I'm a traveler, not as frequently as I would like , but I plan on doing more. After working full time at Mount Rainier National Park during the summer of 22 I have decided to retire completely and forever. Prior to that I was semi retired as a Wedding Officiant I officiated at about 20 weddings a season, and with my small delivery service I handled the distribution of a local high-quality Home and Garden magazine .
Prior to my "semi retirement" I was in corrections and before that I owned and operated a bail bond agency.
I now plan to travel to new places and exciting places, getting ready to do that as a solo as the Senior is no longer with me, his choice, and I am OK with that. For hobbies I'm a reader and love my kindle. And I enjoy writing.
After 2 week here in Zihuatanejo I am settling into a bit of a routine. I’m an early riser, I like to enjoy the sunrise from the balcony, take my morning supplements and swim 4-5 laps out and around the blue sailboat anchored there.It’s not as long as I swim at home but I feel the walk makes up for it. On my way back I stop for coffee at La Tregua. Why do I do this. Fear! Fear of gaining weight and fear of feeling old. Now I don’t mind being old, for that matter I rather enjoy the many privileges of being old, one of which is being semi retired giving me the luxury of time to be able be here. But let me tell you I don’t want to feel old, I would prefer not to look old, but I can handle that, I just don’t want to feel old. So I’ll swim, I’ll dance and participate in life rather than being a spectator for as long as I can.
After my swim i find a place to stop for coffee, this past week it has been La Tregua where the kind staff pours coffee from beautiful pitcher. As I return”a la casa” the Senor is rising and is ready to cook my breakfast. In 18 years I have never cooked his breakfast, he cooks for me. . After showering and dressing I’m ready for the day. Today I need to go to the fish market and get a white fish fillet for a fish dish I have mastered at home. This is a big deal as I’m not much of a cook. I’m supposed to have “cananelli beans” per recipe, but I’m using some white beans I found in El Mercado. If it turns out poorly, I guess I’ll blame the beans.
It’s also manicure day, I should have had my nails cut at the first manicure, but vanity prevailed and I thought I could let them be long as I’m not working or gardening. Big mistake! Include a short siesta , fixing dinner and that will just about take care of this day.
I’s just amazing how busy a vacation day can be. Signing off KO
Some things we see here just boggle the mind, things you would never see at home. The Senor with 22 years of Navy service has a strong safety ethic, something that is so frequently ignored here. In the grocery store we see folks stocking shelves by climbing on several cases of goods stacked on top of one another to get to the top shelves, or standing on crates on a flat dolly and pulling himself down the row as he needs to move on. Yesterday a box delivery truck was determined to drive down what is a pedestrian only street to make his delivery. This was accomplished by one person standing on the roof of the delivery van lifting the electric light cords to allow the truck to fit under. It was slow going, I think a hand dolly would have been quicker, but maybe there was no dolly.
Note man on top moving lines
Somethings we see only here are so wonderful, like vanilla ice cream. At home I would never order a plain vanilla cone, but her they are so rich and full of flavor and not pale white but a rich golden tan and yummy. My preference is still to buy it from the old gentleman who bushes the galvanized tub through the streets. There are many ice cream vendors, but his ice cream is my favorite.
Vanilla Ice cream
From inside our apartment I can recognize the many different vendors by their calls, early morning you hear the call of the man selling the rolls, I still can’t pronounce the name he calls out, then the paper seller calling the name of the paper he is hawking, the knife sharpener wheels his grinding wheel through town with a tin whistle sound and the clown horn honk of the ice cream sellers. The produce seller is one of my favorites, I love buying fruit and veggies from his hand wheeled cart right at our door step. And his produce is always ripe to perfection. Signing off KO
That may seem like a strange statement since we are in Mexico, but Mexican tourist have arrive by the bus loads, big beautiful touring buses. I saw a row of at least 10 buses day before yesterday They have come from all over Mexico to spend their holidays at the beach. Families travel together, large extended families with grandparents, all their children, sisters, brothers, cousins down to babes in arms. They move through town in large groups of 15 to 20 people sometimes and the main goal seems to be the beach. I do hope they visit the restaurants as they all say business has been slow. But the streets are full, the plaza is crowed to the max and has some type of entertainment every evening.
