Jan 19

Today was market day in La Penita. The town square was filled with vendors from the area. You could buy anything from glasses, wood carvings, jewellry, plates, sweaters ( a lot of locals are wearing sweaters now. They find it cold these days !), food, produce, clothing, blankets and so on. The restaurants have special breakfasts as well. We met some friends for coffee at Gigios, an Italian cafe. The owner and chef along with his French-Canadian wife (from Shawinagan) serve some great crepes and strudelle as well as the best pizza around. I stuck to fresh sweezed OJ as we had already ate at home.
Later we had lunch at a new Tunisian restaurant. The owner, Atum, was very friendly and went out of his way to help us in our search for a new home that we will move into in mid -Feb. We will definitly spend more time at his cafe.
We have encountered a lot more French speaking residents. It seems like every Gringo is either from BC, PQ or Alta.

Here is a shot of the market today. The quality has improved over the last 2 weeks.

The tarps are overhead because it is too hot !!!

Our new friend, Atum, in front of his cafe Restaurant el Rincon del Arabe . He was born in Tunisia and can speak Arabic, French, English and German ! He has a wonderful little restaurant and is one of the friendliest people we've met. He reminds me of Darius Rucker from Hootie and the Blowfish!