nut harvest

The above title has more than one meaning.  First, Fernando and his son were up in the coconut palms harvesting both fronds (for palapas and coconuts for the putesto.  But second, he's really to old to be climbing 20+ feet up a ladder for this.  Get the guy with the dog who does it barefooted and carries his machete in his mouth!

We took a little recon trip this morning, out to Boca de Pasquales and El Real, scouting the perfect restaurant.  We've been invited out for a meal at a spot of our choosing.  We don't want to go into Manzanillo, Tecoman is kind of boring, so we thought a seaside place (with a real roof and floor, i.e. not a puesto) might be nice.  Boca de Pascuales is a very popular surfing spot and has one very popular eating place, Las Hamacas.  It's a huge, 2-level place that seats 1000 happy eaters.  We've been there once and although we remember that the food was excellent it's just too big.

So we drove over to El Real, a lovely oceanfront town about 2 miles south of Boca.  Its sea front has probably a dozen very nice looking restaurants, all open to the sea, most with palapa roofs.  We were actually looking for a certain one, El Oasis, that we've been to a few times.  It's at the far south end of the town and, unfortunately, appears to have fallen on evil days.  I remember it having the most beautiful palapa I had ever seen, wikth little dormer windows woven along the top to circulate the sea breezes.  But now the tables and chairs are all beat up, there was nobody in the kitchen although a shirtless gent assured me they'd be open in about 15 minutes.  If we go to El Real, we'll drive by but probably move on to another place.  El Real itself looks very prosperous although there are many SE VENDE signs on houses along the ocean front.  Its main problem is that the whole town floods almost yearly during particularly high tides.

Last night's dinner at Dago's was not the best I've had.  He wasn't there doing the cooking.  The shrimp was tough and so salty I almost didn't eat it.  And we were the only gringos there except for one of the J Boys (Jeff).    I brought the leftovers home and they had a good washing before joining the salad mix at noon.  Still way, way too salty.  I seem to remember this happening last year and I subsequently requested no salt and things got better.  I'll do that next time.  I don't know if folks are deserting Dago for another Friday place; I'll ask around.