Two Days of Good Friends, Good Music and More Sun

Friends, Family and the Easily amused,

As I write this, we are down to one week in Puerto Vallarta. There is little happening here as we try to enjoy our last few days in this lovely beach town before heading to the big city of Guadalajara. Friday morning was just routine. Actually, it was a kind of extended routine as we wanted to head to Ritmos Beach a little later as our friend, Bobby Tansen, was playing on the beach in a Reggae Band. So we had a bit of late breakfast in our room and then got down to the beach about 12:45 p.m. The Danas, Dan and Susan, with whom we had dinner the night before were planning to join us. Susan arrived about 2 p.m., securing a table for the show that was about to get underway. We sat and listened to the band and its lead singer, a fellow from Jamaica. I enjoy Reggae, but there is a sameness to things. I found I most enjoyed Reggae arrangements of other tunes. They started with a Bob Dylan tune that translated very nicely. I have become fascinated with the notion of style and may use some of these examples in Fine Arts this fall.

Dan, who is on a working vacation, arrived around 4 p.m. and we just sat and drank, talked and occasionally even listened to the music for the remainder of the set, ending about 5:30 p.m. or so. Polley and I bid the Dan and Suan adieu (don't know where time will allow another contact or we will have to wait until next January. Anyway, we will stay in touch. Susan and Dan gave us a copy of Dan's book on Managing Differences which we look forward to reading (which Polley is already well into). We strolled back and had another drink at Época, as our favorite little bartender, Hannah, was there and then home, about 7 p.m. We decided to eat in, read a little and then get a nightcap (sombrero de noche?) at Candela. A really relaxing and satisfying day.

Saturday was another easy day. We had breakfast out as we were taking our landlord and his wife to dinner that night. We had a very good Mexican breakfast at La Fuente del Puente down the hill from us. Polley had a kind of Migas dish, oil-soaked tortilla chips under scrambled eggs with some wonderful potatoes cooked with delicious red and yellow bell pepper. I had scrambled eggs with chorizo and frijoles. Great! Then we headed off to get our bus tickets for a journey we will take on February 10th from Guadalajara to San Miguel de Allende, a place we visited last year. Our friends, Carolyn Gratton and her husband built a house there and we will spend three days with them. We had a glass of wine downtown and then went back up to the apartment for a long afternoon of reading and napping.

About 7:15, we walked with Fred and January Grieg down to Vitea, a place that is clearly our favorite restaurant in PV. Had another good dinner. Polley had their creamy gazpacho and I had some shrimp tempura for a starter. Polley and I returned to the fantastic Eggplant Ravioli while Fred had a Lasagne and January had shrimp and spinach dish. All excellent. We had to stop at Candela on our way home (not want to miss a night and disappoint the owner!) It was kind of sweet as one of the waitresses (from Santiago, Chile) thought it was our last night. She was so thrilled that we had another week before leaving. Again, I am struck with the charm and warmth of the Mexican people. Another easy, put very pleasing day.