It's The Jaime Cuevas Show

The area we live in is part of the municipality of Bahia de Banderas. It stretches from Jarretaderas to the south to Lo de Marco in the north, from the ocean way up into the mountains.
Dr Jaime Cuevas is the Presidente of the municipality. It is an elected office for a three year term, they cannot be re-elected. He has just completed his first year in office. In honor of this, an event called an Informe is held. I compared it to the State of the Union speech a US President gives.
I thought I’d go check it out. Harold didn’t want to go, so I went by myself to San Jose. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was taking place but as I got to San Jose it was clear I would have no trouble finding it. As I got close, many of the streets were closed so I followed the traffic. Luckily my press credentials got me a good parking spot in what is the local soccer park.
After getting parked, I looked around. The main event was taking place in a huge tent. I mean huge enough for Ringling Brothers huge! There were hundreds of plastic chairs in the tent. As you entered, each person was given a book about the accomplishments of the administration, a CD with the same info, a small paper fan like funeral homes give out, and a bottle of water. The fan featured a picture of Dr Cuevas, so now I must be a member of the Jaime Cuevas fan club.
I went into the tent and saw that it was a very nice set-up. Besides the usual stage with all the dignitaries, there was an enormous fruit sculpture in front of the stage. On either side of the stage were big monitors so everyone could see.
There was a center entry in the back of the tent. I went over there to watch the dignitaries enter. Someone told me I could come to the front where the Presidente and the Governor would be entering. So I was right there when the entourage entered. I had to choose between taking photos of the Presidente and the Governor or shaking hands. I chose shaking hands.
After everyone important was in and settled, the talking began. There was a color guard, the Mexican national anthem and some more pomp. Some introductory remarks followed, and then Dr Cuevas began his speech. I can’t understand Spanish well enough for a big speech, so I went outside to look around. Every vehicle belonging to the municipality was there – pickup trucks, cars, police cars, garbage trucks and fire trucks. There must have been 100 police officers there and almost all of the fire department.
I stayed around for a while because lunch was to be served after the speech. I visited with some of the firemen, then decided that Dr.Cuevas had more to say than I had time to hang around.
After leaving the Informe I went to Karina’s house (Alex was at work) and visited with her, Mirtha and the neighbors for a while. As I was leaving San Jose, I could tell the event was over since traffic was really tied up.
As part of the celebration, the municipality sprung for a big concert the following night. The whole concert was free. As you entered, men went to one line, women to another and some people were patted down, bags were looked at, etc. No drinks could be brought in. Beer was sold at the event and there was some food for sale. It appeared there was a good attempt being made to keep it from getting too rowdy.

The municipal orchestra played and we really enjoyed them. If we had known how good they would be, we would have arrived earlier. Next up was a singer named Ninel, who was very good and had a lot of energy. She put on a good show.
While we were at the concert we hung around with some of the firefighters. They were all there along with many police officers.
Next on the program was a comic an impersonator. We knew we would not understand that show, so we left before the big act, a norteno band called Los Tucanes.
It was a lot of fun and there were thousands of people there.
By the way, I think Dr. Cuevas is doing a good job as Presidente.

It's the Holiday Season

In Puerto Vallarta, the winter holiday season begins with the Virgin of Guadalupe festivities. December 1st is the official start. Traffic is tied up in town because every day there are peregrinations to the church in the center of Puerto Vallarta. Until December 12th, Dia de la Virgen, there are many groups walking to the church. Every group has a person dressed as the Virgin or a poster, or other image. Many people carry candles as they march, others bring offerings of food. A good number of the groups have bands or recorded music and marchers sing as they walk. It is a very interesting thing to watch. Every weeknight and all day on the weekends different groups participate. Towards the end, marchers arrive continuously throughout the night.
This year we went three times to the festivities. The first time was with Kelly and Deanna. That was the first day of the peregrinations and not all the vendors were set up. We still found plenty of tacos, crepes, potatoes and cake to go around. The second time was on a Saturday night. That night was groups representing stores in Vallarta – Woolworth’s, Lans, and Comercial Mexicana were some that we saw. The crowd that night was pretty big and more vendors were out. Santa hats, balloons, kid’s toys, and any kind of street food possible were all available.
December 12th is the big day. Last year, we were downtown on the 12th but because of where we were located we missed seeing the fireworks. So this year we wanted to go see the fireworks as well as the marchers. The last night is the hotels and they have large groups and some cool floats.
About 8 o’clock we were getting ready to leave. First I told Harold I needed to call Karina and Alex about Friday night plans. When talking to Alex, I told him we were heading to Vallarta. They also wanted to go, so we agreed to go pick them up. At first we were leery because we thought there might be too much traffic out since it was a holiday and also that 6-year-old Mirtha would be up too late and maybe would be cranky.
The evening turned out really well. There was much less than the usual amount of traffic heading out to their house, they were all ready to go when we arrived. We got downtown about 9:30 and found a spot to watch the parade. We all had some tacos, Harold had a crepe and we watched the parade and the other parade-watchers. We asked a cop what time the fireworks would be and he told us there weren’t going to be any. We were disappointed but know how budgets change. Well, imagine our surprise when about 30 minutes later we hear fireworks. We were at a good spot so we could look and see them. Harold motioned to the cop to watch, the cop said “they never tell us anything!” We had no doubt that was true.
After the fireworks and the last of the parade we walked down the street which was still closed to traffic. We walked back to the south side where we were parked by way of the Malecon. Mirtha was full of energy, looking at all the sculptures and running around. After getting into the car, Mirtha and Karina fell asleep on the way back to San Jose. They all seemed to have a great time, and so did we.
Harold and I talked about it on the way home and we agreed we were really glad we had taken the time to go get our friends since they would not have gone otherwise. The Dia de la Virgen is an important day to Mexicans, especially Catholics, and we were happy to have helped them be able to celebrate.

Edited to give credit for the beautiful Virgn of Guadalupe painting - Hop David, website http://clowder.net/hop/vog.html

Traffic lesson

Yesterday, I was on my way to the "Informe" being held by Presidente Jaime Cuevas of the Bahia de Banderas, also attended by the Governor of Nayarit, Ney Gonzalez.There is a point just outside of San Vicente where 2 lanes of traffic merge into one. There is often the usual jostling and jockeying for position there.Yesterday there was more than the usual amount of traffic. I saw one of the collectivo mini-buses trying to squeeze out a Nissan pickup. The driver of the pickup didn't yield, but came to a stop in front of the van, causing [b]all[/b] traffic to stop.The passenger of the truck jumped out of the truck and was yelling at the van driver (who had a full van of passengers). I was watching since I was directly behind them. The truck passenger kept yelling and went and opened the drivers door of the van. I grabbed my camera as I thought someone was about to get his butt kicked.I about fell out of my seat when I looked closely at the truck passenger. Despite being dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, he was [i]carrying a gun! And handcuffs[/i]! I bet that poor van driver about had a heart attack!I snapped a photo quickly while waiting for the butt-kicking or shooting to start. Of course, everyone behind me was honking their horns. I was thinking "cut that out, we're all gonna die here!"The gun-toting guy finished yelling and got back into the truck. I figured I'd be following them all the way to the Informe, but he stopped in El Porvenir at the Osiris Nightclub.I told a friend about this and he said, oh yeah, there are plenty of plain clothes cops in unmarked vehicles. Well, the gun sure gave [b]that[/b] guy away.Lesson here: You never know who is in the other car you are about to cut off, so mind your manners.
The truck passenger and Close up of "hardware"

2 Birthdays and a Busy Week

Some weeks are just busier than others! Our friends Kelly and Deanna from the Dallas area came for their annual vacation. Every year they come around Thanksgiving, and hopefully are here through early December. They had asked if we needed anything brought down from Texas so they had a bag of goodies for us. We offered to pick them up at the airport and take them to their hotel. The first couple days they stayed at the Tropicana on the south side so we dropped them off there. Then it was rushing off to another obligation, we didn’t even have time to join them for a beer. Looking back, that is terrible. Won’t happen next time, guys!

A whole week went by, I was busy helping get ready for the Christmas bazaar and helping Rita get ready for the library party. I kept thinking we needed to stop by the Villa del Palmar to say hi or to joint he group on the beach. Again, bad priorities, no beach time this week.

Finally we did catch up with Kelly and Deanna at the processions for the Virgin of Guadalupe. We wandered around trying food from several different vendors, watching the groups and just checking out the scene.

