Super Bowl Sunday (Whoopee)

Neither of us are football fans, so the big hoopla about the Super Bowl specials all over town didn't interest us at all.
I couldn't even tell you who's playing...

Carl & Melody have a website that shows the restaurants in town with locations, descriptions and in most cases, menus. 

 http://rockypointrestaurants.net/ 

We joined them yesterday as they went to a couple that they wanted to add to their site and discovered this one.  Mariscos Boulevard.  It's on the main drag so we've driven by it many times. It doesn't look like much from the outside, so we never thought to stop in.  We met a Canadian couple there yesterday and they raved about the food, so Dan & I went back today for lunch to check it out.

The decor isn't terribly exciting, but it's spotlessly clean!

I really wanted to try the seafood dish that the couple from Edmonton had told us about, but I wasn't hungry enough for a big meal, so I opted for something smaller (ha ha!). 

There were 7 enormous shrimp lollipops, with rice & salad.

Dan orded a light meal too.  Coconut shrimp.

We'll have to fast for 3 days before we go back to try the big meals.

☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺

Driving aimlessly around town one day, we discovered this little scene.  Look closely. 

Yes, that's a sex shop next door to the maternity clinic! 

I'm just sayin'...

Driving aimlessly around town today (we do that a lot!), we discovered a development that we'd never noticed before.  As we pulled in to investigate, of course the salesman showed up to chat us up.  He offered to show us the model suite, even after we told him that we DEFINITELY weren't in the market. 

("I'm bored and I need to practice my spiel anyway...")

Two (teensy) bedrooms, two bathrooms, garage, community outdoor swimming pool, and a gym.

 $129,000.00 USD

Nice guy.  Told us we were welcome to drop by and use the pool and the gym anytime we wanted, but if his boss shows up, maybe we could pretend to be interested in the place.

And now, I'm gonna take my margarita up to the upstairs terrace and get in a bit of hammock time before the sun goes down!!!

...and then there were four.

These are "our" strays.
L-R:  Beegee (Boxer Girl), Hombre (Señor H), Bounty (Grey Dog), Barky Boots and Twix (Brown Dog)
Little Peso isn't in this picture because he had already gone to his new home when this was taken.

Now Bounty (aka Grey Dog) has gone missing.  We're hoping that the lady that comes around and feeds them has taken her home.  (She was looking for a dog for her daughter and had mentioned that she liked her)  Bounty was my favourite so I hope she's found a good home.  I miss this little face at the gate!

Empty House

It feels weird!  The house is so empty now.  Lesley, Dave, Jess and Sam left this morning, so it's just the three of us again.  Well, four right now, because Shadow (Carl & Melody's dog) is here for a sleep-over.
We've really enjoyed having the Wongs here for the last 10 days.  We've shopped, we've beached and we've bevvied.  It was fun!  The 4 hour beach walks (or death marches according to Jess & Sam) were great.  We didn't feel guilty about pigging out on junk food & margaritas after walking for miles and miles.  The dogs loved them too.  Non-stop ball throwing into the water!  We even managed to wear out Lola.  (Not an easy feat)
They brought down some stuff that we haven't been able to get here.  Feta cheese, Mr. Christies chocolate chunk cookies, unhydrogenated margarine and the biggest bottle of HP sauce I've ever seen.  Woohoo - it was like Christmas!
They also brought a bristle-y welcome mat which we're hoping will help to keep the desert out of the house.  So far it's been used mainly by Twix (brown dog) who took the "welcome" thing a bit too literally.

Here's Lesley displaying her beach purchase. 

We were usually the only people on the beach besides the vendors.

And the occasional horse.

This is the inside of the Friendly Dolphin restaurant. 

It's the one that I liked the look of in the last post. 

A tad pricey, but the food and the margaritas were good.

The entertainment was, well, enthusiastic.

 

 These guys were funny and they did a fair rendition of my dad's favourite Mexican restaurant request song:    

Besame Mucho.

Back home, Jess & Taz share a quiet moment.

When Jess's friend learned that she was coming to PP she said she HAD to have the pollo asado (roast chicken) at this place, Pollo Lucas.  We picked some up for lunch one day.

Five out of six participants agreed that it was awesome!   Number 6 (me) opted for a tuna sandwich instead, but the rice and beans were excellent and the pickled onions were to die for!  (Yes, really!)

We took the dogs for a desert walk late this afternoon, but we had to cut it short because they were both terrified.  There were a hundred sirens blaring and what sounded like a series of dozens of explosions (or maybe gunfire?) and there was a definite smoky smell in the air.  We dropped the dogs at home and jumped in the van to go and see what the all the fuss was.  Our plan was to drive to the top of Whale Hill for the best overview of the city, but for the first time ever, there was a barrier across the road blocking access to non-residents.  Instead, we drove down the main drag (Benito Juarez Boulevard) thinking we'd get as close as we could without getting in the way of the emergency vehicles...Guess what we found there?!   WW3?  An all out drug related shoot out in the street?  A raging inferno engulfing the city?  Nope.  Just a parade to kick off Carnaval, complete with pretty princesses and fireworks! 

Too funny!  But this is Mexico.  We've been fooled by parades before - you think we'd learn...

  

  

 

Happy Carnaval!

 And of course, as every Calgarian knows, it's not a parade without horses!

Yay! The sunshine is back

Jessica & Samantha arrived on Friday night.  Saturday morning we awoke to blue skies and sunshine!  Yaaay!!!  After a long, leisurely breakfast we all went for a walk through the desert and down to the beach.