Very busy morning for the fishermen
Yesterday was a busy day trying to get the Senor more comfortable, his recent back surgery has not relieved his sciatica, and he was getting more and more miserable, and grouchy as one does when not feeling well. So we went to the doctor. This amuses me because last year when I had a sore throat and needed to go to the doctor he gives me the money and tells me to go. But when he needs to go It’s required that I go also. He makes fun of my taking Spanish classes, but it’s times like this that my exceeding limited Spanish is helpful. The Dr Speaks perfect English and thinks part of the Senior’s problem is that one leg is shorter than the other, he measured him and said a lift in one shoe would help. So we out to find the “ortopedia” store, (actually a neighborhood of 3 orthopedic stores) it was about 6 blocks away with a map and some directions, we got close but not quite there when a group of people walked by and the one in the group that spoke English asked if he could help us and while he wasn’t from the area but his friends were and knew where we needed to go and took us there. Mission accomplished, we got the heel lift. Later that afternoon when I went out to get the Senor’s prescriptions filled and had been to 3 pharmacies with no luck again I run into the same group who again offered assistance , or if I needed help with translations. I explained it wasn’t a language issue, just lack of supply. I’m always impressed how helpful people here are. Stand on any street corner and look confused and someone will come by and offer assistance. In turn when ever I see English-speaking folks looking for something I been coming here long enough I can frequently offer assistance.
I love grocery shopping here, and buying eggs in plastic bags amazes me.
While reading and napping in the late afternoon I set my glasses down on the bed and then later rolled over on them bending the frame, I’ve done this before here so I knew exactly where to go get them fixed. 20 minutes later they were fixed and it only cost 20 pesos (about a buck 35 cents). Just amazes me, the price of things, or people’s time.
By night fall the Senor was feeling better so we went out for dinner at The Captains Daughter and finished up the evening at the Barracruda listening to Steve and friends play.
Usually it is the ladies that take off their shoes to dance
Their music just makes folks want to dance. Signing off KO
Christmas in Mexico has been, fun, interesting and very different. There isn’t the “in your face” commercialism, not on the TV, not in the stores, and certainly not in the tiendas, the little shops. I had to look long and hard to find some interesting Christmas ornaments to bring home to my family. The big Comercial had the standard balls and a few
The nativity scene out side the church
cheap decorations, but nothing special. But I did pursue and found some nice ones. Christmas trees here are interesting,
Tree of corn husks
many are quite creative. I was disappointed that the church bell seems not to be working this year, with the church just round the corner I usually hear them. I misses that. We spent Christmas day much in our usual way, the Senor watching television, I went for walk, visited with friends at one of the beach front restaurants, feed the chickens, and found sweet street dog to
Sweet street dog
give our left overs to. The day was overcast at first then changed to sun, we ended our day watching movie just like we would have at home. But this time we watched on the computer transferred to the TV instead of going out to a theater. there are 2 theatres here, but none showing anything we liked in a language we could understand.
For the past several days there have been programs t the plaza, they last until 10 or sometimes later. None on Christmas eve as it would have been rained out. There is music, comedians and children programs and because of the mexicans love of loud speakers they can be heard from our balcony loud and clear. When it’s music it’s nice, but the comedians and other speakers tend to be a bit annoying. Last night I decided to go see hat the action was as it didn’t appear to be to busy. I’m not fan of tight crowds. Lots going on but not jam-packed but they little battery powered cars for kids to rent and ride around all over the plaza. to me it looked those carnival bumper cars turned out in public, with kids
creening all over, some running into each other purposely, some not on purpose. Absolutly crazy, sometimes you had to move quick to avoid being run over, but I don’t believe there is a mexican word for “liability”. Signing off KO
Yesterday it drizzled on and off all day, not the kind of rain that is cold or that gets you wet. But the skies were cloudy and it was definitely cooler. But by the time we were getting ready to go out for the evening the drizzle became rain. Not the tropical down pour that soaks you in minutes, just plain rain. It wasn’t cold, no wraps were needed but to keep dry getting to our destination, dinner,at Daniels, we had one street and the plaza to cross out in the rain. And who likes to arrive looking like a wet dog, so we used our beach towels as serape and arrived no worse for the weather. Everyone is grousing about the strange weather, they say it is never cloudy or rainy this time of year. The forecast is warmer today and back to normal tomorrow.