Saturday was the Christmas Bazaar and I needed to be there all day. Harold went to take pictures of the kids from the Bucerias Children’s Shelter being creative painting the new trash barrels. After that, he went to the Villa del Palmar to get Kelly and Deanna. They had stayed a week at their timeshare and weren’t flying home until the next day, so they were staying one night at our house. The three of them toured around some and went to lunch. Just about when Harold had to leave for an Amigos de Bucerias meeting, I got home from the bazaar. It was a very successful event, raising about $4,200 US for our sorority to use on things for the School for Exceptional Children. It is a special-ed school in Bucerias.

We had what at first glance was a scheduling conflict for the evening. One of our friends in San Jose was having a birthday party for their 2-year-old. His name is Alex, but he is called mini-Alex so as not to be confused with fireman Alex who lives next door. His party was to start at 5 p.m., but we know Mexican parties never start on time!

The other party was at Playa del Sol on Los Muertos beach. This birthday party was for Ira, a friend of ours who moved here from Dallas. His party was set for 7 p.m., and we know gringo parties usually start on time. The travel time between the two places is about 45 minutes.

So, we decided the thing to do was to get to mini-Alex’s party 5:30’ish and stay for an hour. The plan almost worked, we got there about 5:45 and the party was getting rolling. We watched the kids do the piñata. The littlest kids went first, barely touching the piñata with the bat. As each kid had their turn, the other kids sang the piñata song. All of them knew that when the song was over, so was their turn. Nobody was whining or crying that they wanted more time. As the bigger kids got their turn, the guy holding the piñata rope made it jump more and more. After all the kids had a turn and the piñata still wasn’t demolished, the candy was dumped out on the street. The kids each got some candy. Next was some thing involving balloons. A big bag of balloons was turned over and some of the kids were stomping n the balloons, some were picking them up. We didn’t really know what the deal was, but it was fun to watch. Of course, while all this was going on, some of the adults were drinking beer, kids were drinking Jamaica, and most of us were sitting in plastic chairs in the street. Two cars were used to block off the street.

After the piñata, several of the ladies served us all some little sub sandwiches. Then we all had cake. The party was not breaking up, but we decided we better get over to Ira’s.

We arrived at Ira’s party fashionably late. Ira and Linda live in a condo with a beautiful ocean view and with a lovely balcony overlooking Los Muertos Beach.

We were late-ish, so many of the guests had already come and gone. We arrived at the party just as a few folks were leaving. But since there weren’t many so people, it gave us a chance to visit with Linda and Ira.

Linda, being the smart lady she is, had gotten the food catered by Sol at Café Bohemio. His food is always delicious! Linda had also purchased plates and napkins with “racy” pictures on them. Harold took one look and said “Mamacita!” Sort of bachelor party type of napkins. Ira, you dog, you!

After the Ira party, we came back to the house and called it a night!

Kelly and Deanna had a Sunday afternoon flight back to Dallas. In the morning, Harold and I went to look at our neighbor Jose’s condo while Deanna repacked the suitcases. We got to the airport around noon so they could check in early and dump off their luggage. Then we went to Isla Maria for lunch. The menu says their ribs are “better than Texas.” We all disagreed with that, but still enjoyed our food. Lucky we allowed plenty of time to eat as the pace was quite leisurely. We dropped them off at the airport, did a little grocery shopping then came home for a siesta!

High Season is Here!

After a few months of relative quiet around town, things are starting to pick up for the high season. Restaurants have made it past the September slump and have fixed themselves up and are ready to go.
Snowbird have been flocking back to Bucerias, and with them comes a flurry of activity. We have been helping with a couple different fundraising efforts and are back on track for this year.
Our neighbor Rita is the driving force behind building a children’s library for Bucerias. We have helped with the cocktail party and BBQ last year and with several book sales/ Today we had the first book sale of the season. We ask anyone who has them to donate used books and we sell them for a very reasonable price. It raises money for the library and is usually quite a social event.
The library is also planning a cocktail party for early December. We helped pour beer and wine last year and plan to do the same this year.
I recently joined the sorority Beta Sigma Phi and we are having a Christmas bazaar in a couple weeks. Those of us who were here over the summer worked on crafts many weeks. A literal sweat shop it was!
The Puerto Vallarta children’s shelter, RISE, is currently home to about 50 kids. As you can imagine, the monthly expenses for that size group is very high. RISE has a fund raiser each year called RISE for Hope, a fancy drinks and food and entertainment bash. The last two years we have helped organize and run the event. Our first planning meeting was this week.
I am taking Spanish classes at the International Friendship Club. Most of the material is review, but that is fine. My vocabulary is getting better and I find I can have longer conversations with less trouble.
Of course, much of the credit for my improvement goes to our friends Alex, Karina and Mirtha. They tolerate, even encourage, our every effort. We always have a good time when we do things with them.
Harold gets practice talking to some of the firemen we have become acquainted with as well. Just today, he rode along with the chief on a fire call. During the busy Christmas season, he plans on volunteering to help the fire fighters with highway calls for ambulance and fire.

Mazatlan Part 3

Friday morning we went back to the Pueblo Bonito where we took the timeshare tour and had the breakfast buffet. It was very good. We sat outside and enjoyed the nice weather. After breakfast we drove around near that hotel. It is a desolate looking area but will surely be building up soon.
We had noticed an event being set up in the hotel zone. There were a bunch of small tents ad we saw a banner for an Expo, but couldn’t really tell what it would be. When we drove by Friday morning, it was open so we went. It was sponsored by Dicansa, which is a government organization which provides some food to poor elderly people. A number of companies which provide things to Dicansa had booths and some gave out samples. Each Mexican state also had a booth. We walked around the expo and got many samples and brochures. There were two men working in an area with what looked like charge card equipment. They have developed an electronic system for accounting for the food purchases, like many US states have. One of them spoke excellent English and explained their system to us. His partner had just gotten back from looking at the booths and had purchased a bottle of tequila. He opened it and gave us each a sample. That was a very typical Mexican thing to do, many people are generous with what they have.
We got samples of soap,soup, and several bags each of masa flour. The most unusual thing we got was a broom. At the Nuevo Leon booth, one of the workers gave Harold a broom. Another person gave me a bag of oranges and one of apples, about 6 of each. We ended up with 2 bags of stuff and the broom.
After looking around town a little more and taking a few more photos, we went back to the hotel. I went to the pool and Harold napped. For dinner we went to a place Ken recommended called Fat Fish. They offer 2 full BBQ rib dinners for 150 pesos total. The ribs couldn’t all fit on the plate. They were very good, too.
We had seen an ad for another expo so went to check it out. It was like a small state fair. We paid our 25 pesos each and went in. We figure we got enough pens to get our money’s worth. We looked at the displays from local businesses and looked at new cars. Since we had already eaten we didn’t buy anything from the stands. We sat and listened to the bands for a while. The last band was sort of like the Backstreet Boys. They featured 3 femae dancers. One in particular danced in such a style that she would have done well in a men’s club! She also had a skirt which barely covered what it needed to.
After the expo, we stopped at Burger King and had a milkshake and used the Internet.
Saturday morning we went to breakfast at a place called The Place, another of Kenny’s recommendations. It was a good, inexpensive breakfast. While the restuarnat didn’t have wireless, the waiter told us that we could probably pick up a signal in there, and we did. Checked the email and then off on some more sight-seeing.
We hadn’t seen the Pacifico Brewery yet, so we worked our way down the malecon to the waterfront area where the cruise ships dock. Pacifico is in that area. We looked at the building, but had not booked a tour. Maybe next time. Another stop was to buy coffee for Monika and a few other people. We got the coffee and had a frappe and enjoyed sitting in the plaza.
We did some more looking around in El Centro and along the oceanfront. North of our hotel is a point, and there are several seafood places right there. These also looked like something worth checking on a future trip. A new trailer park and shopping center are being built there so parking was at a premium. The beach looked great, too.
We did some shopping for souvenirs and headed back to the hotel. I swam while Harold napped. We went to Cilantro’s at the Pueblo Bonito to use the last of our credits. After dinner, we had been thinking of going back to the Plaza but ended up watching a movie on HBO. We also packed in anticipation of an early start Sunday.
Our last breakfast in Mazatlan was at Panama Restaurant. It was very busy, but didn’t take too long. The food was excellent.
On the trip home, we decided to go through Tepic instead o along the coast. As we got farther south, the mountains and roadsides were very lush and green. The 6-hour trip was uneventful and we got home late afternoon.

