Relaxing

One and all,

Are we relaxed, or what!

Kira is our role model

Life is good. Cats should be an inspiration to us all! You also get a sense in this photo of our landlord's subtle and understated decorating scheme! Just when you think you have seen it all, he hauls out another undiscovered, but horrifying embellishment. I will release them to the general public in safe dosages!

Otherwise, there is little to report. We have both been feeling the effects of the change in climate. Afternoons can be just punishing. The simple walk up the hill at 1 or 2 in the afternoon does one in for hours. Of course, the 2 x 1 margarita stimulant might make a slight contribution to our state once we reach the top of the hill. Temperatures are consistently in the 90s by mid-afternoon and early mornings have only cooled to the upper 70s. We do, however, sense that things are changing as the humidity does not seem quite as high.

We have drifted down the hill for a drink and a sunset, but mostly we have eaten in. Our favorite restaurants have yet to open. Friday a couple of places get going and by next week a few more will open. I got some fresh shrimp last night and we just sat down with a pound of steamed shrimp and a bottle of cocktail sauce and stuffed ourselves. I was surprised that the price of shrimp has gone up considerably. Last year it was about 120 pesos a kilo (right now, about $9); this year, the best I could find was 180 (about $13 a kilo). Of course, we buy them a pound at a time, so the price is half that, but while most things have not increased much in price, shrimp are not one of them. However, a pound usually lasts us a couple of meals, as they are quite substantial, even those marked as "Medium."

Otherwise, quiet days with a good deal of progress on our books. I did finish "The Son" by Philip Meyer. Enjoyed it a great deal. Polley wrapped up the "War Brides," which she enjoyed. We now need to turn our attention to getting bit more sun. We have stayed pretty much undercover thus far. So, beware, our new looks, coming soon. More soon.

 

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Same O, Same O

One and all,

I simply must report that life continues on in its dull, mudane, trivial and absolute perfect way! Routine, routine, routine. In fact, things are so basic that we even had both meals in. We did get a bit of good news, however. Roberto's, a favorite beer, wine, coffee and ice cream spot, which has been close tight since we arrived, it going to open on Thursday. Hurrah! I know it may not seem like much, but Roberto's fills an important place in our day-to-day living. I often mention this long pedestrian way called the Malécon. It is wonderful, and each night food carts are set up along a part of it and vendors and street performers fill out the atmosphere. However, at least at our end of the walkway, there are only two places that sit right on the Malécon: Vitea (a very nice restaurant) and Roberto's. So, for a relaxing evening, where you can have a perfect view of the action and of the sunset, Roberto's is significant. So pleased that in 48 hours, they will be back!

I mentioned eating in last night. It was actually more of a treat than one might think. We treated ourselves to our first meal of Pollo Feliz. This is a popular Mexican chicken chain that grills some of the best. They butterfly it, place it on a grill and it is delicious. After getting the chicken, I stopped for some papas (potatoes). These are not just any papas. These have been sitting under several racks of rotisseries chickens and are soaked in the pollo drippings. Since it was relatively late in the day, these papas has fully absorbed every bit of juice. They were fantastic! A meal fit for royalty, I assure you.

The weather continues very humid. Mornings are in the high 70s to low 80s when we wake up. We had our second major thunder storm over night. It was even more spectacular than the one last Friday. It started about 3 am, with brilliant flashes of lightning and, eventually, was literally right over us. It lasted about an hour and then, we were simply seranaded for the rest of the night by the percussive "plops" of the drippings off the trees. Our apartment is inside, but we are as close to being outside as possible without getting wet. Lovely. We are well, miss home a bit, but get over it very quickly. Our landlord said yesterday that he senses the weather is changing a bit, but I am sure it will take the remainder of the month to switch to less humidty and some slightly cooler days. More soon

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A Very Low-Key Weekend

One and all,

You may have noticed that I neglected to bother you with the trivialities of our lives yesterday. Decided to rest on the 7th day (actually, I think it was the 6th!). Weekends tend to be pretty quiet (except for Mexican boomboxes!), so we try to play along with the locals.

The main topic might be the heat. If you can't stand the heat, stay out of PV in October. It has been 90-plus everyday, but as the weather apps like to remind you, "it feels like 102!. Humidity has been about 66%. Most people, when dining, are choosing indoors. For me, it has not really been the heat in the middle of the day, which you expect to be warm. It has been how warm it stays at night. We got up Sunday morning about 6 am and it was 81 degrees. The sun doesn't even come up until about 7:45, so the nights have been very warm. However, with a nice overhead fan and a standing fan, and our apartment sitting at the top of a hill and open to the air, it has not been as uncomfortable as you might expect. However, regardless of what the song might advise, you want to avoid the "sunny side of the street"!

