Blog #5 Another Week in San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico

Every night this week there has been entertainment at the plaza or central square. This young fellow was part of the local talent night. You could just tell that he had performed many times infront of audiences and had a great stage presence. There were only three performers which was disappointing but they were all really good.

This week saw us back at El Chaco for a polar swim. At lunch time we go next door to a really good restaurant and then walk along the beach back to El Chaco. You can see how crowded and dirty the beach is!!!

The structures you can see on the right are rented for less than $5 a day mainly on the weekends or holidays. You drive right up to one of them in your car. Bring your own food and liquores or sit at one outside one of the restaurants and they will come out and serve you. They stretch on forever. I can't even guess how many of them there are all joined together like one long palapa townhouse. There are actually two parallel lines of them. During the week when we are there, there are very few people. It is really wonderful.

Did you say you wanted a new curtain rod put up on the door? Hey, call the local welder who will come with all his equipment to install it!!!

Our house is no longer "mango yellow" as the landlord calls it. It is now a salmon colour to match the floor tile or I should say, the living/dining/kitchen room and our bedroom are done. The other two rooms will done "manana".

Since this is the week of the bird festival in San Blas, I had the kids make birds out of stones on Saturday. I'm not sure what was the biggest hit. I think it was the glitter that was everywhere in the house by the time they left. They had a really good time.

You just never know what is coming down the street next. There has been a circus here in town for the last week and to advertise it they drive around town hauling trailers with the different animals in them. The kids get all excited and rush outside to have a look. Some run behind hoping for a better look or maybe to join the circus. Who knows. You can buy a ticket for less than $2 from the driver which is less than $3 if you buy it at the circus door. Seems like a good deal as the show lasts about two hours. I heard the show was really cool from local kids but it just is "no me gousta". Not to my taste.

I have never been so close to a big cat. I tried to get a shot of one of them yawning but I was too busy checking out what it had for lunch!!!! See it's foot coming out of the bars??? I could have touched it, but I didn't. See kids, I don't always live dangerously!!!!

Tamales - What can I say? Inside these corn husks are long chunks of dough stuff with some kind of filling such as chicken, pork, shrimp. I have tried them a number of times and I think my trying days are over for tamales. The other day Ray said, "I know you like to support the local economy but I never want to eat these again." When I told him I had bought enough for the next day, I'm sure his eyes juiced up!!!!

mmmmm

Blog #4

This has been a week of "incidents" in San Blas. We are keeping a close eye on events and may move on but not to the gated community in Florida with all the other blue hairs driving golf carts!!!!

You can see Ray here trying to fix one of our minor problems, being the Home Depot plumbing and electrical guy!!! Ok, so a plumber was called next and our minor problem became a major deal and we are now constantly mopping the floor now waiting for the plumber to return but we have learnt this year that, "Manana" really means any day in the future!!!!


Here I am delivering medical supplies donated by a friend at home. They were very pleased to get them. There are two hospitals in San Blas. One for the rich and this one that I was taken to last year after I was chewed by a dog. Oh, the dog is still there and any day now.......I intend to drive past it with my "weapon" and get my revenge. Instead of,"Dog attacks woman" the news will be,"Woman attacks dog"!!!! Do I need to tell you that I'm kidding? I will probably never go down that street again on my bike. I even hold my breath going past in a car!!!

On Saturday we were invited to two birthday parties. These are pictures of the first one. It was right across the street. The kids smashed a pinata and the adults talked and ate. I was given a seat at the head of the table and food started to appear infront of me. first this bowl of pozole. An interesting dish. It has huge kernels of corn, broth and all parts of the chicken. I think there are probably feet in there somewhere but luckily I just got skin and a neck!!! I have had this dish twice and I think I'm done. I have done with this small piece of Mexican cullinary culture. I do not care to ever eat it again. It was followed with yummy chocolate cake and a custardy thing that Ray would have loved if he had of been there!!!!! Ray came with me and then vanished into thin air. I finally found him back at home!!!! He missed the pozole!!!

Yesterday we had a happening on our street right outside our house, actually where the party had been the night before but this time oh my!!! First they put up this huge tarp across the road. They blocked the road off with cars and then set up chairs and tables. It took me some time to find out that this was a christening party. They had a juke box with which they shared music with the neighbourhood until almost 11 last night. So next time you have a special event in your life why not block off the road, crank up the tunes, bring out the tequilla and party all day and night? Can you imagine how long it would last? Five, maybe ten minutes???

Yesterday afternoon I went to deliver vitamins. I borrowed a friends truck and her Mexican husband. It was really fun. At a couple of houses when the kids saw me they ran into the house yelling,"Vitamins!!!" but of course in Spanish!!! There were many hand shakes and good wishes. For the first time we asked if they would like to have them for another year and they all said yes. We got ourselves into a bit of a pickle at one spot as a father came over and asked for vitamins for his two kids and then a mother came and wanted vitamins for her 3 kids and at that point I said to my helper, "Tell the next one NO!!!" It worked out so well and I'm not sure how. It was kind of like the story of the bread and the fishes. Thank you to everyone who donated!!!

Last night was the opening of the bird festival and like always it started with a troup of folk dancers. They were supposed to start at 8. Organization took until 8:35. Speaches took another hour and then finally the show. Wonderful. You may find this hard to believe but it was really cold and damp by 11:00 p.m. but we survived yet again!!!

Did you know that if you lay under a ceiling fan and squint your eyes you can count the blades even if the fan is on high? Now, how interesting is that!!!

