SNOWBIRDING IN MEXICO – Page 2

Time is Starting to Get Short

Mexican friends, makes me think of the story of “The Owl and the Pussy Cat

Dinner with long time friends Dwight and Lynn at El Perla Negra

We have about 3 and a half weeks left of our season in Zihuatanejo. Now I know for some folks that is their whole time here, but for those of us that spend the winter here it is the time to start making our reservations for next year, lists of what we will store here and what we are taking home. Folks that we want to see at least one more time before leaving, places that we might want to go, using up all our Sailfest Certificate for dinners and such. March is the month that most of the snowbirds begin to head back north, so it is saying goodbye to friends that we won’t see again until next year. Some folks are ready to head back home, me not so much, I love the casual laid back life style we live here, but I’m not sure I would like the heat and humidity of summer here. Winter time is perfect for us so I’ll be satisfied with 4 months next year, in November to Mid March.

We have time to finish our agenda for this year, 2 more dinners out, a

Fish Therapy for my scaly feet, they tingle a bit

Kayaking trip tomorrow for me while the Senior gets a massage, followed by a beach lunch, a couple of lazy days in Troncones with friends, a couple of beach days, and a Santa Prissa Pazole lunch and maybe a movie in Ixtapa and it will be time to go home.

I hope the snow has quit by then. In the Pacific Northwest it’s a big deal to get snow once or twice during the winter. But this year it has snowed on and off almost continuously all winter and is still doing so. It has been a very good winter to be here, I do feel blessed. The Senor is rapidly gaining strength, all is good and right in my world! Signing off KO

SAIL FEST: concert, chill cook off, auctions

M- Dock Band name came from the dock where their boats were parked

Wednesday night was concert with M-Dock, a Michigan based band that we have heard many times over the last few years. While we have always enjoyed the concert the venue was only so so. Food not very good and service extremely slow as probably a couple of hundred people show up. This year the venue was excellent at the Casa de Cultura but the food that a vendor was to provide was MIA and Sail fest was doing the bar and unfortunately it was running out of supplies by 9:00

pm. But by that time with no

dinner and we had been enjoying wine and beer since 6:30 and even though we were dancing, it was time to leave and get food. Next year they will have the bugs worked out.

Thursday was much looked forward to chili cook off and silent auction. They had a live auction Tuesday evening, but it is a little too rich for our blood so we skip that event.

The Senor danced to much at the concert and was nursing aches and (he hasn’t moved that much and that quickly in the last year) said he wasn’t up to going out and handed me a fist of money and said enjoy the silent auction. So I did!

Friends Paul and Faye at Chili cook off and silent auction

I managed to get 6 dinners and one breakfast and a 2 hour ocean kayak adventure for me. Had 2 mango margaritas, and with the tip went back to the apartment without a single peso, but happy. This guarantees the Senor will take me out to dinner at some new and interesting places and the money goes to a great cause, the poor children of Zihuatanejo.

As the Senor was feeling a bit better today we headed out to Playa Las Gatas. In a drawing I won tickets for the water

Me hiding under one of my many sun hats at the auction, note my nails match my ring and my straw.

img_20170210_094647 — Playa Las Gatas, wonderful as always. Signing off KO

taxi so we took advantage of them today. As always we go to Gloria en Mar and visit with Jose our favorite waiter and friend. I tried the go pr again to catch some under water life, but it is a complicated camera for a non techie like me. But as always the beach and the swimming was wonderful, we ate a different type of fish today, good, but not a favorite.

Sailfest 2017 Begins

Sailfest officially began last night with the street dance at Casa Arcadia. We arrived at a little after 7 and the place was packed. Luckily our friends and neighbors had secured a table and I went around and found a couple of extra chairs and joined them. The band was Expressions Inmune a group of young Mexican kids that specialize in Beetles and Creedence Clearwater type music . They got their start practicing in the street in front of the keyboardist’s mother’s art gallery. Which happened to be directly under our balcony. They would draw huge crowds to the street to listen to them practice twice a week.Folks both Mexican and gringos would be dancing in the street to their music.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — The band when they first were practicing under our balcony

That year Sailfest hired them for their first professional gig and you could say the rest is history. They now are professional musicians playing regularly 3 times a week at the Baracruda Bar.

Casa Arcadia was packed, but true to Mexican style, no additional staff was put on. I wonder if that is so the regular staff can maximize on tips from a larger crowd. But I always think with more staff and faster service tips would be bigger and less hassle for the staff. Oh well it’s Mexico.

