Category: Uncategorized

We had an invitation to Peggy and Don’s home for happy hour; or appie hour as it turned out. I don’t like driving in the dark so it was a short visit of about an hour and a half. We seem to be popular all of a sudden as we went to Mike and Pat’s the day before. Both times we were well fed.

Returning to the Ranch the new neighbours came over for a distanced nightcap so that we could get to know each other. We have to live close to them for a month so had to find out what we’re in for. It turned out they are really nice people.

He’s from Nelson and she is a flight attendant with Alaska Airlines and lives in Washington State. Because of the Covid, they haven’t seen each other for sixteen weeks. Neither could cross the border without quarantining one way or another so they decided to come down here for a month. A really interesting conversation about US politics developed and it rapidly became obvious that she’s not a trumper.

The usual afternoon at Papa Gallo’s was a little different as we invited Brett and Hauna and sat there for three and a half hours swapping stories and devouring margaritas. After, Rosalie and I went out for some dinner, then staggered home.

There have been no Covid deaths in Cihuatlan for over thirty days; that’s great news. Most people down here are observing the rules, although there was a party at Tito’s a few days ago where people were dancing with no masks on. Some were recognized as Quebecois. They seem to be quite disruptive down here. At time of writing Mexico had dropped to 13 th on the WHO list.

The roads here are not the best and we’ve noticed that already the ball joints in the car are a little wobbly.

Us driving into town

The mosquitos have been a bit of a problem for a while. We take all the precautions: lots of smoke, mozzie coils, and of course spraying our selves with toxic chemicals. I had a few bad nights of itching because I sprayed every inch of myself but forgot the soles of my feet.

When we left Canada I was happy to leave behind all my usual chores. Down here I can relax and not have to fix anything. Then, Rosalie decided that we need a light over the kitchen counter. I said “absolutely not. For one thing I don’t have the tools” I was adamant about this and determined to stick to my guns.

Now that we have this light I have to find a way to attach it to the underside of the cabinets. I tried double sided tape but after about half an hour we heard a thump as it broke loose. “Great” thought I “perhaps it’s broken so I don’t have to deal with it.” No such luck! Now I have to figure how to fit it more permanently. This may require a whole blog of it’s own.

After the neighbours pleading with us not to go skinny-dipping again, Rosalie decided she was going to. I chose to wear my trunks because you never know when Omar may turn up. He doesn’t work on a Sunday so we are usually okay then; but this was not Sunday.

Me, reluctantly going skinny dipping. You can see how cold the water is.

Rosalie slipped into the pool while I went to look for the net to scoop out some leaves. As I stepped onto the patio a voice said “Hola.” It was Raquel in the other casa getting it ready for the new neighbours on the weekend. Oops!

I said “Hola” back as loud as possible to give a warning to Rosalie so she could put on her bathing suit and get a bit respectable. She was bouncing around in the pool and laughing like an idiot so it was not easy. It worked out fine but knowing Rosalie it will happen again sometime soon. The older she gets the more unmanageable she becomes.

Rosalie off to the pool

There is a local squirrel who noisily runs across the patio roof and dives into the parrota tree. He or she crosses several times a day and it sounds as though he or she is wearing boots.

We bought a ball and started to throw it to each other for some exercise. It is surprising how soon the puffing and panting starts, getting our heart rates up. It would be good to do it at least once a day. There is a lot of shade under the parrota tree so we play there. Rosalie does have a strong arm and throws like a boy and directly at my head. I get most of my exercise from ducking..

Rosalie took a photo of me by the fire last week. When she went to review it we noticed that the fire was actually burning and smoke was coming out of the chimney. It’s an Apple feature and it sure looks cool.

The new neighbours arrived today. We haven’t had a chance to get to know them yet. I hope they’re used to Mexico because this is the last day of the festival of Guadalupe and the fireworks and attendant explosions are getting quite fierce.

I don’t know if it’s climate change or not but it had the audacity to rain here the other day. I don’t know what the worlds coming to. The temperature dropped so severely I almost had to put a shirt on. 26 C is not warm enough when you’re used to 31 C. Anyway we will get over it and in a few days get back to complaining about it being too hot.