Mazatlan Part 2

Tuesday we went on the Pueblo Bonito tour. We had a very nice breakfast buffet and had the tour. The sales woman was very nice and didn’t get angry when we decided not to buy. For our time we got a city tour and also $250 US credit for dining in the Pueblo Bonito restaurants.
The city tour was sponsored by Dianomds International and was pretty fun. We rode in a trolley bus and saw various things around town. After the tour we went to dinner at one of the Pueblo Bonito restaurnats called Angelos. We had a nice meal, it was an Italian place.
After dinner we went to a coffee shop and had a frappe and checked our email. It gets dark much earlier in Mazatlan than Puerto Vallarta so it seems late when it really isn’t.
The next day, Lee and Ken came to pick us up to go out to lunch. We went to one of their favorite spots called El Memin. It is in the small shopping center adjacent to one of the grocery stores. The specialty is seafood, mainly shrimp. We started off with ceviche tostadas. I had Kahlua shrimp, Harold had coconut shrimp, Lee had a really gooey and yummy looking shrimp dish with loads of cheese and Ken had breaded, fried shrimp. All had lemonades and the total bill was about 400 pesos. We were all stuffed, but Harold managed to choke down a slice of chocolate cake from the dessert lady.
After lunch, Ken took us on a great tour of town. We got out of the car near the cruise ship dock and watched one of the ships leave. From a vantage point high up on a hill, we saw it go out into the ocean and another ship leave. We saw the shrimp fleet and many sites around town. After the tour, we went back to the hotel and relaxed.
Thursday after breakfast we joined the hip and happening crowd at the grand opening of the Mazatlan Home Depot. There was plenty of activity and lots of shoppers. We bought light fixtures for the rental house, ceiling fans for our rooftop patio and the guest bathroom and a few other items.
In the shopping mode, next we went to the Gran Plaza Mall. It has quite a few stores, some pretty nice, some quite plain. There is a Sanborn’s, which surprised us as it is like a small department store. We thought Sanborn’s was only a restaurant.
Returning to the hotel, we took a dip in the ocean and the pool. After the swim, we went to the Pueblo Bonito hotel to meet Lee and Ken for dinner. Since we still had plenty of credit from our timeshare tour, we treated them to dinner. The place was right on the water and we had a great sunset view. The dinner and vist were very enjoyable!
After that, it was back to the hotel to relax

Mazatlan Part 1

We had a week of banked timeshare time that was about to expire so we decided to take a trip to Mazatlan. Our friends Gil and Maria agreed to stay at our house and baby sit pets, plants and house.
Our check-in was for Sunday, they said 5 p.m. so we started our Sunday morning. The drive north was uneventful. We went up the coast instead of through Tepic. Other than a missed turn in San Blas the trip was uneventful. It took about 6 ½ hours including a stop for gas. We probably should have planned a lunch stop or something since it seemed like a very long ride.
I had been in touch by email with a lady who lives in Mazatlan. Lee and her husband Ken live in a relatively new neighborhood just off the main highway into town. Lee had sent instructions and we easily found thier home. It is very cute! We were welcomed in and offered a nice cold glass of iced tea. They also had some really delicious cheesecake. After a nice visit we headed to the hotel. Lee had provided us with names of places to try and we made plans to meet later in the week.
Our hotel was the Mayan Sea Garden. I had researched it on Trip Advisor and knew that the hotel was pretty far out of town. Since we drove to Mazatlan, this was no problem. When we checked in, we were offered a 25% disocunt on charges at the hotel if we took a one-bedroom unit instead of the two-bedroom we had reserved. Since only the two of us came, we thought that would be OK. We went to see the unit and it was on the fourth floor, no elevator. I fell in the street going to catch the bus a few days before and really beat up my knee, so that wasn’t going to work. We ended up in the two-bedroom in the building with the elevator. The room was nice, but not really very modern. The master bedroom has barely enough room to walk around the bed. The second bedroom was very strange, a pull out couch and chair, no other furniture. And if you pull out the couch, there is no room at all. We used it as a walk-in closet!
The first evening we drove toward town and ate at a touristy place called Ernie Tomatoes. It was pretty good and not too expensive. A time share “shark” came and talked to us. He really didn’t bother us, and we eventually agreed to go on the tour of the Pueblo Bonito Emrald Bay resort. We scheduled that for Tuesday.
On Monday, we took a dip in the pool and checked out the beach. The waves are much stronger in Mazatlan as it is directly on the Pacific. After swimming, we took a do-it-yourself bus tour. We rode the bus from in front of our hotel to the end of the line. We were quite a ways from the toursit zone and saw lots of things. We took another bus to el centro and walked around some.We saw the Plaza Machada and ate lunch at a place called Beach Burger. The burgers were good. We also walked around the central area of town some more looking for a coffee shop Monika told us about. It was closed for siesta, so we decided to return later in the week. We had seen Waldo’s, a Mexican “dollar store” on our bus tour so later we went there to shop. So much better than the PV “dollar stores.” We ate dinner at Panama Restaurant, a local chain. Very good, reasonable and a pretty place.

What’s been happening?

It’s been so long since I updated the blog – I’m sorry! I keep meaning to do it, but then get side tracked.
The good news is that summer is (almost) over. We managed to tough it out through the heat and humidity without owning the electric company! The nights and mornings are cooler now and sometimes even less humid. There is hope that the perfect weather of the winter will be here soon.
Let’s see, in September we hosted a birthday party for our little friend Mirtha. We were helping Joann and Patricia by watching the house and pool while they were gone and Sylvia was on vacation. We asked them if it was OK to have some friends over to swim and they said yes. We invited Alex, Karina and Mirtha to come for her birthday. We also invited Dennis and Jeanie. Jeanie was in the US so couldn’t come. Alex asked if it was ok to invite his coworker Ramon, so we did. He, his wife and 3 kids came; Alex, Karina and Mirtha, of course; their neighbors Faviola and David and their two boys, and our neighbor Sheila and her daughter Lala. We cooked hamburgers and hotdogs and swam. It was a hot afternoon so it was great to be in the pool. Everyone had a wonderful time, all 17 of us! We all pitched in to clean up Casa Tranquila’s pool and patio so it was as good as new.
Later in September we went to Texas for 2 weeks. M&M/Mars was having a party celebrating 30 years in Waco, and the Waco Wild West bike ride was the next week so we were able to be there for both things. We also spent time with my parents, went to my sister’s house, and saw my brother. Here's apicture of me, my brother Tom and my sister Mary.
We flew from Puerto Vallarta to Waco so it wasn’t a bad trip at all. We did a lot of shopping for ourselves and also for others. The airlines have a limit of 2 checked bags per person, 50 pounds each. We were right at the 50 pound mark on all of them. Among other things we bought were 3 pairs of work boots for the firemen.
Right after we got back it seemed so hot. People had reminded us that early October is hot, hot, hot and very humid. The A/C got a workout for sure.
That wraps things up through early October. The summer here was not boring, but there isn’t nearly as much going on as in the winter. That’s a good thing since the hot, humid weather encourages one to be very lazy!

Kitty Update

The new cat has decided to stay. After he got over being mad at us right at first, he has settled right in. His name is now Cy (the one-eye guy). He has absolutely no fear of the dogs. From when he returned from his little sojourn, became a source of amazement for Sarah and Fox. They are used to cats being cautious or afraid and Cy is neither. He walks under Sarah, rubs up against their legs and just ignores them. They didn’t know what to do at first, but now they usually just ignore him and Rosie.
Once in a while, something happens that upsets the cat-dog harmony. If the cats catch a lizard, the dogs want it. And this morning, there was an uproar in the bedroom. When I went in there, the dogs both had their heads under the bed and their back ends up in the air. The cats were both under the bed, and there were feathers everywhere. We don’t have feather pillows, so these feathers must have been from an actual bird. However, I saw no evidence of a bird or former bird. Hmmmm, wonder where it went? Probably not behind the stack of boxes with the big lizard! I’ll keep you posted on the bird and lizard situation.

