, Omar's sister in law, was raised on a farm a short drive form Santa Rita Tlahuapan. After breakfast she told us she was going to get some fruit. So, off we go to her father's farm.

Breakfast at Esther and Mario's

Lalo, another of Omar's brothers, provided the car, a Dodge Shadow hatchback, with him driving. The car has seen better days, but these are poor people. Badly cracked windshield, loose windows that do not crank, but do stay up for a short distance, then they drop into the door space. To save gas, he turned the key off to coast downhill. The ride was pretty slow, especially uphill, maybe because the shocks were worn out and he was afraid of breaking a spring.

Farm, facing the road

Esther's father was outside when we arrived at the farm, Esther greeted her father first by kissing his hand, then his cheek, and did the same when her mother came out. After a few niceities, her sister, yet another attractive and vivacious woman, took us out to pick some produce. It is a pretty good sized farm, with apple, pear, peach, and cherry trees, plus more local fruit trees. There was a wide variety of vegetables being grown, and they keep chickens, turkeys, geese, rabbits, and pigs.

Karen and Esther

After a long walk around the farm, we headed to the house, and as you should have guessed, a meal of pork. First, they brought Roger a Victoria beer. Then, the pork ribs with mole poblano – Holy Moses, it was the best we have ever eaten. Later she brought out an excellent pot of brown beans, and some sort of fruit and herb mixture folded up in a homemade tortilla. We finished it off with roasted corn we had just picked.

Now, all this was cooked over an open fire on a metal brazier The house had a courtyard in front with a detached kitchen of adobe next to the house. The sisters crisscrossed some larger pieces of wood and set them alight, then placed a round pan on it, then they grilled the pork and toasted the tortillas on that. Omar says the corn is grown and ground locally, there is no need for packaged corn meal. The fresh ground does make a difference.

After we finished eating, some men came by for a meal as well. Handshaking seems very important here. Just as at Sunday's party, it is a ritual to shake hands on greeting someone. Everyone participates, down to the smaller children, it's like a greeting line at some diplmatic event. Karen does well with the spoken greetings, but Roger is still slow to pick up on sucha simple phrase as “mucho gusto,” “pleased to meet you.”

By the time lunch was over, our group grew in size, as the kids joined us after school. They wanted to visit a fish farm, where they raise rainbow and golden trout. Remember that Dodge Shadow hatchback? Twelve of us got in it. Roger and Lallo were in front. Four of the women squeezed into the back seat, and the rest-3 boys and a two-year-old girl but also two adults, sat behind the back seat, with the hatchback propped open. 

Driving through a small town

It was a slow, slow journey. To keep people from speeding, they build large speed bumps all the way through town. Some were too high, the car dragged with the heavy load. Then there was the dirt road to the fish farm, crossing a good sized volcanic mountain on a steep, curvy, dirt road. The trip will stand out as an unforgettable memory of our visit, we assure you. 

Quarry for "tierra blanca", volcanic ash

At the bottom of the mountain, the fish farm had a small park. We bought sme of the rainbow trout, which they caught, cleaned and cooked for us, Mexican style, of course, with spicy seasonsoning, El diablo (the devil, it's callled.)

Just another day of high adventure in Mexico.

Roger has been taking pictures of a high mountain, but never could get its full grandeur because clouds are always hiding its top. Turns out, its Popocatepetl, a very acitive volcano that caused a wide scale evacuation the last time it erupted.

Your turistas in Mexico,

Karen and Roger