Our Mexico trip was a way for Fiona to avoid her 40th birthday. By being in a time zone 15 hours ahead of our own, she could pretend that local well-wishers were too early, and when she got messages from Sydney they were too late. She never really had a birthday at all.
I think that logic was spoiled by the fact that she had such a great day. While we were eating breakfast, the hotel staff put on some Mexican music and brought out a heart-shaped muffin with a candle. Then they sang La Mananitas, which is traditionally sung to wake up a loved one on their birthday. This is the first time I’ve heard a birthday song that wasn’t just a translation of the English ‘Happy Birthday’, and I love that they maintain this expression of their own culture.
We spent the morning learning to cook a number of Mexican dishes, including a corn chowder, a sweet potato salad, papadzules ‘food of the gods’ and a dessert made from squash. Our teacher, Kippy Nigh, was an American who has lived in Mexico for 40 years, has her own vegetarian restaurant in San Cristobal and writes Mexican cookbooks. She was the perfect person to introduce us to the art of cooking real Mexican food.
When we were so full that we thought we’d struggle to get back into the car, Kippy brought out a Polish apple cheesecake and she, her local assistant Rosy and Patrick sang the same Mexican birthday song while Fiona sat beaming.
Before we left Australia, we booked a special restaurant for Fiona’s now unnecessary birthday dinner, which turned out to be a short walk from where we were staying. It was in another luxury hotel on the outskirts of town with open grassy areas amongst traditional-style buildings. We had the place to ourselves. Although we had to leave most of it, the food was delicious and it was followed by a birthday pecan pie, of which we managed a few mouthfuls.
No one sang to Fiona after dinner, and by now she’d become accustomed to being 40, so she made me sing Happy Birthday as we walked home… Until I obliged. Then she begged me to stop.