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It’s been a nightmare trying to write this blog. The WiFi is so bad it takes ages to upload the pictures. Anyway, here it is.

One day last week, Mike and Pat contacted us to see if we would like to go for happy hour at Coco Beach. This is just the other side of Barra but also on the other side of the lagoon so it’s a bit of a drive to get there.

We went to their house and they took us in their car. The road in is a bit rough as it was washed out in last summer’s floods and still needs a lot of work. In some parts, it was down to one lane. Fortunately, the road isn’t heavily used so we made good time. This is also the only road into The Grand Bay Hotel.

It’s a beautiful beach, about twenty-eight miles long, stretches all the way to Manzanillo, and is mostly deserted. There are a few hotels and a couple of great restaurants, but other than that, nothing.

Mike and Pat had friends at one of the restaurants, La Serena Gordita, so we stopped there and ordered drinks. After a while, a young guy got out his guitar and started singing. It was a great relaxing afternoon.

A few days later, Brent and Hauna invited us to go to Tenacatita with them. Another great adventure. When we arrived they drove way along the beach and we had snacks in a rough little shelter someone had built a while back. Again, almost deserted beaches.

After the snack, we drove back the way we had come until Brent took a tiny side road and after about fifteen minutes we arrived at a ramshackle little restaurant at the end of the road. The place was called “Restaurante La Mosca” or “The Fly” in English. The food as is usual, in some of these little places was great.

We started on a new selective starvation diet recommended to us by Ronda. Oh, wait, Rosalie says it’s called intermittent fasting. I, beg to differ.

The idea is to fast (or starve) for a period during the day and then eat and drink whatever you like the rest of the time. My times for fasting are from 10 pm until noon the next day. I make it from 10 pm so that I can have that one last glass of wine before bed. So far it’s been mostly easy and we do appear to have lost a bit of weight. Try it, you might like it. It’s the easiest diet I’ve ever tried.

I have been attracting mosquitos quite a bit and have a few bites. Rosalie was reading that the inside of a banana skin helps with the itch so I decided to try it. Rosalie with great glee ate a banana and pounced on me before I could get away and slathered me with banana skin. “There,” she said, ” now you smell like a monkey.” It’s lucky there are none in our area or else they would be hauling me off home to Mum. It worked though, and I had a good night’s sleep itch-free.

It was a cloudy day so we thought to take advantage of the shade and go for a walk around Pinal Villa. As we stepped out the door, the sun came out. It was hot but we went anyway.

I was going to say that we wore our masks and distanced, which I suppose I just did. But I don’t know why I keep having to say this as it appears to be that we are trying to justify ourselves and to assure other people. Although I think making assumptions is a bad idea, go ahead and assume that we are doing the right thing. End of mini-rant!

The people here are always friendly and smile and wave as we go by in the car. As the weather has been cooler, instead of the air conditioning we just open the windows. This allows us to say “hola” to the neighbours as we go by.

Walking was a bit different. We often stopped and had conversations with people and made new friends. This is mostly due to Rosalie’s language skills.

Like us, most people live outside so it was an opportunity to meet lots of them. Even some of the younger folks smile and wave. Others just seem to be shy. One old guy sitting outside having a smoke told us where we could buy pineapples. Not that we were looking for any.

I like to try to see what they make of us as there are only a few non-Mexicans in this area. It doesn’t seem to matter to them who we are. They tolerate even my bad Spanish and treat us just like one of them. In fact, we have already been invited to one home to visit.

While on our walk we came across a half an acre lot for sale. It was quite beautiful with mango orchards on two sides. There are 4 mango trees, an avocado tree as well as bananas and coconuts. There was a small house on it too so we decided to call the owner and look at it. The house was built recently but built badly so we reckoned that it would be a teardown and rebuild.

They are asking $55,000 US for the lot and house. On a normal day, this would have been a great deal but after extensive research and number crunching, we decided that we didn’t want to tie our money up. It was a great idea and we’re a little sad to give the idea up but on the other hand, we are very happy where we are now.

In all, it was an interesting walk, we almost bought a house and made more new friends.

So, we went home and because it was hot, sat around and did nothing; Just like we do when it’s not so hot.

This was written a while back. I still have issues with my new host.

