Jose our new friend

Upon first arriving at our house, we noticed a lazy, and I mean LAZY, dog basking in the heat and humidity on the ground floor apartment. We said hi, he batted an eye open to check us out, but didn't budget otherwise as we carried our bags upstairs. We ended up passing him a few more times that evening as we explored around and grabbed dinner, each time greeted by with one eye opened, as if to say, "I see you" but never more.


That all changed this morning as we walked down to the beach. The dog, now christened 'Jose' by Jen, decided that maybe if we were going to be here a while he should get to know us. And so he did. Through the town we walked, scoping out the town for tortillerias and grocery stores, and all the while Jose followed us.

One oddity in Mexico is that apparently dogs have the right of way on roads. More than once we'd be yelling at Jose, sometimes in English, sometimes in broken Spanish to get out of the way as a car approached. And more often than not, Jose would stand there obliviously. Once, a pickup truck seemed to 'tap' him a bit, just a gentle nudge to please move over as it tried to work its way through the so called road.


Jose followed us throughout, and ultimately right back to the house. Later in the day we went out to get some cash at an ATM (btw, the universal use of $ as pesos always makes confirming your $3,000 withdrawal a nerve racking experience). Jose, as is now usual, followed along and right into the grocery store where the ATM was. Perhaps this was no coincidence though, as just in front of the ATM, in giant opened 100lb bags, dried dog food was on display. Jose stood by it, not whining, but perhaps in that psychic dog way merely suggesting another purchase while we were there.

We resisted this time, but I can't imagine we'll manage to leave without at least a goodbye feast for the old guy.