Uncategorized – Page 42 – Aged but not deceased

Another strange week

This was written last week.

I don’t think the weeks are that strange, it’s just that we are no longer on holiday but actually living here. It just feels different. When we go uptown we don’t wander around the shops ogling tacky tourist crap, (T.T.C.) We go for groceries and things we need in the house.

We’ve had some fun with our bank account. First, we couldn’t access our online account. Apparently, we have to use it every month or else they make it inactive. That got sorted out but then the property manager couldn’t cash the cheque we had given her. Off to the bank once more while the property manager waited in the branch in Manzanillo. We got that sorted out too. We didn’t know that we had to Activate the cheques. We are now waiting for the next unexpected bank problem.

I miss the Big Green Egg so we went and bought a charcoal BBQ. It took me the best part of the afternoon putting it together (?) as I only had a bent fork to work with. I did try it out last night. It lit up fairly quickly with help from my personal little fan. We tried hamburgers but they mostly broke up; the sausages were good though. I’m looking forward to our first turkey cooked on the beast. Or perhaps a rooster.

Rosalie has had a few hassles and had to go and see Dr. Rosa. She’s fine but can’t drink alcohol for a couple of weeks. I’m disappointed because now I can’t blame her for drinking all the wine. So now I have no idea where it all went.

I got another new hat last week, lighter than the last one, looks like a Tilly hat ($85) and only cost 80 pesos ($5.22). I love it so far.

It’s starting to cool off here. 21 C when we got up this morning. But it hits 28 C during the day. Our bedroom faces south so it warms up during the day. We keep the curtains drawn and that helps. As soon as the sun goes down we open them up and get a nice cool through – draft from the front bedroom. We have to close our window at night though because of the f_cking rooster.

I tried riding a bike for the first time in years. I haven’t lost the knack, I thought my knees wouldn’t take the strain but they were great. The seat was a bit high and the first time I turned a sharp corner was a bit hairy but I didn’t embarrass myself so all was good We are now looking for a couple of bikes as the walk uptown is getting a bit tedious. We were told we can rent a bike for about $100 a month. We also found out that you can buy a used bike for about $50. Decisions, decisions.

Gerry and Elaine, our neighbours, arrived last night. We ended up with ten of us at The Red Lobster for ribs followed by drinks at their place. Rosalie still can’t drink so she had to drive me home to our casa next door.

Boy! life down here is so hard.

A strange week

A strange week indeed. We went to the bank one day last week to get our account sorted out. We then walked over to the Banamex to withdraw some cash. “Why a different bank from our own?” you may ask. Well, the Banamex has a better rate for withdrawing pesos from our Canadian account than our own bank.

On the way, Rosalie spotted a sign offering two for one margaritas so she had to drag me in to try some. They were very good but after one Rosalie starts to giggle so we were a bit concerned that she may not be able to take advantage of the two for one.

At about this time we got a message from Mike and Pat asking if we wanted to meet them at Tito’s bar on the beach at 5 o’clock. We decided to go but, as it was only 3 pm and we had time to kill, Rosalie, being the trooper she is, ordered her second drink.

We eventually strolled to Tito’s and met up with the rest of the guys. We only stayed a few hours as we had been out since noon and were getting tired. Rosalie wanted to walk home. It only takes half an hour but I was insistent on getting a Tuc-Tuc. We walked as far up the town centre but no Tuc-Tucs so we ended up walking the rest of the way.

The following day Mike and Pat took us to Manzanillo on a shopping trip. That blew our budget for the month but we did stock up on a lot of things for our whole stay. For instance, we bought two 1 ltr bottles and two 750 ml bottle of liquor for $42 as well as few non essentials like food and paper towels.

On Friday we went with Mike and Faye to La Oficina. Before we left, Rosalie locked up the house not knowing that I was still in it. When we got there we bumped into Mike and Pat again. We ordered our meal and I got a bottle of wine as we thought it would be cheaper that way. After eating, just as the music started, Rosalie said she wasn’t feeling well and would I get Mike to run her home in Pat’s car.

They left, I put some money on the table for Faye to pay the bill, grabbed my bottle of wine and hurried after them. When I got home Rosalie had locked the door on me again. She managed to get her head out of the toilet long enough to let me in.

