Alone again, together

Sadly, the house is quiet again! No more pitter-patter of little Indian and Korean feet. No more work-sponsored blackberries to guide our wanderings - back to my usually incomplete (or illegible) directions. No more sounds of laughter at night as Manoj and Tony fight over the guest-room bed - Tony slept under the mosquito net, Manoj didn't; Manoj likes lots of covers, Tony doesn't. No more help drinking all the mezcal that we've accumulated. Well, Manoj helped, at least. Tony does not like Mezcal.

Manoj already wrote about some of the visit, but I can give a few more highlights.

- Dinner with Omar and Adrian on Friday was a great time. Chipotle chicken again, in sandwich form, as well as chicharron (dried salted pig-skin that we stewed with tomatillos) that was a little piggy for the Americans, green beans, sauteed poblanos, plenty of salsa, agua de Jamaica, Mexican beer, and Scotch whiskey. Afterwards we hit the town, wandering for a bit before we ended up at a great and very local bar with live music and then DJ'd dancing.

- While watching the Yankees game at a bagel/coffee shop we seem to have made an impression on the barista, because for the next two days, everywhere we went he seemed to show up ten minutes later. Oaxaca seems to be small enough that once you do start to recognize faces, they turn up in quite a few other places.

- Our weekly soccer game fell through so we wandered over to a different park for some basketball instead. Erica ran around the soccer fields while Manoj and I played a reta with teams of three on three. Our teammate, Flor, was pretty good, making strong cuts to the basket off the ball, and we won (or thought we won) quite a few. My height was a pretty strong advantage, and we quickly learned that the notion of what constitutes a foul is a loose one, although everybody was smiling at the end. They play every weekday and Sunday, so I'll probably head back over from time to time: once Shaq retires, the Celtics will need another big man...

- After Tony left, Manoj, Erica and I went to Tule (see the post above), had some delicious hot chocolate at Hotel Chocolate (ditto), and then hit the 20 de Noviembre market for some semi-street food. This place is a raised and covered marketplace focused almost exclusively on food. There are dozens of mini-restaurants, bread and cake sellers, and drink vendors. It was one of the best meals we've had here, and we took a picture so we could remember the name of the booth where we ate: Candita's Tavern.

It was really great to have our friends here and we're looking forward to our next chance to play hosts. Looks like Kevin will be here towards the end of the month!