Same O, Same O

Dear Friends and Family,

 

I have picked up a bit of a cold, so I am going to keep this rather short and sweet. Our Friday was pretty much the same, with nearly no responsibilities. What we call an "ideal day."

Did have a bit of fun on my walk. First, I needed to maneuver around a lady and her 5 dachshund puppies.

Very cute, but rather a menace for those others of us using the Malécon

The, as I approached the famous Puerto Vallarta arches, it was another large kiddie gathering. I am not sure what was going on, but children were dressed up and dancing for the large crowd at the amphitheater. Some kids were in costume, but ALL of their bikes were dressed for the event.

Very tricked out!

There is nearly always something going on in PV, either in the main square, at the church, or on the Malécon, both day and night. While there, I came across some ladies in more or less traditional dress. I got this lady to pose for me.

The remainder of the day was typical. We saw Arturo at Langosta's. We had not been aware of it, but he was developing cataracts. His American family became aware of it and sent him the money to have surgery. He was out for a number of days, but had returned, still in some pain, but with the problem solved.

We stopped for a margarita at La Fuente. We had a hilarious moment that we were able to share with the staff there. Some American high school kids, apparently on break, asked a waiter for what he heard as "El Baño (the bathroom)," so he sent them in that direction. They went, but immediately returned and explained that they needed "El Baño," you know, where you can change money. They meant "El Banco." It became the running joke for the next 20 minutes.

We lunched in and rested, as the cold was beginning to move in on me big time. Polley and I did make it down to Roberto's for sunset. There was a fellow there having "red wine and toast!" I wandered over and told him, "that was my idea of breakfast!"

The sunset started out quick dramatic, then sort of diminished, but came back very nicely at the end.

We stopped on our way up the hill for "una cervaza" at El Patio, but I was pretty done in so it was some tequila for medicinal purposes and on to bed. Tomorrow night we are bringing our Georgia friends to El Patio after watching the sun go down at Cheeky Monkey. The early part of the day will be devoted to ridding myself of this cold. Missing you all and beginning to think of home.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Wearing Down

Dear Family and Friends, Our previous day of shopping, mostly unsuccessfully, has apparently worn us out. So, that meant that yesterday we gnerally stayed very close to home and did very little. I did get a good walk in and came across a couple of interesting sights as I proceeded along the Malécon. I do live my iphone! I walk along and listen to music or my Spanish lessons, and then, suddenly, see a sight, turn of the sound and it is my camera! Very nifty A day or so ago, I shared with ou the "Sand Men," the young entrepreneurs who glue sand to their clothes, skin, and props and sit frozen, encouraging people to take photos of them, for a donation, of course. In fact, they have now added a third, empty chair, inviting a visitor to sit at the table with them for the photo-op. Yesterday, on the south end of the Malécon, I came across their outfits and props, sitting all alone. There was something rather comical in the simple isolation of their clothes and props, minus the owners. It felt a little like the Wicked Witch as she melted away Further down at the north end of the Malécon, I came across a secnd unique sight. It was apparently some sort of outing for little Mexican kids who were interested in a career in the medical field. They were so cute, dressed in their little nurses outfit and lab coats, with stethoscopes and little doctor's bags. Later when I was coming back, there were ambulances and other medical services, giving guided tours of the equipment and letting the kids run the sirens and flash the lights. Big Day! More or less (mas o menos) that was the day. We were able to pull our sorry selves out of the apartment and down the hill for a margarita, but that was it. We were soon back up the hill for lunch and a siesta. Our one big outing for the day, was taking our waiter friend, José and his wife, Esparanza, to dinner. (pictured here from a party at their home last year (because Ed, last night forgot to take any photos! We had done this last year and had so enjoyed the evening, that we wanted another time with them. Also, José is just a very special friend. Esparanza had very little English, so José was busy all evening as our translator, but it was fun. I think we had a bit more Spanish this year than before and Esparanza seems to have a little better grasp of English. We took them to Miel and they enjoyed the food very much. As a waiter, José, not surprisingly, keeps a careful eye on the service. He is so good at what he does, and takes a real pride in his job, that many places would not do themselves a disservice in following his lead. He was not very impressed with our spiked-hair, tattooed Roberto. Roberto tends to be a little caught up in himself (perhaps tattoos and spiked hair might lead one to that conclusion) and doesn't listen carefully. So, naturally, he got our order wrong. Polley and I ordered the Ginger Shrimp Stir-Fry. He brought us Shrimp Fajitas! They, or course, started to correct the mistake, but Polley and I, not minding their fajitas, just took what they gave us. In fact, we came to realize that there was little difference between the two dishes: just a few warmed tortillas! Anyway, it was a nice evening and we really value our opportunities to get to know the Mexican people. Lst year, Jose and Esparanza had us into their home for a family gathering and we felt very honored to be included. It was, again, fun to return the favor. We also became aware that given how hard they work and how little, by our standards, they have, that an evening out to dinner is something very special and very rare. We were pleased to share the night with them. Sadly, at the end of the evening, they were off to console a friend whose sister-in-law hd died the day before. We bid them goodnight and caught a cab for El Patio for "dos cervazas," and then up the hill. tomorrow, we have all to ourselves. Stay tuned to see what trouble we might be able to get into!

