Friday November 27 2009
At 7:00 am this morning it was 80 in the bungalow. More clouds have rolled in and by 9:00am had started to rain. I can hear the drops and see water on the table out in the patio but it’s not a hard rain where you can see the drops falling. The sun did come out 3 or 3 times today, while it never got above 83 in the bungalow it did humid.
We went to McDonalds around 3 for hamburgers and fries. No it’s not the same McDonalds they have in the states and in the big city’s here. This one was here long before we ever heard of McDonald. The hamburgers cost 40pesos each or 80 pesos for both about $8:00 US.
We went to eat at 3 because I had a dentist appointment at 5. I arrived at 5 to find another person waiting to see him. I told him I would gladly change my appointment for tomorrow but he instead on letting me have the time today.
The dentist took one look at my tooth (I had lost a filling this summer) said oh and what sounded like broken, then looked at me and said injection, no pain. I said ok. He put something on my gums to deaden the injection site, gave me the shot, about that fast. I could feel the shot but it didn’t hurt real badly. In a short period of time he was ready to start drilling. Within a half hour of setting in the chair I had a temporary filling and was walking out the door. I will go back next Friday to have the job finished. Cost for today’s work was 200 pesos or less than $20.00.

Thanksgiving Day
It was cloudy this morning. Larry went for his morning bike ride. The guy that sells bananas door to door came by, I bought 5 pesos worth of the little sweet bananas, about 10 of them. I will have to buy less next time as that is a lot of bananas. I am sure we will eat them before they get too ripe.
We were also out of water this morning so we had to listen for the water truck, it makes a siren sound. It went by 3 times before we were able to get it to stop. They go by here so fast if we are in the patio we can’t get out to the street in time. The driver will carry the bottle in and put it where you want it, you have to have a bottle to exchange or it cost extra, the 5 gallon bottle is 12 pesos. One bottle will last about 10 to 11 days for us.
We wanted to eat light this morning as we were going to the social club for dinner so I had the last of my grapefruit, a slice of banana bread and 2 bananas.
We stopped and talked with Tony on our way to the plaza. He said it was going to rain, did we have everything inside.
Dinner at the social club was to start at 6. We sat in the plaza until 6:10. We were told it would be another 20 minutes before they would be ready to serve so we went back to the park. At 6:40 we went back upstairs, they still weren’t ready but let us set down at our favorite place on the balcony. We like to set out there as we can watch what is going on in the plaza. It was just after 7 when we were served our turkey dinner. It was good, mashed potatoes, yams, stuffing, gravy and turkey. I would have liked fewer potatoes and more stuffing and little more gravy, I shouldn’t complain as it was good and just the right amount as we weren’t hungry and didn’t feel stuffed. We also had a dessert, caramel ice cream with baked apples. I had a coke and Larry had a beer to drink, our dinner with drinks for both of us was 225 pesos or less than $22.50
On our way back to the bungalow we again stopped to talk with Tony. I looked up at the sky and said no rain. He laughed and said no rain.

Thursday November 26 2009
This last week has been hot. We have made it to the beach once this week. This last weekend there was the start of a big celebration for the revolution of 1910. The Mexicans are going to have a year of celebrations for the 100th anniversary of this revolution.
We received wood this week that one of our neighbors, Walter, died in Oct just before he was to start is journey down here from BC. Walter was a very nice older man. He claimed to be from Scotland but his accent was more German. We meant his 3 children last year, they were from Scotland. Walter was a good story teller, he will be missed.
Yesterday clouds rolled in and it cooled off quite a bit. We have turned off both fans today.
I had a dentist appointment yesterday but the dentist had to take his little girl to the doctor in Tepic. They thought she might have dengue fever, which can be very dangerous. So I have a new appointment for Friday.
Today we are going to Thanksgiving dinner at the Social Club. The dinner is $100 pesos which includes dessert (I really don’t need dessert). I have been told it is a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, we will see.
Our evening walks to the plaza have been nice and quiet as there are not many people on the plaza yet. It must still be early in the season for the gringos to arrive here in San Blas. I hope that they aren’t staying away because of the economical problems.

