Most small towns have a well-known dog. Some are Frisbee experts, others are incredible service dogs, and there is always one that happily runs the length of the football field during every Friday night game.
Always unique, Ajijiic’s unofficial mascot is the nearly world famous Vino Blanco, who was once the pink-hooved companion of eccentric expatriate Pedro Loco. Now retired in great luxury, and enjoying the tender loving care of the patrons and owners at Yves Restaurant, Vino Blanco was reunited after six years with her only offspring, an identical white burro.
No story could have more twists and turns and surprises. When Pedro Loco’s black riding burro, Margarita, needed to be put to pasture he contacted Alberto, the then manager of the Old Posada to find him a fine new steed. The problem was that Vino Blanco wasn’t a typical Mexican burro, she was Kentucky born and bred, and not saddle trained. Pedro Loco was up for that challenge. He had a cart made and decorated it with the same plastic flowers that adorned his giant sombrero.
About five or six years ago, he hired a couple of guys to care for the white donkey. When not hitched to the cart, she spent her days on the beach, near the weaving ladies in front of the Old Posada. At night the men moved her to the space Pedro Loco rented in the Old Posada garden and Yves de Choulot, the generous owner of Yves Restaurant, took the vegetable scraps from the kitchen and other tasty goodies to be sure Vino Blanco had enough to eat, especially when he discovered that she was with child.
She gave birth to a fine-looking little white male. Mother and son were doing well and then suddenly, just a few days later, baby disappeared – dead according to the weaving lady, who added that the body had been carried off by the garbage truck.
After Pedro Loco’s death, Vino Blanco moved to the shady garden of the new Yves location at the west end of Ajijic.
As coincidences play out, at 7:30 a.m. every Wednesday, when the restaurant is closed, owner Yves loads his pack of rescue dogs and heads out to San Juan Cosala to reserve the table with best view of the lake at the balneario. Before returning to Ajijic to pick Vino Blanco up, he takes the dogs for a run on a secluded street. That’s where he discovered a merchant about to load his “store” of swimsuits and inflatable toys on a familiar-looking white male donkey. Ascertaining that the donkey was five or six years old, the Ajijic man checked the wounds on the animal’s back shoulders and legs and then asked for the donkey’s owner.
The restaurateur had a good deal of trouble keeping his anger under wraps as he realized that the beloved little white donkey had disappeared to become a beast of burden, carrying cargos (loads) of lena (firewood) from up on the mountain to the people of San Juan Cosala who cook over wood fires. That the youngster had worked before his time was upsetting – even worse were the burro’s deep untreated wounds. Plus he was wearing only one shoe, and it was held on with two loose, protruding nails.
With fists plunged deed into his pockets, Yves struggled to negotiate a price for the stolen burro.
“A fair price had nothing to do with this deal,” he said this week. “I knew going in I was going to pay whatever I had to give that (expletive) to get that burro so that I could be sure he never ever made another trip up that mountain.”
So, once the deal was made, for a price that the local animal lover is a little embarrassed to mention in print, Yves led the one-shoed injured burro the seven kilometers back to the restaurant, holding the rope out the window.
As soon as he had told his wife about his new acquisition he went to retrive Vino Blanco from her Wednesday “Summer Camp” excursion. It was then that he received his reward, regardless of the price he paid. The 20-year-old slow moving Vino Blanco trotted across the lawn to the young male and walked around him three times sniffing and smelling the animal. Then she turned and began nuzzling and snuggling and snuffling her son’s muzzle.
After six years, Vino Blanco’s love child is home, Pedro Loco is smiling down from his flower-bedecked silvery edged cloud, local artist known as Kim who has delighted locals for years with his paintings and coffee mugs featuring Vino Blanco has a wealth of new inspiration and all is right with the world.