Month: October 2021

It was a hot afternoon so Rosalie and I decided that instead of going to the beach we would lounge around and read our books. Another one of our activities.

We had the fans on for a bit of cool when I heard thump, bang, crash from the one nearest me. I thought nothing of it at the time; maybe a leaf got caught up, who knows. Then, curiosity got the better of me and I got up to look and there was a gecko laying still in the bottom of the fan cage.

I thought he had to be dead as the fan hit it pretty hard. After giving it a poke with a screwdriver, it moved. Great now I don’t have to dig a grave. So far so good, they obviously have very hard heads now how do I get it out of there?

He needed just a few more prods.

I tried to take the fan cover off but it wasn’t that easy. So I resorted to the prod and go method. This entailed prodding him gently until he got up and left. It seems to work when Rosalie does it to me so why not?. Finally, he was smart enough to get up and leave and he didn’t look any the worse for wear. Me, on the other hand, was a basket case from the stress of it all.

For the last few days, there have been threats of thunderstorms and rain. It hasn’t happened so far but we are watching the weather news. There was a tropical storm south of us and we expected rain from that but it didn’t happen.

I’ve had to plan a different route out of Pinal Villa as one of the puddles has gotten to the point where I don’t trust going through it anymore. It’s deep and may be full of cocodrilos, who knows? It’s right outside Omar’s house so I will have to have a word with him about that. When I say a word, I mean a word as my Spanish isn’t that good…yet.

The temperature has been about 33 C and with the humidity feels like 46 C. Even so, we haven’t been to the beach too often for whatever reason. I think we are getting acclimated as it doesn’t bother us too much. Papá Gallo’s is open almost full-time now so we know we can get a decent margarita anytime; a big plus to our lifestyle.

Our trip to Copper Canyon is booked, from December 9th to 15th; something we’ve been planning to do for a while now. We’re really looking forward to it. About sixteen people are on the tour so a great opportunity to make new friends.

A lot of friends are coming down here next month and we’re looking forward to seeing them and enjoying several happy hours together.

There seem to be more iguanas here at the ranch than in previous years. We were wondering if it was because the trees were knocked down and the lost their habitats. They are mostly youngsters and bright green.

We went for a drive in the country for a while today, and ended up having lunch in Colomilla. We had to take a barco (boat) across the lagoon to get there, but worth it as always.

Our view at lunchtime

Our ride back

It did rain after all. I fact it was so bad we had to go inside; a first this year. We grabbed all our electronics and took them in too. It was mostly blowing in and splashing. With nothing better to do, we went dancing naked in the rain. Something I think all seniors should do at some point in their lives. It was fun. (Video available on request; if you’re brave enough.) 

It was a bit chilly but a nice change from the heat we’ve been having. We can only go to Papá Gallo’s so many times to cool off. Because They already know our names, favourite drinks, what we are about to order and names of all our kids, grandkids, and local acquaintances. 

There are some people here who are becoming very close friends because of the kind of people they are. The only problem is that they are “NON-VAXXERS” Oh! my god, run away and be darn quick about it. I don’t want anything to do with them! Unclean!! Unclean!!

What a load of Bull Sh-t. They have been shunned by family and friends because it was their choice not to get vaccinated. I have a number of issues with this whole thing. First and foremost is to remember that they are more at risk than we are, so why are they being shunned? They should be shunning us. If they choose to come to a gathering of friends who are vaccinated and they’re not, they know that that’s their problem and they know they have to deal with it.

I found it incredible that they mentioned that they don’t want to make people feel uncomfortable??? The only people feeling uncomfortable are those who don’t think the whole thing through.

It’s interesting to note that they don’t tell us that we should not get vaccinated. They allow us to make our own choice. As I said in a previous blog they are not Anti-Vaxxers but Non-Vaxxers; an important distinction.

If you are vaccinated or not, you can still carry and transmit the virus. Those who are vaccinated have a lesser chance of complications so what is their problem? You can get infected by a friend whom you know is vaccinated, so what is the difference between someone who is and someone who isn’t vaccinated? The only difference is that the unvaccinated person is more at risk. Their choice! The control freak’s attitude is “It only makes sense that you should get vaccinated, because I did, and I know better.”

