On Tuesday March 24th we caught the 8:00am bus for Tepic. The bus was full by the time we reached Tepic with standing room only. There must have at least 10 people standing. Most of the riders got off at the first stop in Tepic instead of riding all the way to the bus station.

We got a room at the Nayrt Hotel for 200 pesos a night. We asked to see the room before we got it but the man acted like he did not understand so we rented it without seeing it. The only bad thing about the room was there was no tolite seat. We could have gotten a room at the Tepic Hotel for 235 pesos. We stayed there last year and had no problem there, the tolite had seats. But a friend in San Blas said Nayrt was a good place to stay. We wanted to try another hotel out too. I really think it is best to see the room before you pay for it. Both of these hotels are less than five minutes walking distance from the bus station.

We walked to VIP'S, was able to have breakfast as we were there before 11:00. Then we went to the Plaza, by bus, for 4 pesios.

We were told by the man that sells bus tickets that his bus line starts leaving for PV at 5:00am then every half hour until noon. Great, we were up by 5:00, walked to the station, was there to buy out ticket by 5:15. The first bus his line or the sister line did not leave until 7:00.

We bought a ticket to PV (150 pesos each) from TAP bus line leaving at 6:15. The first bus from this line left at 3:15, the next one at 4:15. Both of these busses were primo buses, which means no stops and you are offered food. The bus we had made less than 4 stops, and we had a movie (in spanish).

We arrived in PV around 11:00, was very lucky and got a bus to the airport in less than 10 minutes. We were able to get our airline tickets very fast as there was no line. Larry was able to take a half hour to go and get a torta before we went through the security gate which ment no return or escape from going home.

We almost had one problem before getting on the plane. When going down the stares to the plane we thought we were in the wrong line. We got on a bus that would take us to the plane. While standing on the bus, all we could hear was French, yes the bus was taking people to a plane to Monteral, Cananda. We just made it off the bus before it was leaving, in fact I felt the doors try to close on my backpack. We made it back to the correct line and our plane.

We arrived in Huston without no more problems, but then there was the lines to go through. I also had a small problem with needing to find a bathroom as soon as we got off the plane. The first one is close to the customs line but it was a long walk to get there.

The first custom line you go through, I feel is someone sayiny you can leave Mexico. Then you go through one that is more intence saying you can come back or enter the good old USA. If you have a laptop you have to take it out of your case for it. Take off your shoes, and make sure you don't have anything that looks like a gel. We were lucky and had nothing that looked bad. While I belive we need to be alert of things comming into the US, it bothers me that we don't have to do the same things every gate, for other countrys.

Ok so we are at Huston, we get through all the lines, we walk all the way to our gate. Nope, the gate has changed and we have to walk back, and beyound to another gate. We are getting to know the Huston airport a lot better than we realy want to know.

Our plane is able to board on time. But we set and wait for some people to board becust their plane is arriving late. No big deal, we start to taxi out half hour late, then we sort of taxi out to the take off strip for the next 2 hours. Yep we got to set on the plane for more than two hours before taking off, which ment we were two hours late landing at Portland Oregon.

We arrived home at 1:00am. I am so sorry for my friend that picked us up and brought us home as she had to get up at 4:30 am to go to work.

One of our cats was here when we got home, she came in with us, she was really happy to see us and really happy when Larry started a fire in our stove to heat the house warmer than she has had it while we were gone. Our other cat showed upnthis morning. He was not really sure about what was going on but when he realized who we where we couldent get rid of him to get started on things we needed to do. They have both settled down, she has gained a lot of weight, he is looking like a happy cat.

Mahya has gained a lot of weight

Spirit is looking good

March 22, 2009 Sunday Domingo
Friday was the first day of spring. There was a small parade of children dressed in costumes of young animals, bunnies, and cats.
Saturday there was a larger parade of the children dressed for spring; it was also the birthday of Benito Juarez, who is like our Lincoln. So there were a lot of things going on all day long.

Today we went on our bikes to the end of the beach to see where the river enters the ocean. The beach is over a mile and a half, we rode the mile, but it was a mile from our casa to the beach.

March 20, 2009 Friday viernes
Thursday the 19th we didn’t do much. We went to Tai Chi and to the bank to get some money for the trip home. We were tired from the day before. I don’t understand how sitting and waiting can tire us out so much.
Today we took Ron out to lunch to thank him for the Tai Chi lesions. Sunday will be our last day to go to Tai Chi. We went to a place he likes to eat at. We spent 75 pesos for all three of us to eat there.

