Saturday February 19 2011
We had fog again this morning but it was gone before noon and I was able to change into shorts and a tee top.

Friday we went to AGUADA TOVARA, on the jungle boat trip with Val and Ray. We saw a lot of wildlife, from cormorants and herons to turtles and crocodiles. This is the third time we have taken this trip and the first time we saw a boa constrictor. It was curled up in a tree. We would have not seen it if not for the boatman. We have been told that sometimes they are seen hanging from a limb.

The boat wanders through this mangrove jungle to the head water of the Rio Tovara where there is a deep clear pool of cool water. The pool is deep enough for swimming. They have a rope swing to use. They have a café; you can set at the water’s edge and watch a large school of what we call catfish. We had lunch. I don’t think we would eat there again.

The boat trip was 440 pesos for all we shared the cost so we paid 220 for the boat. Lunch was 140 pesos. The exchange rate is 12 pesos per dollar. Larry’s budget is 300 pesos a day, most of the time he stays below that so now and then we can spend a little more.
We didn’t go to the crocodile breeding station. They breed crocodiles so they can raise the baby’s and released in an area that the crocodiles are disappearing from. The crocodiles and turtles are protected here but there are poachers.
Friday night a band started playing just a half a block away. There were about 15 members of the band. While I know the people loved it, it sounded like they were playing the same thing over and over. Our biggest worry when this happens is that they are going to play until 4 in the morning, but they stopped around 11PM.
Today turned out to be a stay at home day. We didn’t even make it to the Saturday Market. It was a warmer day. We enjoyed the sun as much as we could in our patio.

Thursday February 17 2011
We woke up this morning to fog and we thought we felt a drop of rain on our way to the market.

Last week when we went to the market Larry picked up the wrong sack of veggies. He gave me the sack to hold while he bought his fish. A little girl ran up to me and started saying something. I had noticed her when we were getting the veggies. Her mother caught up with us and pointed at the sack. As soon as I looked in I knew it wasn’t ours. We went back to the store and exchanged the sacks. I almost picked another woman’s sack and everyone had a big laugh. Now when we buy veggies we make sure we have the right sack before we leave.

Saturday on the way to the Saturday market I noticed a new Taco café. It is a seafood taco café. I told Larry about it as he didn’t see it. We went back to it so he could eat one to see if they were any good. He had two, they were 10 pesos each.

Larry and I went to Tony’s restaurant on the bay on Monday. We knew something was wrong when he didn’t pick up the cook. I went beachcombing as soon as we got there. Larry thinks I walked over a mile down the beach. When I got back Larry told me that the cook had hurt herself, when she was using an ice pick on a block of ice. She stabbed herself in the leg, hit a large vein. So we had no one there to cook our lunch but Tony and his wife were coming around 1 and they would fix us something. Only that never happened. Tony showed up at 4, his normal time and took us home.
One day last week we went to Fredrick and Lucinda’s palapa on the beach so Larry could try the fried oysters. I had a coconut for my drink and ate fries and onion rings. Lunch was 145 pesos. Larry said the oysters were good and we would eat there again.
Then we went yesterday, Lucinda didn’t cook and the oysters were not as good. We will just have to make sure she is cooking.

The trees on our street got a good trimming.

Larry likes this brand of soap to shower with, but its laundry soap.

Tuesday February 8 2011
Last Wednesday, the 2 of February Val and I went to El Chocó’s to enjoy the swimming pool. Val went in but I thought the water was too cold. For lunch we walked down the road to a restaurant that is on the beach, they also have shacks on the beach that you can set in and they will bring your food out to you.

There was a man there with a bucket of oysters, he came to the table and shucked the oysters for Val to eat. She had 7, he wanted 100 pesos for them but she was able to talk him down to 70 pesos.

After lunch we went back to the pool. We had arranged for a taxi to come to pick us up at 3 as the TNS bus stops running at 1:30. At 3:15 we decided that he had forgotten about us. The very old city bus was headed south going to Santa Cruz. We told the driver we wanted to go to San Blas; he said he was going there after Santa Cruz. So Val and I got on. If we had only known it was going to take us 2 hours to get back to San Blas. After the bus went to Santa Cruz it went to Llano which is not far but when we got to La Palma the bus turned around at a factory to pick up the workers and take them back to Santa Cruz. We should have been back home by 3:30 but it was 5:30 when I walked in the house.

Thursday the 3rd was San Blas days. For the last 3 years they have taken the statue of St San Blas down the street by our place. This year they went a different way. We did make it to the plaza to watch them building the tower for the fireworks during the day and back for the fireworks that night.






Monday the 7th I rode my bike to the beach where I met Val and Ray for lunch. They had fried oysters, first time I have seen fried oysters down here. Larry will have to try them.

There has been another shooting in Tepic, 2 men were killed. They were from San Blas.

Today Val, Ray and I rode in the back of Tony’s pickup to his restaurant on the bay. The water there is very calm, no big waves. I did some beachcombing; I have found some nice shells there before. We were going to catch the bus at 1 back to San Blas but when we checked the time it was almost 3. Tony comes back at 4 every day to close up so we rode back with him.

I noticed a bus station just as we were entering town that hadn’t been there before. Most of the busses that are parked at the bus station down town by the plaza were parked at this new station.
They have torn up the street between the plaza and the church which is where the bus station is. It looks like they are going to pour a concrete street there too.