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.

The Magic of the Beach

 We were able to show off our favorite beach.  Not only did we spend some amazing time creating and walking some labyrinths, but we worked on our tans, read a bit and had some horse visitors.  A perfect balance to the city experiences.....

The Magic of Cerritos

Our little neighborhood definitely was fun to hang out in while Hannah was here.  Our favorite restaurant, Karma Kitchen, hosted a Full Moon 11.11.11 party that we attended.  Not only did we have the best food, but the entertainment was impressive too!

When Hannah arrived, the weather cooled down quite a bit - especially at night.  We even had ourselves a full day of rain. The first rain we experienced in Mazatlan in almost 2 years.

We had breakfast on the rainy day at a little restaurant up the road from us - Ranchito Feliz (Happy little ranch) that Hannah discovered during one of her bike rides.

A Week of Mazatlan Magic

 What could be more fun than showing off our beloved city to our beloved sister-in-law?????


When Hannah arrived, we pretty much had her life planned out for her for a whole week.  Well, not only did we do most of what we planned, but leave it to her to find some amazing stuff to do on her own! 

We spent quite a bit of time in the old part of the city in and around the Plazuelo Machado.  We made friends with one of the local artists, had our hearts tugged by 2-week old kittens (I want one), experienced some amazing modern dance at the theater, ran into friends we knew, and walked, walked, walked.....

We took her to our favorite restaurant downtown, found the best ice cream in the city - possibly the world (I had sesame in one hand and avocado in the other!) and checked out the little shops and boutiques.  We certainly did our part to support the local economy.

We did not spend much time at home during the week (although we would try to sneak in naps whenever possible.  And, interestingly, the internet hardly worked while she was here, so we felt like we were definitely in our own little world.

Dia de los muertos

 

Mexico is ground zero for the Day of the Dead.  They don’t have much in the way of trick or treating although you see a lot of American influence in the stores.  However, the richest part of this tradition is alive and well in Mazatlan.  It covers a couple of days (November 1 & 2).  

Last night, we were so honored to attend a celebration of the Journey to Mictlan – land of the dead.  

As we made our way to the gathering, we passed altars set up outside of people’s homes – complete with photos, candles, food and drink, flowers….. so beautiful. And we passed people carrying flowers to the cemetery.
  Our hostess was our dear friend Flor.  She set up a beautiful traditional altar in her courtyard on Stone Island.  The four elements were represented as well as the journey from the tree of life to Mictlan.  As we were sitting and sharing, we could hear the approach of a parade – a band and a procession of about 20 young people carrying candles.  They stopped at every altar and honored it with a song.  When they arrived at Flor’s place, they came into the courtyard and serenaded and shared pan de muerto (bread of the dead) with us.  It was magical.  Then, off they went to the next altar.

We were also blessed to celebrate the night of Samhain (Halloween) – with a small circle of friends right here at the RV park.  We had an altar set up with jack-o-lanterns, skeletons, marigolds, lots of candles….  And we shared ancient traditions of a different sort.

What a great life. 

One Month Report

One month ago today, we said goodbye to our little blue bus and hit the road.  We had a leisurely 6 day journey to Mazatlan – no drama, no surprises…  We took advantage of the hot springs in T or C, slept a couple of nights on the beach in Puerto Penasco, watched baseball playoffs in lots of different towns.

Because of our early arrival, we were able to watch our end of town come to life.  Our first drive through of the area brought us through a ghost town – nothing was open…  One by one, we watched things open up (and found ourselves to be the first customers in several of the places….).   One of the fun perks of being here before any of our regular places were open is that we got to check out 3 new restaurants.  All of them have turned out to be excellent discoveries.

A big part of our Mazatlan experience is the food.  That is one of the reasons that our first couple weeks here were kind of an adjustment.  I fasted for 3 days at the beginning and Hal was definitely on half rations those same days.   We threw ourselves into unpacking and setting up and then threw ourselves in an extreme opposite direction with the full moon on the beach. 

It took a while to adjust to the heat and humidity.  Never was I so grateful for our sweet little air conditioner.  It has made all the difference.  Every day, I can spend a little more time outside.  The beginnings of a garden are happening.

We have reconnected with almost all of our Mazatlan friends.   It warms the heart to know that they are as happy to see us as we are to see them.  And it is fun to hear about everyone’s summer experiences.  We are coming from the worst drought we have ever seen and they have just experienced the wettest August in a while….. 

We have watched our end of town slowly open up.  Cafes and restaurants are almost all back up and running.  We were sad to see that our pescaderia (fish market) was not able to make a go of it.  But so far, all of our friends are back in business. The economy is still struggling with even less tourism in sight.  But these people are a resilient breed.  From what we observe as we explore, the money from the city coffers is going into new schools and keeping the city clean and beautiful.

The city also continues to offer lots of amazing cultural/art events – we attended a wonderful concert last week with Abed Azrie (nope, we had never heard of him, but it was pretty awesome).

Hal has already overseen work on the bus (brake lines) and on the truck (air conditioning), tried out his boogie board, done 2 tarot readings, has been swimming a lot and has ridden his beloved bike.  He has a sweet little coconut station by our “shed”.

Last year, coconuts were a huge discovery for us.  This year, we are adding guava to the list.  I love this tropical life.

And we have already started our little road trips – we went into the mountains last week and checked out Concordia and Copala – old mining towns.  Lovely scenery.

So far, we know that November will bring us our first visitor, our sis Hannah!  But enough for now.  We’re off for a cuppa joe at the Looney Bean. 

Miss you and love you.