Taz is always the first one in the water.

Dave & Lola weren't far behind.

 

Travelling Mexican style. 

Our van has seating for 5 people, but there are 6 of us, so we added a lawn chair in the middle.

A bit of shopping in the old port area (The Malecon) 

This shop is a bit overwhelming.  Three stories of  STUFF.

Dan has seen it all before so he opted to wait outside and soak up some sunshine.

This is a restaurant nearby.  We haven't been in it yet, but it looks nice.

We stopped in to check out the Shrimp Festival.  Lots of tents from restaurants around town to showcase their shrimp dishes.  We sampled, of course.  There was music and dancing, but as far as Mexican fiestas go, it was pretty low key.

Fun with fruit.

That was yesterday.  Looking forward to a beach day today.

Wicked Weather

So, my sister Lesley and brother-in-law David arrived on Tuesday morning.  On Tuesday night the monsoon rolled into town!  Pretty sure the two events are related somehow.  (At least we're blaming them for it)  Holy crap!  This place usually only sees about 2 inches of rainfall a year, but we got at least that much during the night.  We discovered a few new leaks in the house, (as did everybody else in town) but at least the ceiling fan wasn't dripping this time. Most of the streets around town are just sand and there's no storm drainage system, so the water is sitting in puddles  (lakes in some places) until the sun comes out to dry them out.  Many roads are impassable, even the ones that are passable are a bit of an adventure.

On Wednesday, we managed to get in some touring, shopping and a couple of beach walks.

Checking out the shrimpers in the harbour

Shopping on "Rodeo Drive"  (aka Shack's 5th Avenue)

Wall to wall and floor to ceiling kitsch

Took a drive out to Cholla Bay and stopped here for lunch.

It was even nice enough to sit out on their patio

A walk along Sandy Beach with the dogs.

Thursday was a crappy day, weather-wise.  Went for a drive to ogle the fancy schmancy houses out in the Las Conchas area and managed to get mud up to the windows on Dave's car.  Here he is washing it in the driveway.  (In the rain!!)

I've never actually seen anyone mop a car before.  (Did I mention that it was raining?!)

Dave playing in the parking lot next door with the ball-obsessed Lola.  I opted for taking photos from the relative dryness of the house.  It rained off & on (mostly on) all day and the wind was HOWLING!!  It was a good day for reading and beveraging indoors. 

We went to Ramon's Restaurant for dinner with Carl, Melody & Paul (their visitor from Calgary) and we were amused to see buckets on the floor of the restaurant and glasses lined up along the window ledge to catch the drips.  Wasn't quite as amusing when we got back home and discovered that the water in the front courtyard was over the door sill and streaming into the living room and the small leaks in the garage room and upstairs bathroom had turned into much larger leaks and yes, the ceiling fan was dripping again.  Aarrghh! 

The four of us did damage control and mopped furiously for about an hour.

It's now Friday morning.  The rain has finally stopped, but the wind is still wild.   Lesley & Dave are heading to Phoenix airport to pick up Jessica and Samantha.  Carl, Melody & Paul are also heading to Phoenix today so they are going to drive in convoy in case the roads are bad through the desert.   L&D and the girls will be back here tonight, so Dan & I have the rest of the day to finish mopping up and to get the girls' room back together again.  (It was hit hardest)

Odds & Sods

I know, I know, it's been a long time since the last post. Sorry, it's not because we've been so busy having one exciting adventure after another, we've just gotten into a pleasant routine and there's not much to tell you.
Carl & Melody usually drop over in the afternoons after Melody has finished work for the day. Sometimes we just wander through the desert, sometimes we walk to the beach and sometimes we wander through the desert on our way to the beach. The desert route is pretty barren.

If we go to the beach, we quite often walk along a little way to a place called The Pitaya Beach Club (We can never remember the name of the place, so we just call it the Indio bar). They serve large frosty glasses of Indio beer right on the beach (only $ 3.00) and best of all, our dogs are welcome.

This is Melody with her giant sized glass of Indio.

Carl & Melody are going to a Mad Hatters party on the weekend. On one of our desert walks we kept an eye out for items to make crazy hats with. (Pardon my dangling participle) An old washing machine agitator was picked up for consideration. It made it home, but didn't make the final cut. We stopped at our place to rummage through our garbage (yes, literally!) looking for this gaudy paper flower that I'd thrown out a few days ago. This hat was later discarded in favour of a more creative idea.

Also at our house, we found a strange net thing edged with dangly trinkets. I think it's meant to keep flies off your tortilla basket or something. It became part of Carl's wacky hat. Sorry, the photo has been removed as he's invoked his veto rights. I'm also not allowed to post pictures of the actual hats until after the party. (Carl's stupid rule!)

This is Dan crawling around on the rounded roof on his way to trim the fig tree. Please note how nice and clean the roof is, as it has just been scrubbed. Only on the side that we can see from the terrace though, the street side is a completely different color with imbedded sand - oh well ... The building in the background has been under construction for more than a year already, and will probably never be finished. The owner can't afford to complete the project, but rather than pay a security guard to just stand around and look after the place, he's hired 3 guys to "work" on it. They show up at 7am every morning and pretty much hang around doing nothing all day. The night shift guy comes in, turns his radio up to full volume to make it sound like someone is there, but he's either sleeping in a back corner or drinking at the Black Dog bar down the street. Dan goes over every night to turn the radio down to a reasonable decibel level and he's never seen the guy.

A few nights ago we went to Regina's for dinner with Carl & Melody. Very cute, good food, but possibly the worst margarita I've ever had. (Yes, I did manage to choke it all down though.)

