Almost as soon as the family left on Saturday, I headed over to Cristian's with the remainder of the strawberry rum that my lightweight family had not managed to drink. It felt oddly routine to be hanging out with Cristian again, just back to my normal lifestyle. We had a 'lads' night, which basically consisted of drinking and dominoes. I actually played this time. I think I did OK, but I did struggle to keep up with the pace at times. They all seem to know exactly which pieces everyone has when we get down to a couple each. It reminded me of how quickly darts players can work out their checkout. One of the guys there knew a little bit about football, which was nice becausee all the normally talk about is baseball...
The 27th February is Independence Day here, so I went round to Cristian's again on Sunday afternoon. From 2 till 8, we sat in his street with numerous relatives, watching a group of young dancers that would appear every so often, wearing outrageously flamboyant costumes. It was very relaxing; just sitting there in the sun, having some casual chit-chat. Cristian's grandmother kindly offered me some food: mangu with salami. She also shrewdly observed that I am a fan of eggs and added two to my plate; as you can imagine, I was delighted!!
On Wednesday, Victor took me out with two of his architect friends. We went to a sort of nightclub, but quite early and had a good time dancing. Then we headed to a Mexican restaurant for some tacos, although the menu offered other wonderfully-named options, such as quesadillas, fueltas, taquizas and fajitas. The order of the night was a little topsy-turvy, but it was nice to experience something a little more up-market.
Last night, Victor treated me to dinner again, this time at a tropical restaurant. We sat on a terrace, surrounded by waterfalls and palm trees, only feet away from a dual carriageway. We had another local dish, mofongo, which was some sort of mashed potato with spices, nuts and pork. It was surprisingly delicious. I learned that Victor is half Russian, so we had a short conversation in Russian. I found myself trying to use words from three different languages at the same time, which became very confusing, so we reverted to Spanish.
This week also saw the reinstatement of marmite into my life, which has been most welcome. Also, everytime I go to a hot country, I burn, simple as. And it always seems to be in a different place. I now have peeling feet, which is an odd and new sensation for me. Oh well, I am helpless to avoid the sun's wrath! I may as well get used to it!!
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