We enjoyed the music and took up an offer to have our portraits drawn for a Sailfest donation. Not bad and I felt he was kind to our age.

Afterwards we went to Don Memos for dinner, one of the best spots for good food and very reasonable. We ran into friends Jim and Linda and took up there offer for us to join them. Doyle had his favorite spaghetti and my preference is always the fish, this time in a white wine sauce. A short walk back and we were home. Just another great evening in paradise.

Signing off KO

MANNING THE SAILFEST DESK

This is the second year I have volunteered to help with Sailfest. The Senor and I have always been big participants, with one or both of us attending almost all of the events. But I believe since we are here for 3 months I can donate some of my time to this very worthy cause. Among scholarships and other necessities, last year’s Sailfest raised enough money to build the first new high school Zihuatanejo has seen in 20 years. It is complete with a computer lab. This is in conjunction with donated supplies, labor, etc.making the local people personally invested.

Somehow Faye and I seem to have picked a couple of the busiest days to work the desk selling T-shirts, caps, boat flags, koozies and sail boat rides. It gets crazy trying to keep up, but it’s a wonderful opportunity to meet folks from all over. And very proudly each of our 3 shifts have taken in close to, or like yesterday, the equivalent of $1,000 US in pesos. But now it’s time to get back to some serious relaxing so with a group of friends we are headed once again to Escollera and it’s beautiful infinity pool.

Still no internet, going to stop by the office with my phone translator and see when I might expect it. This should be interesting. Signing off KO

AS SAILFEST BEGINS

Sailfest is an annual week long event during the first week of February that raises funds to build schools and give educational opportunities for Zihuatanejo’s poorest children.It originated about 12 years ago by the cruisers, those folks who arrive here and may winter here on sailboats. It does a tremendous amount of good for the community and provides some great fun and opportunities. There are tours of the schools, dances concerts, opportunities to crew in a sailboat race or another day to just go out and cruise about the bay and out to Ixtapa.

Friday was my first day of manning the sales desk. I teamed up with my friend Faye.and we sold T-shirts, caps koozies and event tickets. Since this was only the 2nd day of sales and Sailfest is still a week away I didn’t think it would be too busy. Boy was I wrong! But it was fun and you get to meet a lot of great, interesting people from all over the globe.

After our shift we went down the beach to the next restaurant and had lunch and mango margaritas waiting to hear from our husbands about their day of deep sea fishing. They had a good time, but no fish. So we met up with them at Zorrito’s . Then my friend Lori from about 4 years ago in Zihuatanejo called and wanted to meet up. They were at the Flophouse about a block away , went down there and met up with them and friends of theirs and we all returned to Zorrito’s and had this great picture taken. But my internet won’t go in until Monday so I probably can’t add it. Followed by dinner at La Vita Bella, a great restaurant but a little on the pricey side for us. Signing off KO PS Hope pictures soon, maybe Monday

SUPER FUN AT THE BEACH

A few days ago I received an e mail from a friend I met at swim with at the pool back home. She was letting me know she and her husband were going to be in Ixtapa for 8 days and could we get together. Of course they have an agenda of things they want and need to do and we had some prearranged plans and it looked like we might not meet up. But today it worked out. We invited them to Zihuatanejo, they came and fortunately prepared for the beach. So after a quick tour of El Centro and our apartment we were off to Las Gatas Beach.It’s a water taxi ride out to the beach which is always fun, then we walked down the beach to our favorite spot,Gloria del Mar and our favorite waiter, Jose. Some how he has radar and seems to sense when we are coming as he spots us a half block down the beach and starts waving at us.

We stake out our territory, get buckets of Dos XX’s and margaritas. (Drinks not buckets) and settle in to the business of becoming better acquainted. Siuling and I swim together, and mostly just visit in the locker room. Our husbands have never met, but both are retired military and soon we are all laughing and joking like we have known each other for years. We order a red snapper and some shrimp, all heavy on the garlic and all but lick the platter clean. The guys decide they want to go deep sea fishing. We ask Jose, our waiter if he has a recommendation for a captain and soon the “Black Tuna” arrives and the guys make all the arrangements while Siuling and I swim. Sunday is to be the fishing day. We’ve had all the sun and fun we can handle for the day and head back to the water taxi for the ride back to Zihua, with plans to meet on Sunday. A wonderful day with great amigos. Signing off KO

Things I will miss and things I won’t

Our time in sunny Mexico is drawing to a close, sadly we are on our last day. I love Mexico and Zihuatanejo with all it’s quirks and interesting culture. There is so much I will miss, but there are somethings that you just have to say “Ah it’s mexico” and overlook. I will miss all the friendly faces that speak to you on the streets and greet you with a quick Hola! or Buen Dia even when they don’t know you at all. I will miss warm days at the beach with

the breeze blowing, I will miss nights without ever needing a sweater, I will miss 25 peso cab rides, and riding water taxis, I will miss the pigeon who lives in our balcony planter and the iguanas that entertain us during dinner on the balcony at night. Let’s face it I will miss my balcony!

