4th Nov 19

We decided to get off our rear ends and go out yesterday.

Rosalie has had some problems with her phone not charging correctly so we wanted to go to the repair shop. It being Sunday it was closed.

We wandered around town for a while and picked up a new SD card for my camera as the old one was acting up. It failed to record a horse parade that came by the house which was very annoying as they had a great band with them. It seems to be a day for things to break.

One of our favourite restaurants on the beach was open with two for one margaritas so Rosalie dragged me, protesting, in to get some. It was nice on the beach with a gentle breeze to cool us. The temperature was about 30c.

I’m not a great fan of margaritas so settled for a ‘ron y coca’ instead. unfortunately not two for one. I had more than one anyway, three if I recall. Rosalie got hers as well as a refill to make it a two for one.

While we were in there we got talking to the waiter who recognized us from previous years and had helped us with our Spanish before. He told us how appreciative Mexicans were about us trying to learn their language. Unfortunately a few Quebecers insist on only speaking French. Which is confusing for the Mexican who took the time to learn English and is now expected to learn French as well. As we all know, most Quebecers speak English anyway.

Fortunately these are only isolated incidents.

The conversation was half Spanish and half English. Rosalie is way ahead of me in the language but we have been coming here for fifteen years so I have picked up quite a lot. I mostly listen to try to get my ears trained.

I explained to the young man that at first I was a little afraid to speak Spanish as I didn’t think people would understand me. Once I got over this problem I realized that I was understood but was afraid that I might not understand the answer. He thought this was funny.

While this conversation was going on, Rosalie realized that she had run out of Margaritas so ordered another one. (Two.) Off raced our waiter so that Rosalie could get truly shnokered.

The conversation continued about the cartels. He reinforced what I have always said, that they shoot each other but not civilians, although some innocents do get caught in the cross fire. Many Mexicans are killed each year but you don’t hear of them going into churches, movie houses or schools and indiscriminately killing people.

We love talking to Mexicans as they are so friendly and helpful. If you ask the right questions you learn a lot about them and the local culture.

It was a great day. As we staggered back home Rosalie knocked over a mannequin standing on the sidewalk. This got a round of laughter from the ladies guarding the shop especially after Rosalie explained that she had had four drinks. I, of course, exaggerate a bit. She did knock it over but the sidewalks are somewhat crowded with such things. Anyway she wasn’t staggering that much.

We got home safely and both had a nice afternoon nap before heading out to the ‘Red Lobster’ for ribs.

All round a great unplanned day. So goes our life here, mostly unplanned.