The Bikini Jam

Our “careers” as intrepid reporters are a little bit slow in the summer. Low season in Puerto Vallarta means fewer events, less business news, just generally a quiet time. The 21st annual Ujena Bikini Jam decided to take advantage of low season to have the event here in Puerto Vallarta.
So on behalf of the Banderasnews.com and the Guadalajara Reporter we covered the Bikini Jam. It turned out to be more fun than I thought it would be.
The first event was a press conference. Accompanied by a few models, Ujena CEO Bob Anderson explained what would be taking place. A nice side onus was the buffet lunch that was served!
A ribbon cutting by the Mayor of Puerto Vallarta was scheduled for the first morning, but he sent a rep instead. After getting our official press credentials, we went to the Golf Tournament. While it sounded like the bikini models would be either golfing or caddying, they were not. After a few set-up shots with golf clubs and players, the girls were just stationed around the course so photo ops and chit chat. We had never been to the El Tigre Golf Course before so we took advantage of the use of a cart to check it out. It is a beautiful course with many nice homes already around it and many more under construction. We rode around and talked to several of the models. Some work for Ujena, they are staff models. What a tough job, right? Travel cool places and get your picture taken.
The girls we talked to were all very friendly and didn’t seem like airheads at all! Some are college students, some are professional models and some just took time off from other jobs to compete.
The next day there was an Expo where the sponsors had booths and the models and photographers could schedule photo shoots. Networking was really the name of the game for them. Who knows when the photographer could sell her photo and make her a little cash? Sponsors were having competitions for “spokesmodels” for their websites, calendars and TV shows. All offered cash prizes and employment opportunities.
We talked to some of the photographers and some of the other press people. All seemed to be enjoying their visits to Puerto Vallarta.
Outside we saw some photo shoots taking place. It is amazing how the models just have to tune everything out since sometimes there were numerous people stopping to watch what was happening.
I have to say that every one of the models I saw had the figure for a bikini. None of those “what in the world is she thinking?” types at all.
I also went to the 5K run which Ujena sponsored. Bob Anderson is a runner, having previously started a magazine called Runner’s World. He encourages all the models and photographers to participate in the race. I thought it was very funny that the race was actually won by a 40-year-old mother of 3. Lilian is a native of Guadalajara but is now a housewife in the NYC suburbs. She has been in Guadalajara caring for her dad and took a short break to come to Vallarta with her 4 year old. She saw the banner, entered the race and blew away the competition! Take that, you young bikini babes!
The final night of the Bikini Jam was the Image Awards. The show itself was very nicely put together. We were pleased to find out that the winning model was from Tijuana. She won some cash and will be working for Ujena.
All-in-all the event was fun. Most of the models defied the stereotype of bubble-headed beauties. Bob Anderson has said the Bikini Jam will return to Puerto Vallarta next year. It is great for the local economy as over 500 people came for the event.
We are now back on reporting hiatus until another fun event comes along.

Dia del Bombero

Since we have been in Bucerias, we have spent a lot of time with some of the Proteccion Civil guys. The department provides fire fighting and ambulance service to the Bahia de Banderas. We’ve brought some donations for them from Texas, too.
Alex, who is one of the training officers, speaks English pretty well. He and his partner Ramon go to schools and teach about fire prevention and safety. We have become friends with Alex and his wife and daughter.
Alex told us that August 22 is the national Dia del Bombero, or Day of the Fireman. For several weeks the fire fighters were collecting donations from area businesses for a party that day. Additionally, the Bahia de Banderas was planning formal ceremonies
We received a written invitation to the ceremony and a verbal invitation to the party. The official part began at 9 a.m. We went to the plaza in Valle de Banderas where the municipal offices are located. All the firefighters were there in their dress uniforms. We had never seen them in anything other than their usual fire .
department T-shirts so we were impressed with how official they looked. The short ceremony involved a speech by Dr. Cuevas, president of the Bahia de Banderas, and one by Dr. Claudio Estrada, head of Proteccion Civil. After the official ceremony, the fire fighters got into the ambulances, pick-up trucks and pumper truck for a mini parade. We rode in one of the trucks and got to “help” with the siren.
After the parade, a breakfast was planned at a local restaurant. By this time, Harold was not feeling well so he headed home. I stayed for the breakfast, which was very nice. Some of the wives and a few kids came. Another round of speeches from Dr. Cuevas, Dr. Estrada and a few others took place. Certificates were presented to the fire fighters, breakfast was served, and there was mariachi music.
After breakfast, there was a special Mass held at the church in Valle de Banderas. Other than the Proteccion Civil crew, a few wives and kids there were only a couple people at the Mass. I hitched a ride over to the church with one of the wives. Of course it was all in Spanish, so I don’t really know what was said. Dr. Estrada and assistant chief Clemente Contreras spoke during the Mass. Afterward, the priest blessed all the fire equipment and the firefighters, sprinkling holy water all around.
That was the end of the official program. Then it was time for the fiesta. It was held at a house in San Jose del Valle. The house has a very large, beautiful lot and pool. There is a separate outdoor kitchen. The guys went and brought all the supplies for the fiesta – the grill, tables, chairs, beer, tequila, soda and of course plenty of food!
Since Harold had gone home, I needed a ride to the party. I was given a ride there in one of the new ambulances. All day long, people asked me where Harold was. When I told them he was sick, they all were disappointed that he couldn't come to the party. They also made sure I had plenty to eat and drink, and that I was having a good time.
The families were all invited, so pretty soon lots of people arrived. The swimming pool was a big hit with everyone. All the ladies pitched in and chopped vegetables for salsa, made guacamole and helped set up for the meal. The guys took care of the grilling, of course. The party got going around 2 in the afternoon. Eventually almost everyone went into the pool, either on their own or were thrown in. There was plenty of eating, drinking and fun. Of course there was a boom box so there was music. The location was excellent.
I think I was the only person at the party who was not a member of the fire department or a family member. A few of the guys speak some English, but I definitely got a workout in speaking Spanish, especially with the wives.
About 9 or so, it started raining. Other than moving clothes and towels under cover, the party went on as usual. Then it started raining very hard and there was lots of thunder and lightning. After a bit, Claudio tried to get everyone out of the pool and under cover. He told everyone not to leave until the storm died down. As the storm was tapering off, most of the firefighters ended up going back into the pool before starting to clean up the area. They seemed to get everything picked up pretty well. Claudio, the chief, lives in Bucerias, so his wife and daughter gave me a ride home. Alex also had offered to take me home. Ramon, who lives near Nuevo Vallarta, also offered to give me a ride if I needed it. Harold didn't need to worry about whther or not I was safe!
I had a very fun time all day, but was sad that Harold had to miss it. When I got home, he was still not feeling well and was glad he had come home early.

Cat Tails

Cat Tails
Part One –Monday August 14
A couple of weeks ago a grey striped cat starting showing up on the patio of our next door neighbor. The cat (male) looked amazingly like our cat (formerly female). On occasion, it would jump from the neighbor's terrace to ours, came into the house and consumed our cat's (Rosie) food.Harold made the “mistake” one morning of giving him a bowl of food, after hearing his sorrowful meow when I went outside. (We moved Rosie's food further away from the door, to a point where he would have had to cross a room in front of our two dogs). He became Harold’s new best buddy at that point.We finally decided to ask our neighbor if they had a new cat or was he just hanging around their house. The answer: "sort of".We asked if it would be OK to take the cat to a vet to check out one of the cat's eyes, which appeared to be severely injured.(We were also going to check on the price of making him an "it"). With a shrug of the shoulder, the neighbor indicated it was fine with them. Actually, she said - the cat is yours, and laughed.Right now, either Roosevelt (Rosie), Blinkie or Winkie is resting comfortably, under the circumstances, in our living room after having the two surgeries mentioned above at Dr. Oscar's. What a troop: 1 normal cat and dog, 1 3-legged dog and 1 one-eyed cat. Gotta love it!

Part 2 – Thursday August 17
An update on the kitty story.When we first posted this story, the cat was in fact resting comfortably in the living room. Shortly after that, the still nameless cat woke up. He came upstairs, hopped over the little baby gate we have to keep the dogs away from the cat food, and headed out onto our front balcony. He then disappeared into thin air! He didn't come back that night or the next day. We were beginning to think he ran away, someone picked him up, or who knows what else.We figured he was kitty history.Well.... this morning we had to get up very early to take a friend to the airport. We went outside and who was sitting on top of our wall than the cat. He jumped down off the wall and seemed to be fine. When we got back from the airport he was on the roof of our neighbor's carport. We could tell he had eaten.Then about 10 this morning, he vanished again.I think he's trying to tell us something!
This picture is Rosie, the cat who likes us.