I will not miss toilets with no seats in public facilities. Where do they all disappear to? I won’t miss needing to discard TP in the waste basket instead of the bowl. I will miss daily fresh fruit. I will miss fresh fish cooked to perfection. I will not miss Mexican bars that play music until 6 am, but I will miss yummy drinks expertly prepared. I will miss mercado shopping, but not barking roof dogs, but I will miss the sweet, gentle street dogs.I will miss swimming long course at 8 am at the “Alberca Olympica.” I will miss walking all over town and taking 10 peso bus trips for longer distances. I will miss our Zihuatanejo friends new and old.

I will miss always seeing folks I know where ever I go in town. I will miss taking my camera every where as there is always something interesting to see. I will miss the time I have here to read book after book with out guilt. I will miss having time to blog about simple daily events. I won’t miss washing dishes by hand.I will miss coconut palms, flowers and greenery all winter long.

I will miss my trips with Sylvia to the the little Saturday morning market, where everything is home grown, or made or recycled and hand made or organic. I will miss lovely sunny mornings as we return to gray rainy weather, but all good things must come to a close. So this is my final blog of the season Signing off until December 30 2016. KO

A Stormy Time In Troncones

Friends had a certificate for a couple of day at Mi Casa Su Casa in Troncones. We decided to join them and reserved a room. They had a very nice 2nd level room with good cooking facilities and a very large balcony with a hammock. Ours was a very nice, but small room

The Troncones bus stop on the hiway

Our veranda

The Senor with Paul’s bottle of rye whiskey

and no cooking facilities but a large tiled out door area with hammock. We arrived noonish and were able to get right into our room, we had lunch and played in the pool and joined our friends at their room for conversation on their large balcony over a couple of bottles of wine and a bottle of Rye Whiskey. We could see the weather starting to deteriorate as we were discussing where we would go to dinner.

Well the weather decided that issue for us as it began to rain like it can only rain in the tropics. The guys quickly bared the elements and made the rush to the in house restaurant that was starting to close up due to the weather and ordered dinner for us that was soon delivered to the room. We enjoyed a pleasant meal while we watched palm trees sway and listened to the ocean roar.

The Senor and I ran to our room as quickly as two senior citizens run and were only mildly wet. We were tired from a good meal and plenty to drink and had no trouble falling asleep, but woke very early in the am to the sound of crashing thunder and a few flashes of light and the sound of dripping rain. Yes, dripping rain inside our room. To be exact directly

20160308_124128 — This is where it rained

dead center dripping on our bed. Fortunately it was dead center as we each hugged the outer edge to try to sleep at least until daylight.

Once we informed the manager he was quick to up grade us to a nicer, larger room across the hall from our friends at no additional cost. The rest of the day was an on again off again rain storm and during one off the off periods we attempted to make it down the road a block to a restaurant for dinner. But wouldn’t you know half way to the restaurant another tropical storm dumped on us. But we continued on, a little torrential down pour can’t frighten us, we are from Washington! It was a good meal and retreated back to our 20160309_050653 neighbors balcony for more libation and conversation and then on to our own room and a nice dry bed. The storm seamed to abate in the morning I walked the beach for an hour and marveled at the high surf and heavy waves.But all good things must come to an

end and we left in sunny skies to return to Zihuatanejo and an evening at Guitarfest. Signing off KO

Street Art, Ixtapa Island and Chula Vida

One of the pleasures of being a pedestrian in Zihuatanejo and varying your route from time to time is running into unexpected visual treasures. They may be in the form of architecture, flora and fauna, or wall art. One of the problems of being a pedestrian is that at times you feel like a visual target for the Mexican motorists,or maybe just open season on gringos. Anyway to avoid a particularly problematic street crossing I decided to adjust my route back from the swimming pool and that’s when I discovered this lovely street art. The long wall is actually the far side of El Pueblito, the others are located at the front side of El Pueblito just past their big wood door.

