We had some time before being picked up today so took a walk down the main street that the hotel was on until it was time to be picked up at 10:30am. We went to a horse ranch today, it was where A.-Sr. and L. boarded their horses and there was an American woman from NY who had lived in Mexico for 30 years who owned it. A.-Sr., son A., R. and V. got on the horses first and went to the bigger area for a "lesson" (V. was probably the only one who needed a lesson, maybe R. only because he wasn't used to riding English). Eventually my A. came out with the owner for his lesson. A. has never been on a horse before, I was proud of him for trying. R. joined them for a part of the lesson also. R.'s parents, J & Z and myself hung out and watched. M. and A.-Jr. weren't there till much later and A.-Jr. rode for a bit with his father after everyone else was done riding. N. came with us initially with one of her cousins and then left with her to do some last minute wedding planning arrangements.
So when everyone was done, around 1:30pm we left. Along the way they stopped in front of a house and one of the nephews went to the door and came out with glasses with tasting portions of torita. It was a very creamy, sweet drink with liquor of some kind. One flavor was peanut butter, the other was coconut. They bought one bottle of each.
We were driven back to the hotel and J. and V. joined myself and R.'s mom at the pool (only the kids swam). The men were all taken by A.-Sr. to a men's bar (apparently there were some women patrons, but in general only men go there) for drinks (and tons of free bar food). Z. was the only one really interested in the swimming because the pool was so cold but she got bored being in there by herself so came out. They were hungry so I went up to our room and found some energy bar and granola bar snacks I had brought for the plane and fed them that. N. and her cousin came and she suggested we get something for them to eat at the hotel restaurant so we moved over there to the outdoor section (which is where we had been eating breakfast every day except the first day). She ordered each of them chicken nuggets and was ordering some snacks and beer/soda for the rest of us but then the men came back from the bar. We got the kids food packaged up to go and drove to A.-Sr.'s and L.'s house for lunch (the kids ate their lunch in the van on the way over). It was around 4:30pm.
When we got to their house there was more drinking, more tequila, more beer, and the torita (I had a small shot glass of that, but stuck to diet coke). There were these potato cheese things passed around that were a lot like latkes, and another one that I think was made of some kind of vegetable. They have a cook who made all these things and the delicious mole verde which had pieces of pork and chayote squash from their own trees in it and some beans that seemed an awful lot like fava beans to me (complete with having to squeeze the bean out of the skin to eat it). Before the mole was a dish of red rice (similar to a Spanish rice). For dessert was a large jello mold, it had two layers and the bottom layer was opaque, they said it was some kind of eggnog flavor, the top layer was the traditional look of jello and dark purple, and there was some kind of liquor in it. It was not as sweet as packaged jello here in the US. There was a bakery cake sitting on the table (white frosting, but I think it was chocolate cake inside) that never got cut. The kids were upstairs playing video games the whole time the adults were eating, only coming down for the occasional taking of a roll from the bread baskets on the table.
Then N., her cousin, R., R.'s mom, and myself went for a drive with L. She took us first to a cemetery in Orizaba to show us a grave from I think the early 1900's. It was the grave of a 2 year old child and there was an elaborate statue of the child and an angel who was protecting her. There was also a meteorite (or something like that) in another section, at least that's the legend.
From there we went to a lagoon filled with water from the mountains. Along the edges were various food stands and in the center of the lagoon was a mermaid statue. There were boys and men diving from a diving platform along one edge and there were paddle boats in the lagoon.
We then went on to an art museum to see some works of Diego Rivera. We were there about a half hour before the museum closed so they let us in for free. It took us a while to find the rooms with the Rivera works so we saw a bunch of other paintings and prints and things first. The Rivera work was interesting, mostly early works when he was copying the old masters. At the end of the last room of his work were some portraits by Ignazio Rosas that were quite beautiful.
Then it was back to L.'s house to pick up the child and others and back to the hotel by 7:30pm to crash until they picked us back up again at 9pm. My back was really hurting so I rested on my heating pad but didn't fall asleep, A. and Z. did though.
So we went to Mamacita's in Nogales for "dinner" (we ate around 10:30-11pm). It was similar family to the full house at the cousin's house last night, too many people to actually fit the long, long table so some people ended up eating in shifts. The kids again didn't sit at the table but took bread from the bread baskets to eat (I think they were given some plain chicken somewhere else but I didn't see). Tonight's meal was a boneless chicken breast in a mild mustard sauce, and a green bean with onions dish that N. has made for us before (but it's her mom's recipe), and a green salad (us Americans passed on the salad because of the water issue, greens are usually washed with tap water and since it's raw, not a good idea). It was all very good and I ate just a little bit since it was so late. The dessert was also light but so very good. They took a chayote squash (a small type, N. said was different from the one that was in the mole verde) and cooked it and took out the soft insides, mashed the squash with butter, cinnamon and sugar and stuffed it back in the outer shell halves of the squash, topped it with some bread crumbs and butter and put it in the oven for a bit. Yum!! Z. enjoyed it too.
We left about 11:30pm and got back to the hotel around 11:45 or so. Tomorrow we are checking out of the hotel and driving to Veracruz. Initially they wanted to get going early but since we've been gone all day for the most part and exhausted we wanted a little more time to pack up our things in the morning so we'll be picked up around 10am.
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