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The Senor is not much of a “shopper”, more of a buyer. Walk in the store, see it, buy it walk out. I on the other hand would want to look in every store, compare prices, colors etc.  But he has done well here, managed to look in several stores before his mind was made up.  Our shopping excursions have taken us to the big mexican one stop shopping stores, The Bodega,  Mega Soriana and Copell, a Canadian based store that the Senior favored  but he ended up purchasing at a smaller  local  mexican store.  I like to shop local when we can.

Our first few days here we were very cozy sleeping  on a ” matrimonial” sized bed, but

Nice King bed, but those curtains have to go

Colorful????

with this warm weather, a king bed is more comfortable for us. Our apartment came furnished with 4 comfortable chairs, but the Senor is now is stretched out on his new sofa I’m happy with the chairs we have, but am on the look out for a foot stool.

The kitchen is a good kitchen to work in, still needs a few things, mainly curtains and under counter curtains.

We have one last major purchase to make, replacing the 19 inch tv with a BIG screen. But he will wait for “Buen Fin” the Mexican equivalent of our black Friday.  It falls the weekend prior to Mexican Revolution Day, Nov 20th.  We are hoping for some excellent prices.

Our balcony is just 3 feet wide and 25 ft long  and affords us lovely insight into Mexican street life. It is quite different from our previous balcony that was over a pedestrian street with many restaurants and bars. We no longer have loud thumping music all night long and little traffic in the evening.  We still enjoy our meals outside on the balcony, but as we are protected from the afternoon sun here so we can even eat lunch outside.  We are anxious to do some balcony gardening.

We have been here a week and about all we have done is shop trying to get settled in.  I have hardly had time to read.  The good thing is our money has been running about 19 pesos to $1, and I’m getting ready to decorate.  I managed to get all our new apartment pictures into an album, but as usual I can’t find the album in computer only individual pictures.  Signing off KO

The Senor assembling our shelf unit

st purchase, my hat rack

Finished project

Breeze flows from back door out to balcony

Lamp light dinner for two on our balcony

The Senor and I often laugh about how w used to spend one week here scurrying around trying to do everything in one week and now it takes a full week just to get settled in.  The beach will be there when we are ready.

We needed extra storage space in our bathroom and bought an over the toilet frees   standing  wire shelf and a separate shelving unit. Starting yesterday and on to today we worked on the wire unit that had no parts labeled and managed to get the Senor  reverting to his former Navy language so we set it aside and assembled the shelving unit.  Now it is possible to walk into the bathroom without tripping.

I did a morning run on Waldo’s, the mexican equivalent of our dollar stores. Picked up trash baskets storage containers and such.  In the afternoon I headed to the Mercado.  If you want or need it, it can be found there, but you need to search  and it helps to speak some spanish, mine is quite limited, but I managed to pick up a hammer and a screwdriver, a cooking pot, 4 3 prong electrical adapters, 2  chicken legs freshly amputated, 30 fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined, right before my eyes, mushrooms, garlic, onions potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce and those super yummy little bananas.

Tomorrow we tackle the wire rack.  Then we start shopping for the big items, namely a very large screen TV.  As most of you know the Senor is a bit TV addicted so this is very important.  The other item is a king size bed.  We are currently sleeping in what the mexicans call a “matrimonial” size bed, we call it a double bed.  It’s cozy and it is comfortable, but with the weather here bigger is definitely better.And just to make any of you who are north of th boarder envious it is 8:30 at night  I am typing this on our balcony and it is a balmy 79 degrees.  If you click on the peictures the caption will show Signing off KO

We arrived in Zihuatanejo almost 2 hours later than we expected as we were delayed in LA.  Seems like the pilot had a flat tire on the way to work.  That on top of flying on the day after the clocks got set back and neither one of us knows who to set our wrist watches.  Needless to say we’ve had a bit of trouble adjusting to the 2 hr time difference or is it 3 or only 1 when you factor daylight times savings change.

But we got our mexican chips in our phones today and now we can tell time plus make all the calls and use data for about $10 a month per phone. ( Verizon’s idea was I could pay $5 a day for any day I use my phone in Mexico.)

We love our new apartment, It was so clean and ready for us that it absolutely sparkled.  Then we moved in!  In our old place we knew where everything went.  We would unpack our storage boxes and be out to dinner in an hour or so.  Here we are still finding out where we keep things. Not only things from our 5 storage boxes but also from the 3 bulging suitcases we traveled with.  And we have spent the last two days shopping for more stuff! Not quite organized, but very happy here in the land of sunshine and no jackets or sweaters.  Signing off KO

This season in the sun is about to come to its conclusion. It’s about time to return home

The Senor and Kathleen

to Port Orchard, WA. To our cat Denzel, and our 28 chickens, and rain. In future years I have hopes of staying longer, at least thru April.  But this year I have a busy agenda, 5 days after we get home I’m off to California to move my sister to Port Orchard where she will have family around to help as needed. First week in May I head to Bozeman Montana to see my oldest granddaughter graduate from Montana State.  Very proud of her as she has accomplished  this all on her own. And the end of May it off to Casper Wyoming to see another granddaughter graduate from High School and head off to Nebraska for college.

