[Enlarge] It’s not ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’, but lunch at Elefantes is an equally reviving experience. My friends and co-workers join me for lunch at a wonderful vegetarian cocina econmica.
At least twice a week you will find me, and some of the people from the company I work with in Morelia, having lunch at Elefantes. Elefantes is a vegetarian restaurant in the style of a “cocina econmica”—a local restaurant that serves the equivalent of good home-cooked food. It isn’t expensive, 40 pesos will get you the complete meal of the day, which is about average for cocina econmicas in Morelia.
Cocinas are usually in a part of a family home. It might be a garage that has been built out for the purpose or the whole bottom floor of a house. They are usually a way for the wife and a few of the kids in the family to make a little extra money without leaving the house. But it isn’t unusual for this family restaurant to make more than the husband can make on his own, and in those cases, the husband joins the enterprise. Cocinas have grown to become full restaurants in some cases—it all depends on the dedication and knowledge of the family.
[Enlarge] Graciela preparing lunch for her customers at Elefantes.
I have enjoyed cocinas since I first started to work in Mexico, but never as much as Morelia. Of course, that is primarily because my main meal of the day is lunch and a good cocina can provide a full, nutritious meal for a very reasonable price.
Elefantes is a little different than most cocinas—there is only one choice for lunch. That isn’t a drawback because the food is always good, but it is a different approach. There are many vegetarian restaurants in Morelia, but none that I know of as good as Elefantes. I am not vegetarian by any stretch, but if it is good food, I’m all for it. Besides—it’s healthy!
Graciela and her husband run their restaurant in the downstairs section of their home. It is light, airy and always welcoming. I find myself relaxed and happy after a meal at Elefantes. A meal usually includes a soup, a salad, a main course, fresh rolls, an agua, dessert and tea to finish. For good food it is a bargain. And by the way she told me at lunch today she has a room with separate bath available for rent if anyone is interested…
[Enlarge] Graciela beams in her kitchen in Morelia. Provecho!
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[Enlarge] Papa Grande peered down at me. He was not pleased and this is never a good thing.
On Saint Patrick’s Day weekend, I was invited by my friend Patrick to visit him while he was on his vacation in Melaque, Jalisco. St Patrick’s Day is a special time in Melaque because it is the spot where a group of soldiers from the San Patricio Battalion are remembered for their contribution during the war against the US. There are many stories told about the presence of Irish-American soldiers and Irishmen in general in the area, but regardless, the little town of Melaque has taken the patron saint of Ireland in its hearts. And because my friend Patrick has an Irish heritage, it is a fitting place to go.
Melaque is on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, North of Manzanillo and West of Guadalajara. It is a small town – smaller than Cueramaro – but it has a fine bay and beach. In contrast to the large resort cities along both coasts of Mexico, Melaque is still a Mexican fishing village with a few hotels and a very relaxed style. If you want a fancy, top-flight resort, you should not be putting Melaque on your list. But if you just want to bask on the beach, wander in the water and sip a cerveza, Melaque will do just fine.
[Enlarge] A girl building sand castles on a nearly empty beach in Melaque.
I realized when I got back I had a very large number of fotos from Melaque to “process” through Photoshop. There are many reasons, but one of the biggest was I had lost my camera and MP3 player a month or so before in San Miguel and through some miracles and the help of friends and family—this was the first time I had a chance to take fotos again in a while. I could have taken the opportunity to upgrade my gear, but I didn’t. The Pentax camera I use works well for what I need and by the time I needed to replace it—it was available for a comparative pittance on eBay. The same was true for my iRiver MP3 player. It isn’t an iPod, but it does what I need on the busses and in the evenings, so why fight it? Besides the thrill of having a camera in my hands again, Melaque is certainly photogenic, so the fotos flowed as easily as the waves on the beach. It has taken more than a month, but there are now several pages of fotos in the Melaque gallery.
There are many stories I could tell about Melaque of the things that touched me, but I think the fotos in the gallery tell them best. The families making sandcastles, the frozen juice bar vendor, and the fellow we called “the walker” are all little stories I still have in my mind. Seeing Patrick and getting to meet his family after all the years I have known him as a friend was a great thing in itself. The one story I will tell is where the name “Papa Grande” comes from: On Saturday, Patrick decided he needed some new shorts for the beach and we went hunting for them in the local shops. Small shops in small towns in Mexico usually don’t have a lot of stock and Melaque is no exception. We went from shop to shop and we couldn’t find anything that would fit Patrick. Now, granted Patrick is a little larger than an average person, but still—with the number of tourists coming through it seemed like someone would carry some larger sizes. We finally stopped at a shop where they had a fairly good supply so we asked if there were any sizes that might fit my friend. The shorts they brought out were uniformly smaller than needed. Finally, I realized the shop owners were reluctant to drag out the biggest sizes they had. In Mexico, shop owners are always considerate and concerned about saying anything that might be considered offensive to their customers. So, I made a joke. I asked them in Spanish if perhaps they had two potato sacks they could stitch together and sell him for shorts. They melted. The laughter could be heard down the block. They immediately pulled out some larger shorts. They were still too small. I asked for “bolsas para mas papas.” We got some shorts that would fit. So was born Papa Grande—a running joke we laughed about through the trip.
