December 24, 2018
While I had spent several Christmases in Mexico, I had never
been in La Cruz for Christmas. I had no plans and let things unfold as they
would. I went to the gym on the morning
of Christmas Eve and then stopped at the Chedraui to buy wine and chocolate to
take to the evening’s dinner.
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| Simon's Pool |
Cherie’s friend, Simon, had invited us to his home for
Christmas Eve. Simon lives on the beach
in El Tizate, a small community between La Cruz and Bucerias. He had a lovely
home with a nice pool and a fabulous palapa set up for entertaining. His mother joined us until she left to go to
church. The rest of his family was
partying next door. Simon had made
beans, rice, and salad and he grilled arrachera for us. The meat was perfect. We sat in the palapa, watching the sun set
over the ocean, drinking wine, and eating our dinner. Just to make everyone at home jealous, we
went swimming after dinner. The water in
the pool was a little chilly, but it was bearable once I got in.
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| Simon Playing Pool |
Simon had a pool table and we spent the rest of the evening playing pool. It was a very relaxing evening. We were ready to go home by 22:00 and Simon graciously gave us a ride home. I was ready to call it an early night.
December 25, 2018
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| Karen's Place in Bucerias |
I just couldn’t bestir myself to run on Christmas
morning. I seldom had more than one
drink and had consumed probably three glasses of wine the night before. While I wasn’t exactly hung over, I was
moving slowly. I managed to wake up in
time for the net so that the cruising community could wish each other a merry
Christmas. Normally, I would have gone
to the Christmas potluck at the Poolside Deli, but Cherie and I had friends
coming to visit us for the day and we planned to stay at home.
Our friends were missing in action, so we went to Karen’s
Place in Bucerias for brunch. Our
friend, Kundra, and her dog joined us.
The dog was exhausted from having spent the previous evening running
around Simon’s property and sneaking out onto the beach. She had crashed the neighbors’ party and
scarfed the leftovers. She slept through
brunch.
I threw my diet to the wind and had bacon and eggs,
potatoes, beans, AND a pancake for brunch.
I couldn’t eat all of it, but I enjoyed trying. My brunch was served with a lovely fruit
punch. Karen’s place was located right
on the beach and I felt very lucky to be in such a gorgeous, warm place on
Christmas. They were setting up for big
parties later in the day, but brunch was fairly mellow. It was a perfect way to
start the day.
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| Cherie and Me at Brunch |
Our friends, Victor and Saul, had arrived by the time we got
back. We spent the day lounging,
talking, and playing a little music. In
the late afternoon, we went to the Brittania, expecting to be there early, only
to find a full street party in progress.
They had gifts for all the local children and a turkey dinner laid
on.
Unfortunately, there was another
party next door with loud banda music.
They called the police, who came and shut down the street party. That was odd because they have street parties
there a couple of times a year and there is usually no problem. I felt bad for the Brittania because they had
prepared a lot of food and I don’t think anyone stayed to eat it. We didn’t.
Having had turkey on Sunday night, we opted to go to Casa
Hule and eat pizza, salad, and ice cream for Christmas dinner. Victor treated. It was very pleasant. Casa Hule was one of the few restaurants that
were open. We actually had planned to go
to the Red Chairs but found them closed.
We had a leisurely meal and were all ready to hit the hay by the time we
wandered home.
December 26, 2018
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| My Gym in Bucerias |
I had slacked off on Christmas and eaten everything in
sight, so it was time to go to the gym on Boxing Day. I burned a few hundred calories and then
stopped by the farmers’ market in Bucerias and bought myself a new purse to
replace the dilapidated one I had purchased in Guatemala two years before. By the time I took the combi home, I barely
had time to shower, dress, and eat before I needed to leave for the Poolside
Deli to host the weekly music circle.
A lot of people were gone for the holiday and no one joined
me to play music. I played for an hour
and then packed up. I stopped to visit
my friends, Jen and Gregg, on the way home and played a couple of songs for
them. It was nice to take a break on the
way home because lugging my guitar and music a mile each direction got tiring.
It was nearly 16:00 by the time I got home and I spent an
hour working on my blog before getting ready to go our for the evening. Karen
and I were driving into Puerto Vallarta to have dinner and see Naked Boys Singing at Incanto.
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| Planeta Vegetariana |
We found a parking space quite close to Incanto, so left the
car there and walked to Planeta Vegetariana for dinner. Dinner was a good value at 125 pesos for a
buffet dinner including drinks and dessert.
I wasn’t wild about the food and the veggie lasagna had neither cheese
nor pasta and was just plain weird.
