Altata

I'm realizing that on the 7th day of September, I have as many entries as the whole month of August, and I even did lots of cool stuff in August.  I wonder how much memory I'm allowed to use on a blog...

Yesterday morning, the cleaning lady came.  She was here from 8 until about 10:30.  I stayed asleep until 8:30ish and in bed until 9:30.  That's when she was coming upstairs anyway, so it worked out perfectly.  I went downstairs, where Mabel was fixing scrambled eggs for Cosette and Paulina and she dished me up the first serving.  And it was a big one.  It had onion and salchicha, which I had always seen translated as sausage.  Well, it's hot dogs.  I ate that, with catsup (the only spelling of the word in Mexico), and had a piece of pre-toasted bread with strawberry jelly.  I also had chocolate milk to drink as we're out of water.  The milk was a mixture of a powder, sugar and whole milk.  I enjoyed it, though I feared my body would be mad at me.  It was only mad for being full, not for the high fat content.

After breakfast, when the cleaning lady was gone, Maricela (Mabel's sister) called and was on her way to pick us up.  The original plan had been to leave at 10. We left at 11:30.  Maricela drove us the short distance, yet with a low speed limit to Altata.  It took over an hour I think.  Maricela drives a very new looking Jetta.   I can't tell if she's worked her tail off, or if she's spoiled or what.  We got to "Altata Proper" if you will, and they explained to me that we could be going to New Altata for the beach and Old Altata for lunch.  Check.  We got to New Altata and the bridge to the private beach where we were going was gorgeous.  It looked a lot like the Florida Keys.  When we pulled into the parking lot, Maricela (ever the teacher) was explaining that there was a public beach that is free, but that they have a membership to the club where there is a pool, restaurant, bathrooms and beach access.  The entry was 60 pesos if you're not a member, but on each membership card, I suppose they allow one guest?  I got in free is my point, though I would've willingly shelled out 6 bucks for the beach and pool.

Here's a good time to talk about money.  I saw an ad in the paper yesterday seeking employees for a pharmacy.  I'm not sure exactly what kind of work it was, but a high school diploma was required.  The salaried pay for 15 days was $170.  $340 a month is take-home pay from this job.  Now I see why some of my parents at school wanted to only pay half of the book now, half later.  The cost of living is obviously lower here, and many people work several jobs, but I found that number to be astonishingly low.

Back to the beach.  We got inside the resort-esque area and went straight to the beach.  It's the Gulf of California, but it doesn't compare to Destin.  The sand is very dark brown, like it's mixed with dirt.  There were many ouchy shells that seemed like they were from Myrtle Beach or somewhere on the Atlantic.

We swam in the Ocean for awhile, but the tide was strong and the waves big, so we headed to the pool.  At the beach, we were the only ones in the water.  There was one family playing in the sand, but you don't spread out your towels and lay out.  You jump in the water while your stuff is back near the pool, and then call it a day from the beach.  Again, I can't generalize what all of Mexico does based on one family, but this is what we did.

The pool was nice.  No area over 4 feet deep.  The water was cool enough, and I stayed in the whole time.  It was a very hot day.

About 2:40 we realized we had lost track of time, so we packed up and got into the car for Old Altata, about a 15 minute drive going 30 miles an hour.  Old Altata is what you probably picture as a non-resort Mexican beach.  We parked on the dirt road literally right beside the restaurant.  The restaurant was one of a slew to them on the waterfront.  Erase from your mind how you picture waterfront restaurants and let me explain it to you.  These restaurants are big tents with two poles in the water and two on the street. So when I say Maricela parked right next to the restaurant, I mean that a customer could reach out and touch her car from his seat.

There were 6 tables that you couldn't get to because the water was so high.  We sat in a dry area.  The "kitchen" seemed to be a permanent land mass of some sort.  I think it was a concrete floor with the tent overhead.  It was breezy and you could see the fishermen and shrimp men from where we were sitting.

Shrimp was the recommended dish and it was made however you wanted it.  Shrimp soup, shrimp tacos, shrimp gumbo, boiled shrimp, fried shrimp, shrimp kebobs.  Okay, enough Forrest Gump.  It was actually only made in Mexican ways: ceviche, which is basically a very drippy serving of cut up shrimp with onions, peppers, etc served cold.  Shrimp cocktail looks like a soup in a tall glass.  I had fried shrimp and they fry the whole shrimp.  Mabel told me I had to suck the juice out of the head.  No can do.  Not under typical conditions, but especially not in Mexico, where I see the eyes on my very large, tailed friend.  I ate them with ketchup, rice and lettuce wrapped in tortillas.  I can't get enough of hot tortillas.

After lunch, we remembered that Diana (enlace who I met at Casa Achoy, reading program this week) sings outside the public beach every Saturday.  We went and listened to her for about an hour.  We were so full, but it was a restaurant, so Maricela and Mabel each ordered a Tecate.

The band took a break, and Diana told us about the broken air conditioner at her Saturday night gig.  We exchanged numbers and headed home.

It was a great exhausting day in the sun, and I didn't get burned!