November 27, 2008 Thursday
It’s Thanksgiving Day in the USA, but not a holiday here. Ed bought a turkey in Tepic. Don’t know what he paid for it.
Got up early to go to the pastry places, there are three on the same block that sell cakes, none of them were opened the first time I went down. The second time I found a cheese cake at the second one I walked into. Bought it for 120 pesos, that’s about $12.00 US, for 50 more pesos I could have had them add cherries. I don’t like cherry pie or the cherries they add to cheese cake so I didn’t get them. Instead I went to the market and bought strawberries to cut up and put on the cheese cake. I bought a kilo (about 2 pounds) for 25 pesos that’s about $2.50 US. I had strawberries left over, put them in a bowl and took them to the dinner to.
We had the dinner in our landlord’s garage. Ed and Helen worked at cleaning it out and putting up the tables.
We had 13 people for dinner, everyone brought something to eat, and it was all good. The one thing I missed having was the dressing. I will have to see if I can make some for our next big dinner.
I brought home some of the strawberries and 1 piece of pie.
I went to the plaza, sat with Jan and Norm until 7:30 pm. We bought a bottler of Las Chivas Tequila, 1 liter for 20 pesos, about $2.00 US. We also buy a liter of juice for 7.50 pesos which is about $.75 US.
Some dark clouds rolled in early evening; it was hot and humid in the late afternoon. The temperature in out bungalow started out at 81F and went up to 90F. It didn’t cool down last night at all. It was still 88F at 8:00 PM.
November 26, 2008 Wednesday
Went to the social club to see if their WI-FI was working, no one had been in yet to use their computers.
Larry had exchanged money yesterday but wanted to check on the rates today it was lower today by .05.
I went to an internet café to check on my e-mail and news. Hope the WI-FI is up tomorrow. I was told that the reason it was down the owner of the club had not paid his phone bill.
We have been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner here with our neighbors, should be fun, was asked to bring a pie or the such, will have to find something to buy to bring as my oven does not work and I don’t have any baking pans.
The plaza was quite empty last night and tonight. Not much going on.
Larry bought a fish for dinner was 55 pesos’, I bought half a chicken (grilled) was 35 pesos, came with rice and corn tortillas. There is a place where you can get flour tortillas and I am told I can ask for the flour ones when I buy a meal but I am not sure how to ask.

November 24, 2008 Monday
Larry’s cold was worse through the night.
We bought some juice at Kains super market, 1.892 liter of naranja juice for 14 pesos and 2 bottles at 1 liter of pina (pineapple) for 15 pesos. Guess it is better to buy the 1 liter than what I thought was the 2 liter. Cooking oil was 11.50 pesos. I found some pepper in a shaker for 8.50 pesos; I am still looking for salt. I did go to the market where I found it last year, the owner said she would have it for me later, I did go back later but she was not there I will see tomorrow if she has it. So for the juice and oil we spent $49.00 pesos which is about $4.90 USA.
There is a new Mayor, he is working on a lot of changes , the first one you can see is the color of the governance building, last year it was Orange, this Year it is shades of blue and white.

November 23, 2008 Sunday
Yesterday afternoon I noticed that Larry seemed to be coming down with a cold. He could have got it from someone on the plane or bus.
Last night or early this morning we had young people standing in the street yelling. Not sure just what they were yelling but it kept me awake until they left.

November 22 2008
I went to tbe Social Club with Ellen to learn how to use the wi-fi. It is so much faster than my dial-up at home.
Last night they had more kids doing dances on the plaza. They are not afread to use firecrackers or any other kind of fire works. One went off right by my feet. The second time the kids set one off by me and Jan Norm went to get the police to make them stop.
We ate at our cafe again, Larry had fish, I had chicken, both came with salad, rice, macrione, and a drink. meal is 35 pesos.
I am going to try and remember to wright down the Spanish name for the dish we buy and will put that down in here too.

