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| Empty Philo's |
January 7, 2019
Monday was a gym day.
I took a combi to Bucerias and stayed in town after working out to get
my nails done. The afternoon was
peaceful. Victor, Cherie, and I jammed a
little. I wrote and practiced.
Monday night was the start of a session of dance lessons
given by Lilly Alcantara at Philo’s. It
was weird to see the place so empty and deserted looking. Aside from the very small original dance
floor, Philo’s was not an ideal place for dancing. The terracotta paver floor was uneven.
The first hour of the class was Latin rhythms. We dashed through examples of numerous
different dances. An hour of that left
me dripping with sweat. It was fun but
made for a good workout. The second hour
was salsa. We split into two groups with
those who already knew something in one group and the beginners in
another. I had taken a few lessons in
2013 but didn’t remember much. I needed
to start at the beginning. I could
barely drag myself home after another hour of dancing.
January 8, 2019
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| Tuesday's Dawn |
Tuesday should have been a running day, but I was too beat
up from dancing to think about running.
I got up and walked the 4.3 miles I would normally have run. I had been having trouble with cramps in my
lower extremities due to dehydration from all my exercise. I found it necessary to drink a bottle of
electrolyte solution every day to stave off the cramps. I understood why electrolyte drinks were so
popular in Mexico. Anyone doing physical
work in the heat would need them.
I barely had time to listen to the net and eat breakfast
before I had to take Cherie up on her offer of a ride to Bucerias. I stopped at the bank and then went to get my
hair cut. I had the first appointment at
10:00. Gabriela was late and I waited by the side of the road for ten minutes
or so. Eighty pesos later (about $4), I
was feeling much cooler and lighter.
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| Gabriela's Salon |
I had no plans for the day, so decided to enjoy Bucerias
without sweaty gym clothes for a change.
I stopped at the nearby Go Zen Café for a latte and surfed the net on
their wifi for half an hour. Then I took
a nice walk across Bucerias, stopping to photograph colorful street scenes to
paint later. One attempt was ruined when
a giant Coca Cola truck parked in the middle of my careful composition.
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| Cafe Go-Zen |
I stopped at the 25 peso store to buy a few things for the
house. Our plastic clothespins were
disintegrating from exposure to the sun, so I bought some bamboo ones. I got glue to repair my phone case and a
plastic cooking spoon to use with our non-stick pans. For some reason, I couldn’t find wooden
spoons anywhere.
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| Colorful Bucerias |
I spent the afternoon working on my blog and staying
cool. The cold winter weather had departed. When the sun sank low, I took a stroll to the
local tienda for bananas and limes, the two things without which we could not
live.
January 9, 2019
Wednesday was another gym day but I came right home
afterwards, having run out of errands to do in Bucerias. My friends, Rick and Marilyn from Tortuga, had returned to La Cruz and we
had our first music circle together that afternoon. Tony showed up with his penny whistle for a
little while and he and I played a few Celtic tunes. He was unfortunately on his way to the
airport, so we would have to wait another couple of weeks before we could
continue. The rest of us stayed and
played until 15:00 when I rode my (borrowed) bike back up the hill. With the guitar and heavy music, that was a
challenge. I had been doing a lot of
stationary biking at the gym and the hard work was paying off. I had increased the resistance since I
started riding an actual bicycle, hoping to improve my performance. For some reason, bicycling always left me
exhausted and sore.
I needed a nap after all that exercise, but people kept
coming to the door. I did manage to read
for a bit. I was reading Dan Brown’s Origen
in Spanish, which somehow seemed appropriate, since the story took place in
Spain. Books in Spanish usually slowed me
down, but this one was so engrossing that it was difficult to put it down and I
was tearing through it at a rapid pace.
Wednesday night was the second session of my dance
class. I dressed more appropriately than
the first time but was still rapidly dripping sweat. We concentrated on fewer dances than the
first night and I felt like I was making a little progress. The real test would be if I could still
remember the steps the following Monday.
January 10, 2019
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| La Cruz Anchorage at Dawn |
Once again, I was too sore from dancing to run on Thursday
morning. In fact, I had trouble dragging
myself out of bed. There wasn’t much of
a sunrise, although there was a bit of color when the sun finally crested the
mountains shortly before 8:00. I walked
the whole 4.3 miles and returned home just in time for the net.
I was alone in the house and spent a quiet day reading,
practicing and writing. In the late
afternoon, I cooked arrachera in green mole so that I could have a good dinner
before the evening’s movie. I wasn’t too
fond of eating out by myself.
It was free movie night at the marina and they were
screening Adrift. There was a big turnout. The weather was perfect and 150 people showed
up to watch a sailing movie. It was
tough to find a place to put my chair.
January 11, 2019
Fridays were always busy in La Cruz. I went to the gym in the morning and worked
extra hard on the stationary bike.
There was a presentation in the afternoon by the owners of Rutea who had spent eight weeks cruising
in Tierra del Fuego and rounded the horn on a friend’s boat. Their photographs were incredible. I was hoping to visit Patagonia and Tierra
del Fuego (although I had no real desire to sail around the horn) and was
interested to hear about their experiences.
I remained convinced that the best way to see the area was from a cruise
ship, although I later spoke with a woman who had booked passage on a cruise
around the horn only to learn that her ship had been sunk by an iceberg.
After the presentation, I lounged around the pool until it
was time for Mexican Train dominoes at 17:00.
I allowed myself one margarita but even one left me lethargic. It was getting too dark to ride the bicycle,
so I walked home with some friends who were headed my way and then spent the
evening reading.
January 12, 2109
Between all the dancing, working out, and bike riding, my
legs were Jello. I gave myself Saturday
morning off and stayed in bed until after the net. Victor and Saul had finally left and Cherie
was off sailing for the day. I stayed
home all day, reading and completing annoying tasks on the internet that I had
been avoiding, like sifting through the 1300 emails in my spam folder. I was rewarded by finding an email from
Mexican immigration stating that they had resolved to accept my application for
residency. All that remained was to wait
for the delivery of my actual resident ID card. I had successfully received three Amazon deliveries via DHL
that week. I hoped that the postal
service would be as effective.
January 13, 2019
I allowed myself to be lazy on Sunday but did manage to walk down to the marina to pick up the bicycle Victor had left behind when he sailed
away. The seat was too low for me but I managed to
ride it back up the hill. Then I went to
La Comer and Mega to do some grocery shopping.
La Comer had a nice coffee shop.
A tiny caramel macchiato cost 45 pesos but came with two miniature croissants. It was pleasant and relaxing to sit there and
enjoy a coffee. Since I had mostly given
up drinking coffee, it was a special treat.
I bought a few non-food items and dry goods that were on
sale at La Comer and then crossed the street to the Mega and did my grocery shopping. I managed to load all my purchases into two
large tote bags but they were so heavy that I couldn’t have dragged home
another thing despite having bought most of the liquids I needed at Mario’s
tienda on the way home from the marina.
Unfortunately, the Modelo Cero (non-alcoholic beer) that I liked was not
available at any of the shops in La Cruz.
It was late afternoon by the time I got back and I read
until dinnertime when I cooked a Tuscan style chicken breast and then spent a
quiet evening.
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