Unfortunately our neighbours are moving out soon. So, Omar decided it was time for coco locos and turned it into a party by inviting both his wife Suzanna and his daughter Nicole.

Omar climbed one of the palm trees and got a number of coconuts. Most have to go to Raquel as it is her family’s property after all. He put ours on a block and expertly trimmed them. He leaves just a membrane of coconut to cover the hole until it’s ready to decant.

Nicol can be seen playing with a box of Lego. That’s another story.

When I’m at home in Canada there is always something creative to do, like building a woodshed or a picnic table. If there is nothing to build I might get a model to put together, which may or may not get finished. Down here it’s a bit different. Omar won’t let me play with his tools for a start. I also have a drone now so that helps. Ah, maybe this is my second childhood at last.

There’s no point in building a model as once it’s finished that’s it, what do you do with it? Also, it’s hard to get supplies. So what to do? While talking to the family on Zoom last week my 32-year-old grandson Jon, mentioned that he still builds with the Lego my kids had when they were younger. I felt a twinge of envy. I used to love building things with, and for them. So I thought why not! So, I ordered an original basic starter set.

The great thing about Lego is that you can use it over and over and will satisfy the need to create something. That’s if Amazon could deliver, which they eventually did, so we drove to Cihuatlán to get it.

I was a bit disappointed because the plans included were for small things and there were too many colours for something original. So, I ordered a kit.

When I started building it I realized what a challenge it would be. Several times I had to take bits apart to do it over. It took about 10 hours to finish. And, the beauty is that I can take it apart to do it again next year…or next week.

Back to the party. The best thing about it for me, other than the food and drink, was listening to Rosalie speaking in Spanish with Omar and Suzanna. I found that I understood a great deal of the conversation and contributed quite often. Rosalie has said that she now mostly speaks off the cuff, without having to translate. Once in a while she has trouble with a word so I look it up for her. I am very proud of her because she works hard at it.

Needing supplies and especially a power saw to cut the firewood, we headed off to Manzanillo. On the way, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the beach. Again deserted. I mistakenly ordered garlic fish instead of fillet. I had done this a couple of times before and was a real disappointment as the fish was dried up and we couldn’t see what the Mexicans saw in it. This time was different. It was delicious and we would go back there and have it again.

Deserted

It doesn’t look too good but was delicious

At Walmart, there was nothing to excite us. So, onto Sam’s Club to sign up for a membership and spend some money.

We wandered the store picking up all sorts of stuff that we needed, but not a power saw. I was a bit perturbed that the line up for the checkout reached to the back of the store. While I waited in line Rosalie wandered off to find yet more stuff to fill our cart.

On one of her trips, she came back with a drone. I’ve wanted one for a while as I would like to take an aerial video for the blog. She picked it up for a good price so I was happily looking forward to flying it.

It took forty minutes to reach the checkout. I was okay with that as this is Mexico after all. After checking out and on the way back home we dropped into Home Depot and found a nice little power saw in my price range.

When we got back the first thing I wanted to do was try out the drone. Of course the instructions were all in Spanish and not having the patience to interpret I decided to wing it; what could go wrong?

I placed it on the floor of the patio and started it up. It immediately attacked me so Rosalie made me take it outside to play. I put it on the lawn and started it up. It was totally uncontrollable. I tried everything to shut it down but it stubbornly ignored me and flew over the wall and disappeared.

I thought it must have landed in the neighbours yard so we asked if we could look for it. It wasn’t there so I looked it vain outside. We ran into a couple of the local kids and offered them 100 pesos if they found it and returned it to me. They rushed off all excited.

A while later there was a banging on the gate door so I rushed expectantly to open it. No drone, but the obvious leader of the tribe wanted to know if that was 100 pesos each or 100 pesos for all five of them. I told them “No drone, no dinero.” However Rosalie being the softy she is, gave them each a Bailey’s chocolate. So now we had half drunk kids roaming the neighbourhood.

Word spreads quickly locally especially if money is involved, so I expected word to get around and have someone find it to claim the reward from the loco norteño at El Rancho Pimienta.

The following day, before going in to town for supplies I decided to check out the palm trees where I suspected that the drone ended up. I didn’t see it in the trees but decided to check the neighbour yard one more time. As I climbed onto their fence I looked up and there was the drone on their roof. I borrowed their ladder and retrieved it safe and sound. I’m happy now.