Our neighbor Louie has another property in a now-defunct development project out in the middle of freakin' nowhere about 15km out of town. His is the yellow unit and it's the only unit that was sold and completed before the project went belly up. The plans were for something like 80+ condo units and 50+ fancy homes. It should've been beautiful - it's right on the beach with lagoons around it ... Unfortunately, it's one of the victims of the lousy economy and is more of a security nightmare than dream home on the beach. He goes out a few times a week to see what's been stolen since the last time he was there ... So far thieves have taken his washer & dryer, hot water tank, sofas, chairs, pictures, coffee pot - pretty much anything that wasn't nailed down. I probably would be suicidal if I'd sunk my savings into this project, but Louie just takes it all in stride.

This is Louie demonstrating that an old Indian (he's in his 80's) is still stronger than Dan.

We stopped at a curio shop on the way back into town from Louie's property and couldn't resist this picture. Y'know how some cars talk to you and tell you that your door is ajar? That drives Dan crazy! "My door is NOT a jar, it's a DOOR!" But hey, this guys door really is a jar!

We've also been making friends with the local gallery owners in town. Went on a bit of a buying spree last week in an effort to fill some empty walls.
Our living room now has "Courtyard" by Joyce Dodd Harcharek proudly displayed over the couch. I love her work! This reminds us of the courtyard at the library in San Miguel de Allende. (My favorite Mexican town)

And "Burros on San Francisco Street" is also in our living room. Another painting by Joyce. And yes, San Francisco street is also in San Miguel de Allende. Hey, Connie - not only does it have donkeys, but it's mostly purple too. What the heck is the difference between burros and donkeys anyway?

Out with the old...

One of the new toys that we bought on our shopping trip to Phoenix this week was a new umbrella for our patio table. The one that came with the house was broken, it couldn't be lowered. That wasn't such a problem when it was in the sheltered back yard, but as there's no sun in the backyard at this time of the year, we moved the table to the upstairs terrace to take advantage of the sunshine. The problem is that it is quite often windy here and having a giant sail on the deck wasn't a great idea. Besides, the old umbrella was 1980's grandmother-ish, so it was time to update anyway.

The old umbrella gets the heave-ho over the balcony

And the new one is installed

Much better eh?

Dan walks the old one over to a heap of sand across the street and plants it like he's planting a flag.

"I claim this patch of dirt in the name of ...."

We were hoping that it would disappear like most things do. Quite often we've put trash in the dumpster across the street and by the time we get home there's somebody dragging it out again.

The plan didn't work this time. We went out for dinner and when we got home, the umbrella was back in our yard. One of our neighbors (reasonably) assumed that it had flown off our balcony and put it back inside our gate. The next day our friend Eduardo was over helping Dan with yet another yard project and Dan mentioned that we wanted to get rid of it, but we weren't sure what to do about it. I glanced out of the upstairs window just in time to see Eduardo running down the street after the garbage truck with the umbrella in his hands. I wish I'd gotten a picture of that - it was hilarious!

Also, while we were in Phoenix on Monday, Carl & Melody picked up their mail and a very heavy package had been delivered for us.

Taz was VERY interested in the contents! Why?

This is why!

Achara, one of my Flickr friends, saw the photos of the skinny, hungry, homeless dogs around here and mailed me a huge box of GIGANTIC doggie biscuits!

You gotta love somebody that cares enough about stray dogs to do that!

"Diligent Dog", as she's known on Flickr, has a real soft spot for strays. She took some great photos of the street dogs of Bangkok on a recent trip. Check out "Operation Meatballs" on her photo stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/diligentdog/

Dogs and Boats and Dogs

The beach isn't much fun at low tide because it's so rocky that we can't get close to the water to throw Taz's ball.  We've been wandering around the neighbourhood on our walks instead, and we've pretty much covered the entire Mirador area on foot.  A few days ago we headed out to a piece of desert about a block from our place and it's become our newest favourite non-beach walk.  Mainly because there are no dogs barking at us as we wander around.  It's a huge area and it's quite nice if you can overlook the garbage strewn everywhere.  We've decided to take garbage bags on our walks from now on and pick up what we can.  It's not possible to clean up the entire neighbourhood, but we can clean up our little corner of it anyway.

Taz resting on the dunes

After seeing the pleasure boats in the marina from the top of the hill the other day, we decided to take a drive to get a closer look at them.

There were some nice looking units...

...and a mess of fishing boats

The yellow building in the background is a popular sports bar/restaurant called Latitude 31

From the other side of the marina looking toward the fancy condos on Sandy Beach

Stopped for lunch on the Malecon (malla kon).  This is the touristy old port area with lots of tacky shops and restaurants.  It's fun to wander around here, poking into all of the little shops that sell all manner of kitschy Mexicana.  The best part though is people-watching from one of the upstairs bars.  The last few times we've been down there the place has been deserted, so it was nice to see it busy yesterday.

Today is medication day for Peso. 

The first step is a sponge bath to get rid of the scaly skin.  He wasn't quite sure about this, but it meant he got petted (albeit with rubber gloves) and biscuits afterwards, so he was a pretty good sport.

Look how cute he is! 

Anybody want to adopt him?  I'd be happy to have him vet-checked for you and I'd even deliver to Mexico, the US and Canada!

New Years Eve

Starting around 5pm:

Pop...pop...pop...BOOM...BOOM...pop...pop...pop...pop...BOOMBOOM...pop...pop...pop...pop...pop...BOOM....pop...pop...pop...pop...pop...pop...BOOM...pop...pop...pop...

