Ciudad Constitution

The Scampi Diablo, the Margaritas and the freshly squeezed Orange Juice at Patricia’s (Manfred’s) in Ciudad Constitution are absolutely fabulous! The camaron are sautéed in butter, sour cream, garlic, cheddar cheese and finished with a bit of Monterey Jack. (in Spanish queso cheddar and queso Monterey Jack) Very yum! We had a delightful visit with Patricia, her 12 year old daughter Aime, and her assistant (whose name I have unfortunately forgotten)... They all speak excellent English. So consequently I used the opportunity to practice my Spanish while they used the opportunity to practice their English.

Patricia learned English in school in La Paz. When she was 18 she went to Massachusetts for 8 months as an exchange student. Her English is incredibly good. Upon returning from the US Patricia went to college to become an English teacher, fell in love, got married and taught English in Constitution. Now, since she has been operating the RV park for the past 3 years, she and her husband are both able to be at home with the girls and to meet people from all over the world, predominately the US and Canada. Her family all now have many opportunities to speak English. Patricia has immersed her girls in English since they were babies as she believes learning another language is very important to having a greater world view and she wants her girls to have every opportunity in the world to be and to achieve whatever goals they want. Patricia would like her girls to become exchange students or to go to school somewhere else in the world in the future. Such insight and vision! How I wish my mother had had this kind of vision! How I wish I had been truly able to live this kind of vision as a mother!!

We talked about Pearson College of the Pacific in Metchosin for Aime and her sister. Her parents will explore this school for her – if she goes we promised to be Godparents for her in Canada. Very exciting. For such a young girl (12 years) she is very self assured, confident and clear in her goals for her future. She wants very much to learn English – she loves the language and already speaks very well so writing it will be her next challenge. She also wants to learn French. She is the second highest in her class at school. Soon to be the first she says – although the first in her class is her good friend so she is happy for her!

Constitution, a city of 660,000 people has had a university for the past 10 years. It is in the high desert, very hot, and is an agricultural area. Each year we pass through we see greater economic development and generally more prosperity. We have always felt very welcome here; the people on the street and in the stores are always very friendly and helpful and interested in talking. This is very nice for us as curious gringos we be.

They are very busy tearing up Main Street Constitution right now and replacing the traffic lights, none of which are working at the moment (nor for the past several years either). There is lots of big equipment and lots of men with shovels and wheelbarrows too. Once out of town we passed men cutting the grass by the side of the road with machetes – such a disparity is not uncommon in Baja. The men were all wearing safety vests (which they never did the first year we were down). Off to La Paz and Tecolote Beach.