November 20, 2008
We are still settling in. I am trying to wait for Saturday market to buy supplies. We left a big tub of things here last year and everything that was in the tub was fine. However a lot of the items that came with the bungalow are gone. I need to get some plates, a cutting board, knife, cup, bucket, and a wash tub for rinsing dishes.
We were going to get something to eat from the vendors on the plaza today but really couldn’t find anything we wanted. So we rode our bikes down to the economical café. We thought we ordered steak but got rolled tortes with meat inside. You also get a salad, rice and beans. The drink that comes with the meal is different every day. Today it was some kind of melon. I don’t really like the rice; I do use the beans with the tortillas that come with the meal instead of bread.
Big parade today, started at 9:00 am and ended at 11:00am.
I went to the internet café, used it for 30 minutes cost was 6 pesos’. This is about the same as last year.
We sat out on the front porch and talked with our neighbors for quite a while before walking down to the plaza. They had a folk dancing show going on. The parade and the show were for the national holiday.
November 19, 2008
We have found that prices on a lot of items have gone up. At the economical café that we like the meal was 28 pesos last year and is 35 pesos this year. However we are getting a better rate of exchange for our dollars. While the price has gone up we are really spending less.
The rate of exchange today was 12.83, which is 12.83 pesos for each dollar.
Both of our bikes had flat tires so we had to walk them down to the bike shop to have them pumped up. They didn’t charge us for pumping up the tires.
Looks like one of the big restraints has closed down, there was a big chain link fence to keep people out.
The arcade were the older kid hung out at last year has been painted blue and white, the doors are now glass, it seems to be more of an internet café now. There are still arcade games in it but not as much.
Some of the businesses have moved, at first you think they are gone then we find they are down the block or across the street.
Tonight in the plaza they have started the celebration for one of the revulsions, tomorrow is a national holiday.

November 18, 2008
We are in San Blas. We caught the plane from Portland Monday the 17th at 5:30 pm. arriving in Phoenix at 9:00 pm. Our next flight was at 10:00 am so we had a 13 hour layover. We had not bought anything to eat on the plane, a salad was $5.00, drinks like water or pop was $2:00. We decided to eat at Burger King we got two value meals for $18.00, they tasted awful, I couldn’t finish mine.
We found some benches to sleep on. We had been told that the ticketing opens at 4:00 am, we wanted to check in our bags as soon as we could. The ticketing counter opened at 5:30 am.
We arrived in PV between 1:30 and 2:00 pm, went across the street and got the bus to the bus station in time to get the 3:00pm bus to San Blass. The city bus we got on to get to the bus station didn’t want us at first because he thought we wanted to go downtown to the city bus station. We finely got him to understand we wanted the long distance bus station he even told us when we were at our stop.
While in the bus station I spotted a lady we had meant here last year. Betsy, she had just arrived at the bus station too. We sat with her in the station and on the bus. Was nice to meet up with someone you sort of know.
We got into our bungalow and unpacked as much as we needed for the first night, then it was down to the plaza to greet old friends and to get something to eat.
We were back here around 8:00pm and strait to bed.


November 3, 2008
Today I am working on my new laptop, getting the programs loaded and learning how to use it. I paid $750.00 for and as I got it for the trip to Mexico this winter I am counting it in the cost of the trip.
I have been trying to get the things we will need ready to pack. We leave on the 17th; I still have a lot to do before then
I have been working on my scrapbook for last year’s trip and I am only half way done. I will have one last big weekend to work on it. When I work on my scrapbooks I work with my friend Linda, she is still working on the trip they took to England 3 years ago.
So far I have spent $760.00 for the flight and the $750.00 for the laptop. That’s $1510.00 and we are still here in Oregon.

Nov. 05 2008

We are preparing for our next trip to San Blas. We leave on Nov. 17th. Tickets cost $761.52 so far this year. Not sure if we will have to pay extra for our suitcases. We take one big one each and one carry on each.
I bought a laptop to take this year, anew experience for me. I paid $750.00 for it. Hope I will learn to use it. I should be able to blog more.