Wednesday, November 25, 2009

On the Corner

This morning we discussed that we would eat Mexican-style eggs (huevos a la Mexicana). As usual, Miguel went to the market to pick up what we would need for today. On the list was tortillas.

He arrived back home with two bags loaded with fruit. But no tortillas.

That's ok - I said I would just walk down to the corner of our street and wave down a passing beep-beep bicycle vendor with a cooler of hot tortillas.

I got to the corner and listened. Silence. No beep-beep. Darn - I would have to stand and wait.

While lingering on the corner, our neighborhood beat patrol cop (also a local business owner), arrived for work on his moped. He parked on the corner opposite from where I was standing, and after the "Buenos Dias" greeting, I told him that I was there waiting for tortillas.

The cop told me that he would be bringing our furniture order over tomorrow, they were just applying the varnish today. "Ok, muy bien, gracias", I said.

There still wasn't a beep-beep sound anywhere, so I decided to walk up to my neighbor's house and feed her cats. It was a little earlier than usual, but with other things on our agenda today, it would be good to get that out of the way.

As I walked towards their block, the stray white cat that mooches food from me had jumped through the gate and was heading north. As I continued walking towards the house, a block away from the cat, he suddenly turned around and looked at me. All the cats seem to know my footsteps, they are at the gate before I get there because they've heard me coming. And this white cat knew it was me too.

Ah ha! I could hear him thinking. Here's breafast! He turned right around and walked towards the gate. Although I cannot touch this cat, he is responding to me by meowing to let me know he is hungry - something he did not do the last time I took care of the cats in the spring. He is not a pretty cat at all - part Himalayan and part Siamese, with a wicked overbite. He is not nearly as scrawny as he was a few months ago when I thought he was starving. He has learned where to stake his claim when I put down the piles of food, so he's well-fed now.

The orange cat with the crooked head (some sort of muscle disorder), is always there to greet me. He is the resident cat and almost never leaves the property. Unlike the grey cat, who seems to live at my neighbor's house but can often be seen outside the property. This morning the grey cat was not around - I think it was because it was earlier than usual and he was caught off-guard.

With the cats fed I headed back to my corner. Still no sound of beep-beep tortillas. The cop was getting ready to start his rounds, and as he headed up the road, he told me that if he came across the tortilla guy he would tell him I was there waiting.

The cop got as far as a block away when we both heard the beep-beep. He called back to me just as I called to him - "tortillas. I saw him tell the guy that I was waiting, and so arrived a nice hot package of tortillas, placed into my hands.

I walked back home and arrived to the smell of sauteed onions and garlic - the start of the huevos a la Mexicana. Mmmmm...breakfast was good today!

5 comments:

Life's a Beach! said...

If I could only walk out my door right now and wait for someone to bring me butter, pecans, and an onion. Or even walk a block to the grocery store! I'd better get going and fight the Thanksgiving mobs at the store! Great post Sue!

jeanie said...

Sue, You make gathering the ingredients for a meal a fun adventure.

Islagringo said...

Sometimes I don't think I even live on the same island as you. Maybe because there are so many foreigners living on my street, but vendors of any kind never go by. I sometimes hear their whistles and bells on the street behind me but they never come out to the main street.

Islagringo said...

I should mention, the only exception to what I just said is the "queso Oakaka" guy. But then, he is everywhere!

Sue said...

Beck - I can get margarine and onions at the corner store, but pecans - probably not anywhere except maybe Mirtita and the Super. And then I'm not sure how fresh they'd be - I think I'd pick them up in Cancun (which is a little farther than you probably had to go, no?). So there's a balance.

Jeanie - sometimes it is truly a challenge and one has to be creative with substitutions. I will be happy when we have 'bread' flour here!

Wayne - too bad, you don't know what you're missing! Although, the queso Oaxaca man never comes down my street, he just goes down the main back road and since we can hear him even when he's on the other side of the lagoon, we'd be able to go out and catch him. Did you notice that he doesn't wear shoes? Can you imagine all the walking he does, and then doing it in barefeet!?