Yvonne with a native mexican dancer
The average Mexican home

Hola, amigos!!! We took a trip down to Algadones, Mexico today. The border crossing is less than 5 minutes away from our RV park. We parked in a huge parking lot and walked across the border. The town starts immediately, so it was an easy walk. They have dentists and optometrists all over the place. There's guys handing out their cards along the sidewalk coming in. We walked through all the vendors, then took a side road out to go see some of the surrounding area. The first home picture above is an example of what we all typically think about these Mexican border towns. The people are very poor, the streets are full of garbage. But then you walk around a corner and see a house like the third picture. As in any developing countries, there are no middle class. Just dirt poor and the rich. We managed to get a ton of vanilla. The Mexican vanilla can't be beat. We also bought a bottle of coffee flavoured tequila and one that's amaretto flavoured. It's 20% alcohol. I tried a sample from our neighbour last night in the middle of a couple glasses of wine. I ended up passing out at the same time as Yvonne. What a cheap drunk I am.

Our RV park has an organized quilt sewing room. The ladies here sew 600 quilts every year for the poor in Mexico. Yvonne and I went in yesterday for a couple hours and learned their system. They have everything tagged and piled in stages of completion, so anyone can go into the room and work for a while. It's a fabulous feeling to do something useful for the people who need it so much. The bonus of it is we get to learn how to make quilts.

The atmosphere here is so influenced by Mexico. This morning, we had a farmer bring fresh produce right into the RV park. It was so nice to stroll down and pick up fresh fruit and veggies. We bought a basket of strawberries, a head of lettuce, a bunch of green onions, a head of broccolli, two bunches of radishes, and six oranges for $8.

We are so enjoying the desert. Jim and I both love this dry climate. We are fortunate to be able to spend our afternoons in a lovely pool.