There has been a request for us to stop skinny dipping as the locals found out about it. Apparently the cows and goats have stopped giving milk and the hens have stopped laying.

There is a lot of noise here at night but once inside we’re so engrossed in each other that we don’t hear a thing. (Gag!) There are quite a few mozzies around in the evening and I have got quite a collection of bites.

Only going out briefly for groceries and the odd margarita on the beach makes life is a little boring right now. We only go to the beach every couple of days; sometimes for lunch; sometimes for a drink. For lunch Rosalie likes a hamburger and I have whatever else, usually my favourite, shrimp salad.

Rosalie at Bugambilias when she gets her hamburger. Pure ecstacy!

There was a bus tour to Guadajalra but we chose not to go until the Covid dies down a bit. Even working up a sweat watching Omar at work isn’t helping as he seems to have been working elsewhere lately. He hasn’t been around for a while. He told us that he had dengue, not good, as he only lives a couple of hundred feet from us.

Considering we’re cooped up together 24/7 Rosalie and I are getting along just fine. Each of us has our chores; Rosalie cooks, I do the dishes and hang up the clothes to dry as Rosalie can’t reach the line. Then it’s time to settle down with our books, games and email stuff and maybe watch Netflix in the evenings.

It’s difficult getting as much exercise as is needed so I suggested that we get a ball to throw around. A nice one was found at the market today, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m a little concerned as Rosalie has a better throwing arm than I. Also, a frisby was nowhere to be found.

It’s beginning to look as though there will be new neighbours this weekend. Some folks are coming from Canada for a month. We’re looking froward to possibly having some company.

At the market today there were a lot more Norteños than usual. That’s a good thing for the local vendors. Most of them wore masks but not all.

Checking to see if the mattresses for the loungers were in yet, we were told they would be another two days and 200 pesos more so I told them to forget it. It will probably end up costing more elsewhere but I somehow felt that they were trying to rip us off.

Once in a while Rosalie craves a margarita on the beach (at least once a day.) So, we decided to go into town regardless of the state of the pandemic. (There are no active cases in our area.)

We are having a hard time trying to get cushions for our loungers so we went to a local store and were able to order some. The problem is, we have no idea what we’ll get. Anyway they will be here on Monday so we’ll soon find out.

On the way into town we ran into a typical Melaque traffic jam. Some guy stopped to deliver water while a car on the opposite side of the road decides to double park. As you can see by the video, it was chaos for a while.

After this tiring task, we had to go to the beach to Restaurante Bugambilia to recuperate and have lunch and a margarita. The beach as usual was mostly deserted. Tony our waiter knows us well enough by now that as soon as we walk in he’s off inside to open a bottle of tequila and to cool the glasses.

As I said, the beach was mostly deserted; however there is always the evil aggressive beach vendors. (Not really.) They are relentless and are lurking everywhere. They pretty well know us by now and mostly leave us alone. Some though still try to sell us stuff and a few really are persistent. We don’t mind as we feel a bit sorry for them. The playa at this time of year is usually packed with people but having no tourists they have to rely on the Mexicans that come in on the weekends.

First we were attacked by Christiana. She and Rosalie seem to get along quite well but we still ended up with a shark shaped bottle opener that we didn’t need but will regift to someone. Rosalie’s excuse that we only have one item to open beers with. I remarked “what’s wrong with our teeth.” but that was ignored.

Next, came a kid of about five years old, obviously learning the trade. As soon as Rosalie showed interest he rushed to the beach and called for his Mama to assist him. “Mama I’ve found another sucker” but in Spanish.

Click on the image to see a short video

We are now the proud owners of a personal fan shaped like a lady bug with a light-up mirror. Also a fridge magnet of a very broken cow. Oh! and some expensive nutty candy as well as the bottle opener. At least it’s a lot of fun.

Buying stuff we don’t need might sound a bit weird but the beach people are suffering right now. They call this ‘charity with dignity’. They can be helped without feeling the embarrassment of a hand out.

For the most part, we’ve stayed around home lately. Though the other day we did buy a couple of loungers. Also Rosalie had a hankering to go out for dinner so we went to Papa Gallo’s in time for the sunset.