Taz was amazingly calm through most of the night, but of course around midnight it became...

BOOM...BOOM...BOOM...pop...pop...pop...BOOM..BOOM
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM...pop...BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM

   BOOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!!!

...until about 3am when it slowed back down to pop...pop...pop...BOOOM...pop...pop...pop...

Whale Hill Walk

Whale Hill is a local landmark.  It's the highest point in town and is home to a nice restaurant and some million dollar homes with killer views.  It's not a particularly pretty hillside, more of a rocky moonscape.

This is one of the MANY stalled construction sites around town.  A fancy high-rise condo building at the top of Whale Hill.  The economy here has ground to a halt leaving many people jobless and destitute.

This is someone's dream home with amazing views from all sides...

...unfortunately, it's a dream that didn't work out.

The Marina from the top of the hill. 

From the road below, all you can see are the fishing vessels in the boat yard, we didn't even know that there were pleasure boats docked here until we climbed the hill.

Dan & Taz enjoying the view. 

We sat here for a while and watched about 10 dolphins playing in the water below.  Nice!

Taz would really rather be down in the water than sitting on the hill looking at it.

Looking down at "our" beach

The "Hole In The Wall Gang" greets us every time we walk down his street. 

Behind the wall is some kind of vehicle impound lot for pawned vehicles.  (At least that's our best guess)

This guy sounds ferocious, but if you approach him, he backs down and disappears really fast!

And as usual the welcoming committee is waiting for us when we get home. 

Grey Dog is a bit skittish so she ran behind the van as we approached, but Brown Dog & Peso make themselves right at home in front of the door.

Look - you can barely see Brown Dog's ribs anymore!  And little Peso's hair is starting to grow back!

Happy New Year!!!

¡¡¡Feliz Año Nuevo!!!

Bummer!

Our friends Bill & Vi (pictured here in Playa del Carmen in 1996) were planning to come for a visit in just a few days, but Bill decided to have emergency surgery to remove a ruptured gall bladder instead. 

There's just no figurin' some people eh?

We're disappointed guys, we were really looking forward to your visit!  But later works too...

Christmas Dinner cont'd

Melody's Christmas dinner was a huge hit but we weren't able to get to the final 2 courses because there was just too much food!  No problem, we just continued the celebrations into Boxing Day. 

We started with a beach walk then headed back to Casa del Sol for lunch.

The Queso Fundido and Filet Mignon served with Rajas Con Crema disappeared too quickly for photos, but I did manage a few shots of Carl's creative place settings...

 

"What?!  Everybody got the right number of things!" 

It's Carl - whaddya gonna do?

Then we moved on to building a gingerbread house.  Keep in mind that none of us had ever done this before.  And really, icing sugar as a construction technique?  That's just crazy!

So, this is what we were aiming for:

Just look at that concentration!

Trying to keep the roof on - messy work.

...and the finished product! 

Please note the "smoke" coming out of the chimney.  (My brilliant idea!)

About 1 minute after this picture was taken, the snow man did a face plant on to the table and the entire right side of the roof slid off.  They really should include a roll of duct tape with these kits.

Christmas Day

Any day that starts with a walk on the beach is a good day!

Got home and started on the traditional Christmas Day activities:

The gift opening (Taz's favourite part!)

A build-your-own-tree kit from the Wongs.  (More on that later)

The draping of the dog with the wrapping paper

And of course, the festive favourite:

While Dan cleaned ceiling fans, I cleaned venetian blinds. 
Ho ho ho!  Now we're having fun!

Okay, so Melody is a fantastic cook, but her kitchen is dark and pokey and has only a few inches of counter space.  We have a great open, airy kitchen with about a ½ acre of counter space, but neither one of us can produce much more than toast or microwave popcorn in it...

The answer?  Celebrity chef dinner parties! 

We split the cost of the ingredients, Melody cooks at our house and we do the dishes.  Win/Win!

Carl & Melody arrived around noon and Melody got right to work on the food fest.

Building the Christmas tree

Melody had planned an ambitious menu of 6 different courses of nibblies - a Mexican feast!  (and a little Vietnamese too)  We only got to 4 them before we were in danger of bursting, so Christmas dinner will be continued later today...

Vietnamese salad rolls
(½ of them disappeared while I was looking for the camera!)

Flautas de pollo

Ancho chiles stuffed with tuna & potato salad

Somewhere in there were seafood tacos too.

It all smelled REALLY good, didn't it Shadow?

So this was our day:

Cook a little

Eat a little  (Hey, that's the seafood taco!)

Clean up a bit

Check the tree's progress

Rest

...and repeat until the diners beg for mercy!

Between course 3 & 4 our neighbour Victor knocked on the door to invite us over.  We declined the invitation for food, but took a beverage over to join in the party for awhile.  When we got there, there was a Mexican fiesta in full swing.  Complete with a mariachi band!!

Carl yucks it up with Russ

Victor shows off some Salsa moves

The guy seated in the black hat is another neighbour - Louie

...and the tree?  Ta da!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Silent Night - NOT!

My parents always hosted an open house on Christmas Eve.  The same faces were there every year.   Often it was the only time we saw some of their friends, so there was a lot of catching up on vacations, jobs, children and eventually, grandchildren.  The adults gathered upstairs and the kids took over the basement.  Snacks were consumed, glasses of cheer were raised and the Christmas music played softly in the background.  Best of all - everybody left by 11pm to get home before Santa arrived. 