We have done the regular routine, moving from "Chez Cerveza" to "Chez Margarita" to our own "Casa de Vino". Very nice! Due to the limited number of our favorite restaurants that have yet to open, we did dine two nights in a row at Vitea. We always feel special there as the staff seems to remember us and pamper us from year to year. Last night, we used a gift from our good friends, The Donovans

for a very nice meal at Vitea. The host even added to our enjoyment with a gift "from his heart," a second glass of wine! The first night, when it was so warm, Polley and I enjoyed a cream gazpacho and last night it was a Greek salad for me, and an argula, pears and goat chesse salad for Polley. Both are always excellent choices.

Aside from eating and drinking, it has been prolonged periods of reading. We decided to work our way through the Harry Potter books and I am currently engaged in an epic saga (800 pages) of three generations of a Texan family, called "The Son" by Philip Meyer. I am having a hard time pulling myself away to write the blog! Polley is enjoying is novel called "The War Brides" by Helen Bryan, set in the Second World War. I saw an article the other day that said they did a study and found that people of read "literary fiction," as opposed to "popular fiction" are more empathetic and socially sensitive. So, if we required a reason to being "wasting our time" with these books, we may have stumbled upon it. More later, I promise.

 

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A Short Day

One and all,

This will be a rather short blog, designed more to confirm our being still alive and well in Mexico more than providing you with our adventures. There were none!

The day began in the usual way. It was particularly humid yesterday morning. When we awoke, around 6 am, it was already 79 degrees! My walk was pretty draining. When I walked past the ladies of the Zumba class, even they seemed to be slowing down a bit. I got a few things at the grocery store, most importantly, some frijoles. Polley likes frijoles, but, unfortunately, they do not like her. So I must indulge myself one in a while. Occasionally, I get them in a small, plastic cup at the mercado and then go out onto the point and enjoy the scenery and the fragrant frijoles. It is a brief 10 minutes of pleasure. Hard to believe one can feel a bit naughty eating a tub of beans! 8 pesos of pure pleasure!

After returning to the apartment, trying to wash the beans and a grin off my face, we settled into the routine. We wandered to Langosta Loca and had a beer and a pleasant few moments with Ricardo, the only person I have ever met, who has said, "I just love Modesto!" He shared with us why his time there was so memorable. He was just a high school kid, who made some very good American friends there and it made a strong impression on him as to what America can be. Some of the real pleasure of being here is getting to know the Mexican people and learning a bit more about their lives and their families. Because business is very slow now, they seem to have a good deal of time to share.

One the way back from the beach, we stopped into a little place called Mikie's. This is a Gringo delicatessan that opened a couple of seasons ago. It is a little gold mine, just filled with all the odd American delicacies that you can't track down in the Mexican grocery store. Exotic offerings like cocktail sauce, dijon mustard, capers, salami, etc. They also do some salads and dips that are quite good. We had decided to have both lunch and dinner in and indulged ourselves with several samplings. I was a good thing we did.

We got back to the apartment about 2 in the afternoon, having a requisite margarita to fortify us for our climb up the hill. That was the last time we would leave the apartment for the day. Following our siesta, about 5 in the afternoon, a thunder storm opened and we were trapped! It was amazing. There were not great flashes of lighting, but there was ample thunder and a positve deluge for the next 5 hours. I would guess that at least 5 gully-washers came through, about 1 an hour. It would rain harder for 10 minutes or so and then as if someone turning the faucet up a notch, it got harder. There is a gardner's shed in the yard next to us. It has a metal roof. As the storm increased, the volume grew to match. It was incredible. PV has been cut out of a jungle and the rain reminded us that we are still just at the edge. I am sorry that the major part of the storm happened after dark, so we could on get an audible sense of the intensity. But it was definitely not an Oregon rain! Hopefully tomorrow we will allowed to venture farther.

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Settling in to a Routine

One and all,

Not a great deal to report today. The problem with settling in is that you develop a routine. The problem with a routine, is there is a certain amount of repetition and, thus, a certail level of teh mundane. Here it is!

Of course, the other side of that is the comfort of routine, the feeling that you are settled in, that you are home. That is sort of where we are today. Happened rather quickly. That comes, I am sure, of 7 years of practicing.

We continue to try and rise a bit earlier each morning. I know you may find it hard to believe, but once I return from my walk and a visit to the grocery store, a seeming everyday occurance, we seem to be rushed to get out into the town. We have a route that we try to make and to do it in such a way as to not cut into our siesta! We can't have that.