Today was Charlie’s birthday we were invited to his party. Not many people showed up as we were not sure what time it was going to be.

Jean-Paul took us out fishing, this time we went out in the ocean by the rocks the Indians believe all life came from.

Mario caught two fish and Jean-Paul caught one.

Larry and I were not so lucky but we had a great time.

March 18, 2009
We did make it to the club for steak dinner, 175 pesos for two people. Looks like it will be our last one here this winter. As we are now thinking we will have to go to PV on Tuesday afternoon. The first bus for PV leaves here at 7:30; it takes 3 to 4 hours to get to PV. We would be there by 11:00 our time but PV is an hour ahead of us so it would be 12:00 their time and our plane leaves at 1:00.
Today we meant Val and Ray at the bus station at 10:45 to catch the 11:00 bus to Miramar, for lunch.
Miramar is the place to go to for oysters. On Wednesdays, Saturday and Sunday the oyster divers are there bringing in their catch.

Then the oysters are taken to be shucked.

An order of 12 oysters on the half shell is 70 pesos. We also ordered shrimp cooked in butter and garlic for 70 pesos. With our drinks we spent 174 pesos.
Yes we all tried the oysters on the half shell.

We walked back up the road to the bus stop to catch the bus back to San Blas. Now the bus we caught from Santa Cruz in January left Santa Cruz at 2:00. We were at the bus stop at 1:45. At 2:15 a bus came headed to Santa Cruz, which was going in the wrong direction but we asked him if he would be going to San Blas. He said no but he would be going to Aticama which was in the right direction. Good thing we decided to get on as he picked up a bus load of school children heading home, it was standing room only.
We got off in Aticama and walked to a café that sells chicken, where we could wait for the bus in the shade. Val bought some chicken to take home for dinner tomorrow. Then we sat and waited and waited. We waited for 2 ½ hours. After waving down 3 taxis we got one to radio to San Blas to have a taxi come to get us. Our share of the taxi to San Blas was 35 pesos.
It was a long day for going out for lunch.
Man selling corn on the cob on the street.

Here we are waiting for the bus that never came.

March 17, 2009 Tuesday martes
Saturday, there was a big party. They had 8 bands playing. I am not sure what it was for as we did not go. Larry said he could hear the music until 4 Sunday morning. Sometime during the night it rained but we missed it.
A man (Chip I believe) has offered rides on his ultra light to anyone that helped with the pets. Dave drove us to go on the ride twice in one day but we were unable to go up. It was windy and too many people were on the beach where he takes off and lands.
Friday I helped Charlie at his café. His hired help never showed up. I made the garlic bread and waited on the customers.
Yesterday we went to our favorite economical for lunch। It’s no longer an economical; it’s now a taco stand. We were so disappointed.


Last week the weather has been changing. We had two days of dark clouds; we even felt a few drops of rain one afternoon. But it has stayed in the 80’s dropping to 77⁰ in the house at night.
Tonight is steak night at the Social Club. I hope that they have steaks and not some Irish dish for St Patrick’s Day.

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March 12, 2009 Thursday jueves

This morning we rode with Tony to his restaurant at Las Islitas. This is less than 5 miles from San Blas. It is on a bay (Matanchén) instead of the ocean which means the waves are not as big as here in San Blas.

He served us Chicharrones de Pescado, which is the same dish we had at the lake at Santa Marie de Oro, but his was much better.

Larry did go out to swim; he was in the water for almost an hour. I looked for shells.

We walked down the road that went through the town, almost to the end, where the river enters the bay. We did not make it to the river; we walked for over an hour. Larry felt like it was a death march. Several times he stopped and sat in the shade and told me to go on without him, he would say just leave me here to die. This is a joke between us as I told him the same thing when we were on a hike in Costa Rica.

This place is great for families with kids. The one thing we had problems with is the jejenes. They seem to be worse there as they were biting most of the day. But then we need to remember it’s a full moon tonight.

We decided to leave around 2:00pm. We walked to the town of Matanchén, where we caught a bus back to San Blas. Tony would have brought us back at 4:00 but it was good for us to learn what time the bus comes to catch back to San Blas. the bus cost 20 pesos for the both of us.

