Thursday December 30 2010

Yesterday morning as Larry was going out for his morning bike ride he said Jean-Paul has already gone somewhere on his bike. Jean-Paul has been sleeping in until 8:30 – 9:00. Then Larry saw that the chain that locks the bike to the iron bars on the window had been cut.

We went to the plaza to check the Cocodrilo for the morning special but there was no sign out. We decided to get a steak at the mini super that’s on the plaza; they will cut it as thick as we want. Then Larry got another fish at the fish market. When he started to pay she wouldn’t take the money as she owed him change from the last time he bought fish from her.

We went to the plaza in the evening to have chiles rellenos. We sat at a table with two Mexican women, mother and daughter. They were from Mexico City, here for the holiday. They didn’t speak any English but we did manage to talk with them.

This morning Jean-Paul told us he was leaving, going south to find a new place to live. He felt the bike was stolen because it was his and someone wanted to get back at him for some reason. I think someone saw an easy target and took it. He was ready to leave today but calmed down some and decided not to leave until after the New Year.

We had to get some limes, a grapefruit, and tangerines as we were out, oh and Larry bought another fish. He had his fish and I had the rest of the steak for lunch.

Monday December 27 2010

Sunday was spent by lying around most of the day as we still feel like we ate too much yesterday. Oh we did warm up leftovers now that Jean-Paul has a microwave; it is easier to do that. I did make it to the plaza and to the Minisuper market for some juice and candy.

Today is Jean-Paul’s birthday I had planned on getting him some chocolates but the store didn’t have what I had in mind. We then went to the pastry shops to see if we could find a small cake. I ended up getting two tarts for him and Malian.
Larry fixed breakfast this morning, yes he can cook.

The banana guy came by with some little red bananas. They are very sweet, I bought some for 4 pesos, got more than I expected. When this happens we go to the fruit stand and get strawberry’s, I put the extra bananas and the strawberry’s in our blender, add lime juice a little sugar and pina juice and have one of the best smoothies you can get.

Saturday December 25 2010

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Yesterday Jean-Paul asked Ed if we were going to have our Christmas dinner. Ed said yes at 1:30. That meant we had to make a trip to the market to find what we needed for the dish we were bringing to the dinner. Ed always fixes the turkey, this year its chicken. Jean-Paul brings a fish soup. He starts cooking it the day before the meal. I brought stuffing mix down with me but still need some vegetables that I add to the mix.

I had to go to three different stores to find the celery I needed. They were all very busy, one lady tried to get in front of me to pay for her items. It reminded me of shopping on the day after Thanksgiving.

Our Christmas dinner is very interesting, as we have Americans, French Canadians and Mexicans. Everyone likes to speak their own language. We speak very little Spanish, even less French. Some of the Canadians spoke all three pretty good which helps some.

At 1:30 Ed said he needed at least 45 more minutes, but some of the Mexicans started showing up and Ed wanted the kids to get their drinks and someone to dish up plates. He is worried that they will dish up too much food.

We all had a great time, the dinner broke up around 4:30.

Thursday December 23 2010

Wednesday, I am really not feeling good, stayed in bed most of the morning. Larry took off to the fish market to get a fish. When he walked through the door he said Merry Christmas and put a lobster on the counter top.

I found a recipe for cooking on line, and sent him back to the market for some limes and a grapefruit (for tomorrow morning). He got the limes ok, but the grapefruit turned out to be an orange.

He wanted pictures of the lobster. The batteries in the camera were dead. I gave him one so he would know what kind to buy and sent him off again. Didn’t bring back exactly what I wanted but they worked.

The only thing I didn’t have was a bay leaf but Ed gave me some to use.



We went to the plaza to see about getting something to eat. I know we just had a lobster but it was only one small one and we shared it.

I really didn’t want to go to a café. I wanted to get something to take home. So I went to the chicken place and bought half chicken that was cooked on a grill and some cooked small potatoes. Larry stopped and bought a fish. It won’t surprise me when he grows gills and fins.

I stopped at a store to see if I could find some Kleenex. Not knowing what to say I pulled out my small packet of Kleenex and showed her the name. She said loud and clear Kleenex, but the rest I Spanish no small boxes. She had just what I wanted.

We ate most of the chicken. I made chicken soup out of what was leftover.

In the evening I made myself a hot toddy. I think it helped my cold. The Mexicans believe that you need to drink warm drinks when you are sick.

Thursday morning and I am feeling so much better. I did sleep in some and didn’t do much of anything. Larry got another fish. I had my soup and hot tea.

I could hear some pounding going on down the street. They were building a stage in the road down by the DIF which is on the next block. They were giving the children a big fiesta Christmas Party. There were two big jumping boxes. The kind that is filled with air, the kids go inside and jump around. They had several piñatas for the kids to break apart. They weren’t filled with candy. The kids were given a bag of candy instead. That way there was no fighting over the candy and everyone got some.

