Yoders Afloat: 1/28/2012

If Lulu and I ever swallow the anchor, which we probably will someday, La Noria is the kind of town we'll probably settle in. While we were getting our FM3 renewal paperwork done last week, we saw an ad for a fully furnished 1-bedroom apartment, all utilities (including internet) paid, on the second floor, facing Plaza Marchado in the heart of old town Mazatlán, for $500 (US) per month. Although briefly intriguing, we are more small-town oriented and will probably want to be someplace that we can have chickens. Thus, La Noria or some other place of the same ilk.

After the Los Osuna Distillery tour, we returned to La Noria for a look-see and some lunch.

There were no population signs at the entry to the town but, if I had to guess, I'd guess the population at maybe seven or eight hundred people. Maybe. We were there in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, so I assume the heavy traffic that you can see in these photos was pretty much normal.

We saw a few small tiendas but I imagine any major shopping would have to be done in Mazatlán, which is only a short drive away. We also saw a bus that may connect La Noria to Mazatlán. As I said yesterday, El Sazón de la Abuela Tina appears to be the only restaurant in town. But, I wouldn't be surprised but what there are a number of very small eateries that one wouldn't recognize as such unless one spent a lot of time there. But, no hay problema because Mazatlán is so close.

We wandered around the mostly empty streets for awhile.

At first, we were accompanied by a bunch of urchins (all boys) in school uniforms, who kind of clambered around hinting that they wouldn't mind a little handout. Marj gave them each a piece of gum which appeased them for awhile. Of course, she immediately had to follow up with a lesson about littering as a few gum wrappers hit the streets. Eventually, the kids left us alone and, in reality, they were pretty easy to ignore, even when they were hanging around.

We visited a leather shop that was supposed to be famous for tooled leather belts and handmade huaraches and I want to get a pair of huaraches. The belt part was right but he didn't have any huaraches, at least as I define them. He had some sandals but not these:

But, no worries, I saw plenty of them at the mercado in Mazatlán.

Anyway, with the leather shop being pretty much the only place to look for something to buy, we continued wandering around the bustling streets.

This is, to me, the archetypal "sleepy little Mexican village".

But, you can only walk around in a town this size for just so long. And then, it's time for lunch! So, back to Grandma Tina's we went.

As I said yesterday, the molcajete had been recommended to us and we had tipped off the waiter at breakfast that we'd be back for molcajete. Consequently, he didn't even bother bringing us menus. Although they had several varieties of molcajete listed (I snuck a peek at the menu at breakfast): chicken, chicken and shrimp, beef, etc., we opted for Molcajete de Camarón; shrimp molcajete. We all ordered limonadas to drink. While we were waiting for our order, Lulu ventured back to the kitchen area to snap a few photos. One of the things we absolutely love about these little Mexican kitchens is how simple they are. Typically there's a flat place to chop stuff up and put stuff together, a wood fire with a grate and/or a griddle over it, maybe a tortilla press, and a refrigerator. Not a whole lot else.

That's our waiter with the red neckerchief and the cook, probably his mom, behind him.

If you look closely at the photo above, you'll see a couple of molcajetes in the fire heating up. This might explain why the finished product boils long after it's brought to the table.

So, best molcajete ever? No. Make no mistake, it was really, really good. But, you'd have to go a really long way to beat the molcajete caliente at Los 30 in Mazatlán.