Still, there was a nice salad bar and the homemade bread was delicious. I ran across a music store on the way back
and managed to buy strings and picks, although I forgot to look for a guitar
stand.
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| Incanto in Puerto Vallarta |
Naked Boys Singing was hilarious. They were, indeed, naked, but the songs were funny and the young men talented. Many of the songs had been rewritten for Puerto Vallarta. It was a great production for such a small venue and had been extended for another month. The cast, clad in towels, greeted all the patrons on our way out. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed.
The show didn’t begin until 21:30 and it was already late
when we left the theatre. We needed to
stop at the Walmart on the way back to look for a garden hose. We failed to find the hose, but I got some
eye bolts, cord, and concrete drill bits that I needed to hang the rug I had
bought at the estate sale. We were still
in the store when they chased everyone out at midnight. We were so late getting home that Cherie had
given up on me and locked the deadbolt. We don’t have a key for that lock, so I
had to wake Cherie up to let me in.
December 27. 2018
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| Cloudy Sunrise Over the Marina |
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| Victor Cooking |
I got up to run on Thursday and enjoyed the sunrise We had a quiet day around the house. Victor’s friend, Saul, made his mother’s adobo recipe for dinner and we invited some other Mexican friends over for dinner. The food was delicious and the conversation was nearly all in Spanish, which was good for us. Victor spoke more, or at least more facile, Spanish than I and I had to work to keep up with the conversation. It got harder as the evening progressed. Cherie and Simon went out and Victor retired early, so I had to struggle to keep my eyes open until almost 23:00 when the last of the young people left and I could finally lock the door and go to bed.
December 28, 2018
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| My New Rug |
Fridays were always busy in La Cruz. I went to the gym in the morning and then
came home and did projects around the house while I washed laundry. The washing machine had been smelling moldy
and I found the source of the smell inside the fabric softener dispenser, which
had grown nasty. I cleaned it out and
then ran a load of strong bleach. Cherie
later commented, “For the first time, I can smell my fabric softener.” I finally got my rug hung on my bedroom wall. The pole I used to suspend it was a little
long, but left room to hang additional items in the future. Drilling into the concrete wall was tedious.
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| Mexican Train Dominoes |
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| Sunset Over Banderas Bay |
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| Latcho & Andrea |
Latcho and Andrea were playing at the Black Forest and Karen and I went there for dinner and the show. Karen had vegetable pasta and I had a chicken breast breaded with coconut and served in a puddle of Thai curry sauce. It was very good but could have used more sauce because there wasn’t enough for both the chicken and the rice. I enjoyed a stellar Black Forest Tom Collins with my dinner.
Latcho and Andrea played a lot of new material. The audience, which mainly consisted of two
large groups, talked through the music until they finished eating, but grew
more appreciative after that. Latcho and
Andrea, who had almost seemed to run out of steam, picked up speed and played
three encores. We stayed afterwards and
talked to them for a while.
December 29, 2018
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| Gorgeous Sunrise |
I woke up at 5:00 and couldn’t get back to sleep. I got up to run at 6:00. It was a very dark morning but developed into
a lovely sunrise. The sky was pink
except for some inexplicable patches of white.
All around the marina, people were stopping to take photographs. I posted a video of the sunrise on Facebook
because it was too pretty not to share.
Some friends of mine and I were scheduled to shop for items
requested from Santa by the children of the Manos de Amor orphanage. I met them at the marina and 11:00 and Judy
from Wings drove us all to
Walmart. My contribution was a pair of
roller skates for a ten-year-old boy. I
was not the only one seeking roller skates.
Luckily, we found them at Walmart.
We did a little bit more shopping and then moved on to La Comer. I bought some groceries and an HP computer
printer that I found for 799 pesos (roughly $40.)
Once I got home, I practiced for a bit and then tried to
make enchiladas. We had a lot of
leftover tortillas from Saul’s dinner but they were too dried out to roll into
enchiladas. I ended up making a sort of
enchilada lasagna with ground beef, cheese, and corn tortillas drenched in an
enchilada sauce I had concocted using pasilla chile sauce and pureed tomatoes. Enchilada sauce is hard to come by in Mexico
because everyone makes it from scratch.
I considered it, but was too lazy.
The dish turned out delightfully and Cherie and I feasted. I spent the remainder of the evening writing.
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| Baby Groot |
December 30, 2018
It was cold on Sunday and I slept in. I read a book in Spanish and practiced the
guitar. There were leftovers to eat. It was a lazy day.
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