Month: March 2023

Our friends Ron and Barb live in Barra. Ron was away in Ft McMurray for a while so Barb wanted to get together with us for lunch sometime. She called and asked if she and her friend Roma could pick us up and take us to La Manzanilla because there had been sightings of whales offshore there.

It was a great day to sit on the beach as it was overcast and so, not too hot. We sat for some time before actually seeing any whales but they did eventually show up.

One guy told us that it was a Mum and baby that had gotten separated from their pod. They had been there for a day and a half and it was hoped that they would eventually follow the shoreline and regain the open sea.

Before going home there had to be a stop by the cocodrilo sanctuary and we saw four great big fat crocs close to the fence line. Rosalie, Barb and I had seen them before but I think it was a new experience for Roma.

Things are starting to wind down so I decided to start with a bit of packing. Because we live here it’s almost like packing the house up before moving. My biggest problem is that I have to sort out the laundry room and that big nasty spider lives there. I think I’ll name him “Atilla”.

It’s odd to think that we will be home in Canada at the end of next week. This season has just flown by perhaps it’s because we are closer to town and do a lot more socializing. It’s either at a restaurant or at someone’s house or at home. And of course we had a lot of Rosalie’s relatives here this year so we were kept busy from end of January on.

And of course, Rosalie went a little potty. Just before packing, she spotted some flower pots on sale, on the side of the road. So now I have to find a safe place for them. Also, everything has to be stored up high because of the threat of flooding.

We are close to the canal where the water tends to back up and overflow. This year they are dredging the entrance to the canal so maybe the problem won’t be so bad.

The other concern, and a serious one, is that some of our favourite beachside bars are closing for part of the week. So we often have to troll up and down until we find one open. By that time we’re hot, tired and very thirsty.

It’s getting close to the time when we have to pack up and leave. But first a bit of last-minute entertainment.

There is a great local band here called The Bandidos. They play in most of the restaurants and bars in town. They play all the old classic rock tunes and are very popular.

We drove with Neil and Diane out to La Palma Negra on Coco Beach for lunch and to see them play. We had seen them before but you can never get too much of a good thing. In fact, we will see them again in a day or two as we want to buy some of their T-shirts.

Unfortunately, running a blog is getting expensive so to cut costs I’m using YouTube. The good thing is that you can now play videos full screen and it’s a lot less work for me; also it’s free. The downside is that at the end you will see some ads. If you want to watch the video again just hit the replay button on the bottom left corner.

La Palma Negra is a beautiful venue, and even though it’s a twenty-minute drive it’s well worth it. It’s right next to the ocean and is quite rustic and traditional. Maria and Bernie have done an amazing job over the few years we have been going there. The food is good and served to us by their eldest son Pablo; a really nice boy who speaks perfect English

They are going to do a British Columbia tour in the summer. Mostly the mainland but some gigs on Vancouver Island. Including a stopover at Neil and Diane’s place as they entertain bands regularly at their home. They’re also playing at the VIEX where we will probably see them.

El Jardin

The garden is coming along nicely although a bit slow. I decided to jolly it up a bit with some ‘abono’, cow manure from Cowpachino’s. We also bought another lemon tree to replace the one we killed. As well as a Guyabono tree also known as a Soursop in English. Apparently, there are a lot of health benefits from its fruit. Each plant cost 50 pesos, about $3.50 Canadian.

The mangos are early this year and from what we can see, we may get to eat some before we leave.

Our biggest problem was getting the place watered while we are away. We were going to ask Martina to do it but it’s too far for her to come twice a week. I suggested to Rosalie that she talk to the lady who cleans next door as she may want a summer job. She agreed so now we have one less problem to care about.

A sad day

Our favourite hangout on the beach in the afternoon was Papa Gallo’s. Alas, they closed it for good suddenly. We understand that the landlord’s son is going to try reopening sometime. So there is some hope for next year. Fortunately, there are plenty of other places we can go, although we will miss our friends who used to work there.

While at a health seminar the other day we found out about a different dentist in town. They had a pamphlet with their prices on it and they looked more affordable than most so we decided to give them a try.