Poor kid, she was up all night throwing up. The following morning she was feeling a bit better but I started to feel a bit queasy. I had a dentist appointment to fix a cracked tooth ($32) so I went even though I wasn’t feeling 100%. That afternoon I felt a lot worse and slept a lot. The next day we were both feeling better but hung around the house and napped all day.

This is the first time Rosalie’s has been sick down here. I think it was a mild case of food poisoning but we will never know for sure.

We met Dave Spinks at the market yesterday and apologized for leaving early and assured him it had nothing to do with his music.

The rooster’s still at it. I’m hoping to hear, at about 4 am, “cockadoodle BANG!” I’ll go back to sleep with a smile on my face. The next morning I’ll ask Rosalie to get bbq chicken for lunch and hope it’s him.

A day out

We went to our new dentist today. The 14-year-old women doctor that we saw last year got married just after we saw her and has just had a baby. Her 17-year-old brother is filling in. This pleased Rosalie a lot as he is a good-looking young man. Now the groping issue is not so important to her! He did a good job and much to Rosalie’s delight she has to go and see him again for some more work.

More of our friends are showing up so we went walkabout to find Jim and Ylda. We had a great visit and I did a scientific experiment on the way home. I found that I could have three beers, take a half an hour walk home; stopping for shopping on the way, and still make it without peeing my pants…Just.

I’m going to kill that F…ing rooster! We just heard of a couple who bought a noisy rooster for an exorbitant price on the condition that the people didn’t buy another one. We have no idea what they did with it but my imagination became very sadistic.

The mystery of the Mexican/Chilean wine is solved. Lucy our waitress told us that Chile has produced a wine with a Mexican label to honor Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Lucy and I were both disappointed as we thought the idea of a Mexican wine having a Chilean cork was great fun and purely Mexican.

Rosalie bought a new dress yesterday and another one today. My job was to sit outside the shop muttering impatiently under my breath and wondering what happened to all the other dresses she had bought on previous trips down here. A least she seems to be past her purchasing silver phase.

A few days ago we ran out of beer and Rosalie started to panic so we walked uptown and ordered a couple of cases of Estrella. 24 bottles to the case, about $18 each case. They said they would deliver it between 4 and 5 pm. 5:30 came around and no beer, so we started to get a bit anxious. By 6 we were both pacing the floor. Rosalie in need of a beer; and me wondering if we had been ripped off. But we remembered this is Mexico and sure enough the booze showed up at 6:15. Saved!

A lot of the streets here are one way; with the exception of bicycles, motorbikes, the odd Tuc-Tuc, the local garbage truck as well as, anyone going the wrong way and decides to do a three-point turn rather than go around. We always look both ways no matter what street we cross.

As mentioned earlier, Rosalie sent us a letter from Canada to Melaque a few days before we left. It’s been nearly a month and it still hasn’t arrived. It should have been a Christmas card as we may get it just in time.

La Oficina

Mike and Pat asked if we would like to go to open-mike night at La Oficina. We had been there on our last visit and it was great fun so we said “Sure.”

Dave Spinks, the cousin of Bill of the famous Bill and Michael couple, was the host. He plays and sings and invites others to play as well. We saw some great talent even though it’s early in the season.

The videos are a bit dark because of the low lighting in the restaurant.

We always get there early so we get the table in front. Even if we got the table in the back it wouldn’t matter as the place is fairly small. It’s owned by a young American guy Aaron and his family. His wife is Mexican and they have two lovely kids.

The evening is very informal. The young son, about 4 years old opened the proceedings by singing to us on the mike. Later when Dave started his act the same young man accompanied him on a bongo drum. All the while a large friendly dog wandered around looking to be petted. The place wasn’t overly crowded as most of the Canadians haven’t arrived in town yet.

We had the added fun of watching the Canucks play a game on the big screen TV. They won in overtime.

La Oficina isn’t unique. There are several small restaurants in town where very talented bands play through the winter. We plan to follow the music this year and see a lot more of them.

This quad is underloaded and the driver much too old.

