May 40th

The last two days we’ve headed out for “supermaxi” for supplies and got rained out both times about half way. Today we made it a bit further before seeking refuge. We tried waiting it out, but it wasn’t letting up and we ended up heading back again. A consolation was passing by a little hole in the wall bakery I discovered by accident a few weeks ago; one that makes a really good bread-pudding-cake thingy. So it wasn’t a complete wash. And, as usual, we had some plan b places to grab lunch or coffee along the way for such contingencies.

May is known for raining a lot around here; they even have a saying that it rains a ton in April but in May you have to wear your ponchos/socks until the 40th (hasta el 40 de mayo no te quites el sayo) So you would think you’d see more rain jackets, umbrellas and such, but less than half the people we met walking about had anything like that. About half of the other half were milling in doorways and under eaves, some of them we saw on the way back too, so they were prepared to wait it out for an hour or more. The other half of that half were just winging it.

And we started Spanish classes again, yay! Two hours this morning, and every day hence for a couple of weeks before we head to Colorado. The expression of the day:

Siga no mas
I understood all the words individually, heard it before even, but its meaning wasn’t clear until today. Word by word it means “continue no more.” A little different interpretation is “continue only”, that is, continue and nothing more. Its usage is closer to the English phrase “go for it!” So if someone wants a bite of your sandwich, you can say “siga no mas” … or if you want to say “please go ahead” to someone you bump into while you’re both trying to squeeze out the door: siga no mas. You go head. So yeah, now I’ll be thinking of ways to slip it into conversations, it seems like a very useful phrase, so siga no mas, until we meet again.