For some reason, I have the knack for breaking wine glasses lately. Luckily they are cheap ones, but still. I’ve broken three this season already so Rosalie says that I have to have plastic ones now, heavily wrapped in duct tape just to be sure.

I’ve noticed that speaking through a mask has a few problems. One is that you can’t be heard. I end up shouting so much that I now have a sore throat and in danger of being ostracized as a Covid carrier.

It is interesting is that although we have access to Netflix, Prime video and Acorn TV, most evenings we just read our books, play our games or blog. We do watch shows about three or four times a week but we are less enslaved to it than in Canada. I wonder why that is?

Another one of those “As I’m sitting here writing this,” there is a private party a block away with a live singer who happens to be very good, mostly soft romantic stuff. With the chiminea alight in the corner of the patio, making a warm cozy area and the music in the background, it makes for a very special place. It doesn’t get any better than this! Also, there is a cow that moos her displeasure once in a while just to make things interesting.

Surprisingly, the mangos in the garden grow like grapes. We will keep a watch out as the season goes on. Also, I noticed how big the parrota tree is. It was only planted twenty years ago. Some people use this type of wood for cabinet making.

We went to the beach for lunch which sounds like a crazy idea considering the place is full of nationals from inland. It’s fortunate though that most Mexicans eat and drink on the beach so the restaurants are mostly empty and we can keep safely away from them.

Sitting there after having a nice lunch, a drum band started to play on the beach. They were quite good and Rosalie wanted to give them a tip. When the cute young guy came around for tips Rosalie wanted to tuck it in his pants. I said okay but if she went as deep as her elbows I would object; especially if I heard her say “Cuanta Cuesta ” (how much). But she behaved for once.

When we first came to Melaque almost sixteen years ago we felt the heat quite intently. When walking up town we always walked in the shade just in case we got sun burned. It was interesting to see the locals in heavy coats walking on the beach, especially in the morning.

Now, we understand why. It starts off cool in the morning; about 15 C sometimes, although I’ve seen it as low as 10 C. So people who live here and are used to 30 C + weather for most of the year feel the cold more. As we become more acclimatized we are also feeling the cold more. And of course, it’s worse when we get home to Canada for the first few months. However, during the day the temperature is around 26 – 27 deg C so we will suffer through it.

Feliz año everybody.

Of all the Spanish words I need here leña was the last one I would have thought I needed. Leña means firewood and we’ve used the word a lot lately.

There’s a local carpenter in town to whom we pay a tip, to give it to us for free. We only visited him a day or two ago but his supply was already getting low. The place near Cihuatlán was good so we went there. There was a huge pile as usual but this time there were some really nice side cuts that were too big for the chiminea so we decided to ignore them. We asked the guy “La leña Señor?” He nodded and away we went to fill the trunk.

I kept looking at those great looking side cuts and decided that we had to have them, but first, a saw. Driving back into town and after checking a few stores we found that power tools are very expensive here so I decided to get a hand saw.

After unloading the first load and driving back to the madereria (lumberyard) and started loading again. After the rear seats were lowered, we ended up with a very good load.

Driving home Rosalie announced that she had a splinter in her widdle fingy. I asked if she needed an ambulance or a shot of tequila. You can guess which she chose. It numbed the pain as I pulled it out, with pair of pliers.

I know I throw Rosalie under the bus a lot but she has her subtle way of getting back at me. For example, we decide that it was my job to do the dishes each day. This decision was reached democratically with me not having a choice.

So what she does if she’s mad at me is to bake something really complicated using every utensil she can get her hands on and then hiding them until the goo on them gets good and hard. Then, in her sweet little way piles them on the counter for washing. That’s me done for half a day and she walks off grinning.

The chiminea sits on the edge of the patio just under the edge of the roof. It isn’t dangerous though makes the roof a bit smokey. We mentioned this to Raquel but she seemed unperturbed. All she said was “That’s okay, Omar can get up there and scrub it with some soap and water.” I don’t think that will ever happen but you never know. I think I’ll start burning plastic bags to make the job a little tougher. Rosalie said I shouldn’t but I reminded her that we haven’t had a coco loco from him lately and she heartily agreed that he should be punished.

