Que Pasa? February 8th, 2010

In March The Little Mexican Cooking School is adding guest chefs to the menu. Most dates in February for Authentic Mexican Food, with Claudia, are booked out. The charming and funny Alan Kerr, instructor at the Niagara Culinary Institute and wine connoisseur will be presenting classes March 3 and 5 called 'Under the Influence'. March 3rd Mexican Food entirely 'Under the Influence' of some of his favourite cuisines from Asia, Peru, Brazil and the California wine country. March 5th will see Alan getting down and dangerous - cooking with tequila and chiles. Jason Schubert (left) from the critically acclaimed Only on King, London, Ontario, has classes March 24 and 26 bringing us Mexican Cuisine hitting the Big Time, Jason's focus is on the beauty and quality of local fresh foods and his menu is exciting! You will be the star of dinner parties, 2 classes only. More info on the website.
Have you been missing one smiling face around town - well Ric Santana (below left) has been suffering in the cold in Santa Fe studying at the world famous Scherer Institute for Healing. Mauro and Ginny went the extra mile getting him a visa, accommodated and into the school where of course he is doing brilliantly. After 6 months intensive study his graduation day is February 26th and when he comes back to us in March will be a highly trained massage therapist, good for everyone! Puerto Morelos Music Festival is on again, next dates Feb 19 and 5 and 19 March as well - be there in the square 7-10pm, support your local artists. There is also live music at David Lau's and at Habaneros Thursday - Saturdays. On that note there is a new events calendar where you can see everything going on the Riviera Maya, put together by the fabulous Nicola and Michele of playamayainfo.com and the great Taste of Playa event, this will become an essential bookmark http://www.rivieramayaeventscalendar.com/Events.html. Have you ever heard someone say I am going to WALZ well that is what Anna, Roberto and Stefan are doing, it is an ancient German tradition where young tradespeople after completing their training set off with little in their pocket ($5 nowadays) and travel the world sharing and honing their skills, all the time wearing the clothing of German tradesmen of 300 years ago! Anna has been travelling 2 years and Roberto and Stefan for 6 years, visiting 27 countries in Europe, North America and North Africa. They are currently working in the Weird Wonderful house on Ninos Heroes. The Circus was in town a couple of weeks ago and out of curiosity I went with Abby and her son Jools - it was..interesting. I will say the animals looked in fine fettle when they were standing around but weren't happy about the tricks that were asked of them. There was a girl of around 8 years old who was an extraordinary gymnast and some great trapeze work but the fight scene between a boyfriend and girlfriend had my jaw dropping to the floor as he kicked and beat her and she kicked and dragged him around the floor, the audience thought this was hilarious, we left. Good to see that Armando is back at the Biergarten and chef Fernando has been cooking up a storm with lots of new dishes on the menu and some a great specials every night, soup and a generous main meal for 75p. He does something with sauces that is just very special, really worth trying if you have not been there yet. My other favourite eatery is Panza es Primero where I am steadily working through the menu, loved the Mocahete Azteca the other night - slices of meat and vegetable come served in a heated stone mortar, delish and prices are very reasonable especially if you choose the menu that has one dish big enough for 2. There are now more choices for quick meals during the day apart from Tios and Mimis on Ninos Heroes opp Casa Cultura (55p 2 courses). There is the outdoor taco stand next to the Delegacion, good breakfasts there as well. Picolinos, opposite Almost Heaven Dive shop on Rojo Gomez, has increased its menu choices and also offers fried fish. Note that key shop is back on Ninos Heroes opposite the Biergarten (you can enlarge the photo to get their numbers).We had a very generous donor to the El Mundo Para Puerto Morelos charity recently - his large donation was supplemented with our funds and enabled up to install much needed playground equipment in the Kinder Cinco de Mayo. You can see the before and after pictures here, when I arrived to take the photos the little ones came out of the classroom and I received 40 little soft kisses in thank you, here I send them back out to you. We also recently had many donations from a kind family and we delivered their food to the DIF preschool and reading glasses to DIF central and added some great items to storage for the bazaar. The Charity Bazaar is on March 13th and we can start taking donations NOW, you can drop them at Frank's place or my place, please have things if possible in plastic bags or boxes for ease of storage, books, clothes, furnishings. If you want to have a stall at the bazaar please email Nadja Billard nadjabvd@gmail.com to express interest or to help out, thank you! Puerto Morelos hosted, for 2 nights, the School of Authentic Journalism, 45 young radical journalists from all over the world arrived Feb 3rd and are travelling in a group while participating in seminars about truth in reporting. Some of these young people are from very troubled areas and have risked their lives reporting what some people do not want heard. The enormous expansion of Plaza Las Americas is well on the way to complete with the new shopping mall open - very sleek, modern, huge with lots of all those same US brands you see everywhere. The VIP Cinema has moved into the new section, accessed from where the food court used to be. Call us crazy but we played polo under the full moon 2 weeks ag0, a beautiful bright night had us on the field at 9pm playing with a lit ball and glow sticks on our heads. The clouds came over 10 minutes later and spoilt our fun, we'll do it again. We are having a Beach Polo tournament on March 5th in front of the Hotel Me in the Hotel Zone of Cancun, to celebrate the opening of the new cancun beach followed on the 6th at the El Rey Polo Club with the final of the tournament. We recently had the Candelaria Festival. The Candelaria Virgin was used to convert the Indigenous inhabitants to Christianity, by replacing the Prehispanic Fertility Deity, who was celebrated on the same date…February 2nd. Celebrated in different ways all over the country with music, eating Tamales (with a plastic doll in the lucky ones), running the bulls and here by buying a new baby Jesus doll or new clothes for your existing dolls, there were stalls all over the markets and even a baby Jesus Doll Hospital. Our dear friend Carlos - great friend to all the dogs of Puerto Morelos has left town for many years, he has gone to be with his love in Argentina - we all wish you well and thanks for everything you did in Puerto. Lots of visitors on our beaches have seend what the winter winds can do! The bulldozers have been brought in twice to stop the sand from overflowing into all the beach front properties. Spring is sprung, the early flowers have started to peek their heads out in gardens and the jungle, now we wait for the water to warm up again.




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