Manipulated Mexico...

It was an absolutely beautiful day in South Texas today...no humidity and temps around 80. What a wonderful relief from the 100s. I didn't feel like sitting at home, so I decided to head out to Wimberley just to get out and enjoy the weather. Even though it was Market Days in Wimberley, I passed on that because I've been there a couple times and didn't feel traipsing through all those booths. I just went to the main downtown area and went through some of the shops. I brought my camera but ended up taking only one picture because I didn't feel like taking the same ol' photos.

Two of the shops I went into were jewelry stores. I'm not really in the market for any jewelry, but I was just killing time. The first one was run by a young Mexican woman. The reason I went in was because I saw a ring in the window that was identical to mine, only smaller.

I love fire opal because it reminds me of all the different hues of the water in Mexico. I actually liked the size of the ring I saw today better than mine, so I thought I'd ask how much it was out of curiosity. $175.00. Whoa! I bought mine on Isla Mujeres several years ago and paid $100.00 from a new shop that I had never been to before. Of course, the original price the salesman there quoted me was $400.00 US dollars, but you know you're never supposed to pay the first price. I'm a terrible bargainer, but I kept saying, "That's too high" (because it wasn't in my budget), and would start walking out the door and he would pull me back and offer less. Finally, it got down to $100.00, and I caved because it fit perfectly and I really wanted a fire opal ring. Anyway, I think I got a pretty good deal on it.

So, the Mexican lady at the jewelry store and I started to chat and, of course, we talked about Mexico. She has a relative who lives on Isla Mujeres...go figure...small world. I honestly felt like I had walked into a jewelry store somewhere south of the border.

Since I was going into almost every shop, I stopped in another jewelry store that also had fire opals. I think they're becoming more popular in the states. A woman about my age showed me what they had and, again, I started talking about Mexico and she told me that she used to live in Aruba and St. Thomas, and had been to Mexico many times in her BC (before children) years. She was a single lady who pretty much raised her kids on her own...just like me. Well, we ended up chatting for about a half hour about Mexico and how the lifestyle is so different down there and how much we miss it.

So, with my intention of taking pictures of Wimberley today, I ended up feeling nostalgic for Mexico and ended up coming home and playing with Photoshop with some of my Mexico photos. Photoshop has the ability to manipulate photos to look like works of art, so I just had some fun with it. In no particular order, I will just mention the technique used to achieve the effect...they're pretty interesting. Remember that you can click on them to enlarge them and get a better look.

Accented Edges...

Crosshatch...

Cutout...

Glass...

Ink Outlines...

Mosaic Tiles... (Recognize Qubano?)

Paint Daubs...

Plastic Wrap...

Rough Pastels...

Sponge...

Stamp...

Here's the original of that one...

And Watercolor...

Kind of interesting techniques, right? It would be fun to print them off to see what they would look like as frameable pictures.

So what's that one picture I took today in Wimberley? Here it is. Just having fun in a costume store. And, of course, they yelled at me for taking pictures. *sigh* Sometimes you just can't win.

Chiles Rellenos...Isla Style...

I got a craving for some good Mexican food the other day. Living in Texas, there is no shortage of Mexican restaurants. In fact, you'll find numerous "mom and pop" places all over the place down here. I mean that literally...there's at least one on every block. But after you've been to a few, you find out that they're all pretty much the same. Once you've been to one...you've been to them all. Maybe there's a special one out there, but I haven't found it yet. They all have the soupy refried beans...the Velveeta cheese on top of the enchiladas...etc., etc. Then you have places like Mamacita's which is more of a higher-priced TexMex kind of restaurant with generic dishes like fajitas and Spanish rice with, again, the soupy refried beans. They do nothing for me.

So, I pulled out my copy of recipes from restaurants on Isla Mujeres which I downloaded from the Isla Chatter Board a few months ago, and decided to make the Chiles Rellenos recipe from La Lomita. Here are some of my ingredients.

And here's the recipe...

And here's La Lomita on Isla. Strangely enough, I have never eaten here. It's either been closed when I've gone by, or I just haven't been hungry enough to eat there. Maybe one of these days.

So, onto the recipe. Saute some onions, garlic and tomatoes...

Char some poblano peppers on the stove so that you can take off the skins. (Having a gas stove really comes in handy for this.)

This isn't in the recipe, but I've read that you should put the peppers inside a sealed plastic bag for awhile after charring them...it makes peeling them easier.

Here's Jared peeling the peppers...

Puree the tomato/onion/garlic mixture and heat again...

I forgot to get pictures of the flour and egg part of the recipe. Mix flour, salt and pepper in one dish and combine a frothy mixture of egg yolks and whites together. After stuffing the peppers with the Mexican cheese, dip the pepper in the egg mixture, then the flour, then the egg mixture again...and the flour again...then place in hot oil.

And here's the result...muy bueno! Poblano peppers are very mild, so there was no spiciness to this dish at all. I think next time I make it, I will put some jalapeno peppers into the tomato sauce for a little kick.

It's a pretty time-consuming dish and my kitchen was a mess at the end, but it was well worth it. Would I make them again? Definitely! They were better than any chiles rellenos I've ever gotten in the states.

Busing it through Mexico...

This will be my final post on my trip to Mexico.

I took pictures out of my window of the bus of the little towns we passed through on the way to and from Chichen Itza. It would be fun to spend some time exploring some of these one of these days. This was the cathedral in Chemax, where we picked up the lady who sold me the embroidered cloth. This is probably one of my favorite shots on the whole trip.

The rest are in no particular order...



Now this is one long clothes line.

I bet these side streets would offer some pretty interesting photo ops...


Lots of Pepsi and Coca-Cola signs on the buildings...

These were the guards near the entrance to Chichen Itza...





This was probably the only nicer house I saw on the entire bus ride...

This little cutie was the son of a vendor at Chichen Itza who let me take his picture after I bought something from his dad...

Vendors just sit on the sidewalks with a few wares in these tiny little towns. I wonder if anyone buys anything from them.









I'll end with just a few changes I noticed on Isla.

They painted the sun at La Pena...


...and changed it...

...to La Luna...

This...

...has been repainted...

As well as this...

...to this...

...and from this...

...to this... (not an improvement in my opinion)

And this little place just can't decide what color it wants to be. This is how it looked in September of 2006...

July of 2009...

And at the end of December. This time they painted the sun over the door, too...and they keep changing the little garden area, as well.

Thank goodness this place never changes otherwise I'd have to do another stained glass project on it! (And I'm not going to do one with the Grinch in front.)

Thanks for tagging along on my little adventure in Mexico. Until next time, adios amigos!