Baked Goods and Ice Cream from Malpica and Concordia

Yesterday, Monday, morning bright and early we picked up George and dropped off our laundry to be done. Then we headed inland to the tiny town of Malpica. Yum! We were headed to the Malpica Panaderia – bakery. Unfortunately the baking for the day was already done. But all the delicious baked goods were on the shelves waiting for hungry customers. The oven is a big adobe wood burning oven.

We opened it up to look inside and even the coals were no longer glowed it was still hot inside it.

I have posted lots of information about this bakery in previous blogs. In fact the last time we were there a couple of weeks ago I told quite a bit about the bakery. After purchasing many bags of rolls and bread we continued inland to just before the town of Concordia where our friend Antonio lives. Antonio also has a son Antonio – he is really growing up, we first met him when he was about 11 and now he is almost 17 – even has a mustache now. And only one more year of school then he will be going to college to become a veterinarian.

Antonio Sr. is a wood carver. He and his son go into the Sierra mountains and gather roots from the pine trees there.

a pile of the roots

He then carves faces into the roots using the texture of the wood to decide on where to put the face. This is a work in progress.

These are finished. All sizes and shapes. Each one different. They are called Wind Spirits here.

Then we took George to see and meet the “laundry ladies.”  Just outside of Concordia there are natural hot springs and the government has built a laundry facility. Four large concrete holding tanks – the first one is very hot, the next one cooler and so on. There were three ladies and one man doing laundry when we got there. The “sinks” they are using have built in wash boards.

This lady put the jeans in the bucket with the hot water and soap and is using her foot to agitate them.

Bill of course was talking to them about the set up. He asked them if they just did their own laundry or if they did other peoples laundry too. No, these three ladies just do their own laundry. But one lady, Mrs. Pocha, does do other peoples laundry too. [As we were leaving she was just coming to the area with her cart with several bags of others laundry to do.]

George listening to the conversation

The boy was taking a bath – soaping himself up and rinsing off and finally just getting into the warm water for a good rinse and enjoying it.

On to Concordia – an interesting town – it has a history of being destroyed by every invading army that ever came through this area. But always rebuilds.

Concordia was very involved in the silver mining that went on in the 17 and 1800s – so in the plaza is an old mining cart. Next to the cart is a very big rocking chair as Concordia today has a large number of furniture manufactures. The church is in the background.

Just a sample of the architecture of the church. It is very ornate.

And of course we had to get an ice cream cone. Today the vendor only had vanilla. The ice cream is made in his home and he sells until he runs out then goes home. Sometimes he also has strawberry ice cream. George and I enjoyed our cones – Bill was already full from the baked goods he’d eaten.

It is not a real creamy textured ice cream – it is kind of crystallized like a sherbet. He says he makes it with cream and water and flavoring.

Headed back towards Mazatlan we stopped at one of the roadside furniture manufacturers. This is the beginning of a hand carved table that will eventually be stained and a piece of glass put on top. Very pretty work and all done by hand!

Stayed home for a while – read? Napped? Never tell – and I knitted – started with 30 stitches, then I had 31 then 32 now only 29 – How do I do that? I thought I was really paying attention. More ripping out and starting over – and I only kind of know one stitch…….. think I’ll go back to beading.

Later we picked up our laundry and went to the grocery store. Just mundane every day things that have to be done. Nothing exciting there except I saw some real cute puppies in the store next door that were for sale. And we all ate leftovers for dinner. 

Our friend Angelica came over last evening with her new boyfriend so we could meet him. Really really nice man. And she brought a flan she had made for Bill. He said it is delicious.

And today is another day. George says he has things he has to catch up this morning so guess we’ll go off by ourselves for a while. Need to get the car washed.