Zihuatanejo

Athens, Hop on Hop Off Tours.

For my one full day in Athens I chose to do the hop on hop off bus tours believing that would give me the best overview of Athens as I’m not here long enough to visit the many monuments and museums I would have liked to have visited if more time was avaiable.

I was able to catch the first tour right out front of my hotel and toured the Athenian Riviera first. I had no idea of all the miles and miles of lovely beaches, many of which are shallow for a good distance making them perfect for families. And of course there were miles of yacht harbors also. Lovely apartment complexes taking advantage of the views. Actually when I think about it I have not seen one house in Athens, only apartment complexes in this city of 4 million people.

Shallow water and no waves anywhere

The second tour tour took me to many of Athens historic sites including the Acropolis and the Parthenon. Taking pictures on a moving bus does not always give the best results and with only one really full day I knew I wouldn’t be able to hop off and explore all the interesting sights up close and personal in depth. Maybe another trip.

The Acropolis and Parthenon high on the hill viewed from the Plaza that becomes a flea mart every Sunday

The guards change every hour and I would have loved to have gotten a closeup of their uniforms, kaki in color with an accordion pleated skirt that I understand they must maintain the pleats themselves. Having had recent experience with accordion pleats I would loved to have a discussion with one of them on this subject.

It requires tickets and walking up hill to get to the Acropolis so I have to content myself with viewing it from a distance.

We in Mexico think we have trouble reading and deciphering Mexican menus, but I’m sure happy that so far most menus in Athens are also in English as not only is there a language problem but also an alphabet problem.

Prices are not much different here, gone are the days of “cheap”. My last tour took me to the harbor area where I will be boarding my cruise ship tomorrow. It boasts of lots of lovely marinas and apartments. So happy to be able to be a traveler Signing off KO

I AM IN ANCIENT ATHENS GREECE

I am here, just settling in to my hotel for a couple of days. So the adventure continues on. For years friends have told me to request a wheelchair in the airports and I have been resisting. I’m old, not an invalid. But as I was deplaning in Tijuana, there was a fairly big step from the plane to the ramp and with my pack pack and a small roller suitcase I was being very careful,taking my time stepping down when the nice man with a wheel chair offered me his hand and then offered me the wheelchair. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse, even though I hadn’t requested it. What a breeze that was, just zipped right through the Airport lickety-split! Now I’m a true believer, and ordered a ride for the remaining legs of my trip. It turned out to be a real necessity in New York as I not only had to collect my baggage and recheck it then change terminals arriving at my gate just as they were loading. With out it and on my own I never would have made it.

The 8 hour flight over was uneventful except for being cold and really lousy meals. Two sweaters and a blanket and I was still cold. I don’t know why airplanes are kept so frigid.

My arrival in Athens was less than welcoming. The ride service I had ordered has sent me a message whileI was in transit that I should change my pick up time as I had allowed too much time to get through customs and such. So as soon as I got Wi-Fi and phone service I contacted him and said it would be appreciated if he could pick me up sooner that the original time. I got a terse message back stating he had tried to contact me earlier and now it would be an additional 40 – 50 minutes before he could come or I could take a taxi. No problem, I’ll wait. I guess he didn’t like my answer. Next he texted me he would be therein 20 minutes and when he wasn’t there in 40 minutes I called him to see if I had missed him, no answer. Another 20 minutes went by and he called to say he was there and where was I, I told him and finally located him. He didn’t even say hello, just grabbed my suitcase and headed off to the car with me scurrying after him to catch up. The entire way to the hotel he never said one word to me and by this time I had no interest in conversing with such a grouch. As it was he picked me up at the original time planned, I just got to spend and extra time at the airport. Lucky me!

It’s warm here in Athens, time to change and go out and prowl around and have my first Greek dinner.

Countdown to Vacation Cruise

In a couple of days I will be embarking on my first big ship cruise. When I say big ship, I mean this monster has 15 decks.

My last vacation was on a small ship with 3 decks and I loved it, and am silently wondering if I should have done pretty much this same cruise but on the small boat. I’m all about new experiences so big boat here I come!