We had booked our dental visit for next week but heard that the dentist may be a groper so we canceled. We will go back to the same cute 14-year-old dentist we saw last year. She was very competent and I’m not as concerned about the groping bit as Rosalie is.

Another storm just missed us. I woke at 6 am to the sound of rain and in the distance, the sound of drums playing. I guess a celebration of some sort was going on. It woke the bloody rooster up though. We ‘re noticing the temperature is slowly going down at night. We are getting into winter after all. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that.

2nd November

We went for a walk into town today to get more supplies. On the way back we saw a house for sale. We’re curious folk so we stopped to check it out. The interesting thing was that the house on the left was number 12. The one on the right was number 19 and the one we were looking at was, of course, number 75. Such is Melaque.

Further along, we saw some guys taking down a tree bit by bit with a machete. It looked dangerous but I guess they know what they are doing. We just looked the other way and bravely scurried by.

The rooster next door is still at it. We’re hoping he’s soon big enough for the cooking pot. I’m sure another one will soon take his place though. We are close enough to the beach to be lulled asleep by the crashing of the waves as we soon nod off again.

Today is Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). We haven’t seen too much activity associated with it but perhaps that happens more after sunset. We are going out for dinner and some musical entertainment tonight so we will see.

More and more Canadians are showing up. Our friends Mike and Faye arrived yesterday so we went for dinner at our local restaurant ‘The Red Lobster’. Lucy, the owner’s daughter, and our waitress took our drinks order; I ordered red wine. She asked if a Mexican brand was okay. I said”fine”. She went off to open the bottle and returned with it with a grin on her face. She then asked if I wanted Mexican or Chilean. I’d already agreed to Mexican so was a bit confused. Then she showed me the cork, which was printed with ‘Chile’ on the side, while the bottle said Mexico.

Lucy also reminded us several times that Sunday is BBQ rib night. We didn’t need reminding as we have been there several times before and wouldn’t miss it.

The Red Lobster also does a Tour of their banana plantation. For $500 MX ($35) each, you get breakfast and lunch. A trip to the plantation where you sit around the pool and drink free drinks until they bundle you into the bus for the return journey.

The problem is though, as, with many local tours, they have to have enough people to make it worth their while so if you want to go you have to persuade as many friends as possible to join in.

I’ve noticed that the temperature is dropping slightly overnight but is still a balmy 26 C. With 75% humidity. It gets up to about 30 C during the day and is still quite humid. It’s been cloudy for the past few days making it a bit more comfortable so we don’t have to wear our sombreros when we go walkabout.

Settling in

We are starting to settle into a somewhat normal routine. We still don’t do a lot but we are having fun doing it.

We don’t have lunch on the beach as much as we used as it does add up. So we have lunch at home and then go and sit on the beach and have a beer and discuss the language. We’re picking up more and more Spanish and use it whenever we can. Mostly when ordering food.

We came home a few days ago and a gecko dropped out from the door frame. It startled me as I was thinking: a great big spider. I almost stood on the little guy but somehow we managed to avoid each other. I call him Ramon. We also have a wee one roaming around. Rosalie found him this morning trying on her jewelry. I think we’ll call him Brucie.

Rosalie has been walking around with an absolutely stupid looking hat so we decided to buy her a new one. As I had just got my new one too we make a great looking couple. I call this photo”Miss Marples and the old Geezer”

We sleep with the bedroom windows open at night to let a breeze in. The only downfall is that we have a rooster with a sore throat right behind the duplex who loves to wake us real early. We are getting used to him, as we often sleep right through his morning recital.

The temperature is hovering between 28-30 C with 76 humidity. It is quite humid but doesn’t bother us too much. We read that Sage leaf tablets help cope with the heat so we have been taking them from before we left. It does seem to help or perhaps we’re just used to it.

There are a few more tourists coming into town. You can tell who they are because when you say “hola” they come back with “Hi”. Heavy sigh, there goes our quiet solitude. This week starts the influx of our friends. We look forward to seeing them again. Even though we saw some of them just a few weeks ago.

I’ve been trying to include shot video clips in the blog but have had some technical difficulties. (I don’t know what I’m doing). I seem to have sorted it out though and will try to grab the local scene.

