Month: July 2011

Costa Alegre ChurchI’m a little sad to be leaving Lili and Mexico City behind. I’ve loved roaming around there in my imagination. I’ve loved being those people.

If you’re thinking of writing a novel or stories, there is no better reason to do it than the feeling you will retain afterward of having lived another life, of having seen the world through completely different perspectives.

Forget the fame and fortune part. This is the only thing . . .

Here’s the shrimp recipe I promised you. I got it from the New York Times, and the Times writer, Sam Sifton, got it from Doc Ford’s Bar on Sanibel Island in Florida, not Mexico, but Florida is a good place to read a Romantic Suspense novel, a beach book like Palace of the Blue Butterfly, don’t you think?

Anyway, the shrimp tastes totally like the shrimp Dave and I ate in little beach shacks under palapas when we were younger and vagabonding around Mexico.

Now all you have to do is make the shrimp, que up the trio music and ice down the Coronas.

Buen Provecho! . . .

Sometime after hurricane season in Mexico and before the spring wildflowers arrive here on the ranch, I’m planning a trip to the Mayan Riviera. I have always wanted to stay at the Hotel Maroma, set on a deserted beach fifteen miles down a bumpy, dirt road from the highway to Tulum . This year I’m going to do it, my reward for getting my novel out of the closet and into the world. On this post, I’ll be reading the very last episode. Here’s the plan. Dave and I rent a car in Merida, and we drive to one of those wonderfully . . .

Pawn Shop in MexicoPalace of the Blue Butterfly | Episode 16.

. . . A quick, little tour of Monte Piedad, the National Pawn Shop.

If you go to Mexico City, this is must stop shopping.

You want to find some of those fabulous gold Oaxacan earrings? Monte Piedad.

Antique Silver bracelets? Monte Piedad.

Art Deco coffee service? Ditto.

Or maybe you’ve gotten this far in Palace of the Blue Butterfly, and you want to know what Monte Piedad . . .