I did not do much today as my cold is worse. We did walk to the plaza but I did not feel like eating anything that was being offerd I bought some cooked chicken and cooked small potatoes to make a chicken soup with, Larry bought another fish. We atayed close to home today. I am hopping that Larry dosent come down with this cold. I am feeling better but we will see what tomorrow brings.
Wish every one a merry Christmas.

Tuesday December 21 2010

Thursday evening we meant some friends that live here year round at Walla Walla’s for dinner. We had the chilis again. Ours were good but Roxanne said hers was tough.
Friday the man we call British John showed up to ask us and Ed over to his place on Saturday for breakfast.

Saturday we arrived at Johns just before 10. Ed had gone to the Saturday Market and was an hour late but it really didn’t matter. The owner of John’s house showed up with a new back door to replace the old one.

Larry helped them carry the door in; it was a metal door with windows. They brought in welding equipment as it had to be welded to the frame. He also had to cut the old door off the frame. So we had some unexpected entertainment while waiting for breakfast.

Ed told us he thought he was coming down with strep throat.
Our breakfast lasted a good 3 hours. It was scrambled eggs with tomatoes, onions and a mild chili, served with beans and bacon.

We didn’t make it to the Saturday Market.

Sunday we went to the plaza during the day to see if the Cocodrilo had a special for lunch. Some kids were putting on Christmas skits, we watched for a while. There was also a clown that was making balloon hearts and flowers. The kids were really having a great time.
Two doors down from the Cocodrilo is a small place where they make tortas, tacos and sometimes, this year they have chili rellenos. We were in luck the sign for the chilies was up we ate there.

Monday we took the speakers to a repair shop to see if he could put on the right plugs. I paid him 100 pesos for his work, I thought he did a great job, but they still didn’t work.
Today we went to Santa Cruz to find the computer tec. This time we had the right town found his house but he wasn’t home.

Larry was hungry so we walked around town to find a place where we could eat. We found an internet café that said they did repairs. But he wanted me to leave my laptop with him. I said no, we will find the tec.

It was about this time I started to feel like I was coming down with a cold.
When I stepped out of the café I noticed a man walking by, I thought this might be the person we were looking for. We started back for the Tec’s house, I was right it had been him and he was home.

The speakers might have been able to be fixed but he said it would cost more to have him fix them than it would to buy a new pair of speakers and the new ones would be better. So the next time we are in Tepic we will get new speakers.

On the bus ride back to San Blas we got to see where the bridge had been washed away this summer. We also saw busses going from San Blas to PV.

It was good to get back to our home as I am getting a cold.

Wednesday December 15 2010

Today is the day to take the tape off of Larry’s back. We decided it would be easier to take off after his shower. The small incision had bleed and looked like it was opening. So we walked to the laboratory where they do blood work as we thought we could see a doctor there. The lady behind the desk was very helpful. She typed the name of the doctor we could go to see and told us how to get there, the only English word she said was street. But we understood what she was trying to tell us.

When we got to his office there was a lady setting in the lobby. There was no desk with someone to ask if we could see the doctor. What we had to do was just sit and wait for him to come out.
The doctor looked at the incisions and said they were ok. He put some gauze on the small one and said it was ok. He didn’t charge us for the visit. He did speak some English. Now we know where to go if we need to see a doctor.

The street that was tore up last month is still being worked on. They took all the cobble stone off and dug almost a foot dipper, removing a lot of sand. They have now put dirt and rock down. We still don’t know if they are going to put new cobble stone down or asphalt.






It is an election year and campaigning has started. We had an airplane flying very low with loud speakers that was playing something about one of the men running for office.

Tuesday December 14 2010

Our goal for today was to find Mike Monse in Aticama. He is a computer Tec; we wanted to see if he could get the speakers to work on the laptop. I wrote down the address and other information I thought would be helpful.

But first we had to catch the bus to Aticama. We had no idea what time the bus left or how often. We were at the station at 9am when the bus from Santa Cruz came in. This is the bus we needed to catch as it goes through Aticama on its way back to Santa Cruz. At 9:45 the ticket booth (desk) opened for that bus line. We bought our tickets but still had no idea when the bus was leaving. No time schedule is posted. At 10 other riders started getting on the bus so we did too. The bus left at about 10:15. Someone once told me the only thing in Mexico that runs on time is the busses, but I am not sure that is true.

We arrived in Aticama around 10:30. We showed a man that was working on a vendor’s booth the address we wanted to find. He said 2 blocks that way then left 2 blocks. That didn’t take us to where we wanted to go. We asked another man and he said there is no street in Aticama with that name.

