Is there enough?

Or will we have to give some away?

You seasoned “snowbirds” will know what I’m talking about.

Stuff,,,, flour, peanut-butter, sugar, and anything that won’t keep for six months.

I was just making my regular “energy sandwich” for lunch, peanut-butter and honey, and thought, “this is something that most people only do once or twice in a lifetime, and we do it twice a year”. I’m not complaining, mind you, because it’s just another price we pay to get away from the chitty cold weather.

In the last month or so, we are here, we try to buy stuff in smaller quantities, so we don’t have too much to unload. This isn’t a problem with perishables, as we have the fresh produce and grocery store across the street.

Lynda, my daughter, stopped by this morning to drop off some stuff, as they left for the north. She and Roger are driving back and we wished them a good, safe trip with hugs and kisses.

When we leave, we give our stuff to any NOB friends who are still staying, (not many), but most goes to our Mexican neighbours.

We hosted another Saturday night poker party last night, not as much food this time, I think people are watching their weight so they can still fit in an aircraft seat. LOL.

Ann & Liz made a tortilla chocolate cake, very different and definitely Mexican, but yummy. Betty broke even in the poker, as second place, and I didn’t.

Even the losers seem happy.

As we approach the end of March, more and more people are leaving, and our social calendar will be getting thinner,,, but his week we are booked almost every evening, tonight it’s smoked lamb at Debby and Jerry’s. I’ll give a review later.

Dan.

OK,,, wah-did I miss????

How about a trip to La Manzanilla????

First, I have to point out there is quite a difference between Manzanillo (the big port city) and La Manzanilla the pretty little “artsy” town with the beautiful beach on Tenecatita Bay.

No comment required.

This time Betty & I piled into John & Mary’s truck for the 16 KM. 30 minute drive north on Hwy 200 over the mountain and turn off just before Bocca De Iguana.  We’re going to meet friends of theirs, Rene & Don who are living in La Manz., but moving to Melaque. We are to meet them at a bar in La Manz. and as we travel up the main (one-way) street we discover the outlet is blocked for construction, and after we find the folks it is about a 4 block trip in reverse before John can get a big enough space to turn around, fun, fun, fun. As John’s pick-up truck has a 5 passenger cab, we all pile in and head to a restaurant at the other end of the beach, that we have only heard about. This place was originally located in Tenecatita before the upheaval with the ownership of the land and all the places were bulldozed, and owners driven off their land. This dispute is still ongoing, but these people have picked up what the could and opened their establishment in La Manz. The view on the beach was beautiful (as it always is on this bay), the sun and water warm, the beer cold and the food, spectacular.

Enjoying lunch.

They have also set up a booth to display and sell a special Tequila that is made in the century’s old tradition, just outside the disputed area at Tenecatita. Because the beach there is essentially closed, there isn’t enough traffic to support the display at the distillery.   We’ve added a visit to this distillery to our things to do list.

The narrator wasn't too bad either.

We were forced, hahaha, to sample this drink and found it very tasty, different and a kick like a mule. A little more expensive than the commercial stuff, but we bought two bottles, one to sample here (almost gone now) and one to bring back north.

I think it’s time for another sample and get back to this later.

Dan

KABOOM

It seems that the 16th is more of a party than St Paddy’s day here. We watched the eleven o’clock news at nine, (we don’t change to DST till the first of April) then headed to the square and boy oh boy was it packed with Mexicans, you could hardly move, let alone walk around.

There must have been five Mariachi bands and three (I don’t know what you call them) BOOM bands. They consist of a huge bass drum and cymbals, a tuba, a snare drum, a trumpet or two and maybe a couple of clarinets or sax. Here is a link from the festivities.  http://youtu.be/ROYjapAg9qo . I cannot lay claim to this video.  With my hearing, all I can hear is the drums and tuba, NOT my favourite combo. With all these bands playing at once, and probably 2000 people all yelling to be heard, the word deafening comes to mind.

Betty and I work our way towards the church where the castillo is set up, wow this one is bigger than the ones we have had previously and has contraptions strung across the street, so we can expect something pretty special.

Hard to get a good picture of something this big at 11;30 at night.

And special,,, it was.

Just a few of the folks in the square, notice the rockets heading towards us, on the left.

After the castillo finished there were fireworks set off from the roof of the church and then several 500mm shells sent from mortars in a roped off area no bigger than 20 square feet, in the middle of the crowd. When I was doing the fireworks, we had to set up at least 200 feet from the audience and anybody inside that area had to be authorized and wear special clothing and hearing protection, I gotta remember “this ain’t Amway, it’s Mexway,”,, LOL.

One of the "Toros" heading our way.

Of course the evening wouldn’t be complete without a “Toro” or two, (remember the ones with the rockets on them?),,, well how about eight of them running through the crowd. We are chicken, so we run across the street and still the Boop gets hit in the neck, fortunately it was just a spent cardboard cartridge. I just can’t figure how come somebody has never been seriously hurt with these things, but the most I ever heard of, is a singed shirt or pant leg.

It all adds to the experience we love so much about living the Mexican way.

Home about midnight,,, but,,, the rodeo is on, and the speakers are aimed at our bedroom again and sleep doesn’t come till about 2 AM.

And now we only have three more weeks of fiesta,,, LOL.

Dan

Everybody’s leavin’ town.

As the season winds down and the weather gets hotter and more humid, a lot of the “snowbirds” are heading back “NOB”, (north of the border). The crowd in the square at night is more and more Mexican every night, but I was surprised at how many NOB’s there were at the market on Wednesday, but somebody reminded me that it is now March break in some places and there are quite a few people who are here for just a week or so.

Jean & Eddy and a few others leave on Friday the 17th and Mary & John head out on Monday and by the end of March we will definitely be in the minority.

