Borrachera con Jaime y Rosa

 For us, these days, you just never know where the need for a taco might take you. 

After a bus ride into Puerto Vallarta for some re-provisioning at Wal-Mart, with a growl in our belly, we are on the lookout for a tasty looking taco joint to hit up before we get back to Punta Mita where the boat is anchored. As the bus is pulling into the town of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle  we set our sites on a Senora standing over her grill. We hail the bus driver, who conveniently drops us off in front of a tienda, grab the standard mealtime ballenon, and hustle back towards the aroma of grilling meat. We are quickly seated and chatted up by our soon to be “compadre”, Jaime.

We promptly complete the introductions (and our tacos), scoot ourselves over to Jaime’s table, and are presented with another icy cold ballenon. Gracias. Always eager to improve our Spanish, we dive into conversation, translator dictionary in hand.  All too soon, another cold one has passed, and Rosa is cleaning up and readying to close up shop. Payment for our lunch is refused and it is insisted we come to their house for more beers and musica!

This is the juncture, not that we had much choice. All in all, these are the situations that must be embraced when traveling. Getting to spend time with locals and letting them take you “for a ride” can be a great perspective widener.

So we hop in the back of Jaime’s pickup and barrel around the corner to the casa. Valentine and other assorted “romantico” artists are put on, dancing and singing lessons begin (of course to them we have two left feet and lack rhythm),  and the micheladas flow. (a michelada is pretty much a bloody beer. Beer + clamato + lime + hot sauce) Soon fresh shark tacos are being fried up for us and we decide ,with a full belly, it is time to head out. Launching a dinghy off the beach in the dark  with all our groceries that we are still lugging around, could be quite a feat. Better we stop now. We are escorted to the bus stop. Hugs and kisses abound. Jaime insisted Marc give Rosa a kiss on the cheek goodbye, only to her embarrassment, as she is somewhat shy. She also doesn’t drink and was just giggling all along. We make plans to meet later in the week.

We spent over a week more in Mita and ended up spending a few more days with them and meeting their daughters and grandchildren. On one of the occasions we were taken into Puerto Vallarta and shown around. As a bonus to being in the city, we were treated to KFC. Neither of us can remember the last time we ate there, but to them it was splurging. How could we not be grateful.