Christmas Eve in Mexico is a time for gatherings too, but of course because the weather is so much warmer, they happen outdoors instead. 
Last night here was just like Guy Fawkes night in England.  Bonfires in the streets - and fireworks!
The air was thick with smoke from the hundreds of bonfires and of course each bonfire had a boom box nearby - usually a car with the stereo cranked up to maximum volume and the doors wide open.  Those that weren't gathered around bonfires appeared to be randomly roaming the streets setting off firecrackers at about 20 second intervals.  This, in turn, caused every dog in town to bark/howl/whimper and pant anxiously all night long. (Okay, that last one was just Taz)
It's 5am and the firecrackers have slowed down and some of the fires have been abandoned, but it's still loud out there!  The person that penned "Silent Night"  obviously never spent Christmas Eve in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. 
I guess Mexico must be last on Santa's intinerary...

Anyway - Feliz Navidad everyone!  However you choose to celebrate, enjoy it!

Heartbreak Hotel

The stray dogs here are killing me.  There must be thousands of them in this town.  Usually 4-6 on any given block.  Our block has 3 large dogs and 3 tiny puppies.  The big dogs have been here for ages.  They're too skinny, one of them has a wicked scar across his nose and one of them limps on 3 legs and carries his hind leg, but they're in better shape than most of the strays around town.  They get fed and they're pretty laid back and friendly.

This guy is the leader of the pack.

He's the sweetest, most gentle dog ever.  He's the one that limps. (probably hit by a car)

The little puppies are new to the neighbourhood.  Well, new to the planet really.  These two were living in the parking lot behind our place.  I think they're pretty young, possibly siblings - they're always together.   I was taking food and water over to them, but they're so skinny that they can fit through the railings in our fence.  We couldn't keep them out of our yard even if we wanted to.  They now have food in their bellies and  a pillow to sleep on.

This is Peso. 

Most of the dogs run in packs, but this little guy wandered in all alone.  I thought the other 2 were skinny, but this one makes them look positively robust.  He's emaciated, smelly and covered in mange and yet his tail never stops wagging. We didn't expect him to survive, but he's had a few good meals and a lot of treats and he's got his own pillow on our porch now too.  Thanks to our neighbour Hilda, he's also been sprayed with medication to ease his skin condition.  He's really perked up in the last couple of days. There is a woman in town that is known for taking care of strays and I'm trying to contact her to see if she can take this little one.

If Adrienne can't help, at least by the time we leave they'll be healthier and stronger and better able to look after themselves on the street.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

New Stove!

There's a small gap between the counter top and the stove.  Just enough space for grease to splatter, food to drop, maybe the occasional egg to drip...  I knew that the stove was dirty and that it was going to be a nasty job, but until I pulled it out, I had no idea how unbelievably disgusting it was!  I really wish I'd taken a picture of it because words can't describe the utter filth that was encrusted on the sides of the stove and all down the walls at the side and behind it.   So, with my face all screwed up into an EEWWW GROSS look, and armed with rubber gloves and SOS pads - I attacked it.  It got worse!  Now it wasn't just dirty and greasy it was slimy and crumbly too.  Took me a few minutes to realize that the stove was still wrapped in the plastic shrink wrap covering that the factory applies to new appliances.  I spent an hour peeling off the plastic wrap (and all the crap that was attached to it) and voila!  A brand new stove was underneath.
Spent another hour scrubbing the walls, then I slapped a fresh coat of paint on them, so it all looks and feels shiny and new.  Phew!!  I think I'll be pulling the stove out and wiping it down every other day from now on.  I never want to see anything like that again.

The Fence

Our fence has fallen victim to the salt air.  It's a rusty, corroded mess!  Rather than let the elements turn it into dust, we decided to sandblast it and repaint it.  It's too late to save the little decorative pieces, most of them you can pick off by hand, and the sandblaster will no doubt knock off the rest of them.  (We managed to find some replacement pieces in town) 

 

So, the plan is to:
a) Sandblast today
b) Weld tomorrow
c) Prime & paint tomorrow and Saturday.

Eduardo (our new buddy from down the street) spent yesterday gathering and screening sand.  The sand, of course, was readily available on the front street.  How convenient!

Dan & Eduardo found a place to rent the equipment and made the arrangements to have it delivered at 8 o'clock this morning.

Surprisingly, they delivered it right on time.  The guys were pumped and ready to get at it.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work.  They've spent the last 3 hours fighting with it and trying to repair it...

They finally called the company that they got it from and asked them to deliver a new piece of equipment.  The guy came out and swapped out a bunch of parts and Dan said he practically bent over backwards trying to make them happy.  Sounds like they have it under control now.  I can hear spraying noises which would indicate that things are going more smoothly.  Hopefully they can finish the job before they come to pick up the equipment again at 5 o'clock.
While the guys were fighting with the sandblaster, Taz & I went to the beach.  At low tide "our" beach is quite rocky.  I managed to scramble over the rocks to get close enough to the water to toss in her tennis ball a few times, but then I slipped and ended up ankle deep in a tide pool.  Nice.
 

More Christmassy stuff

There was a fiesta/toy drive at the plaza yesterday.  The idea was to fill the fountain in the plaza with toys for the less fortunate kids in Puerto Peñasco.  Melody & I went shopping for toys on Saturday, and on Sunday we walked down to the square to take part in the music & food.  Unfortunately, we lingered too long over our beers on the beach after the dog walk and we were too late for most of  the festivities.  We missed the music and got there in time for the speeches.  (Yawn!)  It was a successful toy drive though!