At Papa Gallo’s we were greeted by Rafael, one of our favourite waiters. He is always ready to help us with our Spanish, often teaching us a slang expression or just another way of saying things. These little lessons are really helpful. Learning Spanish is fine but it’s the little nuances that can make a huge difference. Since English is spoken with a lot of slang, it is reasonable that so do Mexicans. Be nice to learn that. I grab every opportunity to learn any stuff I can.

The loungers need cushions so a trip to Manzanillo was in order yesterday. Two of the biggest stores had everything but. I guess Amazon is the next step although I have no idea when or even if, we will even receive them.

The day wasn’t a complete waste of time. On the way down Rosalie saw a sign saying wood for sale. We decided to drop in on the way back as we had run out of firewood. I guessed that this might be a lumber store and it turned out I was right for once.

Rosalie asked if they had any wood for the fire and a young guy pointed to a pile of off cuts. He said we could help ourselves and helped us to load up the trunk of the car with palm wood. I had no idea how or if palm wood burns well, but it had to be better than nothing, plus he was happy with our tip. As it turned out it burns just fine.

A few people have pointed out that we are barking mad to have a fire when the temperature is 26 C. Well, it does take care of the mozzies. Last night without a fire I collected more bites than I’ve had in a while.

Apart from that, when the sun goes down it gets really dark with no street lights so it’s nice and cozy sitting on our loungers with pleasant glow from the fire. The loungers are a bit sore on the bum without decent cushions. And, I must point out that we were barking mad anyway so what’s your point…

I started by saying we’ve been hunkering down but after re-reading this it seems that we have been anything but.

Lots of little things annoy me and here a few.

Renting an expensive tool for the day only to use it for ten minutes. I tend to run around looking for things to saw, hammer, drill, bash, batter, paint, crimp, dig or whatever just to get my money’s worth. Also, I never take it back until two minutes before it’s due. That’ll show ’em.

Having to buy two of anything when I only need one. I’ve ranted about this before but it still annoys me. I have one each of a car light bulb, a weird type of battery that I will never use, a notebook which I find hard to fill. Two pens are okay as I usually lose one anyway. Two earbuds…Oh no, wait! You get the idea. How come useful things like wine and big-screen TVs only come in ones? Luckily, wives only come in ones too.

I hate bad service. When I pay for something I expect to get the service that goes along with it. When you go to buy something like a motor home, the salesperson is the nicest guy you’ve ever met. He remembers your name the licence plate and year of your car, your phone number and probably your SIN number as well. Once you’ve bought whatever it is, the next day he has to look you up on the computer to see who you are. Even then you have to send a photo to jog his memory.

Inconsiderate people also get on my nerves. this particularly comes up when driving. No turn signals, texting, running red lights and stop signs. This endangers everyone but they don’t care.

I once had a couple try to cut in line at Expo 86 and when I told them to get to the back of the line they called be an a**hole. I replied “I may be an a**hole but I’m not at the back of the line.” I got a round of applause for that one.

Cooking food in the microwave oven to the exact time and finding it frozen in the middle.

Making the tea and forgetting to boil the water. (That happens too often.)

Losing an object, ordering a new one on-line, only to have the original turn up the day you get delivery. Another reason I have two of everything.

And of course donald trump. My spell check keeps trying to capitalize his name but I don’t think he deserves it.

And of course people who tell us that we’re nuts to be living in Mexico because of Covid. Are you crazy? Down here we are the eleventh in the world per capita. Not as good as Canada perhaps but still not crazy bad. Besides, we like it here so there is that.

Black Friday really pisses me off too. Stores raise their prices and then slash them just so they can see a bunch people fighting each other to buy something they don’t need and probably can’t afford.

It’s not about what an individual needs, it’s about making sure he/she gets it before the other guy does. This is the new version of Hunger Games. There is no point to it, just the idea and the fun of the violence that goes along with it. I think it may pass football as the most popular contact sport in the USA.

I have to stop now as the ice is melting in my Margarita. That’s pissing me off too. Oh boy! I think I’m just one angry little man.