Thursday November 19, 2009
I was up early again this morning, at 5:30am I could hear someone sweeping the street. Yes sweeping the street. So she was just doing the street in front of her house. Then I noticed that she was getting her garbage ready to be picked up. I thought she was just getting things done real early but to my surprise the garbage truck came by at 7:00am down at the intersection and not up our street. So I didn’t get the garbage out in time to be picked up. Looks like I have to take it down to the garbage tree.
It was still 83⁰ in our bungalow when I got up and that was the low for the day. We are not going to do much today, just relax.
We went to the plaza tonight still not as many people as were here last year at this time.
We went to Minisuper Kane to get more juice and some tea for $56 pesos about $5.60 US. Larry also had a taco for $6 pesos.
At 7:45pm it was still 85 in our bedroom.

Monday November 16, 2009

We were up before 1:00am to catch our ride to the airport. Dave was to pick us up at 1:30 but he was at the door just after 1. We gave him $20.00 for taking us to Portland
I had paid the fees for our baggage the day before on-line as the US Airways web page said it would be $5.00 cheaper a bag to do it that way. When we checked in the lady tried to tell me I had not paid for one of the bags. I stood my ground and she finally said oh yes you did pay for both bags. So far the flight has cost us $698.70; I will still have to pay for the bags return trip. I wish they could make it easier for the check in, the new kiosk check in is not just a scan of your receipt or passport like they say it is.
Our flight left Portland on time at 5:30am. We arrived in Phoenix at 8:57am and departed at 10:00am. We had about 15 minutes to wait at the gate before getting on. We could have had something to eat on this flight but for a meal it was $7.00 and for a snack it was $3.00. That includes the peanuts they gave free before.
We arrived in Puerto Vallarta on time at 1:42pm. We had to wait in customs while they took photo copies of Larry’s passport and tourist form. He never gave any reason as to why he did it.
Then it was getting out of the airport, walking up over the street and catching the city bus to the bus depot. We had to get there before 3:00pm in order to catch the bus to San Blas. This is where the heat really hit us. It was hard going up the ramp to cross the street; the air seemed to be thick and hard to breath. By the time we made it to the bus station we were sweating.
The bus that goes to San Blas did not have its own station; it is now run by another bus line. We were able to get our tickets ($236 pesos, or about $20.00 US) with 20 minutes to spare.
We arrived in San Blas at 6:00pm. It was a four hour ride from PV to San Blas. They are in different time zones.

Tuesday November 17 2009

As tired as we were we were up early getting things put away and seeing what we needed to get or replace.
This year Tony has a set of shelf’s that was in the bedroom but we moved them in the front room. We asked for two more tables, one for the computer in the bedroom and one for the patio. We also had to get two more chairs.
We went shopping at the Minisuper Kane for juice (gallon of orange and quart of pina), salt, pepper, candy, peanuts and sugar, for $110 pesos or about $11:00 US.
Larry also bought a papaya and 10 limes for $14 pesos or about $.14.
We were really excited when we discovered that the Social Club still had steak night on Tuesday nights, $75.00 each with drinks we spent $175 pesos or about $17.50 US.




Wednesday November 18 2009
I walked to the market to buy some grapefruit, two for $8 pesos or about $.80.
We now have the computer hooked up to the internet so most of the have to get done “now” things are done.
Larry worked on getting our bikes road ready so we could go to the beach.
Larry had a beer I had a lime aide and we shared an order of onion rings for $80 pesos or about $8.00 US. He went swimming twice while at the beach. I am just not ready to go in yet.
For dinner we had left over steak from last night. We walked down to the plaza but there wasn’t much going on so we didn’t stay long.
We are still getting accustomed to the heat and having not ridden the bikes in a while could feel the pain of muscles not used like that in a while.

Nov 11 2009
We have our tickets to Puerto Vallarta (698.70). I bought them 10/13/2009. We have a week to pack.
I will be changing our DISH TV to the lowest program we can get on Sunday the 15th to save on the bills we have at home. If I was to stop useing Dish I would have to pay more to start it back up when we got back. I would also have to sign a new contract with them. I feel it is cheaper to go to the lowest program they have then to have to pay the insulation fees.
We will change our car insurance, at the same time, for having both cars in storage. We will change that back when we get back home in April. It does save money and we keep our insurance active. We could stop our policy but it would cost more when we got back to open a new policy.
The weather here has really made us want to go as soon as possable. We have had rain all week. It is colder than we really like. Keep telling myself only a week to go.
We have bought a few things that we feel we need to take with us, Larry bought razor blades that he couldent find down there last year. He also will take Bick Lighters as we couldent find them last year. I have stove top stuffing for thanksgiving and Christmas (.78 x 4) as I really missed it last year.