March 11-12, 2019
Monday was a gym day.
I was feeling a bit under the weather as a result of something I ate at
the race banquet, but I pressed myself to work out, anyway. I spent a relaxing day at home, writing and
practicing.
Despite my lethargy, I made it to the Octopus’ Garden in
time to see Perla singing with Tatewari.
Perla is a very talented vocalist in her own right and I always enjoyed
her performances with Tatewari. They
played a very different set when she accompanied them, with more traditional
Mexican songs.
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| Perla Singing with Tatewari |
It was Tatewari’s last concert of the season and they
were in a festive mood. The show ended
with fireworks shooting out of the end of their guitars. I had spent the whole evening trying to figure
out what they had attached to the heads of their instruments and that answered
my question. We had a lot of fun. Still, I was glad the show didn’t go late
because I was ready to hit the hay.
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| Tatewari with Flaming Guitars |
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| Tuesday Sunrise |
I wasn’t feeling energetic Tuesday morning, but managed
one lap around the marina, despite having overslept. The sunrise was exceptional. I spent another slow day at home and finally
managed to complete a blog post. I had
not been in the mood to write for quite some time, possibly because I had already written almost everything there was to write about La Cruz.
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| La Fonda Cocqui (Tacos Across the Street) |
March 13, 2019
I got up early and sat in the cockpit to watch the dawn. Whatever had invaded my digestive tract was
an early riser. After the net, I went to
the gym. I managed to complete my
aerobic workout, but felt too weak to do any weight training.
We had tickets to see Luna Rumba and Media Luna at Los
Arroyos Verdes that evening. My friend,
Marc, had arranged a van to take eleven of us out there at 17:00. We gathered in the square and were only a few
minutes late getting started.
It seemed like everyone attending the concert had the
same idea of getting there early and eating dinner at the taco bar. Sixty pesos bought you three small, very greasy,
pre-prepared tacos, some slimy nopal salad and beans if you got there before we
did. The taco “bar” consisted of salsa
and shredded cabbage. The price was
right, but the result was disappointing.
Still, the idea had been popular and there were more people trying to
eat than seats in the eating area. It
was a mob scene. We ate as fast as we
could and then headed to the concert area where we had staked out seats as soon
as they opened the gate. There were
twelve of us once Karen joined the party.
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| Media Luna Playing with Luna Rumba |
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| Caleb and Jair of Media Luna |
The band gave us an intermission to recover after the
Media Luna set. Everybody was so energized,
it was hard to get us seated again, but there was more to come. Chas Eller joined the band on keyboards after
the intermission. He had produced and played
on the original Luna Rumba’s first studio album. He and Geo began the set with a jazz
rendition of Fly Me to the Moon.
Luna Rumba played a few more songs and then the dancing horses
returned to dance to Geo’s song, Bailando
Los Caballos. It always amazed me
that those poor horses could perform in a crowded space with all the crowd and
loud music. Any horse I had had would
have bolted. They looked a little
wild-eyed but did what their riders asked of them. They were amazingly well trained. I was interested to learn that one of the
horses belonged to the owner of the La Cruz Inn, which explained why they danced there on Friday evenings. Their
performances had become quite popular.
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| Geo Playing in the Audience |
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| Lily in Her Wildest Costume |
After the horses, Luna Rumba played some excellent Mana
and Santana covers and Geo even played while strolling through the audience. Lily danced for the crowd in increasingly exotic costumes. Then Media Luna rejoined the band for the grand finale
and, of course, encore. It was by far
the longest show of the season. No one
wanted them to stop playing. They got a well-deserved
standing ovation. It was easily the best
show I had seen all season. I sincerely
hoped they would spend the low season recording a new album.
Our taxi driver returned to take us back to La Cruz and
Marc flagged him down with a blue light like a miniature version of the ones
used to direct aircraft into gates. It
was midnight by the time we got home and very late for the crew of Scout.
March 14-16, 2019
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| Thursday Sunrise |
I managed a couple of laps around the marina on Thursday
morning, although I still felt under par.
That evening, nearly the entire marina turned out to watch Bohemian Rhapsody at the amphitheater. I enjoyed it just as much the second time,
although the sound wasn’t so great. It
was clear that everybody there loved Queen and Freddie Mercury. His incredible talent seemed to have overcome
people’s prejudices.
Friday was another gym day and I still felt weak. I struggled through my cardio workout, once
again, but had to go slowly on the rowing machine. I spent the day resting and doing
laundry. Still, I managed to make it to
the Mexican Train Dominoes happy hour, although I passed on the margaritas.
Scout was
planning to leave on Saturday morning, so Friday was Greg and Blair’s last
night in La Cruz. We went to Tacos on
the Street for dinner with Tom and Cary from Dragon’s Toy and were joined by the entire race crew of Pinocchio.