I was my own travel agent for this trip, booking all my flights from Zihuatanejo to Athens and back from Venice where the cruise ends. What a hassle! Nothing is simple. In the future I will deal with our local travel agency and save myself hours and days of juggling schedules that just don’t mesh.

I am taking walking poles that fold down to just over 2 feet and fit in my day pack as I do have difficulty with stairs and some hills. That way it will give me an “athletic” look rather than an old lady with a cane look. Well at least in my own mind.

My day pack will hold my walking sticks until needed

I’ve allowed myself extra days in Athens not only to sight see, but to also make sure with all the recent airport delays that I will arrive well before the time to embark.

I got a killer deal on a cruise drink package so I will be able to finish my list of “Classic Cocktails I have never tasted” that I began at a Cancun All Inclusive Resort a year or so ago where my son got married. I only have a few to go, but will probably revisit the whole list as I have 11 or 12 days to accomplish this.

My semi feral cat knows something is up as she does not like suitcases. I’m really feeling quite guilty about leaving her to her own survival skills as the longer she lives with me she is becoming less and less feral and enjoying the pleasures of being a house cat. Yet she still won’t tolerate the presence of another human in the apartment, she panics, climbs the screens and eventually breaks thru. Therefore I can’t just have someone come in and check on her and feed her. If she panics and breaks out then the neighborhood roof cats can all come in. So I am leaving out side a full bag of cat food and huge bowl of water for her, knowing the entire neighbor hood will share in it. But it will help augment her hunting skills. My only problem today will be getting her to go outside, I’ve had the door open all morning and she just looks at me like “you think I’m stupid”.

By the 1st of August I will be in Athens Greece, I have no idea about internet availability but will post when I can. Come travel with me. Signing off KO

Rainy Days and Rainy Nights

This is June, the rainy season. For the last couple of years it barely happened. This year we are truly experiencing RAIN. Tropical rain is lovely, it isn’t cold, makes every thing smell fresh and cools the temperature and humidity to something pleasant. Storms blow in full of roaring thunder and flashing lightening. I find it energizing, not so with my cat. She spends storm time under my bed.

Where my apartment is located I don’t get the full effect of lightening as I am surrounded by 2 and 3 story buildings. I see bright light flashes but not the actual lightening bolt. I would like to see the bolts.

We have been under a hurricane watch, with the weather reports predicting it would hit land well south of us, which it did. Hurricanes have hit here, but rarely and partially as we are protected by the bay. But we get the heavy downpours and storm surges that send waves clear in to town.

In a heavy down pour we gathered together for 3 kings day

In a heavy downpour that floods the streets and exceeds the ability of whatever drainage systems are in place here, it gets quite odorous. Making one wonder how healthy it is to wade through ankle deep water to just cross the street.

Yesterday my friend Marsha and I enjoyed the rain sitting in the open air cafe La Kalle eating lunch and playing board games.

Last night with a soft breeze blowing and a light rain falling, the inside thermometer reading 80f/27c, I found it necessary to turn off the fan. And had a light wrap across my shoulders.

I do thank the universe and Mother Nature for such a lovely way of life. Signing off KO

Shopping in kilos and grams, but cooking in pounds and ounces.

I am not a cook, never have been. I have never received pleasure from cooking. It was just a chore that had to be done every day at 5 O’clock to feed 4 children and hungry husband. I guess I did all right, the kids all lived. I enjoyed it even less as I went from cooking for 6 to cooking for 2, meals became very simple, even a bowl of chili or soup and sandwiches. I never quite figured out what wine pairs nicely with pancakes, but that was another dinner favorite.

