January 14-15, 2019
La Cruz during high season was like camp for grownups. There were so many activities it could be hard
to fit in all the things one wanted to do.
There was also the option of doing nothing. I found it necessary to keep a calendar to
keep track of all the things I wanted to do.
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| Scooters in Nuevo Vallarta |
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| Makeshift Road Repair |
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I went to the gym in the
morning. Tuesday, Thursday, and
Saturday, I at least intended to get up and run, although the salsa lessons on
Monday and Wednesday nights often left me too exhausted to do so. There were seminars in the afternoon and free
movies on Thursday nights, sailboat races on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and
domino games with margaritas on Friday evenings. Then there were the musical events with
concerts at the Octopus’ Garden on Monday and Saturday nights and live music in
at least one other place every night. There
were also ample opportunities to do yoga or play pickleball, swim, snorkel,
surf, or paddleboard. There was barely
time left for reading or playing the guitar.
I was never so social at home.
Monday, I went to a seminar on sails and rigging at the
Vallarta Yacht Club. I was interested to
see that the electric scooters that had invaded West Los Angeles, San Jose, and
other cities had found their way to Nuevo Vallarta. They were well adapted to the planned
community with its smooth bike paths.
The cobblestoned streets of La Cruz and Bucerias would rattle a rider’s
teeth straight out of his or her head.
In my neighborhood (as well as most of Mexico) the inhabitants took it
upon themselves to fill pot holes and ruts with construction debris.
January 16, 2019
The original band known as Luna Rumba had been my favorite
band ever. I was crushed when they broke
up and, while I followed the subsequent projects of the two founders, none of
them had ever compared to the original.
This year, Luna Rumba had reformed with new members and were planning a
triumphant return. Wednesday night was
the first of a series of moonlight concerts at Los Arroyos Verdes on the edge
of Bucerias.
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| Stage at Los Arroyos Verdes |
Getting to Los Arroyos Verdes was a challenge. I was going with a friend from my dance class
and he was busy racing until 18:00.
Shuttles from the highway had operated earlier in the afternoon, but
those of us who didn’t want to eat dinner at Los Arroyos Verdes were on our
own. We took a two-hundred-peso taxi
ride out to the concert. It was a nice
venue for a concert. There was a
spacious stage and chairs arranged on what might have been a pickleball
court. A shelter at one end of the area
housed a bar and dessert table. An old
sail had been painted with a nighttime ocean scene and hung as a backdrop to
the stage. The show was sold out,
although a fair number of empty seats testified to the difficulty of traveling
to the location.
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| The Seating Area at Los Arroyos Verdes |
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| Arte Puro at Los Arroyos Verdes |
Each of the moonlight concerts at Los Arroyos Verdes
featured two of the bands that collectively made up Luna Rumba
Productions. The first act on Wednesday
night was Arte Puro, or Geo and Lobo.
Lobo played flamenco guitar and Geo played five-string violin. I enjoyed them tremendously, but much of the
crowd was bored. Lobo seemed a little
off, but it was still great to watch them improvise together. The Luna Rumba faithful, however, seemed to
prefer the slicker production, driving beat, and familiarity of a Luna Rumba
show.
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| Luna Rumba at Los Arroyos Verdes |
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| Horses Dancing with Luna Rumba |
The new band was very good and I liked them, but the rumba part of Luna Rumba seemed to have departed with Cheko. It was nice to see Geo play the guitar, again, but he and the new guitarist seemed a bit unsure about who was playing lead. No one was playing rhythm guitar, although the three drummers made sure no one lost the beat. I missed Cheko’s vocals and his songwriting, as well as his guitar. I was disappointed that the set was short. They played fewer than ten songs. Everything seemed to take longer than they had planned and they didn’t play the set listed on the program. Still, those who had never seen the original Luna Rumba were very impressed.
Keith and I caught a ride home with a couple of Mexican
ladies that he knew from Bucerias. They
were very enthusiastic about the show.
One of them said, “That made me proud to be Mexican.” They gave us a ride to the taxi stand and we
took a taxi home from there.
January 17 -18, 2019
I was so wired after the Luna Rumba concert that I stayed
awake until 4:00, so I didn’t get up to run on Thursday morning. I spent most of the day learning to play an
Argentine song called Cambia Todo Cambia that
I had heard at the concert the night before.
It struck me as a beautiful song, well suited for my voice. It was popularized by Mercedes Sosa back in
the 1960s and had come to Geo’s attention in Europe.
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| Movie Night at Marina La Cruz |
Thursday night was movie night and I enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express at the
marina amphitheater. It was a perfect night and the movie had a large and
delightful cast. It was great fun
wondering who was going to appear next.
Friday was a gym day and I spent some of the afternoon
writing. Our standing domino game was
from 17:00 to 19:00 and then I rode my bicycle home before it got too
dark. I was restless and wanted to go
out, but there was nothing much to do. I
ended up staying in and watching Netflix. La Cruz was getting routine.
January 19, 2019
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| Sunrise on the Malecon |
I got up early on Saturday and went for a run before
dawn. My hip started bothering me after
the first lap around the marina, so I walked the second one. Using the elliptical trainer on alternate
days was great exercise but didn’t allow me much rest time between runs. I was getting stronger and faster, but wasn’t
able to run as much as before.
At the gym, the previous day, my friend, Fred, had suggested
that I crew for the J-130, Sirocco, on Saturday’s Vallarta Cup race. They had lost some crew and were looking for
replacements. I had considered it but
was unable to hear them on the radio during Friday’s net. When I told Fred that I planned to go to the
Women Who Sail meeting on Saturday afternoon, he said, “Do you want to talk
about sailing or do you want to sail?”
