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| The Fitness Center in Bucerias |
When Monday came, I had run out of excuses not to go to the
gym. As soon as the net was over, I put
on my workout clothes and caught a combi to the Fitness Center in
Bucerias. The gym was very modern, with
lots of Life Fitness equipment. It was
air conditioned, but a bit crowded.
There were kettlebells, but not enough space to swing them. The free weights were a bit
disappointing. The racks were nice, but
the weights were of smaller diameter than normal, which would have made them
lower if there was any space on the floor to work with them, which there
wasn’t. I did some back squats, but we
weren’t allowed to dump weights, which caused me difficulty when I reached the
point of failure while doing box (bench, in this case) squats. I couldn’t get up, so I had to wiggle into a
kneeling position with 105 pounds on my back, bend over, and set the bar on a
pair of low arms attached to the rack.
Then, I had to worm out from under it.
It was clear that I would not be lifting heavy at that gym.
I was, however, happy to take advantage of the pull-up
machine, which allowed me to do assisted dips and pull-ups. These movements had always defeated me and it
was interesting to discover that I could only dip about half my body
weight. There was no way to do a kipping
pull-up on the machine, but I needed 55 pounds of assist to do a strict
pull-up. It was clear that I wasn’t
going to be able to lose enough weight to solve the problem. I hoped that working with the machine would
gradually make me stronger.
Three friends of mine from the marina showed up shortly
after I arrived and it was nice to have company while I rowed and pedaled on
the recumbent bike. I could run for
miles, but ten minutes on that bike left me sore, although the back squats
might have had something to do with it.
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| Lobo and Charly Pena with Tatewari |
I took the combi back home and spent the rest of the day
writing and playing the guitar until the evening when it was time to go to the
Octopus’s Garden to see Tatewari. I had
gone alone, but ended up sharing a table with people I knew. Lobo was a surprise guest and he began the
show, with the members of Tatewari joining him one by one. Lobo told a story about how a three-year-old Esau of Tatewari
had come to him while he was playing his guitar and asked, “How do you do that?” Apparently, his interest had never flagged.
Tatewari also had a flautist/saxophonist named Charly Pena
joining them for the evening. He was
very good and they played well together, although the addition of the flute
gave the music more of a jazz twist, which I, personally, could have done
without. I’d take flamenco over jazz any
day. They played music from their latest
CD and, of course, I bought a copy.
Buying CDs in Mexico was always frustrating for me, as I had no way to
play them until I got home or at least to a boat with a stereo. The CD player from our house appeared to have
left with some former resident.
Lobo joined the band, again, towards the end of the concert
and he kept increasing the tempo of the music until the guitarists’ hands were
nothing but blurs and I thought the flautist might explode. It was quite exhilarating. I had always loved Tatewari and it was
exciting to see how much they had matured in the five years I had been
following them.
December 18-19, 2018
I overslept on Tuesday and missed my run. DHL was supposed to deliver the mattress
topper I had ordered and I stayed home all day to wait for them. I got a lot of writing and practicing done,
but DHL never came. They had been trying
to deliver my package for a week and I was getting discouraged. I figured I
would have to go somewhere to get it and bring it home in a cab. Perhaps the worst part was that I really
wanted to be able to order other things from Amazon and that was beginning to
look impossible. Tops on my list was the
watch battery that I had been unable to find anywhere in Nayarit.
I went back to the gym on Wednesday and spent 25 minutes on
the elliptical trainer to make up for my missed run the day before. My friends were there, again, and it seemed
like we all headed over there as soon as the net ended.
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| Farmers' Market in Bucerias |
I walked up the street to the Chedraui after the gym to pick
up a few things and stumbled across the farmers' market that had apparently
moved from Lazaro Cardenas to the Chedraui parking lot. I was hungry but resisted all the
goodies. I spent more time than I should
have in the store, shopping for long-sleeved shirts. It had been colder than usual in La Cruz and
I needed something to wear when I went out at night.
By the time I got home, DHL had called to say that they
would be delivering my box that afternoon.
Cherie had told them she would meet them at the Oxxo and guide them in. I was extremely grateful for her help because
I barely had time, as it was, to shower, dress, and eat before having to rush
off to the marina to facilitate the season’s first music circle at the Poolside
Deli.
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| Music Circle at the Poolside Deli |
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| First Amazon Delivery in Mexico |
Many cruisers had gone home for the holidays, but I was
eventually joined by two gentlemen with guitars. Neither of them brought any music to share,
but we managed to make do with what we knew or I had brought. We had a good time and played until 15:00.
My box had arrived by the time I got home, eight days after
it initially arrived at the local office of DHL and fell off the tracking
website. I considered it a minor miracle. It remained to be seen if the miracle could
be repeated. While I had managed to get
Google to correct our street name on the map, the post office, at least,
thought we lived on the street behind us.
Most interestingly, our phone bill was directed to the intersection of
two streets that (according to the map) ran
parallel. It was a miracle we ever
received anything.
December 20, 2018
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| Another Dawn |
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| Nativity Scene in the Plaza in La Cruz |
Thursday was another running day. I got up very early. The sky was clear, so the sunrise wasn’t
particularly interesting, but it was nice to see all the Christmas lights. I ran home through the town and past the
plaza where the town creche was located. In Mexico, the baby Jesus is absent
from the nativity scene until Christmas day.