After having used the BBQ for smoking out the mozzies we thought it would be cozy and practical to get a chiminea. Also the temperature here drops to 24 C over night so you have to be careful not to get frostbite. In February I’ve seen it as low as 10 C .

Because of the bites we already have we went up town and bought some antihistamine. I foolishly suggested that as we had been cooped up so long (two days) there was a need to go to the beach for a margarita. Rosalie reluctantly (yea right) agreed.

We went to restaurant Bugambilia and ordered our drinks. Because we go there often and speak to the waiters with our limited Spanish our drinks seem to get stronger. They are lovely people and it’s fun talking with them. I also love the way they crack up laughing when I try to say something in Spanish.

While there, a fellow Canadian, another Gerry, whom we met last year, showed up and told of his adventures over the last year. It was interesting to compare notes.

Staggering out of there we hit the highway to Aguacate (The town of avocado). But first we had to stop by the Bodega to restock Rosalie’s tequila.

Rosalie’s tequila (3 Litres). Notice there’s already some missing.

Continuing on, we were so intent on talking, we sailed right by the chiminea place. I made a u-turn and went back the way we came. Pulling to the side of the road we leapt out and found just what we wanted. This was fortunate as it was the only chiminea they had.

The thing cost a minor fortune as it was hand made clay. We parted with 500 pesos (about $35) and loaded it into the back of the car.

That evening we burned the last four cascara de cocos and again fought the mozzies off. This left us with nothing else to burn so we went back to the place we got the husks before. This time, for some reason, he wouldn’t sell us any.

On the way home we stopped off at a side road and stocked up on some dead wood lying around and so had another nice evening of smoke and fire.

And they say life sucks.

Having a need for comfort we planned to get a couple of loungers. We found the loungers okay but no luck finding cushions for them. We decided to make a trip to Cihuatlan and look there. No luck as it happens. However, on the way home we stopped in at yet another coco place and managed to get a trunk full of fuel. Choke mozzies, choke!

Did you notice the use of Spanish and latin there? Man, I’m smart. Cascaras de cocos means coconut shells or husks or what ever.

There have been a lot of mosquitos here lately, so we bought some bug coils and bug spray. They help but we still get bitten frequently, not only by mosquitos. So we decided to do it the Mexican way. Down here they burn coconut husks and shells to create a smudge pot.

We mentioned this to Mike and he suggested that we go out into the country and pick some up at the side of the road. Well, we’re too lazy for that so we asked Omar about it as he seems to take a lot of coconuts from here. He told us that he throws all his away but that we could get some from a place down near Cihuatlan. We had passed this site before but hadn’t taken too much notice.

Needing an afternoon road trip, we loaded up the car (Rosalie, me and a plastic tub) and away we went.

Having found the place we tentatively drove in. There was a guy loading great scoops of the stuff into the back of a truck. As soon as he saw us he stopped and came our way. In our best Spanish we asked if we could buy some coconut husks. He said no! But we could help ourselves. He then helped load our plastic container. We gave him a tip and were soon on our way.

Being in a somewhat positive mood after this little coupe we went looking for a couple of loungers. Not having a lot of luck there, we somehow ended up at Papa Gallo’s on the beach where they forced a couple of margaritas on us.

Our favourite waiter, Rafael was happy to see us again and we had a great conversation with him. He told us that he and his wife were caught in the flood and how they had raised their bed, and their couch, onto bricks to avoid the rising water. They also elevated their fridge and the water was about an inch from it when it receded

Eventually, we staggered back to the casa and I tried out our newly found mozzie repellent. I lit a couple of the husks and the next thing we knew the place was full of smoke. No Mosquitos but (cough) a lot of smoke. I think this may work but a lot of detail will have to be given to wind direction. The fire needs to be tended to frequently but that’s okay as I need the exercise.

So far we haven’t seen a mosquito and the other bugs are staying away also. I think another trip to the coconut fields may be in our future.

We waited in all day for the Amazon delivery but finally at 9 pm we got a notification that our parcel had been returned to sender. Oh well!

I was very disappointed!

While in town we went to the immigration office to finish up our ‘temporal’ status. After the fingerprints (This time with a machine and not ink) photos and signatures, we were told to report next week Friday at 12 noon to get our new cards.

