We went to church in Huatulco. As with all the churches we have seen down here, it was two buildings connected by a breezeway. The fans blew in the chapel, making it rather difficult to hear. They didn’t have a piano player, so Angela played. I bore my testimony. Edwin read and contributed to Sunday school. Virginia impressed everyone in her class when the teacher asked, in Spanish, of course, how many years before Christ Samuel the Lamanite had prophesied, and she answered, “Cinco!” Augustus led a screaming bunch of little kids racing around the outside of the building after meetings.
We drove to Manzuntes, where we wandered along the lovely beach.
The kids were forbidden to swim, but Augustus managed to completely dunk himself in the waves anyway. He was sent up to sit with Grandpa under the thatch. A lovely, dark vender approached Grandpa, a captive audience, and sold him a stone necklace. Edwin bought several for his girls, too. But after we left, Augustus told us that he saw the woman, after Grandpa gave her the money, and when he wasn’t looking, make the sign of the cross and kiss the money. Made me wish we had bought more.
- Naomi
Church was nearby, lots of people with the usual distribution of men, women and children in this sort of place. There was no pianist so Angela played for them
Afterwards Edwin talked for a while, then we left traveling north to Acapulco. Along the way we stopped at another bay to enjoy the beach, I sat under a shade while the kids walked. Sitting there as a still target a vendor tried to sell me a necklace of native stone or shells. At first it was 30 pesos, then, just for me, it was 15. That is the usual ploy, the ‘just for you’ part. She had handed them to me one at a time telling how she and her husband had made them for the tourist trade but that trade had been thin recently. So I bought one. When I handed her the money I did not observe her but Gusty, sitting a few feet off did and related that she made the sign of the cross and kissed the money. I guess trade was as slow as she said. Just then Edwin came up and she began on him, as his three daughters and wife straggled in. It ended up he bought 2 at 15 and she sold him the last at 10 pesos.
The bay had previously existed on killing sea turtles but as they grew scarce and the Government, probably in response to international pressure, outlawed their slaughter, the people turned to tourism which provides only a scant living earned by those who hustle like this lady did. She was clear, the turtle shell necklace she had for sale was made from the shell of a turtle that died of natural causes, not a slaughtered one. Then on to Puerto Escondido where we spent the night.
Supper at Puerto Escondido was in a tourist place where the prices were higher than others and the food was only fair, except my Oaxaca cheese sandwich. Oaxaca is known for its cheese that tastes just like the cheese my mother used to make but it has a rope texture and comes in lengths.
- Grandpa
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