How can family or friends judge what a person can or can’t do? I’ve said this so many times during that pandemic but I’ll say it again “My choices are none of your damn business.”

I don’t agree with our friends but respect their choice. Are we going to shun them? Not a frickin’ chance: they are awesome people and we have had some great afternoons with them. Are we going to lose good friends because they are more compromised than us? Not a chance.

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Oh! And Rosalie got her hair done again

We need to open our minds and think folks.

We was robbed. We were robbed at the beach today. We sat minding our own business and were blatantly robbed by three bandidos. 

They came out of nowhere and viciously held us up with popcorn and chewing gum. We reluctantly handed over our loose change, about 30 pesos although Rosalie was more afraid than I and donates an extra peso just in case. 

One of the Bandidos

I couldn’t understand why the rest of the locals were laughing at us. Don’t they see how serious this is becoming? They are becoming a scourge on the beach. Next time they come by I’ll  direct them to the Québécois’table, that’ll teach ‘em.

They were kids ranging from about five to eight. This was our second hold up in a few days. Mostly the beach vendors are fine, when we say no gracias they leave us alone. Some that we know well, we buy a bottle of water for, as their’s is a hot tiring job. Some are a bit pushy, there is one women though, who has over stepped the line on occasion and I think we will have to be a little harder on her. She empties all her stuff onto the table and won’t take no for an answer until I get mad at her and eventually she may go away.

We left our dashcam in Canada with the idea that we would get another one for down here. So, I ordered one from Amazon and got it in a few days. I ran all the wires inside the car for the front camera just to see how it worked. Then my problems began.

First I found that both 12-volt outlets were not working. I checked the fuses as much as I could and found a burnt one. While we were in Cihuatlán I found some more fuses. I installed one and it worked.

Next: read the instructions??? They were printed so small I couldn’t see them. I knew that Google would help me out, not so. I couldn’t find a manual for the thing. Feeling clever, I took photos of each page and blew them up but the quality was so bad I sighed and quit.

But wait, we have an HP printer/scanner: I could scan the small print in and then blow it up to make it readable; Brilliant! Of course, it wasn’t that easy. I first had to find and download the HP drivers. I got the whole package but nothing worked. I think the printer may be hooped as it tends to print randomly; even in the middle of the night.

Anyway, I managed to get the dash-cam up and running so that’s a step forward. The printer can wait for another day.

Besides that, we were surprised to find that Pápa Gallo’s was open for Canadian thanksgiving dinner so we booked a table. We were talking to the owners, Gary and Joyce, and told them that we should be thanked for our patronage as we kept them open last season. Gary responded that if it wasn’t for us he could have closed earlier and saved wages. All in fun, and they also told us Gerry and Elaine were coming that night. We shared a table with them, did some catching up and had a great evening.

We’ve had a lot of thunderstorms since we got here accompanied by lots of rain, so when we go out we are mostly driving through very deep puddles. All part of the fun of living here. We hung our laundry up and had to wait a few days for it to dry.

There is a cleaner who comes each week. Usually it’s Rubi, but apparently she ran off with another guy to Pátzcuaro. So she recommended her Mum, Lupe who arrived at 10 am and at 6 pm we were still trying to get her to leave. She wasn’t slow, just too thorough. We only pay 250 pesos about $15 so Rosalie added another $100 pesos to the payment but she still wouldn’t leave. Rosalie messaged Rubi to let her know that Mum was over doing it. If she wants the job she has to cut it back to no more that three hours. The problem is that we have to stay out of the place for that long, Not a good idea when we need to make dinner.

The other downside was that she managed to find three scorpions in the house. One was right by where I was sitting this morning. I will be a lot more vigilant from now on.

It was Raquel’s granddaughter’s birthday and we were honoured to be invited to join the festivities. The party was to start at 3 pm but it didn’t seem to be jumping enough at the time, for us, so we waited a while. Most Mexican activities start later than planned, so I thought going early wasn’t a good idea.