Is there a kid in the world that doesn't love to have their face painted?

Not sure who was cuter - the little boy or the puppy.

This guy was doing a pretty brisk business.

She had an equally cute sister (twin, I think) dressed in a matching blue dress, but she didn't stay still long enough to get a picture.

Dan got his eye on the cheezie guy and was heading over to get some...

...when he noticed the grubby vendor's transfer system for getting them from the large sack to the smaller bags.

This is Dan & Melody feigning interest in the long-winded speeches.

City hall is right across the street from the plaza so I wandered over to check out the Christmas decorations.  I love the lollipops and the fake snow on the trees.

There was a petting zoo there too.  Or maybe it was supposed to be a manger scene.  No, I don't remember goats & chickens in that story;  had to be a petting zoo.  More of a mange-y scene really.

Anyway, this one's for you, Connie.

Game Planet

It's billed as a "Family Fun Entertainment Centre".  None of us had ever been there so we figured we should check it out.  Strictly research, you understand.

Kind of what we figured.  A bunch of video/arcade games with the volume pumped up.  The place was pretty much empty when we arrived and it was loud.  I can imagine what it sounds like when it's full of 10 year olds...

Carl found the Foosball table

Dan trying to win a new toy for Taz at the Digger.  (I'm pretty sure nobody has ever won anything out of this particular digger.)

We wanted to see the Disco Dancing machine in action, but nobody was willing to try it.  This little girl was very accommodating.  As long as we plugged tokens into the machine, she was happy to demonstrate.

The Red Baron shows intense concentration as she shoots down the enemy planes.

...and a good time was had by all!

So, we stopped by Numeros (again!) to pick up some paint brushes to do some touch ups around the house.

 Finally!  Somebody understands how I feel about painting...(check the label)

And yes, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the piñata store.

We even have a Mexican Christmas tree. 

A tumbleweed blew into the yard during the hurricane last weekend.  Carl dragged it into the living room, so we adopted it.

Later that same day...

When the bad dog owners forget to take a Wilson (tennis ball) to the beach, the dog is reduced to retrieving empty pop bottles.  Shame, shame.

Took a drive out to the new international airport today.  (When you live with a pilot, you spend a lot of time investigating airports...) It's about a 25 minute drive from our place.  The runway is in place and it's officially open for business, but there aren't any scheduled flights into it yet.  Should make getting here a lot easier in the future. Not the immediate future, you understand, but eventually.

The temporary terminal is really just a tent.  They're planning on building a fancy new terminal building at some point, but as long as there aren't any scheduled flights yet, there's really no urgency to get that done.

Mary's restaurant in the malecon (old port area) is one of my favourite places to eat here.  So maybe the plastic tables and chairs aren't exactly high class, but the food is delicious, and you can't beat the view!  Hint:  Try not to  drip the sauce from the scallop taco onto your light grey capris - it stains!

There is always someone trying to sell a song.  This guy has a great voice!

We sat at the stools at the window to get the full effect of the spectacular sunset.

This sculpture is just down the street in the main square.  This photo was just taken with a point & shoot camera while driving past.  Must go back with the DSLR and a tripod.

Random stuff

Taz likes the house in Mexico.  She's allowed on the furniture here.  It's circa 1980's "pleather".   It's already torn and it's always gritty anyway, so she really can't harm it.  This is her favourite spot.  From here she can keep an eye on the goings on outside.

Okay, I lied.  This is actually her favourite spot!

She was VERY interested in this critter that had washed up on the beach.  Not sure what it used to be, but it's been there a long time...Taz had her shoulder down and was ready to roll in it - managed to stop her just in the nick of time!  Yuck!!!

Discovered a sort of wedding chapel near the beach.  "Villa de Ensueños"  (Villa of Dreams).  I should have taken some pictures of it because it looks really out of place - sort of an Arabian Nights theme going on and painted in REALLY gaudy colours.  I just liked this little cart sitting outside.

Cool looking restaurant, but it's in kind of a seedy part of town.  I'm happy just to look at the outside.

After the deluge

Yesterday the wind HOWLED all day long!  The street that we live on is just sand and at times the flying sand was just like a blizzard - we couldn't see across the road.  Stepping outside was just asking to have a layer of skin removed. Grit in the eyes, the mouth, the ears, the nose and in the hair - nice!  We had a little drift of sand under every door and everything inside the house is covered in a fine layer too. 

Spent the day running errands and picking up a few things that we needed for the house. 
This is basically a loonie store.  The merchandise is of dubious quality, but they carry a bit of everything which makes it the first stop no matter what you're looking for.

Dan scouring the hardware department in search of wall anchors.

And look, they carry toques and gloves!  They were a hot commodity too.  The locals were bundled up like they're at the arctic circle and I was walking around in flip flops.

And here's a display combination that you don't often see:

 

Our next stop was the Ace Hardware store to get a couple of keys cut and to buy masonry bits.  (Choice of one, by the way.)

They have an interesting system.  You don't just pick up the items that you wish to purchase and take them to the cash register.  First you have to take them to the other desk to get them itemized and bagged.  That clerk then sends an order form to the cashier.  If you go directly to the cashier, she pulls the form off the printer and you can pay and be on your way.  However, if you stop to look at something else on your way to the cashier and somebody else gets there before you do, then there's a lot of opening of bags to determine which order form goes with which bag of stuff.

