Janice's Visit! Crocodiles! Margaritas! More Sunshine! - Marge

Estuary tour - mangrove swamp!

   

           

Such a joy seeing my wonderful sister Janice! She was here for a week! Had a great time! Here's what we did: Monday: Met Janice at the airport! Thrilled to see her! Walked along the malecon at dusk, had dinner on the beach at a table on the sand. Hugely fun to chat and drink Coronas! Tuesday: Drove north to the town of San Pancho. Went to the market. Then walked around the town-very pretty, tree-lined little streets. Afterward we ate lunch at a table on the beach. Had margaritas! Seafood. Delicious! After lunch we walked on the beach. Saw someone practicing high-wire walking on a cable stretched between two palm trees. Also saw the swamp at the end of a mangrove forest (?) that empties into the ocean right next to the town--where crocodiles are actually sometimes seen! Not kidding! And next to the swamp are tents! Where people are camping! YES, they really are camping! Right by the giant warning sign showing a crocodile with it's jaws wide open (see the picture)!

Wednesday: Went to Old Town for more walking and shopping. Went to El Rio and listened to The Zippers, a great classic rock and roll band. Ate the most delicious ribs! Such a beautiful place next to a river! Had a wonderful time!

Thursday: Went on the Estuary Tour (see pictures). A mangrove swamp at the edge of Puerto Vallarta with crocodiles, boa constrictors (!), amazing, multi colored crabs and a whole flock of buzzards! Had a wonderful time! Saw no snakes! Did see a couple of baby crocodiles in the estuary and more in the crocodile nursery. Walked on the malecon. Chatted. Ate dinner at the most wonderful Mexican restaurant, El Campanario. The Best Food! The bells of the church rang as we ate. Real bells! A beautiful sound! Saw the sunset on the malecon. Another wonderful day!

Friday: Went on the Taco Stand tour. Hugely fun! Ate street tacos until we were stuffed. Learned a lot about tacos and Mexican food and Puerto Vallarta! Really the best! Drove south on the highway for about 15 miles. Beautiful views of the ocean down below and the hills of the Sierra Madres and the jungle. Had a wonderful time! Then walked to the pier and along the malecon. Ate a wonderful dinner at Langostino's at a table on the sand only a short distance up from the water! Never get tired of those tables on the sand with the waves lapping against the shore nearby and the sparkling ocean! 

Saturday: A wonderful day! Did something we never do--went to the beach, rented an umbrella and lay on giant beach towels on the sand! The water was too rough for swimming (very relieved!) so waded and chatted and enjoyed the sunshine! Ate dinner at Panchofurters! Wonderful sausages!
Sunday: For some reason Janice refused to move to Puerto Vallarta immediately so had to take her back to the airport. Too bad! That is the only hard part about being here so far--being so far away from my magnificent sister, and other wonderful family and many dear friends! Am assuming that some will move here. It only makes sense!

Estuary tour: Can you see the baby crocodile?

On the Observation Deck looking down at the mangrove swamp
with Puerto Vallarta in the background.

                                                         

Janice holding a baby crocodile.
After the estuary tour.

Having a wonderful time!

Eric and Janice. On our way to the
malecon after dinner.

Lunch at San Pancho on the sand.
A wonderful town! A wonderful day!

A woman practicing walking across a cable
secured to a couple of palm trees.
Janice is in the background.

San Pancho. The swamp where crocodiles live, next to the beach.
See the warning sign? Right next to the swamp is a line of tents 
where people are camping.

                                                             

Such a pleasure to get to see Janice!!!!

   

Being Retired! - Marge

Eric photographing the sunset in Puerto Vallarta
framing someone else photographing the sunset

Being retired is so much fun! It really is more fun than I thought possible! All those years getting up in the dark; the sudden and horrible auditory assault of the alarm shocking me into wakefulness; driving to work in the dark, an hour each way; arriving at work in the dark, or just as the sun was rising; spending all those long hours in a cubicle with a computer and the assignments that no longer interested me, drinking huge mugs of coffee to stay conscious. All those hours gazing at nothing while dreaming about moving to Belize, Uruguay, France, Portugal, Ireland, Malta, Costa Rica, Argentina or Mexico. I researched them all! All those many years hoping and planning and, at last, counting down the days. And then the wonderful good-by lunches and get-togethers and toasts with red wine or prosecco. And now I am retired and we are here, in our new home-Mexico!

