Settling in.

Well we are now getting settled in ourwinter home.

It has been quite an adventure gettinghere.

We had planned to leave Puerto Vallartaon Friday 14th. after we landed, but discovered there was no transportationto Melaque, because roads were washed out from the hurricane“Jova“.

We spent the next two days exploring P.V. tying the food in various restaurants, relaxing by the pool andenjoying the evening show at the hotel.

We could have left on Monday, but Barryfound that we could make $500.00 by going to a “Time Share”presentation. So, up we get on Monday AM and get chauffeured to thedisplay site, spend most of the day listening to sales spiels andpick up our money and head out for supper.

Early to bed and Tuesday get a taxi toMelaque at 10 AM.

The trip along the way provided us witha sample of the effects of “Jova“, small towns ,with most of theroofs torn off, huge trees uprooted leaning over the highway, withthe tops cut off so the road could be opened, areas of banana treeswith no leaves at all or all bent over, it was amazing.

When we got to our little town, it waswonderful to see the smiling faces of our Mexican friends, Thesepeople have just come through amazing devastation, but they just pickthemselves up and continue life as if nothing happened.

Our own apartment seemed to have nodamage, except for the humidity, and we are in the process ofunpacking everything and settling into our winter routine.

Wednesday, after spending the day putting our house in order,doing washes, hooking up TV, phone, etc. and helping Barry get hissatellite working, we decided to go to “Ava’s” for supper,(a restaurant-bar about half way between our homes) we first decidedto eat outside to enjoy the evening breeze, but decided to moveinside as the sky looked kinda’ menacing. Good thing we did, as a fewminutes later we were awarded with a spectacular lightning andthunderstorm with torrential downpours.
The bar had survived mostly unscathed by the hurricane, but thereare a few holes in the palapa roof that allowed the rain to pour in.
It is just amazing to watch these people go about their businessas if nothing was going on. People walking along or riding bicyclessoaked to the skin just as if it was nothing. I love the stamina ofthe Mexican people, they seem to take everything in their stride andlook forward.
Just down from the bar, where they are laying interlocking brickon the new street, a flatbed truck pulled up with a load of bricks,and in 15 minutes it was unloaded by a bunch of guys, soaked to theskin.
After a couple of Margaritas and hambergesas and papas-frittos weheaded back to our apartment and found it cool enough to turn off theA. C.
This is something we splurged on for our apartment this year, wehad air conditioning installed in our bedroom, it has been a godsendthis year, as it has been very hot and humid so far. This is notunusual for October, it’s just that we have usually driven, and notarrived before the end of October and the end of rainy, hurricaneseason.
The temperature has been ranging between 30 and 34 during the daysand only going down to about 26 at night, with humidity about 85 to95 %.
Tomorrow we hope to install our new satellite dish in the AM, andgo to Manzanillo to get our internet in the afternoon.
If all goes well, (hahaha), we should have our internet and beable to post this blog.
Dan