MAY, 2022

Karen, her visiting friend Tere, Mary Nell, MP, and I started off a week of fun outings with a trip to Puerto Vallarta on Wednesday night to see a festival of folkloric dance at Teatro Vallarta. We went early and walked along the malecon to have dinner at the Vegetarian buffet. Someone had constructed adult sized rocking horses and placed them on the malecon and we had fun playing with those like the wacky old ladies we were.

A week or so before, Karen and I had attended a cheesy presentation of Oaxacan dance in Bucerias. The company that we saw in Vallarta was much more professional. Interestingly, there was also a troupe from Poland. They had elaborate, but very heavy, costumes and I wondered how they managed to dance in the warm weather.

Rock Cairns in Vallarta

Karen, Tere, Mary Nell and I went back to Vallarta on Saturday to shop, have a drink on the beach, and eat dinner at Las Carmelitas. Once again, we walked along the malecon on our way our chosen bar. We enjoyed the elaborate sand castles some artists had constructed for tips and the rock cairns built on a rocky stretch of beach.

 
Las Carmelitas is a restaurant located high on a hill overlooking Puerto Vallarta. Karen has been going there for years and is always greeted warmly by Octavio, the waiter. We dined on crab enchiladas and drank wine as the sun set. It was a perfect day.

View from Las Carmelitas

Karen, Mary Nell and Me at Las Carmlitas

Karen, Mary Nell, and I went to brunch at Cascada on American Mother's Day. There was nice live music and we each received a rose and a small bag of chocolates with our eggs Benedict. Bloody Marys or Mimosas were included with our meal. We lingered over the meal, enjoying each other's company, the music, and the atmosphere.

Mother's Day is a big holiday in Mexico. After over a year of trying to get the electrical service for my condo transferred into my name, I finally received the letter releasing the account to me. I tried to go to the electric company to complete the transfer and found it closed for Mother's Day. The Treehouse had a lovely Mother's Day party featuring Us Two. It wasn't the whole band (perhaps they were off with their mothers,) so it wasn't quite the hopping dance scene that it had been the year before. It was still a pleasant evening of music.

In the middle of May, I returned to La Paz to join Scout in hope that we would find a weather window to head north. We didn't. We hung around La Paz, eating cheap street food and too much ice cream from La Fuente. I gained five pounds. I spent a pleasant day swimming at the Mogote with my friend, Venus, and got terribly sunburned when we left the shelter of our umbrella to explore along the shore.

We watched the total eclipse of the moon from Gina's hot dog stand.

Eclipse of the Moon in La Paz

In my absence, Greg had collected a coterie of interesting young people from around the world. There were Mariana from San Luis Potosi and her English boyfriend, Toby, who were touring Mexico before returning to London, Zach and Kai, two young Americans who had ridden their bicycles to La Paz from San Diego, the Ukranian girl, Alisa, who was hoping to crew for Brad, and Victoria, the Chilean/Colombian with her adorable border terrier, Pichi Pangi.

White Wind at Ballandra

Pichi Pangi

Victoria Ferrying Pichi Pangi to White Wind

Scout and White Wind took all the kids to Ballandra for a daysail. We anchored and spent the afternoon eating lunch and swimming between the boats. Victoria ferried Pichi Pangi across on her chest and then borrowed snorkling gear so that she could return her on her back. It was a fun day of sun and sailing.

The Atayde Brothers Circus

One night, we all piled into rideshare cars and headed off across La Paz to the Atayde Brothers Circus. It was quite a production and even boasted an air-conditioned tent. Unlike the much smaller circus that Mary Nell, Karen, and I had attended in La Cruz, this one didn't have to stop the show to sell toys and cotton candy. Once again exhibiting our inner children, we shared a couple of blobs of cotton candy.

It was fun hanging out with friends in La Paz, but no weather window was materializing and it didn't look like one would be forthcoming any time soon. On the 24^th of May, I returned to La Cruz to wait for a weather window at home. Pinky and Diego were very happy to see me. While they had been well fed and cared for, no one had been staying there with them and they were very lonely.

Pinky

Diego

The painting of our building was wrapping up when I returned and cleaners were swarming over the building to remove fallen plaster and paint spatters. Four of them arrived to work on my tiny balcony one afternoon. It was rather humorous to watch them. I did my best to encourage the aluminum worker to complete the covers he had constructed over our light shafts, with partial success. We determined that there wasn't enough money in the budget to resurface the back deck this year, but we did manage to start the work to improve the drainage. The rainy season was fast approaching and we wanted these projects completed to keep the sub-basement from flooding as it had in previous years. As the only member of the HOA board in residence over the summer, it was my job to supervise the property manager who supervised the actual work. Sometimes it required both of us to get anything done. It had reached a point where I couldn't walk through the garage without being waylaid by someone.

Thinking I would be there for some time, I started the project of refinishing my dining table. I stripped off the old finish. It turned out that there was only one coat and it was so brittle that I could chip it off without using any stripper. I got it stained the proper color and was about to start varnishing when I received the call that a weather window was opening and I needed to return to La Paz. I flew back on the evening of June 7^th.