Thursday, Mar 31, 2016

I think today may have been the hottest and most humid day I have experienced so far. The sun was out in full force! When I walked from the sun into the shade I swear there was a 20 degree drop in temperature. I am amazed at how hot the sun feels here.

Before things heated up this morning I went to the Farmer’s market about 7:15 am. I needed to pick up chicken breast for a Taco Night get together tonight. I decided it was time to try the “chicken aisle”.

At the market there is a row of vendors that just sell chicken, all located down one aisle. Often times we have gone to the market at 10 or 11 am and it’s hot and the flies are out. I would look down the chicken aisle and just think, “hell no!”

When I arrived at the chicken aisle there were 3 vendors with their chickens all stacked neatly on the counter space in front of them. I was going to go to the last vendor, a woman sitting alone who was missing her front teeth. She looked like she could use my business.

As I passed the middle vendor, a woman standing on my side of the aisle who was talking to the woman with missing teeth, started telling me she has chicken. Her husband was behind the counter; he was the middle vendor.

I told her in Spanish I needed 4 chicken breasts, skinned, and boneless. I was still looking at the missing toothed woman. The husband now said to his wife something to the effect, let him get it from her (the missing toothed woman) because he could see I was headed to her before I was intercepted. His wife gave him a fast and furious tongue lashing. I just laughed…nervously.

I couldn’t really tell if they all were working together or what, but the woman who was missing teeth didn’t seemed bothered if I bought my chicken here, so I just went with it. The woman who intercepted me told me it would be $2 per pound and I repeated that I wanted four breasts.

The man grabbed a chicken off the stack and started chopping it up. He was very skilled at this and did it quickly. The chicken breasts were huge! The four skinless, boneless breasts weighed 7 pounds. His wife asked if I wanted the breasts filleted. I said yes and she made the meat a perfect thickness for tacos.

As I was carrying the bag home I realized it felt cold. It is obvious that they keep these chickens cold somewhere before pulling them out and placing them on the counter. My fears of buying chicken at this market were unwarranted…just buy early to avoid the flies.

Heidi, Easton, and I later walked to the Bahia B&B where we have started buying our ground coffee. David and Sophia are the owners, a young couple, who have lived in Bahia 3 years now. In addition to building his B&B business, David also teaches exercise, fitness, and martial arts. He has been traveling around Central and South America for 20 years, and today he was sharing some of the changes he has seen in that time. His wife Sophia is from Medellin, Columbia. They are both very friendly and engaging people!

I spent most of the day in conversation with one person or another. It was another enjoyable and relaxing day.

By the way, at Taco Night, Norbert (our host) smoked the chicken meat. It was very, very good! He also smoked fish and fresh cheese. This all made for fantastic tacos!