December 22 - Piñatas anyone?

In La Peñita, the Christmas rush is on.  We started the day with the market in the park for vegetables bread, tarts and wine.  Then into town for dog food and meat.  Three very polite Federales on motorcycles asked my dear to move our car whilst he was waiting for me to finish shopping in the carniceria (butcher shop).  When they realized I was in the shop, they said he had 5 minutes grace.  (The butcher, noticing this, told me we could be 10 minutes in that spot while I shopped.)  Alas, I exceeded this time frame and Cam (and his little dog too) had to circle the block.

The three motorcycle Federales (aka the policia federal, or PF) pulled in across the street, headed for lunch at the restaurant beside the carniceria.  Due to the paint job and added equipment, I could not tell the brand nor engine size of their bikes.  The bikes were, at a guess, 650 twins, brutes where the usual family of three moto is a 125, with a factory moulded-in small fairing and trunk bag.  I was surprised to note that two of the three bikes had rear tires worn as smooth as the usual Mexican quad.  Since I was between where they parked and the restaurant that they were headed to, and since I was the only car parked in a block with the yellow curb denoting no parking (how quickly we adapt to local practices, and at least I was facing the right way), they pretty much had to move me along.  Starting in Spanish, my "No hablo español" moved the conversation into their flawless english.  They were young, fit, polite, and in all respects professional.  After a few minutes, I noted open parking a short block back, and went around the block and parked legally.

After lunch a friend and I walked back into town to buy candy for the park piñatas (for the children of the staff to break).  The town is full of piñatas.

The big guy looks a little gruff, little guy too cute!

I want six they are so nice.

On the left there are forms for more piñatas

This little display was on a side street

Hmm, those guys aren't real

While we were walking we ran into 2 different park groups who had driven into town so they put our packages in their cars and we kept shopping.  A well deserved glass of wine with dinner ended the day on our patio.