This is the new cat

My cell phone experience

For the record, I’m not really a cell phone, need-to-be-in-constant-communication kind of person. But, I do have a cell phone which comes in handy on occasion.
Many of the cell phones here are on what is called the Amigo Plan, which is a pay as you go service. You need to put more time on the phone at least once every 60 days to keep the service active. Cards are sold in many stores and you punch in the numbers on the card to add the time. My phone only speaks Spanish so I am always afraid I will somehow mess up adding the time. I found out that at Wal-Mart if you buy air time there, you tell the cashier your phone number and pay for the time and it magically appears on your phone. So I usually do that.
Last Friday, I really wanted to use my phone and discovered my 60 days were up and a new card was needed. So I stopped at Wal-Mart to buy 200 pesos of air time. The cashier didn’t really seem too familiar with adding the time and he actually had to punch the numbers in twice. He gave me my receipt. I told him that I had not received a text message on my phone that there was time added. He said it sometimes took a few minutes to show up. I had never had that happen before. I went out to the car and waited a few minutes. Still no time added and I couldn’t use the phone as the 60 days were up. I went back into Wal-Mart to the service desk. The woman there looked at my phone and at my receipt. She, too, told me that it might take some time to show up. I asked what I needed to do if the time didn’t show up. A couple employees conferred and told me I had to go to TelCel, the service provider, if the time didn’t come through.
The TelCel office is near the Sheraton Hotel, and is only open Monday through Friday. Well, over the weekend, still no air time. So I still couldn’t use the phone. I stopped in a TelCel shop where I know the employee speaks English. She confirmed that I needed to go to TelCel.
After Spanish class on Monday I went to TelCel. You get a number and stand in line for assistance. I waited maybe 45 minutes in line and finally got to talk to a clerk. Edgar, the clerk, speaks English, which is a plus since explaining a problem is difficult for me in Spanish. He looked at my phone, looked at my receipt, looked at his computer. Then he went to consult with his supervisor. He came back, looked at the phone, the receipt and the computer again. He went back and returned with the supervisor. They told me that they needed to do further research on this and Edgar would call me the next day. I expressed disbelief that he would call, but he said he would.
Well, of course he did not call so back I went to TelCel on Wednesday after school. I was able to speak to the same supervisor right away. He explained that Edgar had not called me until that morning because he had nothing to report. He said it would be another day or two to resolve and Edgar would call me.
I tried to convince him to at least give me some more days to use the time I already have, but he couldn’t so that. He also couldn’t just give me the 200 peso credit.
Thursday, Edgar called to tell me that I would need to return to Wal-Mart as they were the source of the error. I explained to him that Wal-Mart had already told me to go to TelCel. He was unable to give me a letter to give Wal-Mart explaining their error. I was very frustrated and told Edgar I was certain Wal-Mart would not help me and it would be useless for me to go there. I also said I would return to TelCel on Friday if I couldn’t get it fixed.
We went out for a while Thursday evening and when we came home there was a message from Edgar. He had gone to Wal-Mart himself on his own time after work and gotten them to add my air time. I checked my phone, and sure enough, there was my credit!!!
I told Harold I should take a little something to Edgar for fixing the problem. I made a little bag of candy for him and took it Friday afternoon. I also thanked him for his help and care.
If this were the US, I would have written a note to his supervisor pointing out what a good job he did. But I wasn’t sure if he would possibly actually get in trouble for doing it on his own, so I did not.
When I got home, Harold said Edgar had called in the morning to make sure I had gotten the message and that everything was OK. Harold thanked him for going out of his way to help me. Harold said that Edgar somewhat sheepishly told him that he went to Wal-Mart since his wife asked him to pick up a few items. Harold told him that he should then thank his wife for us!
No matter why he actually went, Edgar did go out of his way to solve my problem and I really appreciate it!
(I left out the detail here of all the bad things I said about TelCel while this was going on)

Learning Spanish

Learning Spanish

Before we moved to Mexico I took several Spanish classes. Actually, the first class I took was an immersion class in Guatemala before we even thought of moving to Mexico. I took a couple conversational classes in Waco, too. We have books and CDs to help us learn.
I try to use my Spanish as much as possible but it is still woefully inadequate. Harold has always resisted signing up for a class until a couple months ago. Several members of the Amigos de Bucerias group were forming a class in Bucerias so he signed up, too. His class is one hour a day, 3 days a week. I can tell he is learning a lot!
I looked around at the options and decided to sign up for a class taught by Melchor Cortes. He uses the Warren Hardy method of teaching. http://spanishschoolvallarta.com. The curriculum is 4 levels. At first I wondered if I should sign up for Level 1, since I didn’t consider myself a rank beginner. Let me tell you right now, Level 1 was an excellent choice for me. There are several other folks in the class who had the same thoughts and have reached the same conclusion. Everyone says that the have gaps in their knowledge which would prove to be a problem if they didn’t follow the curriculum from the start.
The class is 3 hours a day, 3 days a week, for 3 weeks. And there is a fair amount of homework, too. Summer seemed to be a good time for the class since there isn’t so much going on. And the school offers a discount for local folks in the summer. There are 13 people in the class. Most are Puerto Vallarta residents, some run their own businesses, some are retired, and a few are here on vacation.
The class is very structured which is actually a big help. We don’t get off the topic with questions and stories like some classes do. Each class is a combination of review, some new material, reading, listening and vocabulary. As opposed to some other classes, there is a lot of instruction in English. The curriculum was developed to teach Spanish to English speaking people. Our teacher, Melchor, is Mexican but speaks English very well.
I asked one of the other students who is here on vacation if he would recommend the class. He said yes he would. He felt like there is adequate classtime and homework to make real progress and still plenty of time to enjoy his vacation.
I can tell that my comprehension and ability to converse have improved. I have been speaking Spanish as much as possible. I tell people that I am learning, and have told people I know to be sure to correct my errors.
The beginning course really helps in knowing how to structure sentances. I know how little children must feel when they are first able to do something. I am still amazed when I can have a conversation and both parties know what’s going on!
Having a telephone conversation in another language can be difficult. This week, I managed to place a call andleave a message for someone. It worked, as the person called me back. And today a friend called and even when I spoke English, he was only speaking Spanish. We arranged that Harold would help him buy a load of gravel tomorrow. Or maybe I agreed to give him Harold’s truck. Ha ha.
I am pleased with the progress I am making. I know there will be setbacks and frustrations in the learning process, too. Heck, little children learn to speak Spanish, I should be able to, too.

Our neighbor Flash

A couple months ago one of the neighbors around the corner from us started parking a trailer and specially adapted pickup truck on the street. At first, the trailer was covered with graphics advertising a sea lion show. I figured they had bought a used trailer from an aquarium, since they removed the graphics pretty soon after arrival. My thinking was that no one would have a sea lion show in our neighborhood.
Well, I was right about the show, but wrong about the sea lion.    The special truck carries our neighbor “Flash” from his salt water swimming pool home to his job at the marina in Puerto Vallarta. Today I was walking home from Curves when Flash got home from work so I was able to see him close up.
After getting out of his truck, his handler had him wave to me, stick his tongue out at me, and dance. When I left to walk home, Flash waved good bye before walking up to his pool. He is “employed” by a local tour company and they take pictures of people with him and sell them, probably for some huge price. I guess he also does a few tricks for the crowd.
I’ll try to get a picture of Flash one day (and hope they don’t charge me big bucks for it!}

Tania

Kinder graduation

Celebrations!

Our friends Alex, Karena and Mirtha live in San Jose. It is a small town in the valley of the Ameca River. Mirtha finished kindergarten in early July and Alex wanted us to attend her graduation. He told us that the graduation was at 4:30 so we should get to their house around 4:15 to go to the school. We arrived and preparations were still being made. Alex’s sister Sandra was fixing Mirtha’s hair and Karena was getting dressed. Alex’s mother was there, too.
We walked over to the kinder school, about 4 blocks away. Some of the kids and families were already there, but others were still arriving. Nobody seemed to be in any sort of hurry. About 5:30 or so the graduation started. There are 3 years of kinder here, sort of like pre-K and kindergarten. Mirtha was finishing the 3rd year of kinder and will go to another school next year. There was a flag ceremony where the outgoing class passed the flag on to the next younger group. In the younger classes each child got a certificate for completing the year. Each class performed a dance. Mirtha’s class was very cute, all the girls had on white dresses fit for princesses and the boys were wearing their school uniforms and ties. There was even a short speech by the man who was “padrino” of the class.
After the ceremony, Alex’s sister and mother headed back to Vallarta and we went to a neighbor’s house with Alex, Karena and Mirtha. Two other girls and a boy from her class and their families were also there. We sat outside and ate snacks and drank beer. Even though Alex was the only one of them who spoke much English, we felt very welcomed by the whole group.
Apparently there had been some type of mix-up with school fees and the kids didn’t get their certificates. The parents were complaining about the school officials and Harold decided to teach them some English to help out. He told them that in the US, when something like that happens you say “Thank you very little.” They all practiced saying that, and Harold told them an alternate expression was F%#* you very much. They all seemed to understand that. And Alex told them another good saying to know was “Shut up.” So if you are ever in San Jose, Nayarit and here people saying Thank you very little and Shut-Up, you know why!

