Near Puerto Escondido (day 8)

Monday March 2…11:00pm

When we went over to the house this morning, the 20 chickens were already getting ready for dinner!

Alfredo’s mother and 3 of his aunts spent pretty much the whole day getting food ready, and apparently they had gotten up very early as well. Ruth looked after baby Natalia while others were busy with wedding preparations. I went to help get the tables and chairs ready. They were busy cleaning all the chairs in the river, so I spent some time helping to scrub them. There are millions of these white plastic chairs all over Mexico because they have beer logos on them and are distributed free by the beer companies. They are used in virtually all the restaurants, and we’ve seen them around many houses as well. Then, Ruth and I spent a couple of hours blowing up around 150 balloons.

Preparing the 20 chickens (that were alive hours earlier) for the dinner at the wedding

The wedding/reception area down by the river

The wedding ceremony was supposed to start at 3:00pm, but because everyone is on Mexican time, nobody was ready then except me and Ruth! The governent official arrived at about 3:20, and by then a few people had arrived. People kept coming in and they finally started the ceremony at about 3:45. It was very simple, with Ruth and I standing as witnesses for Marie, and a couple who were friends of Alfredo’s family standing as witnesses for him. We didn’t understand much of what the official said, but we signed where we were supposed to, and within 10 minutes or so they were the happy couple.

The civil wedding service

The happily newlywed couple and their baby

There were about 50 people at the wedding, and it was mostly family. There was a lot of dancing, and everybody participated. There was a ton of food…they’ll be having leftover chicken for days to come. There was a 3 tiered wedding cake, but none of it was leftover!

They have talked us in to staying one more day! We ARE going to move tomorrow, but only to Alfredo’s uncles place on the beach at Playa Zicatela…about 6 kms away.

Total nights sleeping in a motorhome…494

March Fuel $0.00 CAN

March Grocery $0.00 CAN

March Overnight costs $0.00 CAN