some enchanted evening

Early last December before we left Taka Trois here in Puerto Mogan, we had an excellent meal at Casito Mediterraneo, a quayside restaurant run by a German.  A flyer on our table announced that they had a special new year’s eve menu planned, so we decided then and there to book a table, congratulating ourselves on our farsightedness.  

A week later we gave up that reservation when our friends Michael and Tanya from the boat Storm Vale contacted us saying that they planned to be in Puerto Mogan on the 31st.  Although they valiantly tried to get here, by mid-morning on the 31st, we realized they wouldn’t make it in time from Tenerife, so Patrice went to ask the restaurant to see if by any miracle we could get our reservation back.  Not a chance. So we found ourselves with no reservation, no plan and no time to prepare for anything else as we still had masses to do onboard before the end of t

Celebrating with our fellow sailors on our pontoon aka 'the Norwegian pontoon' as the majority of boats here are from Norway.

That settled, we decided to invite several cruisers from our pontoon--two Norwegian couples and a British couple to join us for a glass of champagne to start our evening.  We were a merry group exchanging sailing stories and lots of laughs and then when everyone headed off to further celebrations elsewhere, I set the table for our romantic dinner under the stars and Patrice made the short walk to get the first two courses:  Oysters Rockefeller and Foie Gras Mousse and two bottles of wine, white and red!  Much to our surprise, the next course, an excellent consommé prepared in a coffee press, was brought straight to our boat by two giggling waitresses who fully entered into the spirit of our impromptu meal. The soup was followed by fish with homemade ravioli, then a citrus sorbet and a finally a tender beef filet with potatoes and asparagus.  Dessert was ice cream and mousse and I have to say that we were groaning by the time they brought us the last course--a plate of Stilton and fruit compote.  My oh my!

A walk was in order to walk off at least a few of those calories, so we brought back the dishes to the restaurant (yes, they even supplied the dishes--so no washing up!), complimented the chef and couldn’t express enough thanks to Robert, the restaurateur.  We had heard there would be dancing at the town square so we meandered our way over there just before midnight and we were delighted to find a free table at one of the cafes surrounding the square (that would never happen in New York!).  The Swiss proprietor immediately adopted us as one of the family and giving us paper hats, noise makers and confetti and we rang in the new year toasting ourselves and every one around us with a glass of Cava--Spanish champagne.

The main square in town the morning after. The night before it was jam-packed with revelers.

At midnight, the band (three men clad in white trousers, purple shirts and white ties!) began to play a set of incomprehensible yet energetic spanish music that got everyone  going, including us.   We were a mis-matched bunch of tourists and locals; very young and very old and everything in between wearing everything from elegant evening gowns to cut off jeans and t-shirts.  We saw mothers dancing with daughters, fathers dancing with children on their back, elderly couples dancing cheek to cheek, young couples laughing as they tried to ‘jitterbug’ and adolescents gyrating wildly, with a sprinkling of odd balls dancing on their own which included a transvestite and a rather dignified Hercule Poirot-look-alike all gaily sporting funny hats and strings of confetti. Not the ‘coolest’ crowd, by New York standards, but it was a jolly one and we fit right in.

After an hour or so, we decided we had burned enough calories to be able to sleep, so we headed back to Taka Trois, thoroughly charmed by our enchanted evening--definately one of the most memorable new year’s eve celebrations we’ve ever experienced.