This one happened when we were walking uptown. The little bar at the side of the road is opposite where we stayed last time and we know it as a party place so we weren’t surprised to see the band.

Living here does have its downfalls. We lost a brother-in-law this week and wanted to head to Prince George but when we started adding up costs it became too expensive so we will have to send our thoughts and prayers instead.

Mexico

The storm has passed, the sun is out and things are returning to normal.
We, of course, have been rushed off our feet doing nothing. We’re sitting in the forecourt of the duplex at the moment. We are pretty warm and sitting in just the right place to catch a breeze. Kids are playing in the street, the palms are swaying softly, there is always music in the air and all is mostly alright with the world.

The following video is experimental so so be prepared for any bad language, violence or nudity.

We just returned from a trip to Centro to get a few supplies. On our way back we stopped at a restaurant on the beach and had a snack and a couple of cervezas. The walk home with backpacks of supplies can be a bit tiring. We would get a tuc-tuc if one came by but none did so we walked.
The town is pretty quiet at this time of year and we like it that way. Very few Canadians or Mexican tourists. Next week will be different as they start to come then. We already saw one travel trailer from Quebec.

20181026_144304 — You get your money’s worth when you get your car painted down here. They do your licence plate for free.

The Mexicans are so friendly and helpful. Yesterday we were in a restaurant in Barra de Navidad trying to get help from the waiter to pronounce the word ‘empanizado’ which means breaded and how I like my fish. I asked and then forgot so asked again. The young man was very patient and after about five tries I eventually got it.
I’ve been reluctant in the past to try too much Spanish until I got it perfect. This time, however, I decided that if the Mexicans looked at me uncomprehendingly I would suck it up and try again. Rosalie has been a great help as she can converse fairly easily and correct me when I ask for help; which is often. We both also rely heavily on Google Translate and it’s settled many friendly arguments. Most of which take place at lunchtime on the beach over a couple of cervezas.
Rosalie wanted to test the Mexican postal service so she sent a letter to this address just before we left Canada. It’s been 14 days and so far no sign of It. I’ll keep you posted. (A pun.)
I managed to replace my hat with one bought in Barra. The nice young man told me it was made from Palm leaves and that I would be able to grow my own coconuts. I’m not too sure whether to believe him or not. Time will tell so I water it every night just in case.

Yet more rain

This was written yesterday but because of the rain, we lost our Wifi and I couldn’t publish it.

Just when we thought we had missed the main storms from Vincent, he fought back.

We went into town again today. It wasn’t raining and was getting warmer and brighter so we dropped off our laundry on the way. After we got home we decided we need to go up to town again to get a few more important supplies like more wine and a bbq chicken for lunch.

As we were walking back we saw a few blue spots in the sky. Nothing to get excited about but encouraging just the same. I even put my sunglasses on. When we got home, I went for a nap and later picked up our laundry while Rosalie waited for the one-legged repairman to come and fix our hot water heater.

It started to rain again but we had been through this before so weren’t too concerned. Then, it …started…to …rain. Holy smokes, it poured down.

I took a couple of chairs out front to watch the show. We have a four-metre overhang so no fear of getting wet. As we were watching, the rain got stronger then started to lightning and thunder.

I was taking a few pictures and a video when all hell broke loose and a crash of Thunder like I’ve never heard before. I was so startled I almost spilled my wine.

I’m from England and used to rain but nothing like this. I was fascinated by the way the Mexicans handled it. They didn’t, they just a carried on as usual. People would ride by on bikes with a garbage bag for protection…or not. Cars drove by at the same speed. The only difference that I could see was that the kids went swimming in the streets instead of the ocean.

Anyhow, we are only about a foot above street level so before we turn in at night we take the precaution of raising all our electronics above floor level, just in case.

Today.

It rained all night but started to clear up this morning.

We haven’t got a lot of news about Willa but I suspect the damage will be less than in Florida. The structures down here are mostly concrete or brick whereas further north in Canada and the USA we build our houses of sticks. Remember the story of the three little pigs.

