Well, how do I explain the lack of contact? Too many social obligations is all I can offer. This last week has been crazy! Of course, we started the week with our dinner with José and his wife. Then is was Polley’s birthday, which we all know can go on for days. Actually, there is some truth to that. I had arranged for three musicians to play at La Fuente for her birthday. These “three amigos” come through the restaurant every day, offering to play. I had been putting them off ever since we arrived, but promising to hire them on the old girl’s day. So, come Valentine’s Day, we go down at the regular time - - and they don’t show up. We assumed that their regular rotation was slowed down because it was Valentine’s Day and more than the usual number of people were requesting “Musica!” However, Wednesday passed and then Thursday and still no appearance. Yesterday, they show up.
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So I am on the hook for 3 songs, Romantica, Fast, and Romantica. It was lovely. They play well, have beautifully matched voices and perfect harmonies. So, as you can see, the birthday continued.
The night before we had met our dancing couple friends, Ray and Mary Anne Sander. They had suggested getting together at a place called Le Bistro, which is a restaurant/Jazz Club conveniently located just down the hill from us. Polley and I used to stop in regularly in the early years in PV, but had, somehow, moved on to other places. The once had jazz/dance music every night, but had cut back to just three nights a week. So, at about 7 we met Ray and Mary Anne, along with Gene and Gay from Atlanta and another couple, from Minnesota, who we met for the first time. That is part of the problem down here. You just keep meeting new folks
At 8, the music began. It was a jazz combo, consisting of electric piano, drums, bass guitar and saxophone. It was fine. The musicians were good, but so much of what they played, wonderful old standards, plodded along at the same tempo that it felt as though you were in a 1950s dream state. Not only did the tempos lacked variation, the volume was at only one level, loud. We were sitting maybe 6 feet away and it was deafening! However, I did get this nice picture of Mary Anne and Polley during a music ear-break
Polley and I escaped the cacophony around 9 and decided to stop in for “quiet” drink at El Patio es mi Casa. However, we arrived to a musical group, nearly as loud and not nearly as talented! The place was packed with apparently tone-deaf young Mexicans who were grooving on the sound. We were about to leave, as there was really no place to sit (despite the darling waitresses willingness to set up a place just for us), when we came across our new friend, Phil, from Chicago. We had met he and his wife, LaJule, at El Patio a few days earlier. Phil was there with his daughter and a good friend of hers, both from Chicago. So, we had a place to sit! We had a great time talking with the girls. Bright, charming, funny, it was great. Phil and LaJule are lovely people, so it was hardly surprising that their daughter and her friend were much the same. We spent about an hour shouting at each other and then bid them adieu, with the plan to have dinner with Phil and LaJule after the girls fly home on Sunday (today – and, in fact, we are dining with them tonight). As we walked up the hill to home, we commented that you the only thing you can expect in PV is the unexpected.
That was exactly what Friday night handed us. Our landlord, Fred, had invited us to join him and his girlfriend (nearly wife), Elli for an evening of Mariachi. At 200 pesos per person, we assumed this was going to be a kind of Mexican Fiesta with a buffet dinner and lots of tequila. Wrong! It was an actual sit down and listen, Mariachi concert. Held in the auditorium at the Puerto Vallarta campus of the University of Guadalajara, the evening featured 3 professional Mariachi bands. It was incredible! Each band was very individual in terms of costume and the size varied a bit. It seems, however, that a mariachi band must consist of two guitar, one standard size and one small, a bass, at least two trumpets and about 5 violins.
Each group played for about 25 minutes. The versatility of the performers was impressive. While some of the selections were slow and romantic, much of the evening was very lively and dramatic. Almost every musician sang as well as played. The high point of the evening was at the end when two of the three bands played together.
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A fabulous, and as I say, unexpected evening. You just go with the flow!
Saturday evening we were out again. It was Mardi Gras evening in PV. It ends up being more like a Gay Pride Parade, but nevertheless it was fun. We met with Ray and Mary Anne at Nacho Daddy’s.
Listened to a bit of Reggae music – talk about redundant! If I ever find myself in the Caribbean, it will be for no more than TWO DAYS – the music would drive me mad.! We mostly just sat and talked and waited for the parade, which was to begin at 9. Unfortunately we were apparently at the end of the parade, because by 10 we had seen no sign of it. My back was bothering me a bit as I had walked quite a bit on Saturday, so Polley and I decided to pass up this year’s festivities. A wonderfully cabbie used his experience and ingenuity to quickly and efficiently get us around the parade and to our place. We had bought some paté and artichoke-jalapeña dip and were anxious for our own, quiet festivity. So, all-in-all, a very noisy and busy week, with more on the way!
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