We had planned to go to Ramon's for dinner with Carl & Melody, but Ramon's is closed on Tuesdays.  Wait a minute - it was Monday.  Oh, then I guess they're closed on Mondays, sometimes...or maybe they just close when there's a freakin' hurricane blowing... Who knows?  We're learning not to trust the posted hours at any business establishment.  They're open when they're open.

From there we decided to head down to the old port area in search of food, but the wind had knocked the power out and the whole area was pitch black.  Well, except for the flashing lights of a lot of emergency vehicles.  A little spooky to say the least.  After a couple more failed attempts to find a restaurant that was open, we ended up at Brother's Pizza.  It's brand new, the food was pretty good and the guy working there was super-friendly.  Unfortunately, we were the only patrons they'd had all night, so the future doesn't look too bright for them. 

Then at 1:30 this morning the rain woke us up.  It was deafening!  It doesn't rain very often here, but man when it does, it comes down in buckets!  Dan was out on the upstairs terrace sweeping the water toward the drain and I was in the garage bedroom mopping up the stuff that was streaming through the ceiling fan (again).  Fortunately, it didn't last very long.  Within a ½ hour it had passed.

                         ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼

Today was a much better day!  Sunshine, blue sky and NO WIND!!

Went to the beach this morning.   I dipped my feet into the water and it wasn't freezing, but it was cold enough that a dip was plenty thank you very much.  Taz, of course, wasn't bothered by the water temperature at all

Bought some honeydew melons from a vendor on the street today - 3 large melons cost a whopping 20 pesos! (Less than 2 bucks)

All in all a pretty good day!

Mexico

Yaay!  I finally made it.  On Sunday the flight looked good, but it also looked like I wouldn't be able to get to the airport to board it.  I spent hours on the phone trying to get a taxi, but due to the blizzard, the fact that it's Christmas party season and a Saturday night to boot, I couldn't get through - even using my cell phone and the house line simultaneously.  So, thanks to Bill & Vi who drove across town at 5am in the worst driving conditions in years, I got to the airport and got on to the flight with no problem.  (Thanks to Lesley & Lorne for offering also.)

This is what I left behind.  This is our little Miata parked in front of our garage.

With snow drifted up to the door handles

And this is what I came to:

This is "Siestaland" in Carl & Melody's back yard.

Okay, so not exactly as illustrated.  We're actually having a blizzard of a different kind here.  High winds and blowing sand and it's even kinda chilly.  And yes, we may even have to shovel out the driveway later because the sand is drifting up against the gate....

 Dan drove to Phoenix to pick me up yesterday and we had lunch and did some shopping at Lowe's (hardware) and Walmart (everything else). By the time we got to Puerto Peñasco the sun was setting.

We arrived at Carl & Melody's house about 6:30pm to pick up Taz who did a song & dance routine for about 20 minutes. I think she was a little bit excited!

At home on the couch.  See?  A blanket - it's chilly here.

Dan bought a huge bag of grapefruit (at least 5lbs) for 30 pesos the other day (less than $3.00).  They maybe weren't Safeway quality, but I squeezed about a dozen of them with our new handy-dandy juicer and we had wonderful fresh grapefruit juice with breakfast this morning.

The wind is howling again today, but we're heading to the beach with the dogs anyway.  Adios for now.

Uh oh

E-mail from Dan: (In response to our griping about the snow in Calgary.)

Okay, just so you guys know it isn't all fun and games down here, here are some photos of how I spent the evening a few days ago.

We had a moderate thundershower move through the area. They average about two of these a year.  I soon discovered water pouring through a ceiling fan onto the bed below, and spent the rest of the evening controlling the deluge and then mopping up.  Several other leaks appeared as well.  Oswaldo is on the roof as I write this, putting two more coats of roof sealer on and is going to get me a quote for sealing the terrace above the garage where the worst leak was.

 

 

Fun with weather.  Fun with contractors.  They happen in Mexico too!

Feel better?

Gringo Dan

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ La Musica ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫♪ ♫

Warning to our guests:   Mexico is LOUD!!!

Apparently there is a new coffee shop down the street that has a live band every night. The cafe is so small that there isn't room for them inside, so they're out on the patio. They play 45 minute sets until after midnight, so don't plan on any early nights.  We will have a supply of earplugs on hand to preserve your sanity.

During the day music can be heard at high volume all over the neighbourhood so I hope you like Mariachi/Ranchero/Banda music. (Sometimes simultaneously!)  We like it, but Dan thinks that after a few hours it starts to sound a little bit like circus music.

I think this is our best plan:

Neighbourhood Watch - Mexican style

Dan has been having trouble sending photos from Mexico, but I think we finally have the problem solved.  Here's the first one:

That's Taz on the inside of the fence and the pack of strays that calls our complex "home", on the outside.  The story goes that one of our neighbours bought collars for them so they don't look like strays and he feeds them so they'll hang around and look like guard dogs.  Well, the plan seems to be working -  or at least they've got the hanging around part down pat.  Dan says they stick like glue to the complex, but they all seem pretty friendly.  Taz gets along okay with them, so I guess they'll be alright.
A friend of ours stayed at the house a few weeks ago, and she reported that every time she left the house, she had an entourage of dogs following her.  Not sure yet if that's cute or annoying.  More later.

Dan & Taz Arrive Safely

Dan & Taz arrived safely in Mexico yesterday, in time for a nice dinner with Carl & Melody.  Melody said that Taz & Shadow went crazy greeting each other for a few minutes, then proceeded to ignore each other for the rest of the night.  Dogs eh?! Dan says there seems to be a problem with our phone at the house, but the internet is still working, so not sure what the problem is.  Looking into it is on his list of things to do today.  He might as well jump right in to dealing with Mexican bureaucracy and see how much Spanish he remembers...
Also on his list today is a beach walk with C&M and the dogs. (Insert heavy sigh here!!)  Luckily the weather in Calgary is still pretty decent or I'd be really ticked!

