Donation protected
My name is Sonia. In case you don't know me or my story, in February 2015, I took what I thought was going to be a relaxing week's vacation to beautiful Puerto Morelos, Mexico. I wanted to reconnect with this magical part of Mexico that I had visited 25 years before and fallen in love with. I was just there to unwind, looking forward to some much-needed "me " time.
On my first day there, I had this funny, cute waiter ask me out for tacos. And the rest, as they say, is history. Due to a technological time zone glitch, I inadvertantly left said cute guy waiting for me under the tree in the front of the Chedraui (our local grocery store)! By the time I realized my mistake, he was long gone. I knew his name was Marco Antonio, and that he worked at that restaurant...and that was it. I grabbed a cab back into town and spent the next hour and a half on a type of
crazy stalky scavenger hunt, determined to let him know that I had not intentionally stood him up.
There's not enough room here to go into details, so I'll cut to the chase: I found him. He made me an ambrosial torta at his house. I met his kids. And I fell madly in love with all three of them. I extended my trip by 5 days, and by the time I flew home, I was engaged and I had started to form a plan to move to Mexico within the year.
I quit my job (that I loved) as an immigration paralegal, sold all of my worldly belongings in an epic 3-day garage sale, and by the tail end of September, I said hasta luego to my friends and life in my hometown of Portland, Oregon, and found myself living in Mexico, unemployed and more than a little dizzy from my whirwind midlife reboot.
The idea of starting a catering business was a no brainer.
Marco is a fantastic cook. He has a culinary background, And, most importantly, he loves to feed people. For my part, I'm also no slouch in the kitchen, and love to entertain. We were short on capital and assets. We didn't have a vehicle, or much kitchen equipment. But we were long on enthusiasm. We thought would take some time to formulate our business plan, but as fate would have it, we got our first job in November, just 10 days before our wedding. And from that first job, we made contacts that brought us more.
We didn't let lack of financing or a vehicle or fridge space stop us from doing everything we could to grow our business. Marco borrowed a friend's spare refrigerator, transporting it to our house via a borrowed delivery tricycle. And thus we walked, biked, bussed, borrowed (cars) and cabbed our way through our first catering season. After serving dinner at clients' vacation rentals in town, most nights found us lugging ourselves and our bags and boxes home on the bus. And if it was after 8:00 p.m. we would have to spring for a cab. Not sustainable, but doable for awhile.
Although the beach side of town is only a 10-minute cab ride away, Cancun, where we need to go to find certain products, is a 40-minute drive away. Transporting perishable items in the often 90 + degree heat/humidity is a nerve-wracking business, even with insulated cooler bags. even if you're lucky enough to have air conditioning part of the way.
(It bears mentioning that in addition to catering, we were also provisioning clients' large vacation homes with food and drink; our house looked more like a bodega for most of the spring).
In March, out of desperation and with a jam-packed April looming, we decided to take a chance on a 1997 Voyager van we saw for sale at the local mechanic's shop. Marco wryly dubbed it Rápido y Furioso (Fast and Furious). It wasn't fast, but it sure made us furious: over the course of the next 2 months, we were left stranded multiple times, both in Cancun proper and on both sides of the highway (once it was both in one day...just hours before a formal dinner service, and with a carload of expensive, refrigerated ingredients! I'll have to blog about that sometime, after the trauma has worn off). By May, we finally decided to stop throwing good money after bad, chalk it up to experience and save up for a newer, more reliable vehicle in the future.
Although we were blessed with a temporary gig for me in Portland this summer, the money brought home was quickly absorbed by playing financial catch up from the slow months, medical bills (unexpected hernia surgery for Marco), home repairs, tuition; in other words, just plain life.
We also decided to invest in a professionally designed web site (Coming Soon)!
So, I know that we have the perfect recipe (groan) for a successful business, we just need some help with the dough (sorry, can't help myself)! Since the very beginning of this incredible journey, we have had such generous and amazing support, financial and otherwise, from all our big-hearted friends. I've been reluctant to resort to online fundraising because I know things are tough all over. But on the cusp of our 2nd high season, I have to face the fact that at the present moment, we can't afford much more than another probable lemon. And Marco is in fact physically unable to repeat his superhuman performance of last season. So, I'm taking the advice of many people I trust and respect and asking for help. Any amount we recieve will be used toward the purchase of a van that will help us immeasureably in the tourist season that begins in November. Any donation is a blessing and will be appreciated more than Marco and I can express, in either English or Spanish.