Daniels Christmas Eve
We had a great Christmas dinner, most of the folks we know were there. They moved all the tables inside, which made the dance floor small but adequate. As alway Jimmi Mamou’s music was outstanding. My lobster was good, the Senor enjoyed his turkey, even if there was no cranberry sauce, and the chicken and fillet that came with my lobster came home in a box for the Senor to enjoy today along with a large slice of rich gooey chocolate cake. There was a really great fruit salad that came with the meal. I could enjoy just that for another meal some time. sometime during the evening the rain stopped so we arrived back at our “casa” dry and no worse for the weather. I will admit it seemed strange to people wearing long sleeves and some folks in jackets and women wrapping up in shawls. It was cool, but not that cold. Had a brief chat with Santa on our way back, Signing off KO
Woke up this morning to the sound of rain, it’s another cloudy day with a bit of a fine Washington mist now coming down. Not enough to get you wet, and it’s warm. I decided that I need to swim more or I won’t be in shape for Sharkfest in Troncones on Jan 10th. So at 7:30 this morning I went to Playa La Madera, just a short walk from where we stay and swam 3 laps out and back around a sailboat anchored out. This is to become my new morning routine. I can walk at other times, but there is almost no one at the beach at that time of the day and it is close to my normal home routine.
Since our TV service is not currently carrying the Senor’s favorite channel, I’ve learned to stream it from another source. I use the word learn loosely, more like just plain luck, but it keeps him happy and informed.
View of the angel
The Senor decided he needs a new white shirt to wear with his dress white shorts for our Christmas Eve dinner so we will do some brief shopping this morningand hopefully check in with the sand artist as I hope this rain hasn’t damaged his work of art. Meantime we are playing Christmas music on my I pod and enjoying our little Christmas display, feeling just “Christmasy” enough.
Met with success on our shopping trip, the senor got his new shirt and I learned that a “bolsa” is not only a bag or purse but also a pocket. Checked in with the sand carver, I’m so impressed. It’s been fun watching the progess and so glad the rain hasn’t hurt his work of art. He has brought me much enjoyment
Tonight we will join friends and enjoy a Christmas feast at Daniels, and enjoy the music of Jimmi Mamou FelizeNavidad from our casa to yours. Signing off KO
What a surprise, woke up to overcast skies yesterday morning and they lasted clear into this morning. I had originally planned to go swimming about 7:30 AM this morning at La Madera beach, but since it rained during the night I changed my mind. Rain can cause run off and muddy up the water. Instead with the cloud cover I anticipated a killer sunrise and headed to the plaza just before day break to capture it. In front of the plaza Christmas tree was this huge curious pile of sand all cordoned off.
curious pile of sand
I assumed it was for a sand artist to sculpt and envisioned a nativity scene some time in the future. I then went off to wait for the sun to pink up the sky and got a few shots, but nothing spectacular and decided to return to the casa, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but the sand had been carved in my absence and I had missed the whole event.
sand sculpture
As I was trying to take pictures of it , which was quite difficult as I couldn’t get far enough away because of the yellow tape I now noticed the sky was a bright orangy pink as the sun was coming up. Quickly tried to get a few pics, but the color didn’t come out as vivid as reality. I felt like I was continually having my back to the best action of the morning. I find it difficult to believe that the carver did all that in my absence, but I’m sure I would have seen the sculpture if it had already been carved when I took the first picture. Mysteries of life.
Sunrise from the Plaza
One of the great pleasures of life here is the quantity, quality, and variety of fresh fruit as so reasonable. I love being able to go out our door and the fruit vender being right there. But equally interesting are the beautiful displays at the many “fruiterias” around the mercado. Here we eat avocados daily, we put them on everything except cereal. Signing off KO
Bought strrawberrries and avocados off this cart steps from our door step
The Senor declared Sunday a day of rest, I’m not sure what makes it any different for him than any other day. Except this Sunday he plans to devote to football which due to our ongoing TV issues requires he retreat to his favorite watering hole, La Playa under the Captains Daughter.