Day 2 for Dan & TAz

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Dan & Taz are now in Kingman, Arizona. The distance calculator that I'm using shows that to be about an 1100 km drive today!! (690 miles) Holy crap that can't be right! That's like driving to Vancouver (670 kms, 418 miles) and most of the way back in one day! Hmmm, so maybe I'm okay with being left behind after all...I would've hated today!
I'm guessing he'll be sleeping at Casa del Sol tomorrow night.

At least I'm not lonely tonight.  Gracie is visiting.  No, it's not snowing here, this picture was taken a few weeks ago.

This is my first attempt at doing a blog entry directly from Flickr.  It's pretty slick.  You can post a picture and write an entry all in one fell swoop.  (Or swell foop as a friend of mine used to say.)
Blogspot has a new editor thingy that's pretty cool too.  Used to be everytime you added a photo, it popped it in at the top of the entry and getting it to where you wanted it was a real pain.  Now you can place it where you want it and if you change your mind, it's pretty easy to move around.

Dan & Taz leave without me!

I don't like being left behind. I don't like it one little bit!
Dan & Taz left this morning and are now in Dillon, Montana, looking for the dog-friendly hotel that Carl, Melody & Shadow stayed in on their journey down to Mexico last year. Dan says that there's a lot of snow south of the border, but the highway is bare & dry.
Taz is a little bit happier riding shotgun, but still not relaxed enough to lie down on the cushy bed that we rigged up in the front seat. Dan reports that her record lying down time is about 22 seconds...
Have I mentioned that I'm not happy about being left behind?

The library

Some of the books that are going to Mexico with me. As you can see, I usually gravitate towards adventure travel and stories about expats coping with their new worlds. Yeah, that's a big surprise eh? Of course, I enjoy a good, schmaltzy romance novel too and I make no apologies for that. Here's another surprise - any book with a dog in it is sure to get my attention. I know, I know that's hard to believe...

Dan's pile is mostly finance magazines (yawn!) and technical manuals.(YAWN!)

If you're visiting and you start a book but don't finish it before your holiday is over, please take it home with you. Oh yeah - spine-cracking, dog-earing and reading in the bath until the pages warp are all encouraged! That makes you cringe doesn't it, Carl?

A tour of Casa del Sol

We hadn't planned on buying a vacation home, we weren't even looking, but we returned home last spring from a 4 month get-away to find that the coldest winter on record was still raging on. That's all it took to convince us to buy a house in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico!

This is Casa del Sol. (House of the sun)

There are 4 units in the Las Conchitas complex in the Mirador area and ours is the end one.

This bougainvillea is on the street side.

It covers the living room and dining room windows.

The front door.

There's a peek-a-boo window in the front door.

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How cool is that?!

The boveda ceiling.

The skylight in the cupola shines down onto the sun design in the middle of the living room floor.

This sun is inlaid in the tiles.

It's the reason we call the house Casa del Sol .

The eyes are glass marbles.

The house came completely furnished, right down to the lamps, pictures, cutlery and placemats! Some of it isn't our taste, but it'll do until we can afford to replace with things that we choose.

This is the living room.

Yes, I know the pictures are crooked and hanging off-centre, but it doesn't matter, they're at the top of the list for replacement!

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The other side of the living room.

I love the cabinet. There's no TV in it, but it houses the library and games.

A part of the dining area and kitchen.

The kitchen.

The lopsided light has already been fixed. Dan couldn't wait to get at it and in fact he didn't even wait until the house was officially ours...

This sun is inlaid in the tiles in the island (peninsula?). I don't particularly like it, but I don't hate it enough to bother tearing it out.

The fridge looks like it's spent some time on a driving range - it's covered in pock marks. Doesn't matter though, it works.

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This little counter to the left of the fridge was dubbed margaritaville, but it's being sacrificed to make room for the new countertop water cooler/dispenser.

The onion rope and the silk flower thing have GOT to go!
To the left of the counter is the door to the backyard.

Another liitle counter just outside the back door is handy for barbecuing.

The back yard with our very own palm tree!

The little tables have been cleaned, painted and repurposed as bedside tables in the guest room.

The other side of the yard.

The guest room.

Not finished yet, but better than it was.

The little picture (not its permanent home) is by a local artist called Joyce Dodd-Harcharik.

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The downstairs bathroom. The shower is on the other side of the window.

I love these colourful sinks.

Guest room #2

This room used to be the garage. Its future is uncertain at this point.

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The laundry room is ugly, messy and shouting out for a coat of paint, but the washer & dryer both work.

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Door from the dining area to a hallway. To the left is the guest room and to the right is the laundry room and guest room #2.

Kitchen, dining room and the stairs to the 2nd level.

No, the BBQ doesn't usually live in the kitchen.

Stairway/exercise program...

This decorative ladder is at the top of the stairs.

To the right is the master bedroom.

The master bedroom.

The picture is #1 on my hit-list of things to replace!

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Upstairs bathroom.

Kind of a weird set up. The shower and toilet are in a separate room, but the sinks (plural!) are just kind of in the hallway.
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Two more of these cool sinks.

The door leads to the deck.

The upstairs deck.

The beach is straight ahead about 6 blocks.

So that's the virtual tour. Come for a visit and see it for yourself!