Inland Trip To Pinatedero
11 April 2010
Jodee
It is 6:00 am when the alarm goes off and we get out of bed at 6:30 am. We are to meet Lori and the kids at Amy's house at 7:40 am. We rush to get ourselves ready along with the dogs. We took the chest pack to carry the dogs in. Packed all the necessary puppy stuff and headed out. What we forgot was sandwiches for ourselves. Breakfast will be a banana and lunch an apple.
We are about five minutes late. Marcos is Amy's husband and he is driving. Lori and I sit in the small backseat of the cab with Lucy. Jason, Amy of Third Day along with Russ ride in the back of the truck with Amy's two sons. The trip up to Pintadero took a little over an hour. It was good road for about ten minutes and the rest was cobblestone dirt or just dirt. We passed through a couple of rivers and climbed up switchbacks to the top of the mountain. There were mango trees as far as the eye could see. Yaka trees were plentiful also. It is amazing how big the Yaka fruit gets and that the limb of the tree can hold it. We saw this fruit back in the 80's while out cruising and did not know what it was. We arrived at Pintadero around 9:15 am. Marcos parked the truck in front of the small tienda. Greetings were made and we were introduced. The chairs were moved down the street to a house that had a shade covering in front. Marcos and Amy set to work.
The purpose of this trip is to find out what this little town of 140 people needed. The process here is to write a letter to the governor's wife, she reads, prioritizes the needs and passes them on to the governor. Marcos has been helping the poor people for many, many years with out getting paid for it. He has gotten a community a purified water system and some family's a cement floor in their house and even gotten some people out of cardboard shacks into a newly built brick house complete with exterior paint and electricity. He has helped all the outlaying communities so much that they have asked him to run for election, which he is doing. They say they want him to win because he has not forgotten them. He is the only one who comes to find out what they need.
They talked to everyone. They provided paper and pen and helped each of them to write a letter to the governor's wife. Marcos and Amy collected all the letters. The next time Marcos goes to the governor's office he will turn them in. It is nice to know that there are still people like Marcos and Amy out there.
The town was a beautiful little town. I saw more flowers there than anywhere else I have been in Mexico. The yards were clean, the streets were cobblestone dirt. Every house was draped in beautiful flowers and plants. Every house had one to three dogs with horses in some back yards. They have television and telephone and cell service and cable for those who could afford it. While walking we happened upon a young woman from southern California who spoke perfect English and Spanish. She was on spring break visiting her family. Almost every house had a yaka tree in front and they grow everything they eat.
The dirt if you would call it that is red clay. Most have fresh beautiful paint on the front and the church bell rang loud and beautiful. It was time to pile back into the truck for our trip down the mountain back to San Blas. We arrived back at about 2:00 pm and headed to the boat. Tonight is the potluck. Russ climbed up the ladder to get the items we needed for the day room before they started to sand blast again. The potluck was going to be held in the pool area so we migrated up there. Jill (former crew of Gem) and Don met us and joined in on the potluck and pool activities. This potluck is one for the record books. There was pumpkin surprise, chocolate cake, a strawberry cake from town, banana bread and scalloped potatoes.
Yes it is the potluck kids dream about. All four kids that were there loved it. I am not sure though how the parents liked it a few hours later when the sugar was in full swing. The pool was a success. The kids enjoyed it after desert dinner and Russ, Jill and Don enjoyed it before desert dinner. The pool is rectangular with dimension of about 20 x 40 feet. 10 foot of the 20 is about 4 inches deep and the other 10 foot is about 4.5 feet. I decided to pick up Lucy and walk her through the water. Once she knew it there was a bottom she could walk on she wanted to play and tried to get Taco to come and join her. I called out to Taco to come and he turned and headed for the stairs, before you knew it he was on the lawn when Amy picked him up. I took him and put him in the water and walked him. He did not like it but his tail was up and curled. Lucy actually went to Jill in the deeper water and Lucy swam over to me. We did this a couple of times.