When we got back to our casa Jean-Paul told us about the visitor he had today. It was an iguana, it walked into his place. He managed to get it out using his broom. But after we came home it returned to Jean-Paul’s. He grabbed it by the tail thinking he could take it back outside, but the tail broke off. It went outside and down the sidewalk, only to come back later and try to get into his or our casa. After a while it left, I saw it climbing up the wall down the street from our place. So now it’s on someone’s roof, which is common.

This morning at 6:00am it was 77⁰ in the house.

March 11, 2009 Wednesday miércoles
We started the day out with going to Tai Chi. we had a great session but once again the bugs helped us to decide to cut it a little short. We almost have the whole form learned now. We only have two weeks to get it learned well enough that we will be able to keep it up when we go home.

When we got back from Tai Chi Jean-Paul asked us if we wanted to go fishing this afternoon. I held back with my favorite answer, and just said yes we sure do.

Larry and I went for a bike ride to see the different marinas. We found the main fishing ones. I kept telling him that there was one more, one for the yachts, but he kept insisting that there is no marina for the yachts. On our way out to go fishing we went by the yachts marina.

There were 4 of us that went out. Jean-Paul only has 3 poles, Larry tried to get him to use the one he was using but Jean-Paul wanted us to have a good time.

We caught 6 fish, 5 different kinds. The first one I caught was a very small red snapper; we were able to throw him back. Larry caught 2 cat fish, and one that I have no idea what it is. It made a funny barking sound. Charlie caught a small yellow fin tuna. Again the last 2 fish I caught we have no idea what they were.

Jean-Paul said we will go out again when it’s not so windy and where the fish will be bigger.

Here we are fishing, I know I look really relaxed. I did get a little sun burned.

This is Charlies very first yellow fin tuna, ok so it's really small, we were in hopes that its older family were in the area.

This is our catch of the day. I know that one is a yellow fin tuna and two are cat fish. No idea what the others are. But I do have to say the biggest one I caught.

Bridget and myself at the Social Club for Tuesday night steak dinner. This will be our last steak dinner as she is going to PV on the 15th.

These are Bridgets friends, Its their first time at the Social Club for steak dinner, they enjoyed it as much as we do.

Dinner for us was 140 pesos.

At midnight it was still 81 degrees in the house.

I was told this plant is called cup of gold, when I bought it, it was about two feet tall, now it is about 14 feet.

March 10, 2009 Tuesday martes
Saturday night, the 7th, we went out to eat dinner at Walas. Dinner for both of us was 140 pesos. Rhoda and Lou were playing. Next Saturday night will be their last night.

Sunday night we went to Charlie’s for dinner, mine was free for working at the pet clinic and Larry’s was half price. We did get extra garlic bread so we ended up paying 75 pesos.

Monday at Tai Chi one of the workers had cleaned up all the leaves from the big rubber tree and hosed down the ground. Which made it perfect for Tai Chi and for the jejenes (little bugs that bite) to come out by the hundreds. There were even misquotes, so we did as much as we could, as fast as we could, and got away from the bugs.

I walked down to the farmacia to get some more of my pills for my acid reflex. I found a good replacement for the nexium I was taking. They are called OMECAPS OMEPRAZOL; I get 30 capsules for 120 pesos. They are 20mg instead of the 40mg I was taking but they do the job.
For dinner I warmed up some of the leftover spaghetti I had from Charlie’s. Larry went to the plaza and had a hamburger for 20 pesos.

This morning was cooler, so we wore long pants to class; we also put on some OFF, DEEP WOODS insect repellent. The bugs left us alone today. The moon was full last night or tonight, the jejenes are worse during the full moon.

It is Tuesday, which means its steak night. We have made plans to meet Bridget for dinner. This will be our last dinner with her as she is going to PV on the 15th to stay for a month. She has decided that is where she will stay next year. She said she will come to San Blas for a visit. I know I will miss her.

March 7, 2009 Saturday sábado
Today was the last day for the pet clinic. We took care of 78 pets this week 15 of them were cats. One of the vets said you multiply that by 5,000 and that’s how many pets won’t be born in their lifetime. We had 7 vets working today so they were able to take some breaks.

The clinic is real differant from the ones we have at home. People can come in and watch what we are doing. A lot of the owners stayed with their pets the whole time. One owner even vido taped the surgury.

