On Sunday, after having tossed and turned all night, I awake to Cosette's singing or shouting about something (it was real this time). It was 8 am, and after staying up reading (to make sure I was tired), and then tossing and turning all night, I was not in the mood for it! I heard Mabel shush her a couple of times. I repositioned my mask and stuffed my cow pillow over my exposed ear. Next thing I knew, it was a little after 10 and Mabel was knocking at my door. I had hit a deep sleep and had a hard time understanding her. Well, I understood, I just didn't process well. It almost reminded me of a time I was in Spain studying. I was sick as a dog and our house mom was a granny, but had no idea what to do with a sick American girl. I wanted sleep and quiet; she thought I needed tea and constant checking. She would come into my room every hour or so, waking me up, just to make sure I was okay. My Spanish was improving daily that summer, but in hindsight, I can see just how bad it was! Every time she would wake me, I would have a hard time answering her. Mostly because I just wanted to say leave me alone but didn't know how to do that politely in Spanish. I had a terrible time processing what she was saying.
So yesterday morning was close to that.
Mabel enters and informs me we'll be going to Los Cascabeles and I should be ready between 1 and 2. Done.
I had asked on Saturday if we'd have any plans on Sunday and we both agreed that we didn't know.
Back in Spetember or October, I went to Cosalá (the magic village) with Mabel and a bunch of her friends to a waterfall. The word for waterfall is cascadas. I was so asleep yesterday when Mabel mentioned it to me that I confused the two words and prepared myself for the waterfall! Alarms should've gone off immediately because no Mexican would get in water right now; it's so cold! (Ha!)
A little later, I was waking up and opened my computer. It's funny; I used to be a very non-tech-y person. I'm still not tech-y per se, but after buying a computer, I am on it all the time!
(I guess it helps that I often have free internet.) I opened it to check my email, play some music, and wake up a bit. Next thing I know I have an incoming Skype message from Mabel. That made me laugh. On Saturday, she had started a Skype account and added me as a contact. We had a video chat each from our rooms. It was kind of hilarious.
Anyway, she chatted me (just words, not video) to say that we would need to leave a little earlier, closer to 12. I asked her what cascabeles was because the literal translation is bells. I wanted to be prepared wherever we went. She informed me that we'd be having a picnic. That we would need to drive about an hour and then we'd be there.
I got up, got showered, and got dressed.
At noon we were ready to go.
Off we went to drop some things off at her dad's, and en route, we discussed the plan. We were going to have a carne asada (cookout, though they always translate it barbeque) and we needed to either go buy all the stuff to make it there (YIKES!) or buy all the stuff and have the store where we bought it grill it for us (perfect).
We chose option b. It cost 135 pesos for 1 kilo of meat (the grilling is free), 4 quesadillas, 12 tortillas, salsa and a salad. It took over 30 minutes to get the order ready, so we paid and went to the Oxxo to get our drinks, sides (Mabel and Cosette got chips, I got cookies), and ice for the cooler. While we were there, I added credit to my phone (I'll fill you in on THAT drama in the next one if I haven't already). We went back to the meat place and waited some more until it was ready.
1:00 pm. All is ready; off we go. We drive and drive almost an hour to the place. We have to ask directions a couple of times (not really directions since it was almost straight the whole way, mostly just affirmation that we hadn't gone too far) and finally pulled up a little after 2. As we were pulling up to the gate, we could see the place was empty. The gate was closed and locked. Hmm. Next to that place was a little spa/hotel/RV lot with a restaurant and cute little pond. We drove around there, but since we were the only people besides the gardeners, we figured it would be obvious we were trespassing (I haven't found this to be relevant before).
I must insert here that any of you that know me well would be SO PROUD (yes, it demands caps) of me and how far I've come. Things in Mexico just happen on their own time. If I had been in the US, and had ridden with any one of you to a place that turns out to be closed for the winter or on Sundays or whatever the reason, I would've been LIVID that you hadn't done your research. I would've been overly-annoyed that I had "wasted" two hours of my life. Now, however, (primarily since I have no other commitments, or other priorities besides chill and enjoy time with my company) I just enjoy the ride, realize we're going to wait another hour to eat, and refuse to let myself think how cold the food might be...
We drove back and laughed at the situation. Cosette was more than upset. She had wanted to go to los cascabeles, and she had wanted to swim. The first breakdown was when she had no swimsuit and Mabel informed her that it was too cold to swim (For a frame of reference, I was in a tank top, jeans, and flip flops and warm, but not miserably hot. Cosette was in a long sleeved t-shirt, a corduroy skirt, tights and tall boots. Cute, but made me hot!). The second breakdown occurred at the closed gates. And the third and final breakdown occurred as we were pulling out of the spa/RV park. nice combo, right? I'm envisioning the captain getting his nails done and a facial before bunking up in the m slash h for the night (if you're not a Klapheke or weren't ever one, you won't appreciate that last sentence...no worries).
That is basically the gist of our Sunday drive. Since this entry is already long enough, I'll give you lunch details in the next.
1 comment:
The last sentence of the last big paragraph put it all in perspective. I think I can envision the "spa". :)
MOM
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