Sunday morning, our last before flying home next Friday for Christmas. The ‘Love Boat’ cruise ship is just visible across the bay at Pichelingue. It’s quite windy, so that will not be good for all the excursions they will have on the water. Hopefully, tennis will not be affected this afternoon.

We’ve had a nice week and have eaten out quite a few times. Wednesday we tried a new place down on the main road called Ruby’s Cantina - it was pretty good. The next night we were going to have Iguana’s excellent wood-fired pizza, but when we arrived, Paco the chef opened the gate and said they were closed because he was painting in the outdoor kitchen… he was actually doing 2 original artworks for an auction to raise money for the K9 dog refuge (where Molly came from)… so we went to Ruby’s again!

Yesterday we were down in the local El Centenarrio ’hood’ and Leanne spotted a hand-written sign saying ‘pollo’. We walked into their back garden where a guy was just taking a rack of BBQ’d pollos off the wood fire. We said we would like one, and then were invited back by LuLu (his mother) to the open kitchen where she proceeded to load a plate for me with tamales and borrego out of huge pots on the stove. We asked ‘what’s borrego’ and she pointed at this goat-like creature tied up at the back of the yard (presumably next week’s dinner!) They insisted we sit down with them at the family table and we had a lovely time. We walked away with chicken dinner for 2 including homemade salsa, pasta salad and tortillas for about $5.  What a great Mexican moment, and the chicken was really good.

Last night we attended a charity art auction at La Morante to raise money for a school that Valerie is involved with. None of the art appealed to us, but at the end of the evening they ‘raffled’ a painting by the host - and guess what, Leanne won. It was actually the only painting we really liked all night, Geovanni Ibarra the artist signed the back and we will hang it the new casa next year.

Now for the bacon! We have found a great local place a few blocks away where they smoke the best bacon ever.

the whole fleet

the columns that hold the roof on the patio

at Ruby's with Brenda our neighbour from Alberta

1/2 kilo for just over $4

Molly can't resist scavenging after the builders leave

yard clearing (pre Paris climate agreement)

Me and LuLu will meet again soon

Leanne questions why we are washing the car

Leanne at the kitchen sink

Proud winner with Geovanni the artist

Almost ready for the roof!