This morning, we got up at 8 because Herbert had offered to drive us to San Miguel if we got up early. They think we sleep so much but we just leave the house late because there’s not much to do out in the heat all day! Anyways I was a little apprehensive about being driven to San Miguel because I wanted to be able to do our own things when we got there but we got up at 8 and walked to the main house for breakfast.
Breakfast was tamales, which I was excited for but they were super gelatinous and one of mine had a really pungent chunk of beef organ meat…I was not a fan. We had coffee again though, and that always helps.
By the time we’d finished eating, the offer had gone from “Herbert will drive you to the city” to “Mayra has to run errands so she’s gonna come and Herbert has to go to the market so you guys will just tag along”. This is not what we’d wanted from the outing, but we had no choice now.
On the way out, we had to wait for some cows to cross by the driveway before leaving. The entire family (grandpa included) were yelling at them to leave but Kara and I love seeing the cows they’re so cute!
Mayra got out of the car in the center of town to try to shoo this other curious cow away from the gate but we didn’t really know what was going on, she tried throwing rocks at the cow and she did NOT move and finally we just drove away so I don’t really know what the point of any of that was.
The rock tactic is a move we’d seen used before, though. The other night when we walked to the centre of town for pupusas, we encountered a dog trying to poop on the dirt road. Mayra kept trying to throw rocks and scare the dog away MID-POOP, I swear it tried to squat at least 5 times before she finally left it alone. Kara and I were just standing back in shock, feeling bad for the poor thing.
Anyways back to the drive. Herbert was driving Mayra’s son’s new truck, and the smell in there (nothing special, just a little weird new car smell) was NAUSEATING me. It didn’t help that Herbert is quite a speedy driver, passing lots on small roads, making the hour-long drive quite uncomfortable for me.
Once we got to San Miguel, we were hurriedly dropped off at an intersection with Mayra. This happens all the time on this trip! Whether it be a bus or a shuttle or anything else, we always arrive at our destination with NO warning whatsoever and have to scramble out of the vehicle at a moment’s notice. Anyways, Mayra walked us around a bit while Herbert went to the market.
We went to the church, then she showed us the national theatre building, and we walked over to the market.
After walking through and buying a few veggies with Mayra, we went back to walking on the street. Somehow, Mayra got caught up playing some stupid promo game at an appliance store which was obviously a scam.
We stood there for way too long while she lost way too much money and finally left when she had to go withdraw more from a bank. I felt terrible for her but at least we didn’t go back to keep playing.
After being scammed (for the second time on this trip, but that was part of the lost chapter), we walked to a cafeteria / bakery thing to wait for Herbert. Mayra tried to ask us SO many times if we wanted to eat but I did not want cafeteria hot plate food and Kara wasn’t hungry so we refrained.
We did have a horchata though because Herbert had one at supper last night and he told us it’s different than Mexican horchata so we had to try one. Honestly, horchata-flavoured things are always better than regular horchata in my opinion, but it was okay.
Speaking of yesterday, Mayra made me try bread dipped in coke which was really weird but she loves it! It didn’t taste bad but there’s something about the wet bread that I just cannot get behind.
Once Herbert picked us up, we all hopped in the truck and Kara and I thought we were going home but we actually went to a little gaited parking lot with a bunch of restaurants and stores inside. Mayra and Herbert went to Pizza Hut while Kara and I stole 15 minutes of freedom to go get snacks for tomorrow’s travel day (we’ve depleted our stash while we’ve been here).
We each got a piece of garlic bread in the truck on the way back and then had pizza when we got back to the house. Mayra also served us the refresco de arrayán again, which is super refreshing.
After lunch, Kara and I needed a break so we headed back to the guest house and I spent some time on call with Keith and had a nap.
Around 6, we started walking to the main house, but were intercepted by Mayra and taken for a tour of Herbert’s new house being built next door.
It’s a very big house, gorgeous, and there was a beautiful sunset to go with it.
Back at the main house, we had “chilaquiles” for supper, which were actually just quesadillas.
They were delicious, but these people live in a strange world where a quesadilla is a cake and chilaquiles are quesadillas.
I also took a picture of this adorable photo they had hanging on their wall of René, Tante Suzanne, and Andrés.
After supper, Mayra gave us each a coffee (yum) and a chocobanano (yuck) and blasted some music for a bit.
We spent about an hour watching music videos before saying goodbye to the family and going to the guesthouse to pack for tomorrow morning.
René had offered to drive us tomorrow which is great but we hadn’t heard a PEEP from him all day. I texted him to ask what time we had to leave because I knew it was early (our ferry leaves at 7am). Finally, after hours of stressing and waiting for him to answer multiple messages, he told us he’d pick us up at 4:30am. Perfect.
We took a picture of Kara to remember how BIG the hammocks were here! These ones are some of the most comfortable I’ve ever found they’re so nice!
Kara and I wrote Mayra a note, left her $50 and attached it to a painting Kara made of us. We felt bad because she always paid for everything for us, fed us, housed us, and wouldn’t let us help her with anything. She was a wonderful host and we’re glad we got to do a little something for her.
I 100% packed all of my stuff (very satisfying, it’s so rare to be able to 100% pack the night before), called Keith and headed to bed.
See you in the next one for Nicaragua!