Blog #3 Winter 2011

This is the view in front of me as I am writing this week's blog. On Friday we took the bus from San Blas to Puerto Vallarta. We are staying at the Vallarta Torre a smallish timeshare at the north end of town near the marina. We have had a great weekend but the culture shock is really something coming from sleepy laid back San Blas to the craziness of PV.

We were supposed to return to SB today but our friend Paty has convinced us to stay at her house tonight and go salsa dancing til midnight. Doesn't she know I'm usually asleep by 9!!!! The other day when we told her we had been up since 7 she looked at us with wonder in her eyes and asked, "Why?"



This is the lovely entrance to the hotel. If this is welcome home, where is the snow?!?!?!

Do you know what this is? Well, let me tell you.....it is a baby turtle carrier and last night I got the thrill of launching a few baby turles!!! They have a fenced off area here where they keep turtle eggs that some turtle egg collector has put there. There are about 10 signs giving the date they were laid and the date they will be dug up. When one or two surface, a staff member goes in and digs up the rest.

Look at them!!!! Aren't they adorable???

They are golfina turtles and this one was the first one I got to launch. We were supposed to let them go on the sand near the water's edge which didn't make a lot of sense to me so I bided my time and when a huge wave came in I let mine go and off it swam. My clothes are still drying but it was for a good cause!!!

Some of the herd were returned by the incoming tide and we had to keep relaunching them. It was really a wonderful experience.

We were back at El Chaco this week for a swim and as we sat at the restaurant next door having lunch the cow herd came up from the beach. The funny thing was that as they passed the restaurant they crossed the coastal highway and no one was assigned the job of stopping or slowing down traffic. It was probably a surprise to new drivers to the area but old hat to the locals.

We took our first trip to Miramar this week for fresh oysters. In our enthusiasm, we arrived before the oysters!!! We were glad to see the arrival of the boats and our fresh lunch. What a treat!!!!

Times are tough down here for all of the businesses. Press concerning local problems have kept many away this year. Popular trailer parks on the ocean that are usually full sit with only one or two trailers in them. Small businesses have closed including some great eating places. In the past a dozen oysters at Miramar was usually 15 but this year, a dozen was twelve. A sign of our times.

Here are some of the kids that attended the first art class. There were 8 of them. We did drawing with pencil crayons or crayons. Next Saturday we are going to do beading. This also lets you see the inside of our house. The two bedrooms and bathroom are to the left. We like it. Our old house from last year was rented and the new one wasn't ready so we are staying here until manana.......

Finally the Saturday market. Can you see the faint white line infront of the grandmother and to the left of the walking man? Look familiar? See how straight the area is? New location. Guess where? The airport strip!!!!! I kid you not!! So if you are flying into San Blas please don't arrive on a Saturday!!!!

The Second Blog Winter 2011

Here off to the rear right, you can see Ray enjoying the dirty crowded pool at El Chaco. The water was freezing but oh so refreshing!!! Ray didn't get wet!!! Smart man.......

Now here is a sight you don't see every day. A herd of cows coming down the beach being herded by one guy on a bike and another on a motorcycle!!!! Gotta love Mexico!!! Always a Kodak moment at any moment.

These three little shots are from the Day of the Kings on January 6th. The bread was again all around the square. There was a clown entertaining the kids for a long time. This little girl was enjoying golf with her balloon until her club exploded. The last picture shows one of the kids enjoying a pinata. As quickly as one was demolished, it was replaced by another one.

Tangarines so fresh they still have their green attached!!! Yum.

This was the happy bicycle mechanic from last week. Every time we pass him now we get big, "Holas".

New Year's Day 2011

What a wonderful way to spend New Year's Day. We rode our bikes ( We had to have work done on them when we reurned. I had a flat. New hand grips. Seats adjusted. Ray had to have his wonky handly bars adjusted. Remember he doesn't have the tool he brought down to do that any more. He got air in both tires. We were there for an hour and the charge? $5 ) down to the beach to meet friends for lunch. I have never seen so many people at the ramadas. They were packed with happy celebrating people. We had the red snapper above grilled over mesquite wood. It was so delicious!!!! Oh, lunch was at 4:30!!!!

Caught!!!

First Ray was caught at Pearson with a four inch wrench that he had brought down to fix his bike. Too bad it was in his carry on!!!

Second, oh my, as soon as I saw the new xray machines in Puerto Vallarta, I knew I was screwed!!! We had already discussed how much cash to carry with us incase we got stopped with the vitamins. Enough to pay the "tax" but not enough to pay for our rent for 3 months. Sure enough as soon as they saw the contents they pulled me over. I opened the case wide and that is what they did with their eyes!!! One large case containing nothing but over a hundred bottles of vitamins.

After half an hour of different officers coming over and trying to read the boxes and me saying, "These aren't drugs." "See the pictures of the kids I give them to. See their houses. They are very poor." " I don't sell the vitamins. I give them to the kids." it was time for Ray to leave me alone and go to find the man who had come to drive us to San Blas. All the people had left from our plane and another plane load had also gone through customs. As I saw him walking away I wondered when we would see each other again. Would he contact help after five hours, five days, five months? Wait a minute, he would be back in Canada in 5 months!!! Would I still be held in customs?

Another painful hour went by. I was told we were waiting for the head hauncho to come. He never did. Finally a very nice woman explained about the new Mexican laws and how I had to go through a non-profit group to bring vitamins in in the future. She gave me a brochure and her phone number. I swore never to do this again and all ended well. I didn't have to cry and whine. I didn't have to pay any "tax". It was a good day!!!!!!!

Welcome to Winter 2011 in San Blas!!!

Welcome to Winter in San Blas 2011. The url has to remain the same at sanblaswinter2010.blogspot.com . We look forward to sharing our time here in Mexico with you and hope you enjoy the read!!!