Also, water damage is less of an issue. There are no carpets to get wet. Any water coming in would run on tile and be easily swept out. Our duplex is close to road level which is often flooded so just in case the water rises we make sure all electronics are off the floor. Flooding and mudslides seem to be an issue.

The door to our rooftop patio leaked yesterday and some water ran down the stairs to our bedroom level. We didn’t worry about it as we knew that in a few hours it would be dried up.

Things are starting to brighten so we can soon get back to normal.

Rain

We arrived in Mexico a week ago today and we’ve seen about 5 minutes of sun. When we were in Puerto Vallarta we just missed a tropical storm but got all the rain from it.

Having arrived in Melaque, it’s been cloudy most of the time. Then we heard about hurricane Willa. We checked it out on “Windy”, a very neat site, and saw that it was going to miss us, but another, much smaller, storm “Vincente” was in our area. It mostly blew out but at the moment we’re getting the rain from it.

It’s not much of a problem as the temperature is 26 C (brrrr, chilly). we have plenty of supplies….a case of beer and a jug of wine. Oh yes, and some food. The good thing is that with the temperature being lower we don’t feel the humidity so much.

I’ve been under the weather in more ways than one since before we left Canada and am only just getting over it. In fact, I was so bad the day before we left I thought we would have to leave later and lose our flight. I also had to winterize the trailer. I got over it after a while with help of a couple of Gravol. We read that there is a Salmonella outbreak in BC and Alberta. I don’t know if it was that but I have all the symptoms. Just to add to my misery I mysteriously lost my new hat on the bus down from PV. I took it off and put it on top of my camera on the floor and haven’t seen it since.

While my illness was temporarily in remission we went for lunch with Mike and Pat. We had a nice lunch, drank too much and went home to rest up. On the way, we picked up a case of beer. They had stored a tote for us since January and dropped it off before going home. When we opened it, it was like Christmas.

I just took a break and we walked uptown with our umbrellas. We did a bank deposit and then activated my phone. We got unlimited phoning and text to all of North America plus 1.5 Gig of data for the equivalent of $13.54 Canadian. I think we’re being ripped off in Canada. Rosalie’s Canadian plan with unlimited calling and text, only in Canada, and 2 Gig of data costs $44 a month.

This whole huricaney thing should be finished by Thursday so we are looking forward to that. Although we will no doubt start to complain when the temperature goes up.

Puerto Vallarta

As I mentioned earlier, it’s raining here. When we arrived at the airport one of the light fittings was pouring water so it was only a light rain. (I can hear the groans from here.)

We decided to get our bus tickets ahead of time so I asked one of the young ladies at the hotel how far the bus station was. She said it was within walking distance so off we went. Mexicans walk more than Canadians so what a short walk was for her, was a 45 minute hike in the heat for us.

We bought our tickets with, of course, the senior discount, then grabbed a taxi and headed down town. We walked the Malacon for a while, chatting with some of the merchants who wanted to sell us time shares. After we blew them off we found a nice restaurant for lunch.

After lunch we were both a bit tired after our morning hike so we went back to the hotel for a nap.

Early in the evening we walked to the marina to find a place to eat. We settled on a restaurant called “Victor’s Place”. There was a nice table facing the marina so we settled in and placed our order. We had both ordered wine and this came with a complimentary shot of tequila.

While we were eating Victor himself showed up. He was very friendly, but more so toward me. He said he was going to have another tequila with us and sure enough he showed up with a tray full of shots. He gave us one each and we had to shoot them quick.

We eventually asked for the bill and a few minutes later one of the waiters showed up with a complimentary Kahlua and cream for each of us. Now I was a bit worried that I might have to carry Rosalie home.

Rosalie went to find the restroom and Victor showed up again. This time with a pair of complimentary shot glasses. He was somewhat touchy feely toward me but I shrugged it off as just being friendly. After all there is only so much I will do for a free shot glass.

We will go back there sometime, as the food was great and the waiter was very patient with my bad Spanish. However I do need to improve as I had ordered garlic fish and ended up with rhubarb pie. Also we got three free drinks and a pair of shot glasses.

It started to rain as we walked back to the hotel but this has been another great Mexican day. We watched Netflix for a while as we anticipate our trip to Melaque tomorrow.