Tepic gets even better

After a night of holding it in [see previous post], I hit the road early to get a move on to Puerto Vallarta.

On my way out of town I filled up at the nearby Pemex, then tucked into the attached convenience store for my morning orange juice.

And there I met the latest angels to cross my path while on this wonderful trip to Toco.

Raul

Raul Maldonado served me some fresh squeezed juice and began to tell me about a question he's been exploring for 35 years -- "Are we active subjects that effect events in the world, or are we passive objects being affected by the cosmos?"

The question can also be asked, "Is there really free will, or are we, simply biological robots?"

Fascinating questions. All the more so given the randomness of the context in which they were posed to me.

We stood in that parking lot for almost an hour chatting. Simply marvellous! I hope I get a copy of his book once published.

Amanda

Amanda was angel #2 of that morning. After she filled 'becca's tank, she asked me, simply, in Spanish, "Why did I come to Tepic?"

There was something about the genuine-ness of the asking that made the answering more interesting than usual. Especially given my wonderful Spanglish.

On Raul's invitation, I followed him back to his home to meet this family,  and extend my stay in Tepic by one more day.

Casa Maldonado

What a gorgeous home he lives in. His father built the home to house his 11 children. 

Raul, one sister, and both their families live there today. It's a grand old home in a gated community on the hills of Tepic. 

Raul's sister and family..

Since even that house is not big enough to house 11 families, it's on the market. Is you've got some cash burning a hole in your account, this looks like an amazing place to park it.

Raul, his wife Elizabeth and their son, Daniel

Climb these stairs to the roof..

... and this is one of the views!

A real Brady Bunch kitchen

Yes ... a tree! in the living room

Where 'becca slept

A random conversation at Casa Maldonado:

Me: "I'm actually a little surprised that I not seen any Black people in Mexico so far."

Raul: "Oh we have one."

Daniel: "No, we have 2."

Me: "Oh really?"

Raul: "Oh yes. That's right. They are Cubans here to coach baseball."

As is the curious way with the universe, Amanda is la buena amiga de Elizabeth, Raul's wife. We ended up going to the movies (which was run in the original English, with Spanish subtitles - wonderful way to practice the language). Try as we might though, we could not find a libreria in the whole of Tepic selling uno Espanol-de-Inglés libro de frases.

Some mighty struggles with the languages ensued. I didn't want to give up, but in the end, I couldn't even find the word for 'uncle'.

Motos are the best way to get around!

We had fun though. Tepic has some wonderful public spaces, and is a place I want to visit again.

Ernesto, Daniel and .... sorry I forget :(

Coming back to to the house on the hill, I stayed up late some of the boy cousins, especially Daniel and the German-born, Ernesto. We chatted about life, the Universe and Everything

Ahh, Ernesto the fisherman ... I have to connect with him again and check out his boat docked in Puerto Vallarta. Hopefully he'll make it down there before I head further south.