Further South of the Border III: Into Navojoa

We arose early on March 11, 2008 and had a breakfast of seafood stew and corn tortillas at Carlos’ mom’s house. Corn tortillas are preferred over flour tortillas in Mexico and I believe that flour tortillas are usually only found close to the U.S.-Mexican border. I read that the Spanish conquistadors introduced the making of tortillas with flour rather than corn. I prefer flour tortillas as I think the strong flavor of corn tortillas competes too much with the flavor of the food they are eaten with.

After breakfast, we set out for Juan Pablo's house. We met up with Juan Pablo and after drinking a round of Cokes (a national pastime in Mexico), Juan Pablo's brother, Pollo, joined us and we set off for the city. On the way, we took a short detour to a poultry farm, looking for baby chicks. Carlos and I stayed in the truck, just outside the gates. The smell was awful and in that moment I considered seriously becoming a vegetarian. The real benefit of this excursion was that Carlos and I had a fruitful conversation in which God gave him insight into a problem that he was having. The chickens were not for sale (thankfully), so we sallied forth.

Navojoa is thoroughly modern and is Mexico’s fifth largest city. It was clean and well-ordered in sharp contrast to Nogales. We proceeded to the center of the city to the mercado (market) which is a sort of mix of a farmer’s market and open-air retail shops. The mercado was about two blocks from the plaza. Every proper Mexican town or city has a plaza and, on one side of the plaza, a Catholic church. The weather was pleasant with sun and a slight breeze as we went to see the plaza.

By this time, our group had split in half. One group went looking for baby chicks while my group returned to the mercado. It was lunch time and I was looking forward to eating at a new restaurant. We found a gathering of little restaurants in the Mercado. The open-air eatery had a nice, homey feel. The cooking area was visible from all the tables and it felt somehow comforting to just sit there, surrounded by pale yellow tiles, the various cooking instruments and the smell of tortillas.

I had 3 tacos dorados (fried tacos), a plate of frijoles (beans), a Coke and followed with a cup of coffee. It was a very satisfactory meal. Here is a cultural tip: When eating out in Mexico, it is customary for one person to pay for the entire meal. Occasionally in Nogales we will equally split the cost but usually one of us pays for everything. Restaurants in Mexico rarely split a bill so people can pay for their own meal separately. In this instance, we split the bill equally because we were all running low on money. Next on the agenda was a visit to Los Alamos. Miguel slept in the cargo area of the Isuzu during the 30 minute trip to Los Alamos.