Not a catapult....

As I was sleeping soundly Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, Hal woke up around 2 a.m. realizing that I would need a ramp or a catapult to get back into the bus following my hip surgery and hospital stay.  By 3 a.m. he was designing, by 3:30 he was outside with a string and a flashlight checking out angles.  He was back asleep by 5ish.

However, when he was outside in the daylight checking things out, our neighbor, Sam came by to see what the project was and within the hour, they were on their way to Home Depot. 

These guys worked hard for 2 days.  And now…. We’re just waiting for the second coat of paint to dry. 

Folks walking by:  What are you putting in?  A water slide?

                                                                      A skate board ramp?

                               Hey, are you taking orders?  We want a deck!

There are roughly 50 people in this RV park and every one of them walking by has a compliment or a funny line to share.  It is awesome.

So, this ramp and deck is not only most beautiful, sturdiest, well designed unit ever, it is filled with love and good wishes.  Who could ask for anything better?                                      

Mazatlan Magic Moments

 

We are enjoying these long cool nights and beautiful warm days of Yule time.

Its been a week of holy days and our humble little home has been filled with love and candle light (from our own homemade beeswax candles!) since the first night of Hanukkah. 

We celebrated winter solstice with medicine from Québec - Sortilège.  With our Mazatlan family we experienced a traditional Mexican Posada – complete with songs, candles, whistles and baby Jesus (let us in… no, no, no…).  We shared a traditional American/Canadian feast at the RV park with our little community here.  We sat around a bonfire on Christmas Eve….  We even had presents under our tree this morning. 

We are blessed to be surrounded by so much beauty and we are blessed to be in communication with our loved ones. 

What a life. 

Our hearts are filled with love and gratitude and our cups are overflowing with (spin the wheel): hot chocolate, tequila, Sortilège, and with coffee…

We send our love and wish you all good health and happiness.

Ho ho ho

Lunar Eclipse

Went down to the beach yesterday morning to watch the eclipse. It was beautiful to go there in the dark and watch as the sky lit up and the moon disappeared before it sank into the ocean.

December!

Yowza!  can you believe it is already December???  Here's what we've been doing with ourselves since the last check-in!

We have been hanging out at Pueblo Bonito with our friends, the Jacksons.  They have been our guides back into the world of Pinochle!  It has been decades for both of us (and never together) so we have been having so much fun playing cards again.  Their condo is a little bit of paradise right up the road from us.  Right on the ocean, full of beautiful artwork and quite a range of critters (check out the jackalope)...

We were the first customers at Mazatlan's newest café - Surfs Up Cafe.  Excellent coffee.  Amazing food.

And as always, looking for the perfect happy hour - this time at our beloved Las Flores where they served us FREE MARGARITAS! and 20% off our food.  Oh yeah!!!

Las Jaibas is finally starting to look like it will for the winter.  We are still waiting for about 3 maybe 4 rigs to show up and complete the community. 

And, as always, we are chipping away at all the hoops and red tapes we need to jump through and address to get me that much closer to the new hip.

Days are in the high 70's to low 80's.  Nights are around 50.  Perfect for sleeping.
Hal has officially started his counseling practice and is doing Tarot as well.  I've been working on my crafts and cooking like crazy.

Full, Busy Days

 As the RV park starts to fill up, we notice that our social calendar is also filling up almost every day.  Our next door neighbors Sam and Rita have been here two weeks!  In that time, we have investigated a little tequila distillery right here in Mazatlan's golden zone, been to a happy hour and celebrated Hal's birthday (yay!) with tequila AND a new restaurant. 

We had breakfast (a great 6 hour event) with our newest Mazatlan friends in their amazing home - and the best coffee I've ever had.

My garden is so full of life - Nicotiana, cilantro, sunflowers, lots of coleus (from Lisa Martin, Portland, ME), peppermint (Kate's mum-in-law, Pittsburgh, PA), spearmint (Isla de la Piedra), marigolds, poinsettia, purple runner beans....  whew!

We went to see the Mazatlan String Quartet - it was so beautiful....

And we celebrated Thanksgiving in a most abundant way with friends from Santa Fe.   It was the most food I've ever seen in one place - and so deeeelicious.  After dessert, we watched some wonderful fireworks before waddling back home.  We took time to remember all that we are grateful for.  What a great life......

Trip to the Fruteria

Here it is!  the list from our shopping today:
3 bags of tortillas
2 grapefruit
4 bananas
1 melon
4 avocados
10 limes
2 tomatoes
2 cuke
1 small bunch of cilantro
3 onions (2 white, 1 red)

  Grand Total:  $7.38
Shopping in Mazatlan on a warm breezy Monday:  priceless

Precious Odds and Ends

Along our journeys we were able to share so many of our favorite little treasures....  Osako is the bee shop not too far from home.  You can get honey, pollen, propolis, honey combs, bees wax, beekeeping supplies, and even bee sting therapy.

We were able to share a Temazcal as well.  We took the ferry to Stone Island and prayed under the full moon. 

While I would rest my hip, Hal and Hannah – those  two crazy Sagittarius’s – had plenty of opportunity to do some hiking, biking and yoga. 
 

They did the magnificent hike up to the light house and had the best view of the city and of the ocean.  They rode bikes along the Malecon and got to appreciate all the statues along the way.

And I was able to sit in my favorite café and watch the might Pacific and pretend I was reading....

We actually did most of the things we had on our list, but definitely have a few things left to entice a return trip with.