I spent the day practicing and doing things around the
house. Then I went to the marina to see The Zookeeper’s Wife at the free movie night. There was wonderful music coming from the La
Cruz Inn and I was tempted to detour but I really wanted to see the movie. I would have to come earlier the following
week to check out the band.
December 21, 2018
Karen and I were going to an estate sale in Puerto Vallarta
on Friday. We had an appointment for
noon, so I skipped the net and went to the gym early so that I could be ready by
10:45. There was a lot of Christmas
traffic and the place we were going was off the beaten track, so we needed to
allow plenty of time to find it.
Having located the house on my cellphone GPS, Karen and I
left La Cruz at 11:00. We needed the
whole hour to get there. The house, which
had been billed as a $3.5 million estate was actually just a quaint, small
house on the side of a steep hill in a funky Mexican neighborhood. The street was steep and rocky and the house
was at the back of a flag lot. We might
never have found it if they had not stationed someone on the road to flag down
customers.
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| "Estate" Sale |
No one had died. The
new owners simply didn’t like the furnishings, so were selling everything to
make room for new. All the items for
sale were arranged in the pretty patio area.
Most of the items were too large for either of our homes, but we did get
some good deals on colorful rugs and items of décor. I bought a handwoven rug to hang on my
bedroom wall. My bedroom needed color to
spruce it up and I had a big, bare wall.
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| View from the Roof |
After loading our treasures into Karen’s truck, we proceeded
downtown to visit a store where Karen wanted to buy some beaded necklaces she
had seen previously. The store was
actually a clothing boutique called Miss Aly that sold cotton gauze clothes as well as beaded
jewelry. Karen bought several necklaces
and I bought a black jacket and one necklace to go with a blue outfit I had
that didn’t match any of my blue jewelry.
The weather had been cooler than I had ever experienced in La Cruz and I
needed something to cover my arms in the evenings. We were double parked and had to hurry or I
might have done more shopping because her clothes were cute and reasonably
priced.
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| Plaza Caracol |
Karen’s errand done, we continued to Plaza Caracol so that I
could make one last attempt to find a battery for my watch. I had been to every possible source in La
Cruz, Bucerias, Mezcales, and Nuevo Vallarta without luck. It was the week before X-mas and the parking
lot was a zoo. Karen dropped me off at
the entrance and went to wait for me in the Oxxo parking lot across the
street. I hurried into the mall, looking
for the Radio Shack. I had no idea where
it was located in the mall. The first
thing I saw was a watch shop. I stopped
there. It took them about ten minutes of
digging, but they eventually dredged up the correct battery for me. One hundred pesos later, I was headed back to
Karen’s truck.
By the time we got home, I barely had a chance to eat lunch
before it was time to walk to the Octopus’ Garden for a gathering of Women Who
Sail. After spending a couple of hours chatting
and listening to inspiring talks by female sailors, Cherie and I rushed home
because she was cooking dinner for a friend.
We munched on veggies and quinoa and then Simon drove us to Rhythm and
Blues in Bucerias so I could perform at their open mic.
There were only two of us playing that night. The other guy was playing when we
arrived. When he finished his set, I
played for a while and then I sang while he played. We had some trouble with the sound equipment,
but we pressed on although I had to choose between amplifying my guitar and
using my remote mic. Eventually, a
couple of other people joined us for the ever popular Wagon Wheel and Will the
Circle Be Unbroken. We were having a
good time, but Cherie was cold and tired so I had to go when my ride left. It had been a long, busy
day.
December 22, 2018
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| Morning Moon |
I did a lot of writing and guitar practicing and worked on
another musical project for most of the day.
I thoroughly enjoyed sitting on the day bed on the upstairs patio while
I worked. It was peaceful and comfy up
there and warmer than downstairs where I got chilled when sitting still.
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| Diego Mondragon and Band at the Octopus' Garden |
There was a full moon bonfire at the beach and I dragged my
guitar over there after the show. The
whole town was rocking with very loud posadas and there was no way I could
compete with that. I stayed for a few
minutes and chatted with friends before heading home when the party started to
break up around 22:30. The music in town continued until sometime
after 3:00 AM, although it wasn’t loud enough at our house to keep me awake.
December 23, 2018
I slept late on Sunday morning. There had been a lot of late nights and early
mornings the previous week and I wanted to catch up on sleep before beginning
again. I did very little all day except
play guitar and write. I skipped the
market but did walk to the grocery shop to pick up a few items in the late
afternoon.
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| Christmas Potluck at the Octopus' Garden |
Aruna and Wayland from the Octopus’ Garden were having a
Christmas potluck that evening. I took a
bottle of merlot and some cream cheese slathered in mango salsa to go with
crackers. It was a very nice party. They had decorated the tables with Christmas
centerpieces and cooked a real turkey dinner.
We drank wine and chatted while Christmas music played. After dinner, there was a gift exchange for
those who wanted to participate. I love
being in Mexico, but it was nice to have a familiar Christmas gathering for a
change. The Octopus’ Garden was always a
magical setting and it lent itself as well to hosting a Christmas party as it
did to being a music venue. The party
was a great way to kick off our holiday celebrations.
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