This is a time of saying good-bye to our Zihuatanejo friends, but knowing it is just a temporary good-bye makes it easier, as most of us will return by late fall. There are so many Zihuatanejo things I will miss, the early morning calls of the vendors moving through the streets, fresh mangos and little bananas, warm evenings and never needing a wrap. Sunrises and sun sets.

Sunset at Troncones

Sunrise from our roof top

I will miss swimming daily at the community pool, at

Getting the snorklejust right

Me finishing the Sharkfest swim

Escollera and the beach. But most of all I will miss 86 and sunny most nearly every day and the friendly people.

Friends Lynne and Dwight

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Boys line

So this is most likely the last blog of the season. Next year I have high hopes of a better camera and better skills in getting the pictures from the camera to the computer which I have had “mucho problemas” with this year. Signing off KO

We are down to our last week to enjoy Zihuatanejo. I know for many that is the entire vacation  time they have. It was that way for us once, but now that we are retired we find no need to have winter in our lives and choose to spend that season in the warmth, sunshine and friendliness of Zihuatanejo. Staying as long as we do also means that we have accumulated much “stuff” that make  our apartment homelike. Storage has always an issue, but our current apartment manager has been accommodating and  has stored our 5 crates in his store-room.

But this year is different as we are changing apartments and renting it full-time.  In

December when we made our arrangements with the new apartment our idea had been to start our rent in March and slowly move our stuff over and get the new items we would need and be all set up for our return in November. But the land lord had  already had a commitment for March and April, so that didn’t work. Now the issue of storage really became a problem until our good friend and upstairs neighbor said she could store our boxes until our return. So problem solved, there is exactly enough space to store our now 6 storage boxes.

Our job this last week to pack so none are too heavy and nothing breaks and make sure we are in sync with the young man who will do the lifting and trotting them down 3 flights of stairs and then up one flight of stairs and stowing them on an over head shelf.

We have been 10 years in this one spot and really loved central location. We won’t miss the music and noise from the all night bars that spew drunks onto the streets at 5:30 AM. We won’t miss the clanging of metal weights from the gym across the street, especially now that they have expanded to their roof top which is eye level with our balcony.  We won’t miss the announcer from the Zocolo always calling for “aplauso, aplauso” after every performer and the high-pitched voice of the kids clown. The noise from the Zocolo funnels right down our street, at times its pleasant other times just annoying and I spend a great deal of evening time on the balcony.

We will miss the friendly neighbors in our building. We’ll miss  watching the humming birds flit between the two feeders that are on each side of our pedestrian street, watching them balance at the very tippy top of a palm frond ‘ll miss seeing baby doves nested in the coconut palms. We already miss the view of the bay we had before the row of palm trees were planted down the middle of the street and grew so tall to just about block the entire bay view. We will miss the frequent evening gatherings downstairs at Javiers when a couple of guitars come out.

There are lots to miss but much to look forward to. Our new apartment has a great kitchen area, a separate large bedroom, only one flight of stairs and a nice balcony. It is situated so that the breeze from the bay blows through the apartment keeping it quite cool and comfortable.  We are still just a block and

1/2 off the bay and a block and a half from our old apartment.  And most importantly we can choose to furnish and decorate it as we please. Life will be good! Signing off KO

Mexico is loud, vibrant and colorful! From the candy carts to the food that is served, from the flowers and trees to the colorful dress there is color everywhere.

There is music everywhere, soft guitar music played by the many s

trolling musicians. The loud, ruckus music(?) blaring from some of the all night bars and some  quality old rock and roll and blues played by both gringo and mexican. And then of course there is a fellow who strolls around with his very poor quality amplified speaker mounted on a tall tripod and sings to the music from it.  It’s awful.

Zihuatanejo has many beautiful bronze statues placed around the El Centro area, but this is not one of them.  I

don’t know what it is suposed to represent, but it looks to me like two space aliens, I keep expecing some one to paint some slitty eyes on them.  And more over  they were constructed where a very funcional bus stop used to be.

Walking around town there are murals, flowers and beautiful trees full of little berries. No matter where you look there is color.

There is now color on the tomato farm! Our planter box tomato farm which we started from seeds early December is now providing us with lovely ripe red tomatoes. Signing off KO

From the vine

To the table

I’m fortunate that my birthday falls in February so that I get to celebrate my birthday

with our many friends here is Zihuatanejo. We opted to go again to Sr. Pintos again for the celebration as it is not only a beautifully decorated place with with a running waterfall and a mayan pyramid.  The large are in the back lends itself to a large group rather well. There were 20 some in our group and still plenty of room for regular diners both up front and in the back area

with out any crowding. The menu is interesting and with lots of different choices, the Senior had some very meaty ribs and  I had blackened catfish. The lighting is soft, so soft it’s difficult to read the menu with out additional light, ( cell phone flashlights sure come in handy)

Stefania the lovely daughter of the owners, has the voice of an angel. She  sang not only Happy Birthday, but sang When Irish Eyes are Smiling and several more popular tunes.  Quite the treat!