Turns out that being retired is like having a whole new life! So many wonderful choices! So many ways to live and experiences to have and places to explore--and the time for it all! Retiring early was the best choice I've ever made (besides marrying Eric, of course!)!

El Rio, Sylvie and the Zippers - Eric

Last spring when we first visited Puerto Vallarta, our tour guide mentioned she had a second gig playing in a band on Wednesdays at a local bar from 4-6 p.m. Not exactly a headliner slot.
We figured it would be nice of us to go see her perform when we moved to town. Give her a little moral support.
It turns out the bar isn't just some downtown dive or a hole-in-the-wall hidden in some obscure neighborhood. You might call El Rio BBQ and River Beach Club a Mexican entertainment complex.
Getting to El Rio certainly  adds to the experience. Turn east off the downtown Puerto Vallarta bypass highway and head three kilometers over a very bumpy, dusty road until you reach the ramshackle hamlet of Paso Ancho. You're there. Park along the road or if your vehicle has high enough clearance underneath, park in El Rio's lot. Two more kilometers up the road is where the tour buses take zip-line enthusiasts.
I told Marge that, naturally, if we take visitors up river along the narrow road we should stage whisper that we've been paid to "disappear" our guests in the hills. Pretty funny. Marge replied that wasn't her first thought. Her mind works kind of strangely. Maybe just a faulty sense of humor.
El Rio, itself, features an upper bar area, middle performance/dancing space and below is the Rio (River) Cuale backed by a shear canyon wall. Kids of all ages climb as high as they dare on the rocks and swing out on a rope before dropping into the river.
As for the Zippers, they were terrific. Definitely, headliners to me. Slyvie, our tour guide, is the lead singer and she definitely knew how to get the enthusiastic Wednesday afternoon crowd up and dancing.
What really impressed me was the classic-rock song selection. Everything from 1950s Roy Orbison, through the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Eagles to disco with Gloria Gaynor.
Two guys do oldies on Friday afternoons and El Rio just wrapped up a series of tribute concerts featuring the music of Tina Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis and Garth Brooks, among others.
El Rio and the Zippers--yet another pleasant surprise in Mexico. We hope to entice our upcoming visitors to go up river with us to see El Rio and the Zippers.

San Pancho, Riviera Nayarit- Eric

Marge and I took a field trip up north to check out the small beach village of San Pancho, also known as San Francisco and I want to say....
Don't do it, Eric.
I was just going to say....
Resist the urge, Eric.
I gotta say, I left my heart in San Francisco.
He did it!
We had been utterly disappointed with San Pancho/San Francisco's neighboring village, Sayulita. The guide books touted Sayulita as the hot spot north of Puerto Vallarta. A laid-back surfing village with a beautiful beach. But success has spoiled Sayulita. Too crowded with recent reports that visitors are getting sick because of the over-whelmed sewage system.
We were advised to try the next town up, San Pedro/San Francisco.
I didn't know where the hippies departed to after the summer of love in San Francisco, California. Now, I know.  They've gone to San Francisco, Mexico.
Also, I didn't realize how few clothes people could comfortably wear in March until we visited San Pedro. Mixed in with the hippies are surfers and artists. Not a bad life for an artist--create art in your home studio, hang out on the beach, sell your stuff at a couple of outdoor markets each week.
Marge and I visited a great outdoor market in San Pedro. She bought a pair of harem pants from a Mexican family and got to practice her Spanish. She looked great in the pants but, unfortunately, they shrank in the wash and she refuses to wear them.
After the market, we hit the  postcard-perfect beach. I spotted a tent off to the side and Marge saw a couple with big backpacks who obviously had been hiking the coast.
We ordered beers at a bar right out on the sand and I studied the lunch menu. Meanwhile, Marge started pushing buttons on her cell phone. Pretty soon, she informed me the bar to our left had received much better reviews so we moved across the sand.
She was right! I had the best strawberry margarita I've ever tasted (I haven't sampled that many) and amazing shrimp fajitas.
San Pedro isn't the only spot we've explored on what is known as the Riviera Nayarit, the coastal area north of Puerto Vallarta.
When we came down last year, Marge asked our personal tour guide (more about her in another post) to show us the town of Bucerias. Marge had read some really good things about it. I guess it wasn't the tour guide's kind of place because she raced through it quickly in her vintage VW van.
On our own tour this time around, we found it a charming place with fun restaurants and interesting shops. Our favorite part was the wide sandy beach, much like the Oregon Coast but sunnier, drier and 30 degrees warmer. The beaches in Puerto Vallarta are nice, but sometimes rocky.
What really endeared the Bucerias beach to us was Otto's reaction. On the Puerto Vallarta beaches he trudges along under the full sun looking for his escape. We even had his fur shaved off, hoping that would help. He looked like a giant chubby Chihuahua. His curly hair has grown back somewhat, prompting Mexican vendors to point at  him and exclaim, "borrego!" That means "lamb" in English.
But when we entered the Bucerias beach, both Marge and I swear we detected a smile on Otto's face. For the first time since we've been down here we let him off the leash outdoors. Otto enjoyed his freedom immensely until he raced up to a little kid and scared the bejabbers out of him. Back on the leash.
Closer to Puerto Vallarta, we've seen the vast condo complexes in Nuevo Vallarta. We decided they are too cookie-cutter for our taste. Besides, one of the first amenities we would look for is not a caged tiger at the entrance gate. Or an $80 fee to play a round of golf on the complex's course.
There's even a more nuevo area than Nuevo Vallarta called Flamingo. They are basically building new condos on spec. Reminds me of Ocean Shores with four-lane highways but no cars.
I don't want you to think that I completely reject the lifestyles of the one percent. I like Marina Vallarta with its fake lighthouse bar and fabulous boats. My plan is to cozy up to one of the residents and become a cabin boy on a fancy yacht. Of course, I'll hold out for one with a helicopter. I do have my standards.