A couple weeks later we were invited to a quinceañera. It is a party to celebrate the 15th birthday of a girl. The quinceañera girl is named Tania and she and her sister Michelle spend a lot of time with our friends Patricia and Joann. We have met their whole family and went to their house for Christmas.
The first part of the quinceañera was a Mass at the church in the plaza in Bucerias. We had never been to that church before. The Mass was open to anyone and there are many people who attend church regularly there.
After the Mass was the party. It was held at an outdoor salon in Bucerias. Probably several hundred people were there. There were soft drinks and beer, music and videos, a special dance by the girl of honor and her escorts, and later dinner. It was a fun party.
A quinceañera is lots and lots of work by the family. Invitations were sent out; the dress bought and then spiced up. Little souvenirs were assembled for every guest in the color chosen, in this case orange. On each table at the party were decorated salt shakers, napkin holders and dolls. All of these were made, painted and arranged by the family.
Obviously this is a very big event for the girl and her family! We really enjoyed being able to participate in it.

So what do we do all day?

People often ask us what we do all day, now that we are retired and live in Mexico. That’s a hard question to answer since it can vary so much! For example, here is what happened one day recently.
It was a Saturday morning and there was a meeting scheduled for the Amigos de Bucerias civic group. Harold is the vice president so he was going to the meeting for sure. Manuel, the contractor who has been working around our house was due to come over and work, also.
I stayed home from the meeting because Manuel wasn’t here yet. After Manuel arrived and had been working for a while, some friends of ours, Dennis and Jeannie, stopped by. They had been in PV for an errand and wanted to know if we were interested in going out for brunch.
I told Manuel where we were going and also left a note for Harold. As it turned out, that isn’t where we went. The Red Apple is a nice breakfast place in Bucerias but it is on the 3rd floor. Dennis hurt his knee last week and can barely get around much less climb to the 3rd floor. So we went to Bambu which is right across the street.
While we were eating breakfast, we talked about Dennis’s injured knee. He thought crutches would be good to have. Patricia lives near Bambu so we went to see if she had any crutches. She looked and did not have any at her house. She was fairly sure there were some in the Friendship Club closet at the Regional Hospital. We visited with Patricia for a while and she gave Dennis some suggestions for doctors.
After stopping by the house to see if Harold wanted to ride over to the Regional Hospital (he did not) off we went to Pitillal. It takes maybe 30 minutes to drive over there. Jeannie, Dennis and I went to the hospital and parked in the (dirt) parking lot. Despite it being Saturday afternoon, the hospital was pretty busy. Since it is where the cleft palate program takes place I am familiar with the hospital. We found the closet and took a look inside. Plenty of stuff for sure, but not crutches. About that time I remembered that last year our friend Monika hurt her foot pretty badly. I thought that perhaps she had used crutches. Her husband Luis has a lot and bodega neat the Regional Hospital and he is often at the bodega when not at work.
We piled back in the car and went to the bodega. It is maybe 6 blocks away from the hospital on another dusty street. Sure enough, Luis was there as was his brother Eddie and friend Rafa. They were watching the World Cup. We sat down to see the end of the game with them. Of course, beers were offered and accepted. Rafa was busy making ceviche so we also sampled that. Luis showed Dennis and Jeannie around his shop, bodega and party yard. But no crutches were located. Luis said Monika is a hard-headed German and refused to use them. The yard has several fruit trees and they had bunches of ripe bananas so we each took a bunch and headed back to Bucerias.
Harold was home when we got back. He was talking to our friend Alex who is a Bahia de Banderas fireman. Dennis and Jeannie stopped in to visit for a little while before heading back home to La Penita where they live. Alex had brought over some photos from a course he taught at the Vallarta Palace hotel. It was a week long class held each morning covering life saving, CPR, fire fighting and first aid.
Alex asked us if we have a Sam’s card, which we do. He and his wife Karena wanted to go shopping at Sam’s but don’t have their own card. We didn’t have anything else planned so off we went to San Jose del Valle to pick up Karena and their 6 year old daughter Mirtha Zarai, who is also called Mirzai, pronounced Mere Zye Ee.
But first, dinner! Mirzai wanted to go to KFC because she likes to play in the Chickylandia play area, and Alex and Karena like KFC too. The locals refer to it just as Kentucky, pronounced Ken-tooky. We were surprised when Alex insisted on treating us to dinner. The chicken was very good and Mirzai had fun playing. Harold and I were the only gringos in KFC at the time and it was fairly busy.
Sam’s was really busy. Alex explained that payday had been the day before for many people, including him. They are paid on the 15th and 30th of the month so right after that the stores are full. They stocked dup on some household essentials and a couple treats. Karena, Mirzai and I went to Walmart to look for something while the guys checked out at Sam’s. Walmart was also packed! Mirzai was like every other kid and saw many things she liked. But unlike most American kids, she didn’t ask her parents one time “can I have that?” We took them back home and then returned to Bucerias, put away our few things we bought at Sam’s, and crashed in front of the TV.
So, now you know what we did that one day. Every day seems to bring something unexpected.

On the road again!

When we moved to Bucerias in October we came down in one car, our Mazda Tribute. The Dodge Dakota pickup truck stayed at my brother Tom’s house until we came back to get it. A tentative plan was to come get it in June, around our daughter, Ann’s 30th birthday on June 20.
We were invited to a wedding in Atlanta on June 3rd. Originally we didn’t think we would be going, but as the time drew nearer we came up with a plan. What if we went to Atlanta for the wedding then got back to Waco in time for Ann’s birthday?
I found a great airfare round trip PV to Atlanta, changing planes in Dallas both ways. So, we would fly to Atlanta for the wedding, and then use only the Atlanta-DFW portion on the way back. Then drive the truck back to Bucerias.

We flew to Atlanta and spent 2 nights there. The wedding was very nice. The bride and groom both were Georgia Tech coop work students at M&M/Mars while I was there. It was fun to see them again.
After Atlanta, we drove to Asheville, NC to visit my brother, Rick. It was pretty chilly in the mountains especially when it rained. We stayed there for 4 nights. Rick’s house is very secluded on several acres and has lots of trees and a stream. He has seen bears in his yard
Besides spending time with Rick and his girlfriend Forrest, we also visited with our former sister-in-law Kathy at her house. She has added on to it since last time we were there and it is really cute. She teaches English as a second language and school had just gotten out for the summer.
Harold’s cousin Nancy also lives in Asheville. Her husband is an architect and was extremely busy so we just had a chance to say hi to him. We went out with Nancy and her son Zeke for pizza. Harold had a chance to catch up with what’s happening on that side of the family.!

After Asheville, we drove back to Atlanta and returned our rental car. We flew to Philadelphia to visit Harold’s sister Debbie. We stayed 5 nights with her. They hadn’t been able to open their pool yet due to wet and cold weather. But we went out to eat, and shopped! We also went to their aunt and uncle’s house for a cookout. His Uncle Len is 80, and Aunt Doris is “a little younger” and they both still work 3 days a week The attorney she has worked for the last 20 years is retiring soon and she says she will also. Uncle Len is an attorney and has no plans for retirement yet.
After Philadelphia, we flew back to Atlanta, then caught the return leg of our PV-Atlanta round trip. We flew to DFW and then told American Airlines we would be unable to complete the trip. Didn’t want to get on anyone’s black list by just not showing up.
My brother Rick decided to fly to DFW as well, to surprise our parents. As we greeted Mom in the baggage claim area, Rick snuck up behind her. They were both surprised he was there.
While we were in Waco we did some shopping for things we needed here in Bucerias, and for some hot weather clothes. We were able to visit with several of our friends in Waco, too. Cyndi and Matt, some of my former coworkers, had a pool party which was nice since the temperature was hot! We ate dinner with Susan and Paul, just like we used to do almost every Friday night.
On Father’s Day weekend, my sister and her family and my younger brother Tom (keeper of the truck) came to Mom and Dad’s. It was really nice to have everyone together!
We visited the Masterfoods (M&M/Mars) plant and ate lunch with Kitty. I used to sit next to her and we became good friends. She told us that there is going to be a Masterfoods USA 30th anniversary dinner dance/casino night in September. We may have to make another trip north for that!
Finally it was time to drive back to Bucerias. I’ll recap our trip in the next installment. Also, I’ll answer the question – what about Ann’s birthday?