Now I’m cooking for one which is basically snacking or eating out. But there is the occasion pot luck get together that requires bringing something to share, something edible. So off to the store I will use my “go to” pot luck recipe. It requires 2 lbs of meat, which I have to by in kilos. Then the substitutions have to be dealt with. My recipe says Velveta cheese, the store does not have Velveta, but checking on line I find that I can substitute sliced American cheese, or Cheese Wiz. Since I don’t consider Cheese Wiz to be actually food I go with the American cheese. Which in itself is a misnomer because none of them are actually cheese. Then I look for two 15 oz cans of tomato sauce which turns out to be a 1 kilogram carton of tomato sauce, a little over, but close enough. And all this has to be done in a language which I’m only semi familiar with and paid for in a money that adds up to several thousands for a small basket of groceries. All part of the fun in living in Zihuatanejo.

I tip my cab driver generously for carrying my groceries up one flight of stairs to my apartment and then come the fun of trying to assemble these groceries into something edible to share with friends.

This dish is simply called “Mostacoli” and it is Greek in origin and was a family favorite.

I weigh the meat on my luggage scale to change the kilos to pounds, my regular kitchen scale has broken and I haven’t found a replacement here. I realize I’m a little shy on meat but I think it will be OK. I need to brown the meat and onions, but of course I only have one small fry pan so it has to be done in batches. Midway thru this phase I realize it was supposed to be fried in the oil with the spices, quickly I add all that and finish cooking it. Mean time I have the mostacoli noodles cooking. Why I cooked the whole box I-don’t know, as I am only going to use about half or less. The pan I am using is a 7 inch square pan I borrowed as I didn’t have any baking pans.

Now for the cheese sauce. Melt the butter, added the milk and flour. Start unwrapping the American cheese slices, only to discover that I had bought two packages of different weights and now I’m confused as to how much cheese to add. More is better is my thinking. Meanwhile plastic cheese wrappers are being whipped around the room by the fan, I have a sink full of pots pans and utensils to be washed. Oh the joy’s of cooking!

Everything is layered in the pan, I just need to bake it right before I leave for the pot luck. Remind me not to do this again, far too stressful. Next time I’ll bring my standard deviled eggs. Hard boiling eggs is more my style. Signing off, KO

IT’S SUMMER

Or a least the weather is, over the last week or so it has become quite humid and temperatures have been up in the low 90’s. many of the restaurants have closed for the season. But little by little those of us who stay year round are locating more restaurants and hotels that will give us a day pass for use of their swimming pools with purchase of food or snacks.

The construction next door continues. It began about 2 months ago when my landlord bulldozed his small house to the ground and began rebuilding it. Construction starts every morning at 7 except Sunday. (Mexico has a 48 hour work week, but there is talk for dropping it to 40 hours in the next few years.) It is a concrete brick and cement structure about 12×24. All the work here is labor intensive such as the cement is mixed in a wheelbarrow and moved around by buckets, including climbing a flight of stairs with cement filled buckets when they poured the roof. The jefe on the job must be a very contented worker as he sings (quite loudly) while working.

While this has been a fascinating project to watch it has been a bit difficult to live with. We have electric cords that power their tools draped down the stairs for us residents to maneuver through, but that is minor to living (and breathing) the dust. They are constantly drilling and sanding the cement. There have been a couple of days when the air in my apartment looked like a grey fog. And then that fog settles on furniture, food, the cats watering dish, everything. But I think the end is in site. There is a new toilet waiting to be installed and yesterday the kitchen sink was installed. I shouldn’t complain, I have friends that lived next door to a 3 story condo being built over a 3 year period. I’m grateful that this is a small project and my wonderfully kind landlord will have a new home with his family.

I was worried about the Ceiba tree in my alley. The roots of which are massive and long ago spread out into the alley up rooting some of the paving stones, have been buried under sand and gravel during the construction, but a dump truck came last week and the sand and gravel were shoveled in went away. This tree is massive, looking at it from the alley it is clearly 6ft wide at the base. It has branches larger that most full grow tree trunks. It is truly majestic and this year I think it is more lush and a deeper green than I have ever seen it before, earlier it had a fruit or seed pod hanging from it, only a few. I was told they would open up and a cottony like fluff would blow all around. I never saw that, just one day they were all gone.

