It has been a few weeks since I posted. We have been very busy and enjoying the local culture. We attended two cooking courses. The first cooking course started with a tour of the local markets where we found where the “true” local farmers markets were located. We learned about the six different kinds of bananas in the area, local cheeses, and traditional pork dishes that are eaten in a bolillo (a Mexican bread roll that is shaped similar to a croissant but made with a chewy type of bread); the center of the bread roll is removed and stuffed with the pork dish – absolutely delicious! We also learned about many of the locally available peppers and chili’s. Did you know a dried jalapeño is a chipotle pepper? After returning from the market we learned how to make ceviche and tiritas (Zihuatanejo ceviche) and fish tacos complete with recipes and tasting our creations! A unique culinary experience in Monica’s backyard! Wow!
In our second cooking class a few days later we learned to cook a charros bean dish – absolutely delicious; including epazote which is a local Mexican herb that helps relive the gassiness that comes from eating beans. We also made molcajete salsa (stone-ground salsa) in a mortar and pestle – OMG! Going to have to buy one of these gizmos! Not be topped by cooking squash blossom’s fried in cheese! I know how to use all those squash blossoms I got last year without throwing them out!
Are you hungry yet? Pretty sure we’ll be trying these dishes at home!
Blue water tour
We went out by boat on Thursday on the search for a spot to dive in blue water. The blue water today was about 4 – 6 miles from shore so very deep but the visibility and color background is amazing.
Here is Joao on the hunt for current and/or gatherings of debris or vegetation that can typically gather near these currents. Schools of fish, birds, turtles and other ocean mammals follow these currents for a source of food.
Once you find a current on the ocean it looks like a road.
Now all we have to do is follow the road (current) and looks for signs of life!
Dolphins are a good sign that large schools of fish are nearby!
Two of the people on the dive boat jumped in to swim with the dolphins but it seems they have young ones with them so are quite skittish and swim away when we enter the water.
Any day you see dolphins on the ocean is just awesome!!
Dive anyone? Well, no luck seeing any large mammals (that want to play) or large schools of fish; we brought our dive gear so I guess we might as well go for a dive. Solitary rock – here we come!
The visibility wasn’t great at Solitary rock today but we had a good dive nonetheless.
Love these urchins! This picture looks like the lower triangles are on fire! Very Cool!
Here is another cool Stonefish sitting on a ledge of the rocks. We also saw a couple spotted Eagle rays but the timing didn’t work to get a picture – maybe next time.