A Rather Strange Day

Not a lot to report today. It was a kind of strange day. It was very cool in the morning which is rather surprising as it gets later in the year. It is supposed to be getting warmer. But regardless, it was overcast, breezy and not very appealing as a day at "la playa."

I got a good walk in and continued my mission of working through sampling the exotic deli delights at the mercado. Yesterday I tried their "Chili Colorado." It was certainly an improvement over the chicken stew of the day before. It was quite spicy with large chunks of onion. However, it was not anything I need a larger portion of. Enough.

Polley and I ran a few more errands. Polley has had a strange and annoying sort of fungal rash that has come and nearly gone for the last year. No one, in this country or our own, has successfully diagnosed it or provided a satisfactory cure. So it was off to "Freddy's Famacia." Freddy is the sort of guru of "farmacistas" in PV. Before you go to a doctor, you go see Freddy. He usually can prescribe something and in most cases you save the cost and inconvenience of the doctor. And sure enough, he immediately had a remedy. We will update you with progress reports.

We did a bit of "Sandal Skulking," but to no avail. Polley is determined to find a brass and black combination, but designers continue to mix brass with brown. The search continues. If any of you out there find the brass/black combination with a bit of heel, size 7, please let us know!

We stopped at Langosta's, but only for a short time, as the clouds had not given in to the sun. Then it was time to stroll on to La Fuente for our margarita. We are taking José and his wife to dinner tomorrow night, so we finalized plans for meeting them. Then up the hill slowly, as both of us are finding our legs rather worn down. One would think they would be stronger after two months, but we seem to be wearing out!

The news of the day was that we tried a new restaurant in town. It is one we have walked by a hundred times and even planned to have dinner there one night, only to discover they were not open Mondays. It is in the space of a place we enjoyed very much last year, "Pomodoro and Basilica," but it apparently closed and this new place, "Sapori di Sicilia" is open for business.

It is truly Sicilian and what was amazing is the number of people in the restaurant last night that were speaking Italian. I didn't realize that PV brought in that many from the "Old Country." But it was doing a good business and the food was excellent. They have an extensive wine list (not surprising), and a very intriguing menu. They have salads, entry, and pizzas. We chose the house specialty, the seafood soup.

It was delicious and as you can see, crammed with fish, clams, shrimp and calamari. As we tend to do at new places, we over ordered by adding a "fish, argula carpaccio" to our table.

I apologize for the fact that I had dug right in before thinking of a photo! It also is not very inviting, but let me tell you, it was also very good and we managed to force our way through both dishes. They also had a wonderful olive oil dipping sauce that is infused with minced garlic and dried chili pepper. They let it marinate for 3 days. It was marvelous and we made note of the recipe. They also sell it at the restaurant and we may pick up a bottle before we go home. The best recommendation I can make for the place is that we immediately made a reservation for next Tuesday night as well. It is a great new addition to PV

Following the meal, we caught a cab up the hill (no way the legs were getting us there!), sipped a little tequila and dropped into bed pretty quickly. Not a memorable day, but it was nicely topped off by a new place to enjoy.

 

Posted with Blogsy

A Busy Day

Dear Friends and Family,

As with most people's Mondays, the plan for ours was busier than usual. While I say busy, I mean we had a kind of schedule, which is all honesty is something we try to avoid.

