Dinner at Karlita's

It was dark when we walked toward Karlita’s. We stopped at the little store. He had only one bottle of Corona left so we bought a large family size bottle of Corona. At Karlita’s they were just putting the wood under the grates on the outdoor stove. We motioned we wanted to eat; they talked gibberish back that we figured was something about the food. We responded by sitting down. They showed us eggs and meat we agreed by nodding our heads. There was an older woman who broke up the flour in a large plastic bowl. Two younger woman got busy with frying pans. Another woman used a stone bowl to grind up leaves and peppers. This she brought us. The older woman was taking balls of dough from the bowl and rolling them around to make balls, then flattening them. She then went to a shelf and rolled them out with a hollow plastic pipe. Next she put the flat tortillas on the grill, turning them when they got hot. We were given the first ones off the grill. We spread a little “salsa” over them and they were really good and very spicey. They kept putting tortilla on our plate. We each got a dish with eggs and meat mixed and dark beans. We rolled then into torilla and enjoyed the flavors.

The children were about. Kathy gave them colored pencils. The youngest girl we learned was Susy and she showed Kathy her drawings. The younger boy had a harmonica and played some sounds for us. A man entered and spoke to us in English. He is the doctor at the clinic here on internship of community service for one year. His nurse is the woman that helped with the cooking. He introduced himself, Hector Hugo Miranda. He was happy to have someone to practice his English on. The woman told Hector that she remembers us from last year; we had given the children colored pencils the also. Hector hopes to work in a big city one day. He travels back to Tampico, his home city, on the weekends. We spoke of politics, economy, and life. It was late when we headed back to our bed.

Our last morning we spent sitting on the balcony listening to the sounds of the birds, seeing the clouds over the mountain, watching the moon set and enjoying the peace. We tried to soak in all of the good feelings. For breakfast today we had scrabbled eggs with green pepper and tomato served with beans and hot tortillas. We then sat a little longer on our balcony before packing.

With the car packed we paid our $100 for the room and went into town. We stopped at the Tourist Information office. They do not speak English, but the woman at the desk showed us pictures that we think were around Victoria as we asked if they were of El Cielo or San Jose and she said no. We visited the other Hotel in town. They do not speak English either, but we found out that rooms there are $39 a night, but do not include breakfast. We looked at a room; it was big with a king sized bed with a bunk on top. The bathroom was very modern. The complex has 8 rooms, eating areas and sitting areas. The two women we talked with were very friendly and tried to use what English they knew and we used what Spanish we knew. Before leaving town we walked around behind the municipal building and found an amphitheater with a grand view of the valley. The small public library was closed. Our last stop was the medical clinic. We smiled at the nurse we had met last night at Karlita’s and the Dr. Hector came out to greet us. We said our good byes.

We drove under the arch and out of town. We stopped at a nursery and bought a mango pie to bring back with us to share with friends. A turtle was on the road; Will turned around and went back. He picked up the turtle with orange on his shell and put him on the other side of the road; hope he was going that way! Signs along the way: Area of dangerous curves…diminish your velocity…listen to the signs. It is a long drive, but we took our time and arrived at the border about 5pm. We stopped to turn in our vehical permit then got into the line to cross the bridge. We paid the $2.40 and offered our visa papers, but they directed us to park and walk back to the building where we got the visas. There we returned the papers and then continued on our way. Across the bridge we exchanged our pesos for dollars and headed for Harlingen. Felt good to be back in the USA.