During our last stay in Melaque, our Canadian friends were with us almost the entire time so it was a bit bittersweet to arrive solo. We did however, feel a bit more at home when we were greeted by George, Seaward and Jeff – friends we made during our stay last season. Last March, we made our reservation and picked our spot, #20, on the lagoon side. While we enjoyed being on the beach side last time, we found the spaces on the lagoon to be bigger, shadier and more quiet. We arrived two days before our reservation but our spot was all ready for us and we were very happy to be back. We arrived on December 18 and could tell the mood in the town was very different than last season when we arrived way past the holidays. Decorations and pinatas were everywhere and locals from towns inland, began arriving by the busload.
We rode our bikes into the town center and found people everywhere – eating, drinking and shopping. It was great fun to be included with the locals and find such a high level of energy everywhere. Meanwhile, back at the campground, Poohnut was so happy to hear her favorite song, the canned music of the “Ice Cream Man” make its way past our RV. He was equally excited to see her again as she was his best customer last season.
During the afternoon of Christmas Eve, the kids and I made our way across the highway to the country side of Melaque. The roads were surprisingly good and small farms with little houses dotted the wide open fields. People waved to us as we drove by, happy to see visitors. We purchased a bunch of small gifts in the states with the plan of delivering them to some local children in Melaque. We picked this more rural side of town as it seemed that few people made their way across the highway. At first, it was difficult to find any small children. Then Andrew spotted a little girl playing on the side of the road with a piece of wood and jumped out of the van, adorned in a Santa hat, and gave her a large plastic candy cane filled with M&Ms. She quickly dropped the piece of wood and gave Andrew a big happy smile. We continued down the road and found a small group of children. They were very appreciative of the small gifts and we wished we could give them so much more. Moments later, it was as if they announced our arrival with a bull horn, as children came running from every direction. We busily handed out all the gifts and then slipped into our van, whipped off our Santa hats and tried to drive incognito back home. We wished we had brought many more gifts as it was hard to leave without giving each and every one of those sweet children a present. Note to self – bring more than 100 presents next time!
Our Christmas Eve dinner included lobster pasta, made with 3 lobsters purchased by “Lobster Man” (what is that guy’s real name??) that morning for the cost of about $45. (Yes, we had a lot of leftovers!) Unfortunately, Ken wasn’t feeling that well (was it the after effects of the stingray encounter?) so I played the role of Mom and Dad. Santa arrived early morning (amazing how he finds us each year with all our moving around) and left a large white bag full of presents outside the RV. The kids woke up oh so happy and dragged the bag merrily into the RV. Present unwrapping took just a couple hours and was followed by a yummy breakfast of homemade cinnamon buns made by Nikki and Poohnut.