As the travel days are still plaguing us, it was nearly 7:30 before we got up. Two cups of coffee and various necessary morning rituals and I head out for a morning walk. It is about 1/4 mile down Calle Guerrero to the Malécon, that is the wonderful paved stretch of promenade that runs for more than a mile along the ocean side. I head south on the Malécon, up and over the bridge crossing the mighty Rio Cuale (not really very mighty, but at this time of the year it is running quite high and swiftly). I travel once around the main square, trying my best to avoid the Zumba Class! I continue down into Old Town until I come to the end of the paved and planked walk way (before it becomes only sand). Then it is up the hill and I turn back north and repeat the southern portion before heading to virgin territory (meaning that which I have not traveled previously!). That section extends for more than a mile and fronts an extensive restaurant district. There is a nice little point at the end of the Malécon and then you are forced to walk for about 3 blocks along a main thoroughfare, arriving about 3 miles into the walk at Lays, the local grocery store.

Lays is always an adventure. As I get more confident with my Spanish (quite limited, but also quite functional, I have more fun in the store. I interact with some of the women in the Deli department, ask questions in the produce section and tease the little girls who bag your groceries (you must tip them for their assistance). The walk back is a bit more direct. I have discovered that as I get older, I am tending to "front-load" the walk, so I can take the long, slow climb to our place at a bit more liesurely pace. It pains me to give in to this fact, but as Polley says, "You want to make exercising pleasureable enough that you keep coming back." Ah, to have someone older and wiser so close by!

Once I return, it is a scramble to shower and get ready for daily rounds. Yesterday we made a concerted effort to include all three food groups. So, it was off to Langosta Loca to see Arturo and Ricardo and to have a beer. After a nice hour with them, it was on to La Fuente for margaritas! We also felt so badly for how little business they have been having, that we had lunch there as well. I have mentioned previously that this touristy looking Mexican restaurant surprises all with its excellent kitchen. We enjoyed the calamari and fully intend to work our way through the menu over the next few weeks. Then it was time for the assault of Mt. Elizabeth Taylor (I think Richard Burton said the same thing!) and siesta.

Our "routine" is that we usually have one meal in each day and one out. So, it was dinner in. However, having done beer, and tequila, we had neglected our wine ration for the day. So, Polley and I ambled down to our favorite restaurant, Vitea (where we have a standing reservation for every Sunday evening) so just a glass of wine. Usually, we don't just drink wine there, because the all tables are normally taken up by those having full meals. Things are so slow now, that they were thrilled for us to visit, even for two glasses of Sauvignon Blanc. Very nice people who have always treated us as kings, even with a pauper's budget.

We watched the sun go down and lingered a bit longer. We love to watch people stroll along the Malécon, but things are still slow. They tell us that in another two weeks, things will pick up. Most of our favorite places are looking to open between the 11th and 15th of the month. The humidity is still quite punishing. Thank God we spent a couple of summers in Wisconsin and 5 in Georgia. Little did we know we were in training for early October in PV! More of the same tomorrow.

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The Only Gringos in Town!

One and all,

I do believe we might be the only gringos in town! It's true! Look!

Yesterday we visited to our our favorite, popular haunts and we were the only ones there! Truly!

The town is dead and everyone is complaining. On the north side of the Rio Cuale there are nearly no Americans or Canadians walking along the Malécon. It is all Mexican. Now, I will admit to a certain charm in that. We are very much absorbed into the culture, or, perhaps, the culture is simply washing over us! We are sort of "token" gringos. The downside of this is, of course, that every Time-Share huckster, every beach-side vendor, and every cafe seducer targets Polley and me. We are their only choice! So, the old "No, Gracias" and "Ya heimos comida" (We have already eaten) is nearly constantlhy falling out of our mouths, whether it's true or not!

Apart from being the most popular couple in town, we spend of kind of regular day. It was after 7 when we got up. For those who know us, we immediately felt the day was wasted! However, we tried to make the best of the little time that remained - like 14 more hours! I did get a good walk in and it was fun to familiarize myself with the town. It is obviously early in the season. Places that we enjoy are not scheduled to open until the middle of the month - and from the vast number of vacant tables, it is with good reason.

I did enjoy my initial foré to the Lay grocery store. It is always fun to fumble my way around, looking for items and trying to figure out how to ask for them in Spanish. Yesterday, it was granulated sugar (azucar). Finally, it came up with " Donde esta el azucar por café" (where is the sugar for coffee? and we communicated! Of course, there was the required ceviche and frijoles that helped to make up feel we were not in Oregon any more.