He had a point. I went down to
the marina that afternoon and arranged to crew the following day.
I love J boats and Sirocco was a beauty. The owners were serious racers and they had a
good crew despite its hasty assembly. We
met at 10:00 and headed across the bay to the start off Nuevo Vallarta. We got there quite early and had time to
practice hoisting, gybing, and dousing the 2400 square foot spinnaker. I got to fly it during the practice, although
my role for the day was to work down in the forepeak, pulling down and packing
the spinnaker.
The start of the race was disappointing. We started on a port tack and managed to get
well in front of everyone.
Unfortunately, while we were certain we had not been over early, we were
required to start again, which ultimately was all that prevented us from winning.
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| The Skippet, Lee, at the Helm of Sirocco |
The course for the day consisted of a triangle followed by
three windward/leeward laps. That meant
four spinnaker sets. Pulling all that
fabric down through the hatch was pure chaos, even with two of us working at
it. I became completely tangled in wet
yellow nylon and sometimes it was all I could do to get my hands free to grab
another armful. Once I grabbed someone’s
foot that had somehow slipped down through the hatch.
Once we got the chute down, we had to straighten it back out
and get it ready to launch again. This
involved finding the head and then running down the edges to be sure there were
no twists. Once we had it straight, we
needed to carefully bundle it all into the V-berth (The cushions had been left
on the dock to stay dry.) with the three corners hanging out through the hatch
opening and trapped in place by the hatch.
The entire V-berth was functioning as a spinnaker bag for the immense ¾
oz. chute. It was a cramped and sweaty
job and it was sweet to reemerge into the fresh air and sit on the rail after each
performance.
The wind got lighter as the day progressed and we gradually
improved our standing, although we never managed to beat Olas Lindas or Wings on
corrected time. It was satisfying to
leave Wings well behind us and almost
catch up to Olas Lindas. It was fun to sail on a boat with a
retractable bowsprit and watch how that was handled. It went in and out amazingly smoothly and I
was impressed with the asymmetrical spinnaker rigged that way. I had watched the J-105 become the race boat
of choice in San Francisco Bay and now understood why. I had never considered one for myself but,
later that day, I saw one outfitted for cruising and that got me
thinking. I would have to do more
research, but at least there would be many to choose from and plenty of spare
parts available.
We got back to the dock around 18:00 and I had to scurry
because I had a ticket to see Bohemia Viva at 19:00. I sped back to the house on the bicycle,
showered, dressed and rushed to the Octopus’ Garden only to discover that the
show had been cancelled due to lack of interest. Alfredo refunded my money and bought me a
beer. As I hadn’t had a chance to
decompress after the race, I relaxed in the bar and drank my beer. Then I walked home and stopped at the taco
cart near the bus stop that I had been meaning to try for at least a year.
The stand was always busy.
He specialized in what, to Americans, were exotic meats like head and
tongue. Tongue tacos being my favorites,
I ordered two of those to go. They were
excellent and cost me a total of 30 pesos ($1.50.)
The proprietors were quite friendly.
Since my favorite street taco place near the corner of Langosta and
Coral was not operating, they would be my new go-to taco stop. At least when I wasn’t eating with others who
insisted on pork or carne asada.
I suddenly had a whole evening on my hands. I was too tired to practice, so settled in to
watch the last few episodes of Better
Call Saul.
January 20, 2019
Sunday was my lazy day and I always seemed to wake up
starving. I got up and made
pancakes. The baking powder must have
died from the heat, because they didn’t rise, but they were still tasty with
butter and agave nectar.
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| Casa Melinda |
Cherie and I spent the morning puttering around the house
and cleaning up the patios. I spent most
of the afternoon writing.
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| Roof Terrace at Casa Melinda |
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| The View from Casa Melinda |
Alfredo had given me a ticket to see Amy Armstrong and Piel
Canela at the Octopus’ Garden that night.
The ticket was his way of apologizing for having to cancel the show that
I had been planning to attend on Saturday night. The show was sold out, so I had to sit in the
bar, which was fine since I was alone.
Amy Armstrong has a wonderful voice, but she is an equally gifted
comic. Her show was a mix of music and
comedy. She was very entertaining,
although I, personally, would have liked to hear more from Piel Canela.
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| Amy Armstrong (right) and Piel Canela (Mimi left) |
I enjoyed the evening and was grateful to Alfredo for
inviting me. Mimi, of Tatewari, played
lead guitar with Piel Canela and really seemed to be enjoying playing rock and
roll. He was grinning from ear to ear and
really playing up his rockstar persona.
He played the guitar behind his head and switched hands at one point
without ever missing a beat. His joy was
infectious. Mimi IS a rockstar in La
Cruz, since he is a native La Cruzian, and always got at least as much applause
as the headliner whenever he played with another band. The show was sold out and the whole crowd was
grooving.
Piel Canela would be playing without Amy Armstrong once she
left for the season and they gave us a preview of their sound without the
singer. Their music was much more
rumba/flamenco without her big, soul voice.
I liked it very much. I would definitely
attend if I were around during one of their shows. Scout was
poised to leave La Paz the following day and I hoped that we would be sailing
south before the end of the week. I was
disappointed to miss Cheko Ruiz’ next show but hoped to catch him later in the
season. It was time for me to be sailing
again.
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| Lunar Eclipse |
Sunday night was a lunar eclipse and, though it was cloudy when I left the show, the moon did come out later and I got to see part of it from our upstairs balcony. The weather was perfect.
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