Noche Libre #3

Now that we've secured Rocio as a niñera (babysitter) every Thursday, Sue and I have a standing date night. We heard about a benefit party from a couple friends, and we decided to check it out. The benefit was for a guy named Beto Martinez, who runs a bike shop here in town, and needs to raise $100K for chemotherapy treatment. Some of the gringo socialites here have taken up his cause, and so far have raised about $40K for him.

The event was held in the Instituto Allende, the local continuing education center and famous language school. It has a great patio with a view adjoining an art gallery. Upon arriving, we realized that this was our big chance to break into San Miguel society, such as it is. It seemed like most of the party-goers were 50 year old ex-debutantes from Texas. Just add cameras and you'd have The Real Housewives of San Miguel. We bought some raffle tickets, and met a few characters too.

One woman who stood out was Crystal Calderoni. Here's her Facebook photo:



She is a totally buff, really personable woman in her forties. She moved here a few years ago to sell real estate, but has transformed into a personal trainer - and you can tell. (She also has an IMDB resume as I discovered later.) She's half Mexican and half Italian, and because of that she claimed she can mix tequila and wine no problem.

The other highlight was meeting Eli and Joseph, a gay couple recently moved here from San Diego. Eli is also known as the "Spanish Guru" - follow the link to see a funny promo video he made. And it turns out Joseph is from Wilmington, DE (where Sue grew up), and is one year younger than her. Joseph does hypnotherapy. Both these guys were great, and invited us to their Thursday "game night" (which sounded like "gay night" at first).

After the benefit, we met Ann from Baltimore and her husband Sam for mojitos and dinner at Pueblo Viejo, and had a great double-date while getting to know them better. Sam is an ex-8th grade history teacher, and Ann used to be a "Julie-the-cruise-director" for a travel company. They love good food, and love to travel, and are very personable. We may meet them at the Fair on Friday, as Bryce and Laurel get on with their kids really well.

This was our third time to Pueblo Viejo, and we tried some new things. The highlights were some shrimp and jicima tacos with shredded leeks. The "tortilla" was made out of jicama, and they were outrageously good. Ann got a sole-like white fish covered with a subtle goat-cheese sauce which was unusual and very tasty. Sue got a mancheaga (I think that's what it is called) - a mixture of steak, chorizo, cheese, poblano chiles and green sauce served in a pestle-and-mortar bowl. Sabroso!