Tonala Time

June 27, 2013< Our Hotel

So here it is, day 3 of our journey and it's been a pretty good day.  Started out this morning driving to one of my favorite restaurants here.  El Rincon del Sol.  It's been here for years - always has good food and is a lovely atmosphere.  It's only 2 blocks from our hotel, so we normally walk - but today, loaded up the animals and parked right in front of the restaurant. 

 

                                      

  It's a quaint place, filled with equipale tables and chairs, covered with colorful woven tablecloths.  It has an almost outdoor feel to it, even though it is under roof - well, roofs....when it rains, it rains inside as well.  Didn't have that problem today - it was lovely out.  Our breakfasts were served with fresh squeezed orange juice and delicious coffee.  Only about 1 year and a half ago, I had my very first cup of coffee right here in this restaurant!!  Yes, really.

We left there and headed to the "tianguis" area of Tonala (kinda like a flea market, but everything is new) where vendors have booths upon booths upon booths selling their wares. The main tianguis is on Thursday and Sunday - literally hundreds and hundreds of vendors set up in the streets on Tonala.  You can get some really good prices on decor items, clothing, purses, artwork, etc...etc...  These guys today were just filling out the rest of the week.  We found a place to park and Bob went over and talked to a guy about some baskets for our courtyard lights while I guarded the car and those babies.  We decided to buy the lights, but had to make a trip to find a shipper first.  We talked to one guy - he said 600 (@50 bucks) pesos to ship to San Carlos.  So...we went and bought the light baskets.  Came back and the shipping had gone up to 1300 pesos (@ 110 bucks)- MORE than we paid for the baskets.  Before we were done, they wanted 2600 pesos!?!?!?!  I don't think so.  Bob found his way over to Castores - another truck line that come to our little town and they agreed to ship them for 511 pesos.  Now THAT's more like it!!!  

Bob and I came back, and because it was already kind of late in the day, we decided to stay another night.  SO... I headed to the Internet store to check some of our routes and print some stuff out.  

Came back for a delicious lunch at the hotel and then I went shopping.....well, looking really.  It seems everything I see brings back memories of times spent here with other friends.  Such fun we've had in this place! I love the people, love the smells, love the creativity.  I came back, exhausted, after walking a few miles, and crashed in our air conditioned room.

Thank you God, for this little stop along the way.  You are so very good to me!

Saw some interesting stuff today - a midget coke truck delivering coke to our hotel while we were eating lunch - it was darling - baby sized!  Also, Bob saw (and I heard) a big truck go around the corner by the hotel and he ht a bar that was standing up at the corner of the sidewalk.  He blew out 2 of his tires - boom! boom!....bet he wasn't a happy camper.  

Heading towards Puebla tomorrow morning!  See you on the way!