Spring is really setting in, and it’s not cooling off a night like in the winter here and the humidity is getting higher, so we may be turning on the AC soon.

That may not be a bad idea, as starting next week, there will be a rodeo in the bullring down town, and they usually go on till 2 or 3 in the morning with music blaring from HUGE speakers that project over the buildings and into our bedroom. The only way to get a decent sleep is to close all the windows and turn on the AC. After the rodeo we head into Samana Santra (the two weeks of celebration for Easter) and the rockets and fireworks begin again. This is another reason that a lot of visitors head out by the middle of March. We have now made our plane reservations and will be leaving here on April 18th and be back in Cornwall on the 20th.

I was just sorting some photos and came upon some of the parade that was held the first day of lent. As far as I know most places have their carnival on ash Wednesday, but evidently, not around here. This parade had a pirate theme and started in Barra de Navadad and followed the road around the bay to Melaque, the trip was a couple of hours and took about 45 minutes to pass any one location, there were no marchers, just floats, trucks and cars with lots of loud music. Here’s a few shots, this was at about 7:00 PM.

The nicest bunch of pirates I've ever seen.

This one's for the girls.

Who doesn't believe in mermaids?

And now we know, they have children.

Now I’m groovin’, gotta keep it up,,, LOL.

Dan

The behinder I gets.

The saying is, “the faster I goes, the behinder I gets”.

Well,,, in my case it’s just “the behinder I gets, the behinder I gets”. I just haven’t had the inclination to sit here and be creative for quite a while, and the more things I think of that I should write about, the more frustrated I get about not doing it, and that makes me more frustrated,,, Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Now, that I have that off my chest, here are a few of the things I’ve missed, St. Patrick’s Days celebrations, A day at La Manzanilla with Tequila, Boogie boarding at Bocca de Iguana, Poker parties, Dinners out and in, Everybody’s leavin’ town, and the list goes on.

Here we go,,, let’s start with “Boogie boarding at Bocca”. On Tuesday a whole passel of us loads into 3 cars and headed over to Bocca de Iguana, this is the best beach along this coast with the right type of surf for Boogie boarding. It’s only about 15 Km trip, but it takes almost half an hour because it is through the mountains. It is along the same huge bay of Tenecatita as La Manzanillla, The Blue Bay resort, Bocca and Tenecatita. We got there about 11:00AM and carried all our gear, (folding chairs, umbrellas, coolers, boogie boards, towels and stuff), the fairly long trek along the unprotected lagoona past the crocodiles, they all seemed to be well away from us up the lagoon, in the shade. We have to bring all this stuff, because there isn’t much public development here, there is a trailer park with a few rigs parked and access to a condo development with a small restobar just up the beach, and an entrepreneurial Mexican family have set a few umbrellas, chairs and tables out on the beach which can be rented for 50 pesos a day, so we rented two, but no way to bring the cars close to the beach.

All set up.

That's Betty and Leigh catching a wave.

Anyway, we get organized and a few head into the waves to check out the conditions, the water is nice and warm and the surf is up a little, not too bad for boarding. I got hooked last season and bought my own board, but Betty had always been a little shy to try. I’m not sure who talked her into trying, but now she’s hooked too, and wants to buy her own board,,, LOL. It sure is a rush being that close to the sand and water moving so fast, it seems like you’re flying.

We had some dinner guests,,,, these are vultures,, LOL

We broke for our lunch and some got out their books or Ebook readers and relaxed in the shade of the umbrellas, others went back into the surf, and others just baked in the sun, and got a little scorched.

Relaxing and sunning.

By 4:30 we’re whupped and a little over sunned, so we pack our stuff back into the cars and head home, a light supper and flop into bed early and exhausted. I don’t even remember hearing the fireworks go off at eleven PM or at five AM on Wednesday.

Not sure what I will tackle next, but I’ll try and not take so long;

Dan

Mexican plumbing 101

Well, I think we have done as much as we will do on our rooftop terrazzo, for this season at least.

Our rooftop hide-a-way.

We got the roof installed a couple of weeks ago, and as we were getting tired of carrying water in a bucket up the spiral staircase, we had a tap installed so we could connect our new hose.

First, you have to try and understand the system they use for water pressure here. The town water comes from the street into an underground chamber from where it is pumped up to a “tenaco”, a large usually black plastic tank on the roof. From there it flows through a maze of pipes to the various outlets in the house. The water here is heated by a propane water heater and an auxiliary solar heater, or “sunshine boiler” as our landlord Conrado calls it.

Our water system.

We get Conrado to contact his “amigo” Lupe to come and install out tap. All is well getting the tap cut into the copper 3/4 inch pipe on the roof and within an hour we have water in our hose and throughout the apartments.

Well we have cold water anyway,,, no hot water at all, not even cold in the hot taps. We contact Conrado and he says the problem is an air-lock and “I’ll get hold of Lupe”, this is at noon and by 8:00 PM we are all getting a little “negi-negi” and would like a shower. The answer from Conrado is the same. Our neighbour Donna in the front unit gets up about 6:00 AM every morning, so when we get up the next day, she says that the hot water is back on, all is well and we all get our showers. When I ask Conrado about the overnight repairs, he laughs and says “I told you it was an air-lock and they work it out themselves through those tall pipes on the roof”. Now, I have done quite a bit of plumbing in my day, but, I still can’t figure this one out.

Our garden.

Anyhow the universe is unfolding as it should and we are counting the days,,, well weeks,,, till our departure from our winter home on April the 19th and return to whatever weather the Canadian spring should provide. We are enjoying the quiet here, for the time being, as the St. Patrick’s days celebrations will begin this Friday and we can expect the loud music and skyrockets to begin, and disturb our sleep.

Adios;

Dan