The Zippers, the Blonde Gypsies, Sauerkraut, Harem Pants and A Journey Ending at the Beach - Marge

Listening to The Zippers at El Rio! 

 I didn't know being retired would be so fun! Am enjoying myself hugely! So is Eric! We've been exploring nearby beach towns, including San Pancho (see pictures below) which we really liked! We went on market day and saw lots of great and interesting handmade items--from painted ceramic skulls to painted shoes to shirts with embroidery covering almost every bit of cloth (sadly not machine washable), and also stalls selling mangos on a stick and coffee made to order in tiny cups, and someone offering psychic readings. We also saw several people with long hair sitting on the steps of the market smoking what seemed to be grass (I know that smell!) and playing some kind of jazzy, reggae, Caribbean instrumental music! Loved it! Listening to it, you just had to feel happy! Great background music for such a beautiful, sunny day (actually, every day should have background music)!

I got carried away (maybe it was the music?) and bought two pairs of harem pants at a market stall. They looked great in San Pancho but lost their luster as soon as we left town (fortunately they shrank in the wash so I didn't have to decide whether to wear them)!

The town had one-lane streets and lots of little shops, several selling real estate, some selling secondhand clothes and some selling paintings that are still cheap; with lots of old trailers in big yards with car parts scattered around in the dirt and chickens scratching, mixed in with b&b's painted bright contrasting colors with cast iron gates and address numbers made of decorative tiles.

And then, after the market, as we sat at our table in the sand waiting for our lunch--shrimp fajitas (Eric) and chili-garlic octopus (Marge), two people wearing backpacks (serious backpacks meant for travel--not for using instead of a purse) walked straight out onto the beach from the road. They looked dusty (yes, dusty!), at the end of a journey that started someplace far away; and they stood looking out at the ocean for a long time standing side by side, still wearing their backpacks. Yes, OK, maybe they were weekend hitchhikers but I don't think so!

After that, a couple of days ago, we went to a restaurant by a river (see pictures below) in the jungle at the edge of a tiny settlement a few miles out from Puerto Vallarta, in a deep canyon with the river running along the bottom around big round rocks, and children splashing in the shallow water; with horses grazing picturesquely by the river, and palm trees. Stunningly beautiful!

The restaurant, El Rio, had wonderful Margaritas (Eric said) and also an astonishingly great band, the Zippers-who played Rock n Roll from the 60s, with such power and feeling and beautiful true notes! To be in that beautiful place with that beautiful music and the canyon walls rising up on either side and the river flowing by over those wonderful round rocks right by the restaurant in the late afternoon sunshine! If you get to Puerto Vallarta you must go there!! Remember: El Rio!