Signing off KO

I’m a Reader

I’m a reader, I’m a reader in the same sense that others are TV watchers. Some folks can’t sit in a room with out the TV on, I can go days with out turning a TV on but have to have something to read at all times. In a waiting room or office, I’ll read any magazine available and in lieu of magazines, I’ll read posters, signage, anything with print.

I’m a bit dyslexic, but fortunately it didn’t affect my ability to lean to read as I began reading quite early and well as it made sense to me. Math and numbers are a whole different story, I transpose numbers. I didn’t become aware of it until I was 17 and working as a file clerk in an big city insurance company. In 2 months I had their numbered filing system throughly screwed up. They quickly transferred me to an alphabetical filing department.

Numbers do not stick in my head, I can not do even simple adding and subtracting in my head. I need to write it down.

I went back to college in my mid 40’s and took all the prerequisites for an AA degree at the local 2 year college except I needed a math. Knowing that algebra was over my head, (I failed it in high school) I opted for Basic Math (which the synopsis said would allow use of calculators). The reason I could take basic math and have it be credited towards my degree was, as 15 years prior I took both a furniture refinishing class and an upholstery class through the college and that dated the beginning of my college term. At the time I took those classes basic math was all that was required for a math credit. Just pure luck, but I would be able to transfer to any 4 year state college with only basic math in stead of algebra or higher. Sometimes you just got to work the system.

When I began my basic math class and pulled out my calculator my instructor said “not allowed.’ I explained to him that when I registered I verified with the registrar per the synopsis that calculators were admissible and won my case being told I was the only student that would be allowed that luxury. I passed the class with an A.

Unfortunately I never did get to complete my last two years, family obligations and needing to commute to either Tacoma or Seattle to a 4 year institution just didn’t make it possible. But I think that I have continued on to be a life long learner in many other ways. Signing off KO

Chihuahua and Poncho Villa

We drove in a very comfortable “Sprinter” van from Creel to the City of Chihuahua. Here the landscape again becomes very arid and the temperatures rise.

As we drove through the Mennonite farming areas it became obvious that they are very successful farmers, heavily mechanized, very modern both in farming methods and how they live. I had expected this unique area to be something special, but for me as a tourist, I found it very ordinary.

Once again our hotel, the Capitol Boutique was quite special, right in the heart of the old city across from the cathedral and quite near the federal buildings, in an old colonial building. During the middle of the night I needed to get a drink of water and as I had a roommate I did not turn on a light and found the glass bottle of water, pulled the pug, took a sip and spit it right out. It wasn’t water! I hoped it was some form of alcohol and not cleaning fluid, burned like crazy. In the light of morning I learned it was Sotelo a potent alcohol with a price tag of 999.00 pesos for the bottle. I obviously wasn’t the only one to have taken a sip from it and felt no obligation to pay for it. Never did find the water bottle.

In Chihuahua City we had opportunity to visit the colonial homes of two of the area’s richest families. One is now used a very excellent restaurant and following our meal there we were given a tour of the upstairs rooms, the ladies restroom/lounge was larger than most master suits. Opulence was everywhere.

Visited this colonial house which is now part of the local college’s music and arts program

In another district of the city we visited the home of Poncho Villa. He was quite the interesting character, at times ruthless and brutal, not above wiping out an entire village if he thought it was an enemy stronghold and at the same time, offer schooling for street children, giving them both food, lodging and means of employment and schooling. He was both feared and revered.

The conclusion of our trip was at a private winery hacienda out of town in the countryside. There we wined and dined in two lovely hacienda courtyards. The first with lovely cheese and fruit platters and an in house Chardonnay, then a tour of the winery facilities and on to the second court yard for a fantastic dinner accompanied by more varieties of the house wine. A lovely end to a lovely trip.

Seated and ready to enjoy our most excellent dinner

If you get the chance, do the Copper Canyon train trip, fascinating, educational and very enjoyable. Signing off KO

The cave dwellers amid beautiful landscapes

Once again we board El Chepe for the last leg of our train adventure as the end of the line is in Creel, a Pueblo Magico lined with touristy shops where the entire town seems to go joy riding up and down the Main Street and around the park on Saturday nights. Here is also where we will find the cliff dwellers.

