Market day!

We love Saturdays here at Hacienda Contreras. That's because it's market day in the nearby town of Valle de Juarez, so we try and do a weeks worth of grocery shopping all at once. That means stopping at a few different places, including our favorite fruit and veggie guy Martin!

Martin is a character because he's always trying to give you free samples. Usually, he hands you half a mandarine orange or something simple. Yesterday, he handed us each a huge slice of watermelon. Have you ever tried eating a huge slice of watermelon while doing your grocery shopping. It's not easy, with watermelon juice dripping down your hands!

The free sample slice of watermelon was too funny.

Wonderful fresh fruits and veggies.

We got our typical supply of carrots, pineapple, apples, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, potatoes, onions, tomatoes. Yesterday's bill came to 110 pesos ($9.24).

Next, we drove over to the central plaza to visit the carniceria (butcher shop).

Valle de Juarez has a pretty central plaza.

Ruth, picking out our meat for the next while.

At the butcher shop, we got a large whole chicken cut into pieces. That big chicken alone will do us for five or six meals, plus soup! And a kilo (2.2 lbs) of fresh ground beef, a half kilo (1.1 lbs) of pork loin, and a large top sirloin steak. The butcher bill was 323 pesos ($27.13).

Then down the hill to the grocery store for some miscellaneous items. Then to Sal's cousin Chema for some carnitas for lunch!

Chema, getting our lunch for us!

We get a half kilo (1.1 lbs) of shredded pork, a stack of tortillas, and two different kinds of salsa. We get it all for takeout and it costs 75 pesos ($6.30) and it easily does us both for Saturday and Sunday lunch.

We had a pleasant surprise yesterday afternoon when a little RV pulled in driven by a woman. Renate is a German lady who had been traveling the U.S. and Canada by motorhome and has been reading our blog for the last several years. Because of our influence, she finally decided that Mexico RV travel was much safer than the media would have you believe and so she's been enjoying a winter exploring Mexico! It makes us so happy when a direct result of our writing has brought another RV'er to Mexico! Welcome to Hacienda Contreras, Renate!

Sherman and the little blue car with a dark cloudy sky!

Last night was games night and we had a great game of hearts with Sal and Barb. Haven't played that in years and it was good fun. Ruth won!

This morning, we're not doing our daily long power walk. Instead we're going for a hike up the hill in front of the campground.