I know those sound like two things that have absolutely nothing in common, and you are correct.

They have nothing in common.

I was excited to see some street side vendors selling bushels of fresh garbanzo beans, which I have always wanted to try. I purchased this for about $4, if I remember correctly.

I got home and had to figure out what the heck to do with the bushel. I mean…my first goal was to buy it, but I really had no idea what the next step was!  I see street side vendors selling cooked beans that are simply in a large open pot, so I figured it couldn’t be that hard.

I did a lot of cleaning and picking, and quite awhile later I had a washed pot of fresh garbanzos, packaged two-to-a-pod. I added a bit of water and a dash of salt, steamed them for awhile, and discovered that they are absolutely delicious.

The girls agreed. They ate a ton of them (and since we had a ton of them, they lasted for days)! Why are canned garbanzos white, but these cooked ones are green?  Anyone know?  I’m sure there’s an answer…

The next day we were invited to go to a friend´s home for dinner. We arrived later than expected, and found ourselves smack in the middle of a horse surgery setup. We ate our hamburgers, and wandered out to the yard to watch the surgery take place, right there in the middle of their yard/playground.

Ella has been saying lately that she wants to be a veterinarian, but after this surgery, she decided against it.

The kids got to watch the gore, up-close-and-personal, and also from the high perspective of the slide. An educational playground experience!

After the surgery, the kids tried to chase down the baby chickens scattered throughout the yard. They even managed to catch quite a few!

Just another example of how you never know what you’re going to get in Mexico! What was going to be a nice meal of 3 families sitting down together, became more of a picnic/show with lasting educational memories! How can you plan better than this?

Here’s the adult gang that participated in this adventure-filled afternoon!

I´ve blogged about Mezcala before, so I´m not going to get into much detail. However, we went again, this time with some new friends. All the kids were excited for the upcoming boat ride, while hanging out on the newly-built, beautiful malecon!

Our friends, Rachel and Greg, are responsible for the extra children above. It takes good parents to make good kids (sadly, which is why our kids have short tempers), and these two have five beautiful, well-behaved children. Thank goodness for that, because they are DRIVING from Alaska to Argentina in their pickup truck (with a popup tent on top), and they are a seriously cool crew. If you haven´t checked out their blog, yet…you are crazy!

We actually got the whole family looking at the camera for once! Hallelujah!The kids standing among some ruins on the island…

Ella being sassy and cute, like normal…

Ethan getting the easy ride…

The exit over the drawbridge, which of course Greg let his son go down into, without any forethought or worry as to how he might get out. And of course he didn´t have a problem, because they are resourceful, like that!

All in all…if you´re coming to the Lake Chapala area…skip Scorpion Island (the tourist trap boatride that departs from the Chapala pier) and drive on down to Mezcala for a better trip and richer memories!