I got a good walk in, but even that was goal oriented. We were trying to locate a place that sold plants and my morning walk was a sort of scouting expedition to locate the place. Our waiter friend, José, had given me some rough directions for the place so I went up into the Mexican part of town. Alas, no luck. But more about that later.

When I returned, we began to get ready for our outing. Polley continues to look for a specific pair of sandals, brass-colored and black. We had discovered that a store we had visited the day before had a second location. So we headed to The Unicorn. On our way, we were waylaid by a Time Share Guy, "Oh Horrors."

This fellow was hilarious. He asked me how long I lived here and I said 6 months. This he begins to chew me out for not speaking Spanish. At roughly 90 miles an hour, he follows us down the street doing a sort of Don Rickles string of insults. Very funny. In fact, so funny, that I had to go back and take his picture, which he predicted I was going to send to the FBI. No doubt, he is successful at what he does.

Around the corner was the shoe store. Closed! Despite saying that they opened at 11 they were closed at 11:15. Ah, Polley "ensemble" will have to wait another day.

Then it was the on to the plant store. As we began our day, we stopped back to see José, who confessed that he had misled us a bit on the store's location. With a new set of directions, we walked up into the Mexican part of town and did find "Jardin de Eden," a narrow slit of a store that is actually the front alleyway into the owner;s home. We were looking for a plant as the day before we had learned that the La Fuente manager, Aurora, who we had not seen for several days, had fallen down the stairs in her home and broken her leg. José was going to see her today and we wanted give her a plant as a kind of "get well" gift and let her know we were thinking of her. Polley picked out a very colorful plant and for 35 pesos (!) it was ours.

Having walked a good deal in search of various items, Polley and I caught a cab back to La Fuente to celebrate our success with lunch. The day before we had scene a couple order a Caesar Salad at La Fuente and it looked fabulous. So we followed suit and it was very good. As I may have said before, the Caesar Salad is actually a Mexican invention, although the man that invented it, Caesar Cardini, was an Italian immigrant, he was working in Tijuana when he invented it (Thanks Wikipedia!) Anyway, the La Fuente Caesar was romaine, but with onion and finely diced red and yellow bell pepper and a very savory dressing. Excellent.

Then, as you no doubt guessed, it was siesta time. We didn't nap for long, but the good part of that was that we got a very nice block of time to read. My endless book is demanding an hour or two of solid reading. We got that yesterday.

Polley and I retreated to Roberto's for some wine and the sunset show. Last night, although the weather was cool, the skies were clear and we got "AFGPS."

I also managed to capture another "Mexican Entrepreneur." This fellow, in a remarkable feat of engineering, manages to appear as a "descending angel," seemingly floating in the air.

It was sort of funny. After I took his photo, he sneezed! Suddenly I found myself blessing an angel. You don't get that opportunity every day.

With the sun gone, the "bird nightclub" closed down, and the wine gone, Polley and I made our way halfway up the hill and stopped in at "El Patio." We always enjoy the staff there and try to make an excuse to see them 2 or 3 times a week, if only for a brief stop. Then the rest of the way up the hill as our cats were anxiously waiting for us. They with their chicken and us with our tequila spent a happy hour before falling into bed. Tuesday, March 12th will mark three weeks until we are to come home. That, of course, means that you will be receiving these written interruptions to your day just 21 more times!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Short and Sweet

It is a busy day today. Well, not actually, but with the US moving to daylight savings time, you are now just an hour behind. So, I need to pump out this blog quickly and get it to you as I know it is difficult for you to get on with your day without the latest installment from us. Really, the ways have been going, it is a series of re-runs, with little new happening.

I got in a fast, uneventful walk in the morning. Polley had 11 cats at her beck and call. We checked in with our house-sitter about the home front. All seems to be well, but he has been very busy at his job so I am sure the cats were feeling a bit deprived.

We hit the beach for an hour and connected up with our waiter friend, Ricardo, who regaled us with stories of his young days hunting and actually skinning and cooking rabbits with his friends. Certainly not a part of my childhood days.