The next time we were in town we booked an appointment for the following day. Rosalie wanted to get a cleaning and I wanted to get a cleaning as well as some whitening done.

The appointment was for 11 am and we arrived on time. Our dentist was a very nice young man named Eric and he was learning to speak English.

Rosalie went first as her appointment was only supposed to take fifteen minutes, while mine would take an hour. After about twenty minutes the dentist came and got me to sit with Rosalie as she also had a broken tooth, that he was going to fix there and then.

Before the process started, he had to fill in a questionnaire about our health. After answering all the questions he asked us to sign but he didn’t know the word for signature so we taught him that.

It was lucky that Rosalie’s Spanish was way better than his English so she could translate for both of us. I tried to keep up but still have a problem with understanding spoken Spanish.

During the process, he asked Rosalie to shower her mouth. We explained the word rinse and then he asked what the English word for tongue was. We told him and spelt it for him. Of course, being a Spanish speaker he tried to pronounce it phonetically and it came out something like: “tong u ee”. We told him to think of it as ‘tung’ and he was good with that; although he still pronounced it toong as ‘u’ in Spanish is pronounced ‘oo’

Eventually, it became my turn. He did the cleaning and started to do the whitening process. By this time we had been there for three hours and hadn’t eaten yet. We all decided to take a break and start again in one hour.

At 3:00, we showed up again at his office and the process eventually began. He said it would take about forty minutes but being Mexico it took just over an hour.

Because I’m able to speak a bit of Spanish even though I don’t hear it too well I decided to enter the conversation. I thought up a sentence asking the dentist if he remembered the three words we had taught him. He looked at me with a puzzled look on his face so I turned to Rosalie who did the same. I had screwed up horribly. Rosalie asked the question and he got two out of three while I got zero. I redemed myself the next day when I had to phone and cancel another appointment for the whitening, and managed the whole thing in Spanish.

In total, including lunch, the whole thing took about five and a half hours. We didn’t mind though as we liked the guy and he was very entertaining. We will see him again.

There is a wee boy who comes by almost every day, his name is Pipo and yells “hola” as he passes. Rosalie gave him a coconut and also a bag of assorted goodies that we didn’t need. Now he often comes by yelling”amiga, amiga.” and presents Rosalie with a hibiscus flower. He a nice little kid and once when I was opening the gates to let the car out, he helped me so I gave him five pesos.

The next day he saw me in the garden and put his hand through the gate for another donation; I’m not going there as you never know where it will end. Next. he’ll be coming by with a weapon and making demands. Later, he’ll be by with a bunch of friends and before you know it he’ll be running his own cartel at the age of six.

The area we live in is very rustic and the streets are dusty. I’ve got into the habit of spraying down the car every second day when I water the garden. It seems to help as I don’t have to wash it so much. We clean the dust off the dashboard and within a few days we have to do it again.

We’re about a ten-minute walk to the beach but mostly prefer to go into town to Papa Gallo’s, about a fifteen-minute walk, for our afternoon drinks. We have been threatening to walk the new Malecón for the past three years but somehow never seem to get around to it.

It’s madness week here as St. Patrick’s day is coming up. Each morning we are woken early by cohetes exploding with a loud bang. They are rockets sent up by the local church to call everyone to mass. Some people, including the locals, are trying to get it either stopped or at least toned down as it not only frightens some people but it’s disturbing to all the dogs and especially autistic people. Someone localy is trying to get up a partition to get it stopped. I don’t think it will work though as this tradition has been going on for hundreds of years.

Also during the ten days leading up to St Patrick’s day, there are fireworks in the main square culminating in a huge display on the actual day. But more of that in a later blog. We haven’t attended for several years but are going to go this year.

I went fishing with Art and caught the biggest, for me, fish this year.

Update

We finally walked the Malecón. I wonder why they spent so much money on such an impractical thing when the streets need paving as well as all the other infrastructure upgrades that need doing. They must have used hundreds of tonnes of concrete. It’s beautiful, but maybe there are more important things.

I usually get up before Rosalie in the morning and go up onto the roof patio with a pot of tea. Once a month I get to see the full moon set just as the sun comes up. Beautiful! If I see a cloud I run around like Chicken Little yelling ” It’s gonna rain! It’s gonna rain!” But it never does.