In the meantime, we watched the setup of the bouncy castles, tables and chairs and all the other things associated with a four-year-old’s birthday party. Rosalie wanted to try the bouncy castle but I vetoed that as I remember a few years ago she nearly broke her neck on a trampoline. I was tempted to let her try this time since the trampoline incident had been hilarious.

I was a little apprehensive to go over, as we knew no one other than Raquel and Omar. Also, no one except Raquel and her son Lalo Jr. speaks English. We readily accepted the offered tacos, although I could only manage one.

The whole thing turned out fine, as we were left alone with Raquel. We enjoyed all the babies; said how cute they were and the Mums and Dads smiled their appreciation. We watched the bigger kids trying to maim themselves on the bouncy castle. Altogether, a fun afternoon.

Lalo Jr. does our dental work every year but he had a problem remembering us. Of course, he has a lot of clients and can’t remember everyone.

These are upper-middle-class Mexicans, and like most places in the world, there is a hierarchy. As we were waiting to join the festivities I noticed a little boy standing on our side the gate looking in. It reminded me somewhat of me as a kid. I wasn’t sad or upset about being on the outside looking in; it was just the way it was. Some have money, some don’t, you just keep pushing until you get to where “they” are; or not, your choice.

Raquel had to leave to babysit another grandkid so we gave our thanks and went home. Later I noticed that they were starting to bash some pinatas. We hustled over there and had fun watching the kids beat the hell out of these things. They always let the little kids go first and in the end, the heavy, older kids move in and demolish it once and for all. In the video, the guy pulling the rope is Lalo Pimienta Jr., Raquel’s son. The stocky guy in the blue shirt is Omar, and the tall lady behind Rosalie is Susanna, Omar’s wife. I did some misspelling of the video title which just shows that even I aren’t perfect.

Rosalie, in the meantime, found Omar and Suzanna’s new baby at which point Suzanna walked off and left us to babysit. It was nice that they trusted us enough to leave their three-month-old baby with us. Eventually, Omar came by and relieved us of the lovely little bundle and we went back to our casa to spend the rest of the evening.

But we weren’t quite finished, Lalo Jr. along with the little birthday girl Lua, came by with some birthday cake for us. We wrecked our fasting but what the heck it’s only once in a while. They also brought us a goodie bag of candies, that we will hand out to the kids in the neighbourhood, who didn’t get to attend. In the meantime, the adults were having fun now, in the bouncy castle, giggling like a bunch of kids. All in all a very fun day.

While driving around town, we saw a few palapas being repaired because of the hurricane. Raquel told us that a section of our patio roof had been torn off and they had to replace it, as well as the palapa of our neighbours. The plants around our patio were all gone when we got here, now, after less than a week, they are between six and eight inches high already. Soon things will be back to normal.

The streets in most places are usually pretty bad for driving but now they are worse, with puddles everywhere. It will fill in and be back to normal soon. While driving through Jaluco, the paved streets are covered in sand that has washed down from goodness knows where.

We took our first trip to Chiuatlán to pick up a dashcam I had ordered for the car. I enjoy putting together those ridiculous videos of the drivers here. Having said that I got a few scratches on the car and almost killed a garbage can today, and I hadn’t even been drinking…Yet!

Rosalie just commented that the best thing about our trip down here was that we booked our flight back in June and we had no cancellations. Now that’s a novelty!

We went for lunch at Bugambilias as we had only just stocked up our supplies. Though we like eating there, it was disappointing, but fuel for the blog. I will recap a blog I wrote several years ago:

While in Barra one year, I ordered a rib-eye steak; it was a quarter-inch piece of shoe leather. A few weeks later we went for lunch in Melaque and there was rib eye on the menu but not wanting to chance it I ordered the ham steak. I got the same piece of shoe leather as before. Later still, knowing that this trend can’t possibly continue, I once again ordered rib-eye. Guess what? I got the same piece as I had before, tough as leather. I swear it had my teeth marks from before on it, but Rosalie says I’m being ridiculous; as if.