An evening in Jarretaderas

Some of you might remember a story we told a few years ago about a car in a hole. Well, here’s another one and it is the hole truth.
First a disclaimer – Harold did not want me to write about this. He says everyone will think “what a dummy he must be.” I thought the story has a happy enough ending to be worth that risk.
We had finished eating dinner in the little town of Jarretaderas. Most of the streets there are pretty rough and bumpy. Sort of like many of the towns around here! And curiously, many of the streets are one way for no apparent reason. The streets are wide and there is very little traffic. It also seems most everyone ignores the one way signs.
We had driven by a big tent that we saw from the restaurant, it was a circus set up in the middle of a big field. The loudspeaker announcing the circus, the times and the prices was loud enough to hear for blocks around. After passing the circus, we drove toward the plaza. Jarretaderas has a very nice plaza with lots of plants and a nice gazebo.
The street on one side of the plaza was blocked by big piles of dirt. We headed down another side of the plaza, the road looked like it had recently been worked on. As we turned the corner, we saw a big pile of dirt in that street. We drove down that street and were going past the big pile of dirt when Harold noticed a very large hole in the dirt street. It was right next to the big pile of dirt. And right about then the car came to a sudden halt. We were stuck! I got out to look and the 2 wheels on the passenger side were firmly on the street, almost in the big dirt pile. The front driver’s side wheel was on the dirt, but inside the hole. But the major problem was the rear driver’s side tire, which was, well, just hanging over the big hole, not touching the ground at all!
We walked up to the nearest person we saw and asked if they knew where we could find a tow truck. They did not. On the next block were a couple taco stands. I asked at the first one, and the woman running the stand said yes, she knew a guy, Chuy, who could help. She had her son take me to the Chuy’s house about 3 blocks away. Harold stayed behind with the car.
When I got to the house, the kid, Reynaldo, explained to three guys standing on the street what had happened. They had him repeat the story and they all looked surprised and laughed. They asked me, did I really drive my car in the hole? Well technically I hadn’t, but this was not the time for explanation. I said yes, I did not know the hole was there and yes, the car was stuck. They asked a few questions about the car and told me they would meet me back at the car with the dump truck which would pull the car out.
They arrived with the dump truck and chains. After analyzing the situation, they wrapped the chain around some portion of the back of the car, underneath. I am sure they knew what they were doing, and I didn’t have a clue. Harold had the dubious privilege of staying in the car to steer while they pulled it out. They seemed to be taking good care to not cause any damage to the car, but just as the chain got tight, the car shifted and I was sure it was going to flip over into the hole. But, it didn’t and the dump truck was able to pull it out with no problems.
I talked to the truck driver an asked him how much I owed him. He said, nothing, that’s OK. I asked couldn’t he use some money to buy his buddies a beer for the help. He said, well, OK, I guess. I tried to hand him a 200 peso bill (about $20 US) and you would have thought I tried to hand him a snake. He pulled his hand back quickly and then said, oh no, I can’t take that. He really wouldn’t take it, he said next time I could pay him. (ha ha, next time!) I hurried and got a 100 peso bill and asked could he please take it. He still looked uneasy about it, but did take it.
This was after dark in a little town where we knew no one and barely can speak the language. Don’t you know we would have been willing to pay much, much more to get our car safely out of there? And the man wouldn’t take 20 bucks! You just have to love it!

The customer is always wrong

One of the big differences between retail stores here in Mexico and in the US is their view of customer service. In the US, once you get home if you notice a product is defective or even just not what you really wanted, you return it to the store and get your money back or another product. If you see something advertised on sale and they are out of it, you generally can get a raincheck. If an item has a sign in front of it that says it is on sale and the register doesn’t show the sale price, the cashier corrects it. (I know there are exceptions, but you get the idea.)
Well, shopping here in Puerto Vallarta really demonstrates that you aren’t in Kansas anymore!
We like the bakery at Gigante, and buy chocolate croissants there frequently. One day we got some off the tray and the price card said 3 pesos each. When we took them to be wrapped and priced, they were marked 4 pesos each. Harold told the clerk the sign said 3 pesos. She went and looked at the sign, then moved the tray elsewhere on the shelf. Then she went behind the counter and looked in the big box of price signs and found one that said 4 pesos. She took it over and put it in front of the newly relocated tray, and then proudly pointed at the sign and said, “See they are 4 pesos each.” Yeah, how silly of us to think they were 3 pesos. Of course, now the normal price is 3.5!
When shopping at Soriana we saw signs all around the paint department for Meriadano brand paint 20% off. Well, it actually said “tola pintura”, not toda. We took a can of spray paint, which was directly behind one of the signs, to the register. It was not 20% off. I went back to the paint department to check. Sure enough, the sign was right there in front of the spray paint. I asked the clerk if the spray paint was 20% off, he said no, only the regular cans of paint. I asked then why did the sign say all the paint, he said he didn’t know, but spray paint wasn’t on sale. I went to the service counter and she thought about it for a minute and looked at the spray can and pointed to where it said acrylic. She said it was acrylic, not paint, that’s why it wasn’t on sale. I showed her the sign and my receipt which clearly said “pintura”. Then she tried telling me that the sign said “tola pintura”, which doesn’t mean anything, not “toda pintura” which is all paint. Next, she called the paint department and the same guy that I already spoke to came up to the service counter, so I knew we were doomed.
One day at Walmart we had a similar experience with caulk. I think they would have sold it to us for the sale price, except it did show in very tiny print on the sign, the particular type of caulk (not the one we got!)
I tell this to people who have lived here a while and they give me the look that indicates “rookie” and tell me that I’ll learn to accept that the customer is rarely right. Even if you try to bring something back that is defective, the store attitude is that if it was defective, you shouldn’t have bought it in the first place, so why should they take it back?
We did actually successfully return something once! We bought 3 gallons of paint at Gigante and 2 of them didn’t end up being the color we wanted. One we kept as it didn’t need to match anything. The other was for touch-up so it needed to be correct. We went to the service counter and were told the paint person would be in later, come back in 45 minutes. So we came back in an hour. Still no paint person, so they wanted us to come back later. Luckily for us, one of the timeshare sharks was hanging around near the service counter and he convinced them that we had waited long enough and we didn’t want to come back with our gallon of paint. So they actually gave us a refund!
But for the most part, “buyer beware” really applies here!

El Bombero Harold

When we lived in Iowa and Texas, Harold was a volunteer firefighter (total of 17 years). He had some old fire gear that he brought with us when we moved to Bucerias. He donated those things to the Bahia de Banderas Bomberos, whose fire station is located in Jarratederas.
Board member mddfire has also donated equipment to the Bahia de Banderas firefighters
Harold has always been a "siren chaser." We have witnessed several grass fires and other civil protection calls just by hearing the sirens or following the trucks while we were out driving around.
We have become acquainted with many of the bomberos that serve this area.
Thursday night, we heard the fire truck sirens and they sounded very close. Harold looked out the window and saw the fire trucks go by. so he drove to see where they were going.
The fire was one block from our house. Harold thinks there was an electrical short in the bedroom and things had smoldered all day before a neighbor smelled smoke and, upon investigation, saw flames in the window of the house at about 10 p.m.
Lacking spotlights or flashlights, the bomberos were working in the dark (the electricity had been turned off) trying to put the fire out.
Harold came back home, got his flashlight and went back to help the bomberos light up the scene, remove smoldering clothes/furniture and ventilate the house.
When he got home 2 hours later, he said that was just like the old days.
Harold is in contact with a fire department in Texas to get used equipment donated and perhaps establish a “sister fire department” agreement.