The cake was the luscious Tres Leches from the “Pink” bakery on Vicente Guerrero, the most moist cake ever created. Thank you to all my friends for making my birthday special. Signing off KO

Last minute plans last Friday had us heading out to Ixtapa Island or as it is also called Isla Grande. Our friends were getting a ride to the beach at Playa Linda and then the boat from Paraiso Escondio was to pick them up as a mobility issue makes the water taxi an impossibility.  We were to take the bus and then the water taxi and meet them at Paraiso Escondio.  The water was really choppy, the most I had ever seen it and boarding the water taxi was not easy, but since you are stepping down into the boat and with a couple of strong young men to help it’s do able. But getting  off  on the other side  is a whole different thing, you have to step up on the side of the boat, then step up again to the pier steps while the boat is rocking back and forth and up and down. The young men are there to pull you up, but they have no understanding that my knees don’t work quite like normal and for a minute I thought about just bailing out and swimming for the beach. I did manage to get on the pier but was quite sure I was going to fall backwards for a minute. I’ll be interested in what my knee doctor has to say about what more I can do to improve  the range of motion in this  second artificial knee or am I just stuck like this

Has a lovely day, sun in the sky, feet in the sand, drink in the hand good food, good company to visit with and a warm ocean to swim in.  It just doesn’t get much better than that.

The way back was much easier as we rode back to Playa Linda with our friends in the restaurant’s boat, which pulls right up on the sand making it easy to hop in and same thing on the other side just swing your legs over the side and wade on in.

We always like t visit the crocodrillo sanctuary  that also includes many birds, turtles and iguanas. Signing off KO

I had almost forgot about all the little things you see by walking around /zihuatanejo.  Due to my recent knee replacement my doctor said get plenty of rest, no cooking no cleaning, and no walking. So except for the cooking and cleaning I’ve pretty much obeyed doctors orders, But it is now 3 months since the replacement and I should be healed and I am walking again. I walked back from the swimming pool the other day and then walked from el Centro all the way down calle Adelita and once again I am amazed at all the little things you take time to notice when you are walking.  How much you miss if you always take the bus or taxi.

The Senor has difficulties walking these days, between sciatica and neuropathy in one foot he just can’t walk much without needing to stop and rest. So that makes me a solo walker, but that’s OK I can choose my own path and pace and marvel at some of Mexico’s little treasures. On calle Adelita I discovered this beautiful stone wall, the simplicity of it is amazing. It is basically a tall cage about 8 ft or so and about 8-10 feet wide and about a foot deep. It is made of a metal framework in about 1-2 foot squares backed by sturdy woven wire. The inside of this cage is filled with loose stones. No mortar necessary. But it makes a beautiful, and extremely strong and durable wall. 

Just before the bridge to the La Madera side there is this young boy, 10 ish helping his mother at their gift and coconut stand. What caught my eye is this young man is swinging a machete to cut the coconuts while his mother set their wares out on the table. Now I know that it is not that uncommon here, but at home 10 year olds have mothers hovering over them when they use sharp scissors.

You see hammock every where, on balconies, back rooms of shops, babies are rocked in them so moms can work. Even little kittens have hammocks to relax in.  If I ever have another kitten I will make sure it has a hammock. Signing off KO

The Senor likes to fish and he isn’t particular about what kind of fish, he just likes to fish. Fortunately at home we live on a small lake which our community stocks with trout each spring. That keeps him quite happy for a good part of the summer, and we are close to good crabbing areas which he also enjoys.  This is good for me to as I am basically a “fishatarian”, I don’t eat meat. So this is a win win proposition for both of us.

In Zihuatanejo where the fish is so plentiful, I’m  in hog heaven, but is a little costly to go fishing here. But a couple of days ago he found a fishing partner and the plan was to “go for a boat ride” that way if they get skunked their is no disappointment. Well that’s the idea anyway. While Paul and the Senor were fishing Faye and I were going to shop in Ixtapa. The first stop was the Ixtapa Marina for breakfast. This is our second breakfast at  Fishers and we knew exactly what we were going for, this lovely breakfast cocktail called a Pepillin and this fantastic emanada dish of eggs, poblano peppers, cheese all done up in this wonderful sauce. Of course this is complete with a view of millionaires yachts docked at the marina. Lovely way to start the day. We did our shopped at several stores, but the Mic-Mac shop was the favorite we we both found more things we wanted than we had money.

Before we were done with breakfast a call came on my cell phone that the boat ride had turned into a fishing trip after all.

The Senor had landed a rather large Dorado. It ended up the only fish of the trip but the had a great day on the water and I have a freezer full of dorado. Several years prior the Senior had caught a sail fish, and now his dorado,  and what is this word, marlin I keep hearing now.   Signing off KO