Veggie oil – the tribulation

At last I find a restaurant that says they use and will give me veggie oil – but not for three days. Okay, maybe I’ll still be here. I write them down in my book.

I have walked a very far way on the beach to what looks like the end of the congested area of hotels and restaurants. Many are closed and appear to have been closed for a long time – or maybe the harsh wind and sun has not been kind to them.

I start my return to where I’m parked, this time on the road side of the hotels and businesses.

The very next restaurant I go to, the young man behind the counter tells me  so quickly I make him repeat it: he might have some oil, that I should come back tonite. When I ask what time, he says after 10pm. Okay, I think it is a little late but I write it in my book – at this point I’m desperate to try ANYTHING!

The next restaurant looks so promising and has lots of womyn working there and live music – one guy playing a double-tiered organ kind of instrument and singing. If I had it in my budget, I would be tempted to stay, socialize, and eat here.

The womyn ask me how much I am used to paying for used veggie oil. I tell them, I prefer to pick it up free but I will pay if it is necessary. She tells me 4 pesos a liter. I laugh and say, very expensive, 2 pesos. She tells me to return – in 15 days! Ha!

The next restaurant I FINALLY make out! Which is great because I was getting ready to pull an Alma and say the whole city of Manzanillo is tapped out!

The waiter I speak with asks the official looking womon behind a desk and she tells him of course, if I have my own containers, I can have the oil. I am so excited. My truck is probably more than ½ mile away by this time but I tell him I will come back.

As I rush down the road to get my truck, I see my first Sushi place. Although I hate to take the time but don’t want to back track, I ask the young guy there and he immediately goes into the back and pulls out a 20 liter container that is about half full.

He leaves it outside the door for me to pick up! YEAH!!!! I’m cooking with grease!

I get my truck, stop first at the sushi place to pick up the oil container. When the young man sees me, he rushes out to help me and insists on carrying it and putting it onto the truck! I thank him profusely!

Then I return to the restaurant with the womon owner. There, they have three buckets – two totally full and one about ¼ full – waiting for me in front of the restaurant.

I change my clothes, get my buckets and strainer I purchased in Rosalia, and return to the oil. Another well-dressed man, who might be related to the owner, comes out and helps me dump the oil thru the strainers into my containers.

I’m so very excited! I now have almost 60 liters of FREE oil! I’m back in biz!

As I pull down the door and prepare to leave, a young man excited approaches, speaking rapidly in Spanish, thrusting two huge mandarinas – which seem to be a cross between an grapefruit and an orange – into my hands.

I can only tell he loves my truck, loves organic, and I think he wants to introduce me to someone, as he disappears as quickly as he has arrived.