Sundays are quiet here as many shops are closed, you get to hear church bells ring and see families out socializing. But none the less mostly quiet. It gave me an opportunity to attempt some organization of pictures on my new tablet. It’s so new it’s frustrating as I really havent learned to operate it quite yet. I’ve got some pictures on the tablet, someon my phone some on my camera and trying to get them all everywhere is difficult for the technologically impaired.
But as the Zihuatanejo sun begins to set this town comes alive again with mucho gusto. Families, young lovers, teenage Romeos sparking their girls, all heading to the Plaza and basketball court where every Sunday evening there are dozens of food booths selling interesting concoctions, most of which I have no idea what it is and of course there is the corn shucked from the cob into a styrofoam cup on which mayonnaise and hot sauce is the prefered topping. Personally I stick with the ice cream vendors and admire the handicraft wares and watch the kids painting ceramics or on easels. This goes on every Sunday all year-long.
This Sunday was particularly crowded, full of Mexican families, not many gringos. It was very difficult to get thru the crowds. At one end of the plaza many chairs were set out and as I got closer I realized it was a memorial to the 40 missing students. Each chair was empty except for a picture of a missing student taped to the back of the chair. Very moving and also disturbing. In fron of the display were 2 banners, with my limitted spanish i could only read one of them and it called for the removal of the president.
As I turned around there was a man making a scene, either drunk or crazy so I headed down the Malecon where it wasn’t quite so crowded walked to the pier and back, by this time the man had climbed to the top of the large Christmas tree and was sitting on the top holding on to a big ball yelling and gesturing. I kept waiting for him to fall, but he didn’t. The police came, looked at him, took his picture and left. I thought they would make an attempt to get him down for safety reasons, but the mexicans have a very relaxed attitude towards safety and he was left to get down on his own resources. And from what I hear he came down and the police arrested him in a heavy handed fashion. But I missed that action.
I went back to our “casa” watched a great movie “the Book Thief”. My daughter was kind enough to record about 20 movies on a small hard drive and send them to us before we left. It really was a day of rest. signing off KO
The plan for the day was to attend the Sat morning market, the “ecologiatianguissanka”, a charming littlebazzar composed of local artist making hand crafted items, many from recycled materials and organic foods that are usually served on a banana leaf. I found several things I liked, but settled on a Christmas decoration for one of y daughters. I have more time for other purchases and limited suitcase space. My purchase had tobe done in Spanish, rocky but successful. Next was to get our phones set up. I knew where a
Sat AM Bazar
Telcel store was, the one with the handsome young man with the grey eyes who spoke fair, but not proficient english. Together we got my regular home cell phone up and running, and then he ran out of sim cards. But one phone does us little good as we use them just to communicate with each other. So now I’m off to a different Tel cell (they are as common as coffee stands at home.) But here no english is spoken. None the less I leave with the Senor’s phone up and running. Next I run into our friends from Ixtapa, Iswear all you need to do is just walk around town and you will eventually meet everyone you know.
Onward to purchase a hamburgerguesa from the corner bar for the Senor who has opted for a day of football and socializing at the Captians Daughter. The cook speaks good english but he his going to make me do it all in Spanish. Good practice, but makes me nervous but I do try.
After a brief siesta I’m off to the Posada in the La Madera neighborhood. I am told this is very traditional Mexico. A block or two is blocked off from street traffic. Both sides of the street are lined with tables with a variety of food, drink and other wares, much like at any bazar.
street of posada
It begins with the children dressed as Mary and Joseph along with an angel and another child at the top of the street where folks are gathered arround singing what appers to be a song with many, many verses, then the ribbon across the street is
singing just prior to posda
dropped and the children parade down to the front of the stage and sit in the first row and you don’t see them again. On stage sits the childrens orchastra, dressed in jeans and white shirts. The program proceeds much like the School Christmas programs, the orchestra plays and they are good, a group of children singing stand below. Some music was familiar, others not. Christmas carols that we are familiar were sung in spanish of course, but the absolute star of the program was when they sang the beatles
Orchastra and choir
“Imagine” in english, show casing the voices of two teenage fellows with great voices, an absolute show stopper. The startling difference between this program and kids christmas programs at home was much of the audience had beer or other drinks in their hands. Next were some folkloric dancers, very good, and then a group of latin dancers who were ok.