The last 3 days has been hot. It never dropped below 80 degrees in the house. I turned on the fan and left the front windows open to try to get it to cool down some. Today started out hot but it has clouded up and cooled off some.

Larry told me that we have been doing real well at staying below our budget. He thinks he has been spending around $15 US dollars a day, I know I am below that. I would say less than $10 a day for me. Which means that when we do go somewhere else we can spend a little more.


Suguary

Recovery, this was our first dog of day four, our last day.

Dan, Shawn and myself working in recovery.

March 4, 2009 Wednesday miércoles
Last night at midnight it was still 83 F in the house. This morning at 6:30 it was 81 F in the house. At 5:30 pm it was 85 F.

We went to the DIF this morning to help with the free pet clinic. We were to start at 9:00 am but there were some problems with what we could use there and what we couldn’t.

They had 5 vets that call themselves the M.A.S.H vets. They travel from town to town giving free pet care, most of which is spading and neutering.

Today they did 16 dogs and 1 cat. They were done with the all the pets by 3:30. We helped in recovery and stayed until the last dog woke up and was able to be put in a travel kennel until it was able to go home. When we left (close to 4) there were 4 dogs in the kennels. They were not really to go home yet but would be in about a half hour.

They are doing this all over again here tomorrow, and then they go to Anticama to hold another clinic.

They are getting the pets ready to go in for surgary.They are doing surgary, Larry has always wanted to see how this is done.

This is the recovery area. The cat was having a problem with cooling down. We were very worried about the cat but one of the vets came and got him, took him to a cooler place. He did make it, we were so glad to hear him meow.

The lady here with Larry is a nurse, but not a part of this group, ust one of the people that offered to help.

March 3, 2009 Tuesday martes
Yesterday was a little different weather wise. It started out warm then cooled off just before Tai Chi class. Then it seemed to start to warm up, but no breeze. After we got back home we were going to go to the beach but it clouded up and got real humid.

While at class Larry was watching one of the women cooking her breakfast. They cook their breakfast and eat it on their break. She saw him trying to see what she was cooking and asked to come on over and see what she had. It was a chili dish, with eggs, tomatoes, onions, and a light green chile. Then she gave us some to try on corn tortillas. They were good and a little spicy.

I had bought 2 grapefruits for 10 pesos on Sunday, ate one of them then and the last one on Monday. Today (Tuesday) I bought two more plus two cumbers and six limes for 15 pesos.

We went to the beach today. Larry ordered a beer and I ordered a coco, he got his beer right away but my coco never came. He ordered another beer and I got an order of onion rings. Two beers and onion rings was 70 pesos.

Larry went swiming, the waves were nice big ones for here. But the water was dirty. Someone has been burning debris up the estuary and the water had small bits of burnt wood in it.

It’s Tuesday so we are planning on going out to steak dinner. I know I have said it before but will have to say it again steaks are 75 pesos tonight.

We checked the exchange rate this morning; it was at 15.5, kind of wish I needed to get more pesos.

This morning at 6:30 am it was 81 F in the house. At 4:30 pm it was 86 F in the house.

They are doing a lot of road construction. notice all the safty barriers, hard hats and yellow tape.

March 1, 2009 Sunday Domingo
The weather here is getting warmer. I have been real lazy, not doing anymore than I have too.

Last Tuesday we did go to the club for steak dinner. The steaks are only 75 pesos on Tuesday nights, other nights they are 100 pesos. This still is a good price for the steaks. These steaks are almost an inch thick, which is hard to find here in Mexico. Larry also had a beer and I had a coke. Dinner also comes with a nice salad. We spent 175 pesos for our dinner.

It was also Fat Tuesday, there was a Mardi Gras parade, that we got to watch from the terrace while eating our dinner. After the parade they had a band playing in the plaza until late.
We have been riding our bikes to Kenos economico but did not find him open until this last Thursday. We had another great lunch and were able to pay him for the last time we were there. He didn’t have any change then and wouldn’t take our money. So now we are all paid up for the meals we have had there. I gave him 128 pesos for the 4 meals.

Friday we went to a party that Sherry and Lew give. They provide the food and drinks. They also had a band that is from San Blas playing. While the music is loud, they were very good.
I went to the bank this week to get money from the ATM. I got 5000.00 pesos, then checked to see how much in US dollars was withdrawn, $347.20, the exchange rate is over 14.5.

This young lady had been performing on the plaza. As the town is getting ready for Mardi Gras.