Rainy Days and Mondays

First rain of the season here. And this happens about once every five years. And we are out in it and having fun. Of course.

The locals look at us and think we are Gringos Locos! And, of course, we are. So we offer now, the view of our neighbors' from our kitchen window, the view of the park entry way and to really capture the road/river, Hal braved the possibilities of dangerous serpents to demonstrate the depth of the water....

And I bet y'all are wondering how the new window is working out.... Well, we had to give up on the cross-ventilation for today, but we are happy to announce no leaks anywhere!

Time for a game of dominoes!

Busy days for us....

We've had some pretty busy days this past week. Thanksgiving was very low key - The Mexicans aren't into it and the Canadians that surround us already had theirs in October, I think.... We celebrated by going over our list of things we are grateful for and I especially loved the part where I didn't cook the whole day.

We've been getting together with friends - some from Mazatlan that we met last year and some that are our neighbors here in the RV park. And, of course, we have been at the beach a lot.

Hal has been working hard in the Tarot business. He spent days getting brochures out and then, he spent a couple days doing Tarot readings. Yay!

Today, we checked out the flea market in the working class part of town. It is amazing to me that so many people gather in such a small vicinity to buy and sell just about everything imaginable. We came home with a mint plant, scissors, shorts, crackers, kitchen clock, green beans and a cucumber. And we shared a slice of pizza.

And today was a big home improvement day.... please note the before and after photos of the bus window. Hal took out the little plexi-glass window that wouldn't open and installed a bus window that opens so we can get some cross ventilation in our sleeping area. Lots of power tools were required.

Next, I'll be in charge of painting the newly added wood and touch up on the metal.

We go to bed tired and sleep like babies.....

Saturday Night Bullfight

Saturday night there was a special type of bullfight in town - young men and women form teams and have a competition to stand up to a charging bull and then "capture" it. I went with some friends and it was really amazing and exciting. You might notice the ambulance that pulled up to the exit door right at the beginning. Luckily it was not needed although some of the hits were pretty nasty. There is one team member who takes the bull's charge in his gut and then the rest surround the bull. He gets flipped and pushed around really bad but they all popped up, ready for more. There's a team of judges and officials who distract the bull and try to prevent injuries. This type of activity is part of a traditional bullfight which I have not seen yet. No bulls are hurt but they get pretty tired. There were four bulls that particiated. Northie went out with Sam's wife to another hangout for the evening and had a fine time - not really interested in bullfights.

Some photos from our Monday activities

Missing are any photos from the batting cage episode. It wasn't where we thought it was and wound up walking over a mile in the heat of the day to get to it. Success, but taking a photo totally skipped our baked minds. Visualize it a half mile past the iguana. The pictures on the wall that Northie is looking at are of Carnaval queens from the past 100 years in our new favorite restaurant downtown. The girls are some students that we met on the Plaza Machado.

A new feature on our blog

We now have a "Comments" feature activated that allows people to leave comments.

You got some 'splainin to do, Lucy

A little bistro in the old part of town, Te Amo Lucy (I Love Lucy) celebrating their anniversary, and look who showed up!

Revolution Day Parade

Viva La Revolucion!
Our day started with an early morning bus ride to the malecon for a parade! Today marks the 99 year anniversary of the Revolution in Mexico. Our friends Rita and Sam were good sports and got up early to go into town with us. We had the BEST seats at a cafe and we stuck around for two hours (we left and the parade was still going on) watching everything from soldiers with rifles to sweet little girls to lil donkeys. On our way there, we passed the statue of Neptune. My favorite part of the parade was all the women who marched in the highest heels possible. Good luck with your feet and back in about 15 years. But you were soooooo stylin'!

We are almost at the 2 week in Mazatlan mark. I definitely feel like I'm settled and not a tourista anymore. I have read 4 whole books, take naps almost every day, walk and or swim a LOT and even rode my bike. Hal has been working way harder that me - he put in 5 business days trying to get voicemail set up on the cell phone. Finally, switched to another company. Duh. And he will have a Tarot ad in the local rag in a week or so - not to mention flyers in all the hoi paloi rich people hotels. And he's already done a few readings, so let the good times roll I say!

We've been here long enough to have a score card of pluses and minuses. For example:
Plus:
amazing dreams
ceremony every morning
gecko in residence to eat bugs
produce market nearby
cheap mass transit
better internet and skype than last year!
miss my friends

Minus:
too many city lights to get good night viewing of sky (we are spoiled by Santa Fe skies)
no-see-ums (these little suckers have a bite that is worse than poison ivy and the best remedy is boiling water on a q-tip applied directly to the bite) (usually at 2 or 3 a.m.)
no tomato plant seedlings

Hmmmm.... I have to move on. Too hard to try and find minuses. Yay!

We went to our first movie EVER in Mexico last night. 2012. Yowza! We can't wait to go back. But I'm bringing a fan (thanks to my sistah, WaterSpirit!) so I don't have to gasp for air which there isn't much of by the end of a movie and what is there has been used a lot....

I'm very much looking forward to the weekend (ha ha ha - which is just like our Monday through Friday life).

and last, but not least, the shopping list and what it cost:
1 quart of strawberries
2 avocados (ripe)
3 bananas
1 pepper
1 jalepeno
2 tomatoes
1 melon
1 cuke
4 apples
3 limes
6 oranges
ta da ~ $6.84

Shopping in Mazatlan: PRICELESS!!!

The start of our garden

These traveling buddies from home seem happy here. From the top: Yerba Buena - taken from the mother plant we have in New Mexico that came to me via Candy Diersen (Kate's mum-in-law) in Pittsburgh. Clockwise one: Snake plant from the mother plant from my ma from 48 Marrano Drive, Depew, New York. Grew up there. And in the colorful turtle planter, a sweet little coleus from my sister Water Spirit's patio. It flew home in a travel mug in my luggage from Portland, Maine. These babies love it here. So far we haven't been able to find tomato plants. We'll keep looking.

The "Work" post

After being here a week, I've reviewed what I've accomplished and decided to post the list. This will give you more of an idea of our life here:

Installed a wifi/internet antenna so that we can pull in the strongest signal to our computer
Applied sunblock paint to the bus tires
Put up lights around the canopy on the patio for nighttime ambience
Installed the air conditioner for the first time in years
Rebuilt the shade canopy that had somehow fallen apart during the summer
Did maintenance and checking on our inverter batteries and engine batteries
Put up a clothesline
Did various repairs and maintenance tasks
Set out tarot flier advertising and placed an ad in a local magazine
Did several tarot readings...

...and this coming week I hope to have more beach time!
-Hal

Saturday night downtown

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Saturday night we headed down to one of our favorite areas of town. We got on the bus and went to the Malecon (boardwalk) and walked to the Plaza Machado. There were a lot of craftspeople set up and the local gringo newspaper was having a celebration of publishing for one year. They were set up in the courtyard of a restaurant with music, food and drink. We also had our favorite sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup).

Feeding our friends

Our bird friends are happy we're back.