I did manage to come across another couple of young entrepreneurs looking to make a few pesos. These guys sit at a chess table and their bodies, clothes and all the props are completely covered in sand! They appear as kind of sand or stone men. They sit frozen, but occasionally move slowly to another pose. They are very haunting, but they do manage to draw a crowd of photographers who drop a few pesos in the pot for the privilege of a photo.

We then went on to see José for our daily margarita. They were so busy I ended up seating a couple of people and making some food recommendations. We have become too regular there. But we really believe in the kitchen there and I have no qualms about suggesting dishes. We saw a delectable looking Caesar Salad the other day that we have yet to try, but is next on our list.

Afternoon lunch was in the apartment. We have ended up with too much food again! Had a good siesta and good period of giving some attention to our books. Mine, called The Historian, is huge and I seem to have been reading it forever and I am only at 43%!

Since it was Sunday, we went down to Roberto's to watch the very crowded Malécon. It was a lovely, clear night and a nearly perfect sunset, nothing too dramatic, but a perfectly round ball of fire descending into a smooth, glassy sea. Beautiful, but as we say, just "AFGPVS."

Then it was on to our regular table at Vitea. The wind had been coming up after the sun went down, but in our cozy little corner of the restaurant it was perfectly comfortable. Polley had the delicious Shrimp Bisque and I settle for a Greek Salad and a couple of glasses of wine. Just very pleasant. We did talk to a couple from Vancouver B.C. who had just arrived in town. We gave them a couple of restaurant suggestions and just talked generally about how much we enjoyed PV.

We bid them adieu and caught a cab up the hill and sat and replayed the day over several glasses of tequila. It was a really uneventful day, but pleasant. As the days are dwindling down, we don't ask for much more.

 

Posted with Blogsy

The Return of Beautiful Days

My title might be said to imply that things here have been pretty awful. If you have been following my notes, you know that is not true. However, Friday was gray and kind of strange for PV. Yesterday was a wonderfully typical PV day. In fact, I thought I might best reveal how lovely it was with this photo of Lucy and Kira.

Now if those aren't two "comfortable cats," I have never seen ones. I continually try to use our cat friends as role models for my siestas!

The day was really very easy. I got a good walk in, which included my daily adventure at the Mexican grocery store. Having stuffed myself on frijoles yesterday, as I wandered through the always intriguing deli section, I was drawn to the beans again. So, after purchasing a small container of the Mexican "nectar of legume," on my walk back home, I stopped at a point that looks out at the bay and had my Mexican breakfast. Delicious!

Upon return, Polley and I did our regular rounds. We spent an hour at the beach. As I said a couple of days ago, things have gotten very quiet. We sat at Langosta's for an hour and were the only customers they had. However, when we stopped for a margarita at La Fuente, they were quite busy. They tend to get tour customers and while the cruise ship industry has shrunk, the bus tour crowd still seems to be coming to PV. The tour busses pick up their load of people right in front of the restaurant, so it is a good place for people to grab lunch or, at the very least, a quick, cold drink.

We lunched in with some delicious roasted chicken that I had picked up at the store. WE try to get one meal our of the bird before the cats devour the rest. With the cats as role models, Polley and I had a good long and very sound siesta. About 6:30, we headed down to Robertos's as the sun and clear skies made us optimistic about the potential for the sunset.

Within a few minutes of arriving at the cafe, we became aware of the opening of the bird nightclub. About 30 minutes before sunset, this tree, just north of the cafe, becomes filled with birds.

They sing at the top of their lungs for about 45 minutes and then, just as suddenly as they began, they stop. The nightclub is closed and all is still. Very amazing.

Sunsets are always fascinating. When you are someplace to watch them on a regular basis, you begin to understand the fascination of someone like Monet with capturing the same scene again and again, as the weather conditions and resulting light gave endless variety. Last night was clear and it appeared that it was going to be a classic, Hollywood sunset. However, a band of clouds right at the horizon provided an opaque veil that masked the last dramatic few minutes. But, as so often happens, the reflection of the disappearing light from over the horizon provided a very theatrical surprise.

It was most surprising because the color in the sky was off to the north rather than at the point of the sun's departure or to south as usually occurs. Anyway. it was dramatic and totally unexpected.

I have talked before about how poor many of the Mexican people are. That desperation, however, often reveals the human entrepreneurial spirit. Last night a father and his two cute little boys entertained the Malécon crowds with the clarinet accompanied by snare and bass drums.

