To give you an idea of how much we LOVED Melaque, we already put a deposit down on a RV spot for December 2009! One of our favorite new culinary traditions is a “taco crawl.” Similar to a pub crawl where you stagger from pub to pub drinking beer, a taco crawl includes sampling tacos from a variety of outdoor vendors. We usually have one or two at each place (the guys have two) and then we move on. At the end, we judge who was the best. One of Ken’s “rules” (though I do not obey it) is to try something different at each place – you can’t have the same type of taco at two different places. Were I to adhere to this rule, I would undoubtedly end up eating a taco of unknown origin and I am not that adventurous. . .yet! Andrew IS that adventurous and he and Ken would challenge each other to try a taco with a stuffing they could not pronounce nor understand. Let’s just say we never had a bad taco so. . . there you go!
We enjoyed taking evening walks along the streets and watching all the hubbub of activity. We found one area which became my favorite place to walk – it was the malecon (waterfront walkway) along the lagoon. The lagoon is home to some amazing birds, beautiful blooming lily pads and some crocodile. It is a very peaceful place to walk at any time of day but especially during the evening hours.
During our walks, we would find lots of land for sale and daydream about buying them and converting them to our own private RV pad. Many people have already done this and their places are very special places indeed. One couple bought a lot that was about 50’ to 100” for about US$30,000, put about US$30,000 of improvements into it (including a outdoor kitchen, tile, concrete and walls, plants and flowers) and now own a little piece of heaven to return to each season.
We made a tradition with our Canadian friends to have dinner on the roof of the hotel on Friday nights. We would each make something yummy and bring it up the four flights of stairs, settling into our chairs to enjoy a cocktail at 5:30 prompt! Memories of these special dinners will remain with us as they were so carefree and relaxing. One dinner included a birthday party for Myrina, their now 10 year old daughter. She wore a blindfold and swung at a piñata until all the candy can spewing out. I took a picture of Lauren and Myrina, making a pinky swear to be friends forever. So sweet.
During one of our early morning walks, Ken and I were overtaken by the smell of fresh bread, one of the best smells in the world (as far as I am concerned!) We followed our noses and it lead us to the source, the bread bakery for the whole town of Melaque. What a find!! Ken meandered in and discovered we could buy this wonderful bread straight from their big wood burning ovens, all for the cost of only 2.5 pesos a piece (about 17 cents). This became one of our favorite things to do in the morning and we never grew tired of the warm French bread. Oh how I miss this morning tradition!
The RV park did not have a laundry facility. No problem as down the street was a “lavandaria”. We would take our big bags of laundry to there where they would weigh it and we would return to pick it up that afternoon – all fresh, dry and packed up. The cost was 10 pesos per kilo so it usually ran us about $8 for a few loads. Such a deal as I didn’t have to hassle with coins and machines. I grew quite fond of this service and look for it now wherever I go! So spoiled am I!
Our Canadian friends left a few days before us and it was hard to watch them leave. We had spent almost two months with this family of four and have grown very fond of them. We realized that we could have quite a bit of fun traveling with another family and we look forward to having our paths cross again, something we will make sure happens.
After five weeks, we departed Melaque with just a bit of sadness as we knew we would return in a mere 9 months.
