Breakfast in El Quelite

Yesterday, Sunday, we took advantage of the wonderful weather and went to El Quelite again for breakfast. Picked up our friends first. Uneventful drive out there on the newly paved road. But when we got into town we were amazed at the amount of people there. Bill finally found a place to park Willie.

And for the first time ever there were no tables available in the restaurant so we had a half hour wait. But partly because we wanted a certain waitress. One of the women we’ve known for years – now she only works on Sundays. It was so busy because Sunday was the last day of the holidays for the Mexican nationals – many of the car plates parked on the street were from other parts of Mexico – a good breakfast then a long drive home for some.

We stopped to check out the turkeys before we went inside the first time. The males were showing off for some lucky female.

The street outside the restaurant. Busy with vendors, traffic, pedestrians and horses.

Maybe he had a long night. He was sound asleep. Didn’t even get up when a car came. We yelled at the car to stop – they hadn’t seen him – blew horn at him so he finally got up gave everyone a dirty look and moved on.

Every horse in town was out today. A lot of their owners were there to give rides to paying customers. These kids were just hanging out in the shade having fun.

Speaking of the shade – this was one of those bright sunny days where the shadows were dark and the sun was too bright – so lots of the pictures are not the best.

One of the houses we walked by. Colorful home and beautiful garden.

Another home. The underside of the porch roof – roof itself was very old tile.

Just some more homes. Notice in the one picture only the fronts of the houses are painted. The sides usually aren’t.

Might be able to buy this one cheap. Wonder what it used to be.

Finally got our table in the restaurant. We were in a back corner next to this interesting, colorful wall. The pots, chair and drain spots are real, everything else is painted, including the birds sitting on the pot and drain spouts. The flowers going up the tree are painted too. The plants are real. Most of the eating area of the restaurant is outside and full of plants.

A glance into part of the kitchen. The lady sitting down is washing silverware in a galvanized pan. The lady bending over just dumped a whole lot of silverware into the pan. The boy is a bus boy – who just managed to step in front as I snapped the picture.

Making the tortillas – they were really busy. The bowl of dough that she pats into a ball then into the flat tortilla. The grill where they are cooked. The baskets lined with colorful napkins where the cooked tortillas are put for serving. And, of course, Bill talking to them.

This was something new – in the very front room of the restaurant which has been used as a small museum they were taking – old fashioned pictures. This was one family being dressed up with shawls, sombreros, guns, ropes and fancy clothes. They were having a great time.

(Just a commentary on my part – not too long ago I read about a university professor who had a Mexican themed party in the U. S. – his job was threatened because he and his guests wore ponchos and sombreros at the party. It was called stereotyping. What happened to having fun in the U.S.)

A group of young nuns from Guadalajara visiting town, having lunch and enjoying themselves. They posed for this picture.

Just liked the colors here. For once the sun was just right.

This patient horse had his main and tail braided.

She was all dressed up in her robes and tiara to advertise the cheese she was selling.

And we stopped here to buy some fried pig skin – chicharrones – but he was all sold out. He had some cut up pork pieces in the kettle but they weren’t cooked yet.

So ended another great day in El Quelite.

We will be having very unexpected company coming in on Wednesday for a few days. A visitor from California.

Today we are without a car. Willie is at the mechanics getting a good check up of all his electrical parts and a new fuel filter. When they took the tank off it stirred up a lot of gunk so a new filter will be installed.