If you’re getting this then “I’m back”. If not, ignore it.

Because of the limitations of my last site I had trouble finding all my contacts so I had to wing it. If you were subscribed and got this, Great. If not I apologize, you can either stay subscribed or cancel me out. If you do I may shed a tear but won’t be offended. I’m not sure yet how to unsubscribe but an email to me will do it, at: paddington98@icloud.com.

It would be nice if you just sent an email saying that you got this blog. If you didn’t get it then don’t bother.

While waiting for the site to change over, off to the pool

The change over has been quite the process. It’s very technical and mostly beyond me but my new host “Bluehost” has been very helpful on the chat line. Of course this all cost money so I hope we get a refund from the last guys.

See you soon!

After my GoDaddy site was hacked 2 1/2 years ago I switched to WordPress.

Well, I’m becoming less happy with them and am going to switch back to another host. I can hear people saying “Will he never be satisfied?” No, I won’t!

If you don’t get a post for a length of time just email me at paddington98@icloud.com and I will add you to the list; something I couldn’t do in WordPress. One of the things I can’t do with WordPress is see all my contacts so if I missed you I’m sorry.

If you don’t get any posts after this you know that the process wasn’t easy and Rosalie finally got fed up with my whining.

See you on the other side.

Christmas morning. I sit here listening to Mexican music playing somewhere in the village. It’s great and been going on all night. I woke at 5 am and could hear people partying somewhere over the wall. And of course, fireworks have been going off for the last few days and have got heavier the last twenty-four hours.

It’s a cloudy day today and about 26 C. We had the neighbours over for dinner last night and chatted with them for most of the evening. Tonight We go to Mike and Pat’s for dinner.

After all the trouble with DHL, our parcels are being delivered to Cihuatlan. Yesterday, I got an email saying one had been delivered so we went to get it. They were closed, of course, and won’t be open until Saturday. I don’t know how they stay in business, they don’t seem able to deliver anything.

This is a short blog mostly to wish everyone Feliz Navidad. Have a great day everyone.

It’s starting to get cool here, this morning it was only 16 C outside. It will soon be time to start the chiminea in the mornings. Omar told us about a great place to get firewood so as soon as I feel better (iffy tummy) we’re going wood hunting. Omar gave us plenty of instructions in Spanish so we were sure to get lost. It’s in Melaque so it shouldn’t have been too bad.

I mentioned that I had an iffy tummy. For all the panickers out there, it was not covid or dengue just a touch of Moctezuma’s revenge.

Although we didn’t actually get lost the place couldn’t be found but then his instructions were a little, let’s say, off. When we got home I drew a map and he did some more explaining so we may get lucky next time. If he didn’t get it right this time I was going to cut off his cerveza ration.

Heading back into town, we drove around and asked several people for directions and eventually found the place. We had passed it several times but it had no sign and had a very small road frontage.

The guy asked us to help ourselves and loaned us his wheelbarrow; after covering the large hole in the bottom with a piece of wood. We took two loads and asked him how much. He said it was free so Rosalie gave him 50 pesos and we toddled off. The haul consisted of solid blocks of various hardwoods that burned nicely.

We also scored a printer, although I’m starting to regret it. Some friends had one for sale so we contacted them and brought them back here for some distanced appies and to check the printer out. The reason I’m regretting it, is that I’m having trouble downloading software for it. I will prevail though.

Mike let us know that he saw an ad on Facebook for people looking for bikes. So Rosalie contacted them. They came and bought them on the spot. Nice!

It’s amazing how people follow our instructions and get here just fine, but DHL with an Amazon package, no way. Yesterday another one of ours was returned to Amazon as undeliverable. We don’t have a choice of carrier so we may have to get them delivered to Cihautlan. It’s only a twenty minute drive away so no big deal.

It’s just in the news that philanthropist, Carlos Slim is paying for all the vaccines for Mexican citizens. He was once the richest man in the world but now ranks fifth.

As I’m sitting writing this we are listening to some awesome Mexican music. It’s quite loud so we can hear it just fine. The problem is we’re hearing it from two different directions and both are playing different tunes. So goes Pinal Villa. It’s still pleasant though. See this, for a chuckle.