Houses in Melaque

The Mexicans love colour. They make use of oranges, yellows, various blues and greens, they will mix colours that you would never picture together and it looks great. These pictures are of varying structures that I came across on one of my many walks.

This 1st one above I found interesting as the upper floor they have a beautiful front door with the pillars but no-where to go! The lower portion is a shop which is the norm there. Live upstairs and have your store on the ground level and a little back yard behind. Needless to say there are many little shops.

The picture on the right has fake shutters painted onto the side of the windows.

This 1st picture is a fairly large private home in one of the better parts of town, it is painted a pinky/orange colour with navy trim and the white fence and garage and entrance in the front. Very pretty place. I found these other two kind of neat because all the railings, they are hand peeled small logs with a palapa on the room with thatching. A palapa is basically a gazibo.

This last one was a very deep orange with the white trim, it's a sort of bed and breakfast place.

The Mexican's also like to play their music very loud. The town comes alive at 6 pm when some people are finished work and come out to eat at the small eateries that are on the street. A family can eat very cheap here. For instance there is a place that does Pollo Carbon (bar-b-q chicken) tastes fantastic, for $70. pesos (equivalent to under $7.00) you get a whole chicken (about 3 lbs) about 2 cups of rice, 8 medium tortillas (fresh) a cup of coleslaw and hot sauce. A complete meal for 4.

Many places siesta at 2pm until 4pm and then work til 8pm. The maids here and at most of the hotels make $100. pesos per 10 hour days, this is equal to just under $10 US per day. Needless to say, they greatly appreciate the tips they get from the people visiting. People who wait tables don't make quite that much and the tips (usually 15%) is pooled and divided between serving staff and cooking staff.