Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Noche Buena

For Christmas Eve we walked into the town square and found a cab for a ride over to Barra de Navidad. The cost was $5 and the ride was quick and uneventful. We planned to eat dinner and do a little looking, hopefully watching the Xmas eve happenings of the bigger city. Walking the main street it becomes apparent that things were going to be very quiet this holiday night. We walked to Lucy's, a small restaurant just off the waterfront where we had our meal. It was very good and we sat in a location where we could watch the street happenings as we ate and talked. After dinner we walked around and looked at the various shops, but nothing drew our immediate attention. After a bit of looking about we caught a cab back to the plaza in Melaque.

Ice cream was the next order of business for the three of us. Linda had a chocolate mix, I had caramel crunch and Beth had a small dish of mango. All flavors we very good and as we ate them we went to the plaza and sat. It was quiet in Melaque also, church was in session and very few gringos were present in the plaza. As we watched, a very old couple strolled by. The gentleman turned to us and said "Noche Buena" and then continued to tell us that for many years he thought Noche Buena was the beer. A local had just explained that Noche Buena were the terms used to express Christmas Eve in Mexico. He went on to say that in reply you would say "egualmente" which means "and to you also". These two folks came from British Columbia and had been coming down here for many years. We had a nice chat before they moved on around the plaza. We sat for a while and then visited the doughnut man and returned home where Linda beat me in cribbage.

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