San Sebastian

While walking down a street in Puerto Vallarta, I saw a poster for a festival called Arsterra to be held in San Sebastian. There was very little detail on the poster other than the date.
We’d been thinking of going there anyway, so we thought what the heck, let’s go! Our friend Debbie, who lives at the Suites Marbella agreed to come along, and so did Susan, a neighbor from Bucerias. Susan’s friend Robin from San Miguel came along, too.
The road to San Sebastian is pretty good for the most part. A bridge is being built over a river and that part is still ongoing. There is a detour, well not really a detour; we heard it was the original road. But now the traffic is limited to one direction at a time. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for our turn to go. The road at that point is very narrow and is right on the hillside at times. The backseat passengers did a great job of not screaming too much!
The road into San Sebastian from that main road is pretty bumpy and dusty. From the Domino’s pizza on highway 200, it took about an hour and a half to get to San Sebastian.
The festival appeared to be more of an art show really so we looked around some. There was supposed to be some demonstrations and entertainment but they would be later in the day.
We all commented on how clear the air is there. And it was very nice and cool. We ate at a restaurant on the square. It was on the porch of one of the buildings. After we ate we just wandered around some of the streets.
As I was looking at a poster, I heard someone say, “Don’t touch that poster!” It was a woman named Geri that I had met at Casa Tranquila. She and her teenage daughter Alejandra were in San Sebastian getting away from the crowds in PV.
We told Geri we were thinking of driving to the mountaintop called Cerro La Bufa. She offered to go with us. In her VW bug and our Mazda Tribute, off we went up the mountain.
Our first stop was a little village called Real de Alto. There is a very huge, old church there. We visited the church, which was having Mass at that time. Alejandra told us the stories that go with that church. First was the story of the priest and the burro that brought the statue of the Virgin to the church. This church is way the heck up the mountain; it must have been quite a trip for them. Well, just as they got to the church with the Virgin, the burro died. They buried the burro in front of the church and soon a huge rosebush sprung up there. It is a massive rose bush!
The second bit of lore involved a thief who was robbing many churches in the area. He would enter the churches and take anything of value he could find. He robbed the Real de Alto church and took the communion cups, candlesticks and other things. But the gold crown remained on the statue of the Virgin. Everyone wondered why the crown didn’t get stolen as well. When the thief was finally caught, the police asked him why he didn’t steal the crown. He replied that he tried to take it, but every time he reached for it, it floated in the air just out of reach!
After the church visit, we went on to Cerro La Bufa. It is the highest point in the area, about 8,000 feet. On a clear day you can see all the way to the ocean. Only Harold and I were brave enough to join Alejandra on the hike to the top. It was about 2 km, I would guess. Not bad hiking at all. The view from the top was incredible! I wore my Crocs and was concerned my footing wouldn’t be good. Well, I wouldn’t recommend Crocs for strenuous hiking, but they were fine for this adventure.
After enjoying the crisp, cool air of La Bufa it was back down the mountain to San Sebastian. The road up to Real de Alto and La Bufa is mostly dirt and rocks. The car got very dusty! We were really glad our car has high clearance and good suspension. The scaredy-cat back seat passengers weren’t too white knuckled by the time we got back to San Sebastian. We walked around the square a little more, had an ice cram and decided to head back to the big city.
We had just gotten back to the main road when we heard a strange sound coming from the front of the car. We stopped and sure enough it was a flat tire. Harold looked and could see there was a small hole in the tire. I walked over to a nearby truck and asked the driver where we might find a tire shop. Keep in mind this was about 4 on a Saturday afternoon. He directed me about a couple blocks back down the road. I found the tire shop, such as it was, but nobody was there. I walked across the street to where some people were waiting for the bus. A guy helped me ask at a woodworking shop about the tire guy. They directed me down a side street. When I got there, a woman told me the tire repair guy was gone. I said he wasn’t at the shop, she said that wasn’t his shop it was another guy. So I walked back to the main road. The guy from the bus stop waved me over and said the tire shop man had returned.
I talked to the tire man, who had no way to go get our tire, and when I asked for a jack he told me ask the guy at a place nearer to our car. That guy, who sells gasoline from his house, found a jack much better than the wimpy little one we have, and helped us change the tire to the little spare. We gave him something for his time, of course, and drove over to the tire shop.
The tire repair guy was able to fix our flat tire (yay!) and then put it on the car, put air in our spare since it was low, and we got everything back in the car. His charge for the repair was 30 pesos. We had asked ahead of time just to keep from having one of those unpleasant surprises when the job was done. Under the circumstances, we would have not been surprised if the price was 5 or more times what it was!
The whole tire thing didn’t take all that long and we were very relieved that the flat happened so close to the tire shop. I would have been suspicious that the repair guy had put nails in the road or something, but he was too laid back for that have to been the case. I was glad to have Robin along as she speaks Spanish very well and she was able to talk more to the tire guy after we got to the shop. If anyone is interested, the Spanish word for a jack for the car is “un gato.”
The return trip was uneventful after that. We are now considering where to go on our next adventure. Any suggestions?
There are lots more San Sebastian and other pictures on my Webshots at http://community.webshots.com/album/549334263NXAjNE

Roving Reporters

When we moved to Bucerias, our friend Bob encouraged us to write some articles for an online publication he is affiliated with. That sounded fun, so we have been writing articles for the Banderasnews.com.
Writing for the Banderas News is pretty much fun. There is no particular thing we have to write about, and no particular deadline for doing so. The drawback is – no pay either.
A couple months ago, we were approached by the Guadalajara Reporter about writing a twice a month column about Bucerias area activities. We figured we’d give it a shot so we are now official roving reporters.
We met with one of the publishers of the paper and went over the expectations and requirements. We also received very official looking press credentials complete with pictures!
So far, we haven’t had trouble finding material to fill the column. There are plenty of organizations having fundraisers, new businesses opening, events in town, and festivals to write about.
With our very official looking credentials, we have been able to get into some events as press people. One thing we went to was the Senorita Bahia de Banderas beauty pageant. We knew there was an admission charge so we thought what the heck, we will try the press badges. Once they determined we were reporters, we were directed to reserved parking and not charged admission. We wandered around looking for a seat, and were shown to the press table, which was right up front. Harold said he thought the idea of a front-row seat at a beauty contest was OK!
Recently, we went to a number of events associated with the Nautical Festival. I rode on the press boat in the opening boat parade. We have been to a couple dinners and a concert as well.
I have now been on the lookout for upcoming events and contacting them regarding press passes. Writing for the Banderas News and for the Guadalajara Reporter has encouraged us to attend some events we wouldn’t normally go to.

Back to the Old Blog

I have neglected my blog (and my blog audience) for too long! I will try to do better.

Let’s see, what has happened? Harold and I both worked on the committee organizing the RISE children’s shelter fundraiser in February. It was a lot of work, as those event s can be, but a big success. It is something we will do again next year.
We have also helped the Bucerias Children’s Library with several events. Right now, the library is in the process of building a new building, so money is needed for construction.
The library group has had a couple used book sales which have done well. People are very generous in donating their old books and buying some new reading material.
Another event that took place was a Gourmet Texas BBQ. Another success!

We’ve had some company, too. Our friends Jamie and Rob came in late February. They were our first official visitors that we had to plan for. Rob had just taken his law board exam and was ready to relax. Since neither of them had been to Puerto Vallarta before we gave them a sampler of the fun things to do in the area. I think they had a great time and said they would come back next year.

Our next guests were my Mom and Dad. No entertaining needed for them. We had a nice visit and did a little sightseeing. We also had a cookout and some friends over, which was lots of fun.

The next week, my friend Kitty came from Waco. She and I used to sit right next to each other at work. I was so glad she came to Puerto Vallarta. She came with her 14-year-old daughter, her 18-year-old senior in high school daughter and a friend who is also a senior. They stayed at an all-inclusive resort which turned out really well for the girls. Harold and I took them shopping one day and another day went and picked up Kitty and brought her over to the house. While I may not miss working, I do is some of my former coworkers – especially Kitty!

OK, enough for now!

Happy New Year!

This is totally out-of-order in the course of time, but I wanted to mention it.
On New Year’s Eve, we decided to forego all the fancy parties, midnight cruises ad the street party on Olas Altas. Instead, we went to the beach with Luis, Monika, Melissa and Rudy.
We went to the beach club in Nuevo Vallarta. Luis made a big bonfire and everyone brought snacks and drinks. It was a cool night, not nearly as cold as it had been. The ocean was really rough. For several weeks in December and January we could hear the surf pounding at night even at our house.
The beach club is located between the Grand Velas and Marival resorts in Nuevo Vallarta. Both resorts were having parties. The velas had a big stage set up, but we didn’t try to sneak in and look at it.
At midnight, the whole coastline was lit up with fireworks. We watched the ones that the Velas set off. Probably we were about 50 feet away from where some of them were fired from. The displays that the two resorts had were great. Then we saw numerous other displays up and down the coast.
We didn’t stay out too much past midnight. But we had a really fun time and enjoyed visiting with our friends and their friends who came along.