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With the Senor not feeling up to par it has been a great pleasure to have friends to go

places with. Bonny and I did Ixtapa Island. It is one of my most favorite beaches as I can swim out and around where the sail boats moor and then go snorkeling on the other side of the island where the fish are beautiful and plentiful. On our return we watch as a generous fisherman was feeding the pelicans.

We visited ChulaVida yesterday with our friends and neighbors Will and Sylvia. We had been looking forward to this trip as it always is a bit of an adventure. We bused to the airport and planned to wait their for the pasajera for the trip along Playa Blanca. The Senor

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Fish

Waves that would suddenly shoot horizontally

was up for this trip,but struggling with sciatica pain so we choose to wait in the little restaurant for the truck.Several taxi drivers tried to get our business but we choose to wait for the far less expensive pasajera. Well I think we got “Tom Sawyer-ed” as we were quite sure we could see from where we were when it would turn around but we also thought either the man at the fruit wagon or the taxis might signal us.Secretly I think they told the driver to turn around and then told us it came and went. No harm ! We took the taxi and got there just the same. After some mango daquris which were so thick they were almost a meal in itself we had a delicious fish pronounced “wahoo”, don’t know how to spell it correctly but it was very good with a side of ratatouille. The Senor seemed to be in a bit of a hurry to get back so we didn’t stay for the sunset, disappointing, but I try to understand his discomfort. Every day is a good day, every day is an adventure here in Zihuatanejo. Signing off, KO

SAILFEST

Chili cook off

The cactus is made from zucchini, pea pods and rasberries

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Sailfest is the most fun you can have doing good deeds for the kids of Zihuatanejo. The chili cook off is the Senor’s favorite event and he turned out for it happily voting for his favorite chili from “The Captain’s Daughter”. Not being a fan of spicy chili I’m afraid to try half of them. I stick with my favorite, the key lime pie.

The silent auction is one my favorite events. I usually just go after the Restaurant meals. My theory is if I’ve bought a certificate for a restaurant, the Senor will have to go out and use it. And I do enjoy eating out from time to time. But I wasn’t very successful this year, got out bid most of the time. But did succeed in getting the dinner for 4 at Chula Vida out on Playa Larga. We went there a couple of years ago with Will and Sylvia and had a fantastic time. Now we get to do it all over again with them this year. I’m looking forward to it. My only other successful on a bid on a natural beige cotton dress.

The Senor and I along with friends attended the Gala Dinner at the relatively new El Consuelo restaurant located where the old Pacalo’s was. It’s been beautifully remodeled, but an unusual location for dinner for a very large group of gringos with a staff that only

speaks Spanish and isn’t tuned into gringo drinks. I went to the bar to get a bloody mary and a screwdriver and the folks behind the bar had no idea what they were. I’m flexible with what I will drink, but the Senor isn’t and I couldn’t believe they couldn’t do a screw driver. So I explained that it was Vodka and “juego de narnja”. Yes he under stood, then I said I would also like a rum and coca lite. well he fixed the screwdriver, then proceeded to pour diet coke on top if it and would have added rum on top of that if I hadn’t stopped him. Finally we worked out what a screw driver was and I settled for a glass of wine as you just can’t screw that up. The food was good, the music fantastic. The music alone was worth the price of the ticket. A Mexican couple sang lovely Mexican

music to his guitar accompaniment. Her voice is high and clear like Joan Baez. Even bought their CD.

Going out for an afternoon on a sail boat is probably my most favorite activity of all of Sailfest. This year my friend Faye went with me on the Patricia Belle. I can’t get the Senor to go with me. After 22 years in the Navy he sees no reason to get on a boat unless it includes fishing. Thhe Patricia Belle is a 50 foot wood sailboat, built just a few miles from my home in Washington out of timber the Captian logged off his property. There were 27 passengers and every one had a great time especially as we really got to sail, with all sails up and no motor at all. We were

actually going to fast for folks to swim so the crew cut the sails back, slowed us down and about a dozen folks jumped in, including Faye and I. Even slowed down it was tough to keep up with the boat, kind of like swimming in a swim spa where you keep swimming but make no progress. When a took my hat off to swim, the chin strap broke and wouldn’t you know it on the return leg of our journey the wind caught my hat and it went sailing into the bay. I thought it was a goner, but

Hat lost at sea

hooking the hat

the captain and the lovely lady who retrieved my hat

they turned the boat around and after a couple of valiant tries my hat was hooked and back on board. This is the second hat of mine that had to be rescued at sea, last time I was on a different boat but it was the crew of the Patricia Belle that saved it and transferred it back to the boat I was on. Signing off KO

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