A pinata was hung from a tree in the center of the street and the kids gathered around to take turns batting at it until it would break. The man from the latin dancers got upset came and told them to stop the pinata until his group was done dancing on the stage. I was takings pictures of the kids and he told me “pinata later, now dancing” I think they did one more dance and it was pinata time again. He wasn’t making any friends They did several pinatas and when the pinata finally breaks it is definitely a dog pile and the kids grab all they can get. I’m amazed no one gets hurt, but the kids here tough and not whiney at all. Fun evening!
After returning to our ‘casa” Ii look out from the balcony and there is an art show set up in the street below. Of course I went down to see, I’m forever amazed a the beautiful
street art show
art here. The big news for the day is the Senor finally has his TV going, still can’t get all the channels he wants but he cn live with this. Thanks to all who helped. Signing oiff KO
It’s been a very busy day.After a leisurely breakfast on our balcony, we headed out for the Senor to get a pedicure and me to get both a pedicure and a manicure. All three services cost less than one us manicure.
The Senor getting a pedicure
The senor then took our laundry to be done while I was having my pedicure, and his annual trip to the watch repair shop. Every year while taking off his watch he drops it on the tile floor and it falls to pieces. He has learned where to go and gets it fixed. It is just an annual event. The morning exhausted the Senor so he returned to our “casa” with his lunch, of rotisserie chicken and a pair of earrings for me. How nice, they are quite pretty!. Our weekly visit from the Lupita the cleaning lady happened while we were gone and our quarters are spotless. So now it’s off to the Commercial. as the senor has decreed the bed too hard and he needs a foam mattress topper. We have to dicker a bit with the cab driver as he wants 5 pesos over the going rate and we won’t pay it, but he decides 25 pesos will be OK after all. We are tough customers and have been coming long enough we know the ropes. We make our purchases and marvel at the fact that all the Christmas trees we saw 4 days ago are all gone. But we did learn they grow them in Mexico and they weren’t shipped from one of the tree farms that are literally in our back yard at home. My daughter used to say when she lived in Honolulu when the trees arrived you bought them that very day or they were gone. I guess the same thing is true here. We made our purchases and returned for a siesta before dinning on our balcony.
We are still fighting with Century link to get our home internet service up and running so we can receive our regular TV programs here. Skype has become my friend. It is very cheap for phone to phone calls and I guess free for folks who set up reciprocal invites to do it computer to computer. So far my family has not responded. to any of my requests to sign up for Skype. I guess they don’t need any motherly advice..
Many booths of Pinatas set up near Kyoyo Circle
We rounded up our day with dinner and a movie on the balcony and then a walk to see the huge display of pinatas and
many to choose from
poinsettia. Of course I got one of each. The designs, the shapes and the colors are just fantastic, and you can watch them make them also. There are booths with a variety of christmas decorations, colorful, but a little tacky for my tastes. The Senor tells me I shouldn’t criticize. We picked out a nice poinsettia and returned to our “casa” to finish our
All decorated for Christmas complete with a cha cha-ing deer.
Christmas decorating Skyped home again to find out there is still no internet, but I am to deal with the dispatcher in the morning. Signing off KO
swim 4-5 laps out and around the blue sailboat anchored there.It’s not as long as I swim at home but I feel the walk makes up for it. On my way back I stop for coffee at La Tregua. Why do I do this. Fear! Fear of gaining weight and fear of feeling old. Now I don’t mind being old, for that matter I rather enjoy the many privileges of being old, one of which is being semi retired giving me the luxury of time to be able be here. But let me tell you I don’t want to feel old, I would prefer not to look old, but I can handle that, I just don’t want to feel old. So I’ll swim, I’ll dance and participate in life rather than being a spectator for as long as I can.
have never cooked his breakfast, he cooks for me. . After showering and dressing I’m ready for the day. Today I need to go to the fish market and get a white fish fillet for a fish dish I have mastered at home. This is a big deal as I’m not much of a cook. I’m supposed to have “cananelli beans” per recipe, but I’m using some white beans I found in El Mercado. If it turns out poorly, I guess I’ll blame the beans.