After several failed attempts to find the street we decided to give up. We went to a café to get a drink (Larry had breakfast) and wait for the bus going back to San Blas. We asked the cook at the café if she knew where this street was and she said are you sure this is here in Aticama.
We thought we had another hour to wait for the bus, when I looked up the street and saw it coming. Larry had just finished his breakfast, which he said was very good. We jumped up to stop the bus and pay for our meal. The cook’s husband ran out to stop the bus and have it wait for us.

As soon as we got back home I got on the laptop and checked the address and yep I had the wrong town, we should have gone to Santa Cruz.

The bus ride was 60 pesos for the round trip for both of us.

Monday December 13 2010

What a week this has been. If you remember the song sky rockets in flight, afternoon delight, let me change it to bottle rockets in flight, early morning fright.

The first bottle rocket goes off between 4 and 4:30am. The thought you may have is a war has started but then the church bells begin to ring, 25 times followed by 1 more. Just as you start to go back to sleep more bottle rockets, the bells this time with 2 extra rings. This all happens one more time. Did I say one more time? No it all starts all over at 6:30, the normal time for the call to mass to start. This week is the fiesta week for the virgin Guadalupe. It started on the 3ed with the precessions that will happen every night the last on the 12th which is the day of the virgin Guadalupe.

The days have gotten a lot warmer which is what we are here for.

One time when Larry went to buy a fish he didn’t see the kind he wanted. There are 4 different fish vendors at the market. At one is a small, older lady, she looked at Larry and asked “sierra?” Larry said “si”; she dug down to the bottom of the pile of fish and brought up one that was just the size he likes.

On Tuesday I went to the bike shop and had a basket put on. Larry didn’t notice the basket until Thursday and that was after Ed asked me about it. The basket was 150 pesos.

Saturday we went to the Saturday Market. We thought we had found an adaptor for the speakers so they will work on the laptop. I guess we will have to take them to someone to see if they can be adapted.

I found some Christmas decorations that I hung outside. I waited two days before I pointed them out to Larry.

Monday it was up at 6:15 so we could catch the 7:00am bus to Tepic. Larry had another doctor appointment at 10:00am. For some reason we think it takes 2 hours to ride the bus to Tepic but its only 1 ½ hours.

This time we caught the city bus, knowing it would take longer to get to the plaza. The bus ride was 10 pesos for both of us.

We arrived at her office just an hour early. She was late and had one person to take care of before us. She took the stitches out and taped it so it won’t come apart, I can take the tape off on Wednesday.

I wanted to see the big shopping mall that we have been told about. We knew it was out past Walmart but just how far or what bus to catch. So we caught a bus that said it went by Walmart, it did, but the shopping mall was nowhere to be seen, we rode the whole route. I did see a bus that said P. Forum. The mall is called the Forum. We stayed on the bus we were on and got off at the bus depot. We got a taxi and rode to Plaza Forum.

While I couldn’t find anything I wanted to buy we did learn how to get there. A bus that goes to Sam’s Club or a bus that says P. Forum.

We caught a bus back into town and the main plaza. We had bought a roundtrip ticket from San Blas and back it was 80 pesos for both of us. We went to the old bus station by the plaza. We didn’t have a seat assignment so the diver wouldn’t let us on until we had one or everyone else was on. Lucky for us not all the seats were taken or we would have had to stand until one was available.

Monday December 6 2010

Saturday Larry wanted to go to Cocodrilo for breakfast, forgetting again it was Saturday and they are closed. We sat on the plaza for a while deciding what to do. We decided to get another fish and some fruit. Same thing we have done most of the time down here.

It has started to warm up during the day, in fact we have taken the extra blanket off the bed. On our travels down here I have learned to tell how warm or cold it is going to be by how many blankets are on the bed in our hotel room. Its two sheet weather here right now.

Sunday our one objective is to find out what times the bus leaves for Tepic. While trying to read the schedule, which made no sense even in Spanish, a lady came up to help us get the information, we wanted. She spoke very good English and even said the posted schedule made no sense. We learned that the first bus leaves at 6:00am and one leaves every hour after that. We decided we would take the 7:00am bus which (we thought) would get us to Tepic by 10:00 giving us an hour to get to the doctor’s office.

Monday, we were up before 6:00am and ready to go, we could have caught the first bus but I am trying to learn not to be too early when going somewhere. I need to just sit back and relax. If we are late, not to worry most things start late here anyway.

It was a good thing that we got to the bus depot at 6:45 and got our ticket as people started coming to get tickets to Tepic. The tickets were 46 pesos. The bus was full, every seat was taken and people where standing in the aisle. You would have thought the bus couldn’t hold any more, this was at the depot. Before we get out of Sa Blas the bus makes at least 4 stops where more people got on. Now some got off at the small towns along the way but more got on too.