The lesson in this is something I have found more times than I can count. It is always better to release a little tension by making a joke, of yourself preferably, than to get irritated and push people, especially in a small town in Mexico like Melaque. Everyone in Mexico loves a joke and when the joke you are telling is at your own expense, it is even better.
[Enlarge] One of the colorful shops along the street in Melaque, selling everything a tourist needs - if you know how to ask.
Getting to and from Melaque is not a simple task, unless you fly into Manzanillo. From Morelia, it involved a three-hour bus ride to Guadalajara and then a bouncy four and a half hour ride to Melaque over some very high mountain passes. The mountains have many microclimates and it is a beautiful ride—but because of the time needed to of get from Morelia to Melaque, I didn’t see it until my return trip. The mountain valleys have fields of sugar cane, groves of walnuts and many crops I didn’t recognize. The roads wind and the altitude in the mountain passes is dizzying, but it is an eye opening trip. The first class bus line, Primera Plus runs the route several times a day and I wouldn’t recommend any other line.
I must admit I played around with some creative approaches to some of the fotos from Melaque, something I have not done for a long time. It made me wish for a photo-printer capable of some larger prints to put up in my condo or house, but for now—I will just have to imagine them. Maybe one of these days I load a few up in my memory stick and take them down to one of the digital foto printers here in Morelia and let them give them a try.
So, enjoy the fotos and little stories of Melaque. It seems a long way away now, but I still have my fotos and the memories.
wp:thumb src=”2006-03-11-33.jpg” cap=”Umbrellas closed, the afternoon light casts long shadows as another day on the beach comes to an end. ”—> ->
April 27th, 2006 by Mike
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[Enlarge] The ‘Dance of the Old Men’ in the Plaza Las Armas in Morelia.
It has been a long time since I have written. I have been posting fotos, but you would hardly know unless you have been watching my gallery. I have no excuse—I have been very busy at work and for some reason I just fell out of the habit. It happens. This weekend I am in Morelia, in my condo. In many ways I would rather be home in Cueramaro, but sometimes things just don’t work out. I love Morelia, but I also love our home so I am always caught between the two.
This morning I was reading the news and trying to get motivated for what needed to be done today when I noticed a link on the website of Emily and Sergio of a family dance group I had seen a few weeks ago. It reminded me of all (!) the fotos and stories I owe my readers – so here is the first in what I hope will be a long string.
Easter is a big holiday in Mexico and most businesses take some time off. We didn’t get a great deal of time, but I did get down to the Plaza Las Armas one afternoon and get a little while to relax. As I was walking along, I saw a group starting to perform a traditional dance in the costume of the Purpecha natives. The dance is called “The Dance of the Old Men” and it was very well performed by a family group. They dance bent over with a cane that has a fork at the top that makes it resemble a deer’s head. But the bent over posture doesn’t mean this is a slow dance. They are wearing flat sandals that they slap against the concrete in a sort of tap dance. It is a loud, rapid-fire sound that brings people from all over to watch.
[Enlarge] In the bent over pose of an old man, this dancers feet are moving so fast the vibration knocks off his hat. But the colors of the streamers made this a foto to keep regardless.
The family does a funny dance where they line up from tallest to shortest like a line of old men. They each put their cane out behind them to lead next old man in the line. The next to last one though keeps moving the stick whenever the last one in the line (and the littlest one) tries to grab it. So, with feet tapping at a furious rate all the while, they snake around with the little one trying to keep up. It is a very funny scene that everyone always enjoys because at the end of the dance, the two ahead of the little one who are trying to lose him get their feet tangled up and fall in a heap. Of course the little one catches up to the rest and leaves the two conspirators thrashing to get up.
The musical instruments used by the group that backs up the dancers are as unique as the dancers themselves. The guitar player plays a modified instrument with only three frets and a pick board that is above the hole and not beside it. The result is a more percussive sound that matches the dancers feet. The bass is smaller than a concert string bass, something between a cello and a bass that is easier to carry around. The adaption of instruments is common in Mexico and is part of what gives much of Mexican music a unique sound. Now I freely admit you cannot possibly understand what is going on from these pictures—so here is the link that Emily and Sergio pointed out on uTube of the same dancers, in the same place. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was posted on January 30th, I would think it was the same day. There are a few more fotos of the dancers and some new fotos of Morelia during Easter Week here.
wp:thumb xsrc=”2006-04-13-4.jpg” mce_src=”2006-04-13-4.jpg” cap=”The band plays behind in the spring evening.”—> ->
April 22nd, 2006 by Mike
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Swan in the Canal - Morelia Zoo