Once Rosalie rises, we sit in our loungers catching up on the news and listening to the birds sing. There is a huge variety here, the names of which I mostly haven’t a clue. The common sparrows like to run around the patio picking up crumbs that we messy humans dropped the night before. I don’t mind as it saves us from having to sweep.

There is a red-headed woodpecker I often see in the mornings. I think it’s a bit thick though as it likes to peck at the re-bar on the top of the wall. Perhaps it’s sharpening its beak. Constantly throughout the day, we can hear the coo of doves and that always makes Rosalie happy.

Also throughout the day, (and night) we hear the stupid roosters crowing and see the chickens walking the streets. I almost ran over a herd of chicks the other day. I have to mention the stupid chickens as they are birds after all. Although I think they’re just here to annoy us.

Resta Rita on the lagoon is one of our favourite places to eat and we go there often. While waiting for the meal you can hear a grunting sound and wonder where the pigs are. However, it’s just the birds in the trees. I wondered what they were, so googled them and found out they are the Greater Crested Cormorant. If you listen carefully you can hear them grunt.

They often poop into the lagoon and I have seen people get really excited because they see the splash and think it’s a cocodrilo.

There are a lot of birds on the lagoon. besides the Cormorants, we often see Egets, Doves and Grackles. I’m surprised that we don’t see one or two disappear as food for the crocs.

I find it strange that there are no seagulls here. We are right on the ocean but see no Gulls. We do see a lot of pelicans though.

We also often see hummingbirds as they like to get the nectar from our hibiscus plants.

One thing I don’t like: sometimes I leave the car outside the gate so the birds use it for bombing practice.

Of course, my favourite bird is Rosalie.

After the events of the day Rosalie and I relaxed with a few drinks. We were talking and getting a bit intimate when I asked her if she wanted to play. I could tell by the beads of perspiration on her forehead that she was into it. I didn’t want to be too forceful as I thought it might break the spell. I winked at her and eventually, she broke down and went and got the crib board.

I haven’t seen the huge spider that I did battle with in the laundry room a few months ago. It’s either dead or hiding and waiting for a good time to pounce. I think it may be the one I did battle with last year. It had the same malevolent look and a bit of a limp.

It’s starting to thin out a bit here now. We have taken several people to the airport and are noticing the streets are not quite as busy. I know most people will be gone by the end of this month.

We had our Mexican friends for dinner last night. Claudia, her husband David, David Jr and little Valentino. It was an interesting evening and we learned a lot more about the Mexican way of life. For instance, they all have a different name, a nickname as we would call it. So they were: Betty, Puli, El Chino, and Bali or Tino. Very confusing.

We ate at seven, which was late for us but early for them as they usually eat at about 8 or 9 pm. But we suffered through it and we all had a good time. I thanked Claudia for helping Rosalie with her Spanish and we both agreed that Rosalie is way better than she thinks she is.

David/Puli speaks no English and Claudia says that he is frustrated that he can’t converse with me. I feel the same and am going to make more of an effort to upgrade my Spanish before next year. We did converse a little bit though and between Claudia and Rosalie, we had a good conversation.

David/Puli and Valantino

The following day we met two of Rosalie’s sisters at ‘Cowpuchino’ where we filled our cups with powdered coffee, chocolate, vanilla, sugar, grain alcohol and a dash of cinnamon and then have them milk a cow into the cup. It’s delicious and a Mexican tradition that goes back a long way.

There were four ladies and me. Some of the ladies couldn’t finish theirs so they gave it to Rosalie and me. By the time we left I was feeling the effects, and this was at eight o’clock in the morning. We took the car as we needed to get back for some guys who were going to take the coconuts down from our tree. They didn’t show up so I guess we’ll have to try another way.

Rosalie, (two fisting) Susanne and Dedee

For us, it’s winding down time. Tourists and the family are starting to leave and we are starting to look forward to being back in Canada. We have another month to go so we will make the most of the rest of our stay. You know, like Papa Gallo’s this afternoon. Boy, I’m gonna miss that place. But I still have the ‘Wood’ at home on Thursdays.