We arrived in Tepic an hour before we thought we would, we had more than 2 hours to find the doctor’s office. We got off the bus before it was at the depot. We have noticed in the past that most people get off at the first stop, where they catch a city bus, taxi or a van, called a colectivos. We caught a colectivo for 11 pesos for the both of us.

The colectivo we went on took us on a different route so we got to see more of the city. Larry was able to ride in the front seat so he had a great view and could see where we needed to get off. We were only 5 blocks from the office and two hours early.

The doctor took us in an hour early so we only had to wait an hour. We both went into her office. Larry showed her the cysts. She had him lay down on her examining table. 45 minutes later the cysts were gone. The visit cost 3,000 pesos.
Larry wanted me to take pictures of his surgery but I wasn’t sure how she would take it. We have to go back next Monday to have the stitches taken out.

Larry went to the bank to use the ATM, his exchange rate was 12.35

Our next stop in Tepic was at a Chinese Buffet. Larry ordered fried rice and I had the economico meal. We could not believe the pile of rice on the platter for Larry then I picked one entrée from ten choices, and also had a large pile of rice. We could have had just my meal and split it between us. As it turned out we brought over half of the food home with us.

Then we went to a bicycle shop to see if Larry could find a mirror for his bike. What a time we had trying to tell them what we wanted. They are probably still laughing at the stupid American’s.

We stopped at a leather store and bought a belt for me, 150 pesos. My jeans feel like they are going to fall off. I don’t wear a belt very often but I will with my jeans and they do fit better with it.

We stopped at one of the bigger stores to buy two plates, and two bowls that are not plastic. I also bought three more tea spoons, one steak knife, one bread knife, a set of pillow cases and a Rubbermaid 1.5 liter storage box with a locking lid for flour or sugar, all for 268 pesos.
While I could have shopped some more Larry is starting to feel some pain from the surgery. We walked into the bus depot at 1:40pm bought our tickets and got on the 1:45 bus to San Blas, arriving back home at 3:30pm.

It seemed like a very long day. We were both tired and didn’t go to the plaza.

The fountian on the main plaza in Tepic.

Friday December 3 2010

I have been checking the temperature in our bedroom every morning around 6:30. It has been between 74 and 77. Our little casa is made out of cinder blocks so it absorbs the heat in the day and keeps the inside warmer at night. It is starting to get warmer here during the day but I am still putting long pants and long sleeve shirts in the evening.

Larry has had fish from the fish market at least 3 times this week. Thursday evening we went to Walla Walla’s for chiles rellenos, one of my favorite dishes. We bought one meal and shared it. The meal comes with the chili, rice (which I don’t really like), beans and half an avocado. You also get chips and a salsa dip. Larry had coffee and I had limeade all for 145 pesos. They also had a man playing the guitar and singing American songs in Spanish. The music was from the 50s and 60s. It was great. I think I know where we are going for dinner next Thursday.

Wednesday we rode our bikes over to visit with Roxana, she lives down here year round. Larry asked her if she would call a doctor in Tepic and make an appointment for him. He has two cysts on his back that he wants removed. She did try to make the call then and did talk to someone but they asked her to call back tomorrow. Which she did, Larry has an appointment on Monday at 11:00am. We will be catching the early bus to Tepic which should get us there by 10:00am.

We were expecting Jean-Paul from Canada on Wednesday but when he said he would be here then he didn’t know he would have to go to Tepic to catch the bus here to San Blas. He arrived here Thursday afternoon around 5:30. Jean-Paul lives in the bungalow next door. He speaks mostly French, and has a heavy French accent. His Spanish and English are good enough that we can talk.
We are seeing more gringos but they are not arriving as fast as they did last year.


Here we have a few pidgons on the Plaza

Larry gave them some food then he scared them away, but they came right back.

Tuesday November 30 2010

We went to exchange large bills at the bank this time it was just a 13 minute wait. I also got money from the ATM; the exchange rate was 12.45 pesos per $1.00.

We decided to try the breakfast special at Cocodrilo. The dish was called chilaquiles. It is left over tortillas cut into strips and served with cheese. Sometimes you will get chicken mixed in too; it’s a dish of leftovers. We were not impressed.

While eating our breakfast we watched the road crew was working on the street. We still don’t know what they are going to put down.

On our way back home we stopped to get some limes. The parrot at the stand was a bad bird again.

I walked down to the plaza around 4:00pm. It was very quiet, not very many people there yet. One lady was starting a grill for cooking corn on the cob. She was using wood for the fire to make charcoal to cook the corn over. The corn looks a little burnt when it’s done. I have tried this before; the corn is tough as its field corn and not the sweet corn we use. Some people put mayonnaise and chili powder on it, I have not tried it this way.