Thank you so much/Gracias mil,
Sonia y Marco Antonio
On my first day there, I had this funny, cute waiter ask me out for tacos. And the rest, as they say, is history. Due to a technological time zone glitch, I inadvertantly left said cute guy waiting for me under the tree in the front of the Chedraui (our local grocery store)! By the time I realized my mistake, he was long gone. I knew his name was Marco Antonio, and that he worked at that restaurant...and that was it. I grabbed a cab back into town and spent the next hour and a half on a type of
crazy stalky scavenger hunt, determined to let him know that I had not intentionally stood him up.
There's not enough room here to go into details, so I'll cut to the chase: I found him. He made me an ambrosial torta at his house. I met his kids. And I fell madly in love with all three of them. I extended my trip by 5 days, and by the time I flew home, I was engaged and I had started to form a plan to move to Mexico within the year.
I quit my job (that I loved) as an immigration paralegal, sold all of my worldly belongings in an epic 3-day garage sale, and by the tail end of September, I said hasta luego to my friends and life in my hometown of Portland, Oregon, and found myself living in Mexico, unemployed and more than a little dizzy from my whirwind midlife reboot.
The idea of starting a catering business was a no brainer.
Marco is a fantastic cook. He has a culinary background, And, most importantly, he loves to feed people. For my part, I'm also no slouch in the kitchen, and love to entertain. We were short on capital and assets. We didn't have a vehicle, or much kitchen equipment. But we were long on enthusiasm. We thought would take some time to formulate our business plan, but as fate would have it, we got our first job in November, just 10 days before our wedding. And from that first job, we made contacts that brought us more.
We didn't let lack of financing or a vehicle or fridge space stop us from doing everything we could to grow our business. Marco borrowed a friend's spare refrigerator, transporting it to our house via a borrowed delivery tricycle. And thus we walked, biked, bussed, borrowed (cars) and cabbed our way through our first catering season. After serving dinner at clients' vacation rentals in town, most nights found us lugging ourselves and our bags and boxes home on the bus. And if it was after 8:00 p.m. we would have to spring for a cab. Not sustainable, but doable for awhile.
Although the beach side of town is only a 10-minute cab ride away, Cancun, where we need to go to find certain products, is a 40-minute drive away. Transporting perishable items in the often 90 + degree heat/humidity is a nerve-wracking business, even with insulated cooler bags. even if you're lucky enough to have air conditioning part of the way.
(It bears mentioning that in addition to catering, we were also provisioning clients' large vacation homes with food and drink; our house looked more like a bodega for most of the spring).
In March, out of desperation and with a jam-packed April looming, we decided to take a chance on a 1997 Voyager van we saw for sale at the local mechanic's shop. Marco wryly dubbed it Rápido y Furioso (Fast and Furious). It wasn't fast, but it sure made us furious: over the course of the next 2 months, we were left stranded multiple times, both in Cancun proper and on both sides of the highway (once it was both in one day...just hours before a formal dinner service, and with a carload of expensive, refrigerated ingredients! I'll have to blog about that sometime, after the trauma has worn off). By May, we finally decided to stop throwing good money after bad, chalk it up to experience and save up for a newer, more reliable vehicle in the future.
Although we were blessed with a temporary gig for me in Portland this summer, the money brought home was quickly absorbed by playing financial catch up from the slow months, medical bills (unexpected hernia surgery for Marco), home repairs, tuition; in other words, just plain life.
We also decided to invest in a professionally designed web site (Coming Soon)!
So, I know that we have the perfect recipe (groan) for a successful business, we just need some help with the dough (sorry, can't help myself)! Since the very beginning of this incredible journey, we have had such generous and amazing support, financial and otherwise, from all our big-hearted friends. I've been reluctant to resort to online fundraising because I know things are tough all over. But on the cusp of our 2nd high season, I have to face the fact that at the present moment, we can't afford much more than another probable lemon. And Marco is in fact physically unable to repeat his superhuman performance of last season. So, I'm taking the advice of many people I trust and respect and asking for help. Any amount we recieve will be used toward the purchase of a van that will help us immeasureably in the tourist season that begins in November. Any donation is a blessing and will be appreciated more than Marco and I can express, in either English or Spanish.
Thank you so much/Gracias mil,
Sonia y Marco Antonio
Organizer
Sonia MOLINAR
Organizer
Portland, OR