The little snare drummer was quite amazing and the kid on the bass drum hit it for all he was worth. Very cute, but thank god, that you can enjoy this as a silent photo. The sound was god awful. The primary problem is that the father is not a very good clarinet player and his children's percussive enthusiasm is not able to compensate. I think proprietors might very well tip them to move on to the next stop. However, as bad as they sound, they are very cute.

We managed to waste a good 90 minutes watching life pass by. We stopped up at El Patio for a brief respite on our climb to home. A little shrimp, a bit of wine and a tequila nightcap seemed the perfect ending to a very nice day.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Untitled

Dear Family and Friends,

We are still going strong, with just 3 1/2 weeks more to go. It is funny, but once March 1st hits, you really notice a slow down in the town. In fact, Thursday night at Roberto's, our waiter, José Luis, ask us when we were going home. He was relieved that we were around for nearly another month as he said business had really slowed. It is clear as you walk about the town and sit at the beach that February is high season and it is all downhill from March 1st on. However, we are going to be here for "Holy Week" (Samana Santa) this year and that is apparently a crazy time. We will try to capture a feel of that for you at the end of the month.

Yesterday has a little bit of different rhythm to it. I got a good walk in and was able to capture to 8 am Zumba class going on in the Old Town plaza. Seems to be real fun and I have been curious about particiapting, but the idea of "having" to be somewhere is not very appealing. So I snapped the photo and moved on for my walk.

We spent the entire morning in, mostly reading and doing a little straightening up of the apartment. We were trying to meet our landlord and make a deposit on next year's apartment which we did manage to do. So that is in place. Still waiting on a confirmation from our house sitter that he wants another year at our place. He is at least considering it

We did manage to wander down the hill to La Fuente for lunch. We shared a bowl of Tortilla Soup, which they put into two bowls and seemed more like two full bowls rather than a split. I enjoyed an order of frijoles and Polley took an ample portion of waht is called "Curtido." It is apparently a Salvadoran dish of fermented vegetables, a kind of Salvadoran sauerkraut. This particular one has carrots, onions and cauliflower. Polley loves it! Lunch was accompanied by, of course, the requisite margaritas. It was a nice change from eating in. I have, however, bought a pound of fresh shrimp at the market in the morning and boiled those up for our dinner tonight.

We went back to the apartment following lunch for a brief siesta as we were going to head up river to El Rio Barbecue to hear our friend Bobby. We had not been planning to go, but when we saw Bobby he told us he had passed up a high paying gig out of town because he felt he owed the people at El Rio. His heartfelt obligation was both to the owner who had organized a benefit for him, and to his audience, who had been so supportive through his wife's ordeal. When he told us that, I turned to Polley and said, "I guess we go up river on Friday!"

We caught a cab about 3:30 for the 4 pm concert. It was another strange day weather-wise. Warm, rather muggy, but cloudy. It actually made sitting out for the music quite pleasant as it can be very hot there and there is limited cover.

The music, as always, was great, But the wonderful thing was to see Bobby (on the right) back in his element. Music, for him, is the great healer. And from his performance, he is making a speedy recovery.

We caught an old Mexican bus back and took it all the way to the beach. We sat and watched the sunset at Langosta's. Actually, we watched the clouds that hid the sunset, but it was a nice evening. We enjoyed sitting with one of the waiters, Arturo, and talking about his years in American, living and working just outside of Aspecn, Colorado. He loved it, but returned to Mexico about 4 years ago and seems happy here as well.

Little was left once the sun went down. We caught a cab up to our place and enjoyed a few of the shrimp as we were still full from our lunch. It was a nice day and it was fun to go up river and have no social obligations at El Rio. Most all of the people we know have headed home, so we just sat on our own, saying very little and just soaking in Bobby and Roberto's performance.

One last thing, we did talk with a fellow who is a kind of manager at El Rio. He does it a couple of months a year, but actually live, if you can believe this, in North Portland, near UP. Small world. He is an African-American fellow, who calls himself "Holly" and runs a catering business in Portland. Very nice fellow that we may try to connect with at home some time.

I did think I would leave you with another cat picture. This one is Lucy, the second squatter in our apartment. Enjoy

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy