Cultural Differences

Kellie's Comments--It's very interesting and a bit refreshing to be in a country where the pace is slower. On Sunday, we spend a very interesting day at a small town a bit inland from the boat. Feb 2nd is the festival of the Three Kings (Three Wise Men) and is a very important date down here. The town of Valle de Banderas hosted a week long festival. We took a bus with a group of friends and arrived there at 3:00, when we were told that it started. However, two things were wrong. One is that we had crossed a time zone and it was actually 2 local time and then other was that our info was wrong and it didn't start until 5. So we had several hours to kill. We bought sodas and beer in bottles from a small restaurant and used his bathroom. The first cultural difference is the time issue. Things seem to take much longer and are much slower to start or finish than expected. THe other are the standards. The bathroom had a shower curtain separating it from the cash register, no sink, no toilet seat and hadn't been cleaned in a good while. When Bennett (Wyndeavor's 6 year old) flushed, the handle fell off, landed in the swirling water and disappeared. We discovered a small flea market being set up around the corner, so killed an hour browsing. We did find a few small things to buy and by the time we had finished and played at a small playground nearby, we decided we could have dinner. We went back to the same place to try to compensate for the lost handle. He was cooking meat and vegies on an outdoor grill. He had thin sliced marinated pork on a rotisserie and beef cooking on a flat topped grill. Our group included Wyndeavor with Kelly's Dad, Loon, 13 year old Sophie from Nanoo, Larry from Kumara and us. We took up most of his table space in the street. No menus were offered, he just asked us how many we wanted each. How many what? Well we just guessed and each ordered 3 or 4 whatevers. We chose between beef and pork, the kids all ordered casadillas, and then we watched him make our dinners right there on the sidewalk. He asked if we all wanted "everything" on them. Not knowing what "everything" entailed, a few of us requested no onions and hoped for the best. The best is exactly what we got. Each "taquita" consisted of 2 small tortillas heaped with grilled meat, beans, cilantro, cabbage and onions. There was fresh guacamole and spicy sauce on the table. They were absolutely terrific and a few people ordered more. Even the kids ate quietly. No forks were offered, so it was just eaten with fingers off plastic bag covered plates. At the end, we asked for the bill and were told that each "taquita" cost $.65. The beers were $1 and the pops $.70. Talk about excellent. You don't get to pay those kind of prices in tourist towns. They are more than happy to charge American prices near tourist destinations. The square in front of the cathedral, where the festival was being held, was quickly filling with booths and people. About half of the booths sold fried bananas, strawberries and peaches with cream. We bought cups of fruit for the kids & I, and Pete tried a hot deep fried banana with cream and strawberry sauce. Dessert was $6. My cup overflowed the top and I dropped a strawberry on the ground. I picked it up and glanced around for a trash. The lady who had served us held out her hand for it. I assumed she had a garbage. Instead she carefully washed it with bottled water, put it back in my cup and added new cream. Ha, not exactly what we'd expect in the US, but acceptable down here. Cultural difference number 3, hygeine is not the same as US standards, but perfectly adequate in most places. We filled up a taxi mini van for the 40 minute trip home with some very tired kids. We arrived back at the boat at 10 and flopped into bed. _____________________________________ Update on our plans. On Tuesday we left Banderas Bay and rounded Cabo Corrientes on our way to points south. We sailed for about 9 hours and got into a small bay for the night. Icarian got here a few hours ahead of us and assisted us in in the dark. Today we're going to hang out, do school, do a boat project or two and explore the small beach. We'll head for Chamela tomorrow and spend about a week there with several boats that we know. The weather has been in the 80's with high humidity. Yesterday and today were overcast so the temp is lower and more comfortable. We actually donned sweatshirts for the sail down. The water is 80. There are new pics on the website, so check it out soon. Go to the "Christmas in La Paz" link in the Log of Imagine. We'll try to do more as soon as we have internet again. Thanks to all who have sent messages. We truly enjoy them. We will probably be out of e-mail range for a while, so if you don't get a personal response, know that we will try to reply when technology allows. Also, Pete's cousin's husband (Peter Vanderhelm) has agreed to crew for us to Tahiti. This will take some of the responsibility of sailing off of me and hopefully give me more energy for school and domestic responsibilities. As of now, we plan to leave the last of March and be to New Zealand by December.