Anyway, Rosalie ordered a ‘surf and turf’ the surf was fine but the turf was that same f**king piece of shoe leather I had previously ‘enjoyed’ – Not. I was so mad I only tipped them 20%. We went home so that Rosalie could calm me down with a few glasses of wine and an Agavero. Incidentally, it’s so hot at the moment that before I had finished my Agavero my wine got warm. It’s not all fun and games here in Pinal Villa.

We’ve been coming here since 2005; some things have changed but not a lot really. The people are just as awesome as they always were. A few more buildings have gone up and there has been some damage from the storms; other than that it’s still the beautiful paradise we have always loved and looked forward to.

The taxi pulled up outside of El Rancho and we saw the gates were open which was a bit unusual. When we looked inside it was heartbreaking. We had been warned by Omar that there had been some damage but we weren’t expecting this. The two beautiful Parota trees were nowhere to be seen, The Jacka tree was gone, and so were about six coconut palms. Almost all the mango trees, the platano and banana trees were gone as well as our lovely little papaya. At least Omar can’t steal them when we’re not looking anymore. Also, all the foliage around our patio was nowhere to be seen.

It was devastating. Omar and a bunch of other guys were working away trying to make the place look a bit better. It must be serious as Omar was working on a Sunday, which he rarely does. The good thing down here is that things grow quickly so although it won’t quite be as it was, I’m sure it will look great in a year or two. They are already planning on planting more trees. Raquel said our rent money will be for new trees.

I got the car started after cleaning up the battery terminals and we went into town for supplies. Luckily the beer and wine store was open even on a Sunday. Then off to the beach to drown our sorrows with a Margarita, a glass of wine and a bite to eat. It feels good to be back. We paid about $30 for two meals and two drinks each. Yesterday in Nanaimo we paid $60 for some wings and fries which we shared, and three drinks. And people wonder why we live here half the year.

We hadn’t had much sleep on the plane so we both crashed for a couple of hours. It will take a few days to acclimatize but we’ll get over it. Wine helps.

I finally finished all the chores for closing up the trailer, finished packing and waited for our ride. 
Bruce and Mary Ellen were good enough to take us to Harbour Air floatplanes in Nanaimo. Being a few hours early we went to The Bistro Pub for some food and drinks.

The flight to YVR south was uneventful but unfortunately, the last shuttle had already left. We didn’t know this until one of the people leaving after work there asked why we were waiting. She checked and found that the driver had taken off for the day as ours was the last flight. She called for a taxi and gave us a voucher so we wouldn’t have to pay. 

As we were waiting for the taxi, the shuttle showed up again. The driver realizing that we’d been left behind came back for us. The best part was that the driver was Mexican so we had chat with him. They called the cab company and it all turned out fine.

The shuttle arrived at the airport with about four hours to spare. Security was a breeze as there was hardly anybody there. Rosalie had her usual water bottle in the luggage just to see if the guys were on their toes, they were!

It was lucky that we ate something in Nanaimo as the airport was mostly shut down. We couldn’t even get a glass of wine, much to Rosalie’s annoyance. 

The plane took off on time and it wasn’t too a bad flight. We were served food and drinks I had a rum and coke just so I could spend a few minutes with the mask off. Then the lights went down and we tried to sleep. As we got close to Mexico City, Rosalie started to get nauseous and I started to get worried. After a nice long sleep, she managed to shake it off. 

Going through the airport was a bit of a trial. It helped a lot that we had our Residente Temporal. At one point we were inspected; how do you explain sous vide machine, in Spanish, to a Mexican?

Ronda had given us detailed instructions to navigate the airport and they came in handy. We had allowed three and a half hours to get our connecting flight and I’m glad we did. The gate wasn’t posted so had to check the board regularly.

We finally got on board but we sat on the runway for half an hour waiting to take off. When we landed at Manzanillo we took a cab home. On the way, the driver showed us a large banana plantation completely wiped out by the hurricane.

It was good to be back at The Ranchero but boy, were we in for a surprise!