Filtering used veggie oil in Mexico

I intend to leave today, to get closer to Mazatlan and maybe go inland for a minute.

I rise before the sun, as usual. This morning I run on the beach for about 30 minutes – I use the term ‘run’ loosely, for I probably could have walked as quickly as I ran!

It is beautiful, as usual with the intense morning yellows, pinks, oranges. The tide is in and hitting the shore with a little more energy then normal. No one else is walking around, although there are the bigger fishing boats on the horizon as usual.

I return to the truck just as the men are starting to line up to watch the ocean. I think these men are the local fishermen and the vendedors – the sellers of fish.

So they watch the bigger boats to see if there’s fish to be bought and/or caught. I guess the fishermen are watching to see if they want to go out there. They seem to stand there for about an hour or 2 every morning. And then they take their smaller boats out, fish themselves or pick up fish.

This morning, only one or two men are there. It is Saturday and pretty quiet. I get my casa ready to roll – put away all the things into the cupboards, pots under the stove, dishes back where they belong, close the windows and sunroofs, tidy up, secure everything.

Then I turn the truck around so the back is facing the sun and blocking the wind. It is not as hot as I would like it to be, as I know some of the oil will be thick – which means the filter will clog quickly…. Grrrr

I lay down a blanket behind the truck and take out four of the containers of oil that I got from various restaurants that are not filtered at all. I line them up on the edge of the blanket so they will catch the rays of the sun and hopefully warm up.

I go to the side of the truck and get the hose, filter and pump from the propane cage underneath the truck.

I hop inside the truck and get the extension cord out to plug into an outlet in mi casa. I put on gloves and get the nozzle out along with the pan to change the filter on, the new filters, the paper filters, and the funnel.

I’m ready! I decide to try to pump the oil that has been filtered once through the paper filter for paints and is still sitting on the truck.

The first 20 liters goes great. About half-way through the 2^nd 20 liters, the filter clogs. I have ‘only’ 4 filters left.

So I change the filter, trying not to make a big mess, and continue pumping. When I start on the 3^rd container, the filter clogs again.

I decide to go to a different container and realize the nozzle won’t fit through the opening – grrrrr. So I have to pump without the nozzle, through a paper filter and into a container with a bigger opening. Oy vey.

I can see I will not finish in a timely fashion!