I needed some stuff from the hardware store which was just up the street from immigration so we popped in. I ordered some rope for the hammock. I needed about 10 Metres so the young lady wound it off and then…weighed it. Huh!

I also need a garden hose and had to buy it by the metre. I added a male and female fitting and two hose clamps and we were set to go. The whole thing came to about $20 so I was happy.

Next, we made our way to the market where we bought a few things. I wasn’t nearly the size it normally is because of the plague but we still found stuff to buy that we didn’t really need.

Ruby was cleaning the casa today so we ate out. We decided to go to Esemaralda’s as we hadn’t seen her for a while. We parked the car and was about 30 metres from the restaurant when my phone rang.

Yup! It was the Amazon delivery guy still trying to contact us. I, as usual, passed the phone to Rosalie but she was obviously struggling so I suggest that we hustle to Esmeralda for help. After explaining the situation Esmeralda took the phone and spoke to the guy. After a long conversation she said to deliver the package to the restaurant and gave detailed instructions, only to find out that the guy was still in Manzanillo. He had to pick up more packages but would be in Melaque later in the day. Esmeralda closes at 3 pm so he had to hustle.

Esmeralda had told us that she would phone when the package arrived but we decided to go back at 3 and wait. On the way back we passed a DHL truck as well as a FedEx truck. Neither of them showed up at the restaurant so we went home to wait. I think I should have stopped the DHL guy to ask if he had my package.

Update: At about 7 pm we got a call from the Amazon driver. He had been trying to find people who spoke English and he finally got the guy at Camino Del Mar Hotel to call us. Deciding that explaining how to get out here was too much of a pain, we asked him to take the package and we would pick it up in the morning. We also told us to give the guy a tip and we would reimburse him. I won’t believe it until I have that package in my hands. Watch this space.

Update on the update: We drove to town today and finally picked up our package. Now we have to find a location where we can get stuff delivered in the future. No sign of the goats though. I hope they lost the package. We can buy goat soup up town so Rosalie’s okay with that.

Me when they handed me my pacel.

One good piece of news we read, was that Mexico had dropped from 3rd to 8th and now to 11th in the Covid stakes. According to W.H.O., I was happy to read that today. There don’t seem to be any cases in our area and mainly people have been distancing and masking. Except for one party further up the coast which was visited by lots of people. Idiots!

Even though we are living here, we have to carry on the tradition of buying stuff from Amazon that we really don’t need.

There are a few issues with this though. Firstly, we have to order from Amazon.mx and their site is all in Spanish. Secondly, there is a lot of confusion about our location.

I ordered a small item and waited expectantly for delivery that was expected last Saturday. That afternoon I got a call from the delivery guy, who spoke no English, asking where we were. I tried to tell him but he didn’t get it so I handed him off to Rosalie. She had less luck than I did and the guy eventually hung up.

Our address is as follows: Francisco Villa 27, Pinal Villa, Costalegre, Cihuatlan, Jalisco Mexico 48972

It looks straightforward forward but we have found out that we are actually in the town of Villa Obregon. The rest of the address is still correct so we have had to add Villa Obregon to the special instructions. To add to the confusion, most local people know our location as ‘El Rancho Pimienta’, also added to the special instructions.

We did have a package delivered here last year with no issues so we have no idea what the problem is this time. Amazon has a policy that if something is undeliverable it is returned and we get a refund. So there is that.

I did get the idea that if it wasn’t delivered by the next business day I should contact someone. I thought yesterday was the next business day but it turned out to be a holiday. They only had one two weeks ago. So today I wait.

Trying to find my way around their Spanish-only website to try and clear up the confusion only creates more confusion. I keep ending up where I started with one more degree of frustration. So for now I give up.

I should have had it delivered to our address in Canada where we could pick it up in the spring. I would probably be quicker.

While we waited for delivery I was looking around Amazon.mx’s website and I think I may have ordered a couple of goats by mistake. We may never know though as they may not be able to deliver them. We could use them as the grass is getting a bit long and Rosalie loves goat soup. (Ugh!)

Well I thought this one was pretty cute. Look at that smile; and those dimples.