The tacos were even better than remembered. They only serve one kind of meat, grilled
beef, but it was excellent. They are the
only restaurant in town where you can get cheese on your tacos. You might think that they cater only to
gringos, but the place is always half-full with Mexican patrons, many of whom
have spent the day at the beach in La Manzanilla. Everybody likes Tacos on the Street.
We lounged for a bit in the cockpit after dinner. It was my last night on Scout for a few weeks, so I lingered. I was looking forward to sleeping in my own
bed and not having to shuttle back and forth from house to boat, but was going
to miss the boat, crew, and dock neighbors.
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| Scottie in Paradise |
Once again, I did a couple of laps around the marina on
Saturday morning. There was a cute
little white Scottie that walked in the mornings. He always followed quite a distance behind
his owner, his short little legs scrambling to keep up. While dogs are supposed to be leashed on the
marina property, they are free to roam in the town. It’s a great place to be a dog, although they
are often injured by cars or occasionally poisoned. My dog would have loved the weather in La
Cruz but I could not take him with me when crewing, so he had to remain shivering
at home.
I stayed with the boat through coffee and the net and
then went home and let them get on with their preparations to leave. By noon, they were off Punta Mita and heading
north. I was still feeling lousy, so
hung around the house doing as little as possible.
March 17, 2019
I slept late on Sunday and generally relaxed until it was
time to meet Karen for our trip to the Chacala Music Festival. Marc joined us. Chacala is a two-hour drive up the coast to
the north. As Chacala is outside the
Banderas Bay area, they are on Mountain, rather than Central, time so we gained
an hour driving up there.
The previous year, I had gone for three days and rented a
room there. The festival had been disappointing
so, for 2019, I had decided to just go for one day to enjoy the beach at
Chacala. It was a lovely spot.
We arrived just in time to have tacos at a restaurant
overlooking the plaza. I had shrimp tacos
despite the fact that I was still suffering from the shrimp I had eaten a week
before. They were delicious. Shrimp was one of the best things about
living in Nayarit. I seldom ate it
anywhere else.
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| The Beach at Chacala |
We took our chairs to the beach, after lunch, and spent
the afternoon reading and munching ice cream from the vendor who passed by. I tried the yaka flavored ice cream and found
it quite tasty. It was a three-day
weekend for Benito Juarez’ birthday and the beach was wall to wall
umbrellas. Kids were surfing inflatable
mattresses in the breakers. We sat on
the beach until the professional music began about 19:00, electing to pass up
the school kids’ performances.
The festival had always been held in the campground at
the edge of town, but a dispute with squatters had led to the burning of the
campground buildings and the festival had been downsized and moved to the small
central plaza. This turned out to be a
good thing, as the old location was gorgeous but always seemed empty. The new location was more intimate, The organizers had shortened the music from
three to two days, which was also a good thing as they had had trouble filling
the bill with good acts.
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| The Plaza Where the Festival Was Held |
I had chosen Sunday to go because Cheko Ruiz was playing. He was the only band I recognized from the
schedule released in advance. When we
got there, we discovered that Tatewari would be playing just before him.
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| Tatewari (sort of) at Chacala |
The first band was Trio Descante, featuring a singer,
drummer, and bassist who also played melody on a six-string bass. They played Brazilian music and were very
enjoyable. We were pleasantly
surprised.
“Tatewari” was actually Esau
and Lobo plus Daniel, as Sonny had returned to Canada and Mimi was probably
playing another gig. They were seated
near us and we had stopped to chat with them and Cheko earlier. It was fun to watch them watch the other bands. We were the La Cruz rooting section.
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| Cheko's Band Got the Whole Crowd Dancing |
Cheko’s band came on at 21:00 and played a long set. The crowd loved them and everyone was
dancing. Despite it being late on Sunday
night, no one showed sign of flagging.
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| Cheko's Fabulous Trumpeter |
The last band on the schedule was Sonidos de Mi Tierra,
which was billed as regional music and dance from around Mexico. We were expecting the usual Ballet Folklorico
with recorded music, but were surprised with a very talented group of young
musicians and dancers with fabulous costumes.
They were very professional and had released a number of albums. No one showed signs of leaving during their
performance.
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| Sonidos de Mi Tierra |
We were tired by the time that set ended at 23:30, but
there was still another act to follow.
Two young men, Donas and his fellow musician, at least one of whom was
from La Cruz, played a short set of original music and they were very good. As tired as I was, I had no desire to leave
before they finished.
It was midnight in Chacala when we finally headed for the
car. I nodded on and off during the
drive home. It was 3:00 AM in La Cruz
when Karen dropped me off. That was the
latest I had stayed out in a very long time.
We vowed we would rent a room the following year.
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