Settling In

One and all,

Why do I feel I am giving the blogs the same titles as last year? Anyway, that is what we are doing. Polley took control of the apartment and did some serious rearranging. We do dine with a lovely view of the hills, the vegetation and , from Polley chair, a bit of the bay.

Yesterday was a day to reconnect with some of our favorite people. We saw Jose, and the rest of the staff, Aurora, Francisco, Alejandro, and Rudolfo at Fuente del Puente. They have gone to the 2 x 1 Margaritas at noon, so we may be in for a bit to trouble with that temptation so near by.

Later, in the early evening, we went to Época to see one of our favorite barmaids, Hannah Blossom (can you believe that name?). It was relatively quiet which was great. It gave us time to talk with her. She is so delightful and everyone is pleased to see her. She is from British Columbia, but lives and works here most of the year. Also saw Kurt, the owner, who I believe we have mentioned is from Portland and helps run the Blues Festival and the Portland Bite. Both seemed pleased that we were back.

We then, hesitatingly, wandered over the Candela. We are sad as it is no longer Candela. It is now "El Patio en mi Casa." Francisco apparently tired of running back and forth between his place in Guadalajara and PV. Also, the PV location just never took off the way the one in Guadalajara has. So he sold it to a friend. We met her last night. Her name is Heidi and she is a lovely Mexican woman who is an architect, but loved to cook. Francisco apparently had a chance to sell to others, but did not like them and thought they would change the place too much. So he made a deal with Heidi and she is in. She has not changed it a great deal, but has polished it up a bit. There are nice table cloths and some additional lighting. She apparently shows movies on certain nights. We are going to try it for dinner tonight and see what changes and additions she has made.

Following a glass of wine, we wandered up the hill to home. I did tell Polley that as I stared through the open doors of the simple Mexican homes, I was struck with the very basic furnishings in these brightly painted concrete hovels and I could not help think to myself, "Wow, do they get incredible TV reception! It's true.

Well, it was a day not really filed with incident, but with touching base with some the people we most enjoy in PV. Tuesday will be a time to get serious, as we head to Walmart! Once you have stocked up with Sam's goodies, you know you here for the duration. More later, Ed