There was, of course, the requisite time spent settling in. We had left a large tub of things from our visit last spring. However, we had not made a list of what we had left behind. So, if was a surprise to see what we had brought down that was, indeed, already here. The apartment, however, was in good shape and fred, our landlord, had made some improvements in terms of furnishings. We did discover, much to our surprise, that the last tenants had disassembled the shower head for some obscure reason and instead of a comforting blast of water for our morning ritual, we were greated with a narrow stream of water that reminded me of one of those cherubs often seen peeing in a fountain!

Following the first efforts at making the place home, we headed to see our good friends at La Fuente del Puente, Jose, Fatima, Angie and others. While from a business stand point it was not good that they were totally empty, it was nice to have a block of time to catch up. We plan to help them tomorrow by having lunch there, if for nothing more to keep the kitchen in practice. Right now, they are only cooking for each other!

After 3 margaritas (one each and one shared) it was a sweltering stagger up the hill. I have no mentioned the heat and humidity. It is pretty punishing. Yesterday, at some point, I checked the temperature: it was 86, but just to help you realize how miserable you are, it said it felt like 93! You will get no argument from us. However, we do have a nice ceiling fan over the bed and our place is quite comfortable and there is no problem sleeping at night. We even managed a good siesta in the warmest part of the day. Our place sits quite high so there is nearly always a breeze.

Last evening, we made our way to the beach to meet up with a couple of other waiters, Ricardo and his brother, Arturo. Both were on duty, although, again, there was no one there but us. We enjoyed our time with them. The little beach-side cafe has been sold, but the brothers were very pleased with the new owners. They are great guys and deserve the best. Here is Polley with Ricardo (an no one else!).

We stayed for our first official PV sunset (AFGPVS) and had a chance to meet both Ricardo's wife and his new baby daughter, born just before we left last April. She is achubby little thing, but Mom and Dad are very proud.

From there, it was on to La Palapa to see our hippie flute friend, Bobby. Wednesdays have become our regular times to sit on the beach under the stars and listen to Bobby and Raul. Great, relaxing and so civilized. We had not eaten since lunch, so we enjoyed a couple of bowls of soup and some wine. I had the tortilla soup, which was fine, but Polley had a spectacular corn and mussel soup that was to die for. You understand why La Palapa has remained a favorite in PV for 50 years. They still do it right.

Caught a cab home and enjoyed a "Tequila Sunset" (straight tequila drunk anytime after dark!) and fell into bed. A good first day, but we were also aware of how much travel and the heat had taken out of us. However, we are both confident that our schedule will provide us time to catch up. More tomorrow!

 

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An Autumn Arrival

Well, we are here! We had a very smooth flight, with about a 2 hour layover in LA, but otherwise no complaints; arived about 3:45 pm; everything was on time and except for being hit for inspection at the Puerto Vallarta airport, all went well. I don't know if you recall, but you play a kind of "Mexican Roulette" when you go through customs. There is a button and you have to press it. If it is "green," you go through undisturbed. However, if it is "red," you are in for the most thorough inspection since your last colonoscopy!

Anyway, our landlord was there to meet us and by 5 pm, we were in the Garden Apartment. We are much happier than last year. The weather is hot and there is a good deal of humidity. However, the ceiling fan keeps the place very comfortable. Once we had put the basics away and discovered what we had left in a little tub when we were last here, we set out to visit our old haunts. Not surprisingly, most everything was closed! PV is very quiet right now. I am sure weather is a key issue. Many of those overweight Mid-Westerners just can take the heat (not to mention the humidity). Our favorite place, La Fuente del Puente (youmust remember "The Fountain by the Bridge," was closed (apparently only for the late afternoons in this quiet time of the season); Miele, will not open until 15 Octobre; as it was quite warm, we didn't venture any farther as we were beginning to feel most everything could be closed. See settle for a roof--top place, San Lucas, for some wine and guacamole. My walk tomorrow will allow me to explore a bit more.

We did manage to pick up a bottle of wine at OXXO, the 7/11 of Mexico and drag our butts up the hill (a more difficult task in humid October than in idyllic Febrero. However, upon our return, the word was out that we were back, as Kira and Lucy were wating for us near the front door.

As you can tell, Kira immediately made herself at home! They stayed with us most of the night. The apartment now has a little cat door so they can come and go at their leisure (do cats know any other way to come and go?).

So, we are here. It feels like home and actually for the last 6 years or so, it has been a kind of halfway house (in the best sense of the word). I will try to keep you up to date with our activities, but I have a feeling that for the first couple of weeks, until the weather changes a bit, we will be short on action. Love to all and you know information can flow both ways.

 

Ed and Polley

 

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