Some of Talahumara or the Ruramari as they self call themselves are cave dwellers, which to me is a bit of a misnomer to me as they have built stone walls under large overhanging rock formations to form a cave like structure. These dwellings are sprinkled through out the landscape and are the least modern and most secluded of their people. A few will open their homes and sell you their craft wares to supplement their existence of corn and beans.

We visited one such home and found it blindingly dark inside when you enter from the bright sunshine out side. But as your eyes adjust to the light you see a kitchen area with a wood burning stove, a bedroom alcove, all quite primitive but functional. The inhabitants seem quite happy and willing to converse with us and answer questions with the help of our guide. they have their own language but also speak some Spanish. Here again the women are dressed in beautiful hand stitched colorful garments with intricate designs appliquéd on.

Our guide explaining and translating in a cave home

From here we traveled on through their lands to visit another mission style church

This church serves the indigenous population with a mix of Catholicism and native beliefs.

The landscape became more and more interesting as we entered this rocky area full of tall pillar rock forms and lovely pine trees. Much of it reminded me of the Sierra Nevada’s in California although these mountains are called the Sierra Madre Occidental’s. We visited friends of our guide home, who not only fed us a great native lunch but also showed us how to make blue corn tortilla’s and some even tried their hand at it.

This was some of the most beautiful landscape of the trip

Next chapter Chihuahua and Poncho Villa, signing off KO

Divisidero and the Mirador Hotel

As we arrived at this lovely, very elegant, upscale lodge style hotel where we were awed by the deep set canyon, the exceedingly blue skies, and stunning views every where you turned. It was still quite arid and the Apache Pine trees with their long needles, while a bit stunted for pine trees, were a welcome site for this tree lover.

We partook of an early evening wine tasting and of course found several to our liking. They will be shipping us copious quantities of excellent wine to our hosts in Zihuatanejo where we will retrieve them. We are all anxiously awaiting.

The dinning room was lovely with full windows showing the view and an outside deck for relaxing and our rooms also had balconies. As we we’re traveling with just a carry on bag and I have always liked to dress up a bit for dinners I had carefully planned to bring just one long black dress with several accessories to change it up so you don’t feel like you are wearing the same thing every night. But the one accessory I forgot to include was a pair of sandals or any other suitable shoes for my feet. All I had was my bright red tennis shoes. So I swallowed my pride and went to dinner in my black dress with a sparkly overlay and red tennies.

We had all opted for a cable car ride across the canyon over a zip line experience. As we rode across we could see far, far below small farm plots and a few houses and out buildings of the Raramuri people. Very sparsely populated the only way in or out of this canyon is on foot. Where the cable car landed we again were treated to native dancing and viewed the many objects for sale. Mostly hand woven baskets of all shapes and sizes, jewelry, and hand stitched clothing with voluminous skirts with intricate designs all had sewn on by hand. Farming produces beans and corn, the staple of their diet plus some fish and game.

That afternoon we took a very long drive to the bottom of one of the canyons to visit a Raramuri Village San Louis Majimachi and to see a mission from the 1700’s. Construction may seem crude, but is still standing and being used with a combination of native religion and Catholicism mixed together. This village has a government sanctioned school where most of the students board in each week as it is too far from their sparse. canyon homes for daily travel. They receive standard Mexican Government sanctioned schooling along with their own cultural traditions.

They also have a clinic/hospital staffed by a doctor that has been assigned to live and work there for a one year term of duty. (Sounds like a good plot for a TV show)

Mission style church from the 170’s still in use with a combination of original, traditional and catholic religions

We were invited to visit one of their homes, it was very rustic, crudely built but houses the families belongings. It consisted of two rooms one a living, kitchen area and the other a bedroom. Chicken coops were built above ground to keep coyotes away.

She kept weaving her basket while visiting with us.

There is a barter system where they can exchange the baskets and other crafts they make for government vouches that subsidize their needs. Beans and corn being the staple of their diet.

More to come, signing off KO

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