Just this morning we went to the Saturday market in Old Town and I purchased more naturally fermented sauerkraut. It's so good! And so healthful! We sat for awhile afterward on the steps in front of the stage in Lazaro Cardenas park, listening to a musical duo, the Blonde Gypsies (??), playing flamenco music and then went home.

After that Eric took Otto for a walk and I studied Spanish. Love the class! We are staying in Puerto Vallarta long enough for me to finish the next level too! So happy to be able to communicate better in Spanish! I am too outgoing to easily bear not being able to talk to people (though I love chatting with Eric, his capacity for conversation wears out before mine)!

The restaurant on the beach in San Pancho
where we ate lunch

Eric with a margarita at San Pancho

The main street of San Pancho

The beach at San Pancho with palms in pots on the sand

Eric wearing his new hat while listening to rock and roll at El Rio

El Rio by El Rio

Whale Watching! - Marge

Eric on our whale watching tour

This morning we went on a whale watching tour! The tour departed from the Marine Terminal, 10 minutes from where we're staying in Puerto Vallarta. Had the best time!

At first the big waves were horrible as the bow of the tiny

Two whales near our tiny inflatable boat

inflatable boat shot upward and then crashed down hard! I slumped over in my seat clutching my stomach at the alarming sensations! Also may have done some groaning. Strangely, everyone else seemed unaffected! The tour person came over and asked if I wanted to be taken back to shore. I wanly said no and suffered in silence (or as much silence as possible) for a little while and then someone gave me gum (I've read it's good for seasickness) and someone else told me to watch the horizon and then, gradually I began to enjoy the ride and in the end I had the most wonderful time! Didn't want it to end! I strongly suggested to Eric that we buy a sailboat and live on it! We could be on the water all the time!

Today was the last whale watching tour of the season! We were warned we might see only one or two whales-or maybe none. The thing is, we saw hundreds (or at least 20)! They were everywhere-spouting, diving, swimming close beneath the surface next to the boat. A couple of them actually leaped completely out of the water! Humpbacks. Also saw dolphins and frigate birds and pelicans and what must have been seagulls! Loved it! Would have been happy even if we saw no marine mammals--very much enjoyed being out on the ocean! Loved the weather too, sunny and warm as usual. I've almost forgotten how being cold feels. Only remember that I don't want to feel it anymore!

Looking for whales

More whales!

Latest news about us! - Marge

This morning Eric and I received our temporary resident visas! We met our lawyer at INM (Instituto Nacional de Migracion) at 9 and left 15 minutes later with our green cards! What a huge milestone! Am so relieved and happy! Our temporary resident visas allow us to stay in Mexico for a year. At the end of a year we'll be eligible for a 3-year temporary resident visa. At the end of that time we'll be eligible to apply for permanent residency.

For people qualifying for temporary residency using retirement income, you must provide proof of Social Security, pension or some other retirement-type income. Possibly assets (for example, owning property in Mexico) reduce or eliminate the income requirement. Don't know. all I know is the path we took--having a regular, monthly retirement income. The amount of income required varies--I believe a couple needs to show at least $1,200 per month each approximately at this time (though possibly one of the two can have a smaller income). This amount varies depending on the dollar/peso exchange rate.

In the next few days we will enroll in Seguro Popular--Mexican Universal Health Care; health insurance the Mexican government offers for citizens and temporary and permanent residents. Because we are both over 60 we will pay nothing! Seguro Popular has no exclusions related to age or preexisting conditions or anything else. Everyone is covered--though hospitals are not always well equipped for everyday-type medical care. We'll use Seguro Popular for catastrophic coverage, anything requiring hospitalization or chronic care, and, since high quality medical care is so inexpensive here, we'll pay for all other care out of pocket.

I've been treated by a pulmonologist at a hospital emergency room here in Puerto Vallarta twice so far (for complications from influenza) and the total bill for each visit was about $200. Yes, you read that right!! We are so thrilled to be living in a country where free (paid for by taxes) and inexpensive medical care is available for all!

Another happy milestone is that my intensive Spanish class started last Monday. Class is 3 hours, 3 days a week (plus at least 3 hours of homework per day) for 3 weeks. Really enjoying the class! Very hard! I should be studying now! Also enjoying meeting others who are learning Spanish.  Very much looking forward to being able to communicate better in Spanish.

There have been many moments of worry as we figure out how to live in Mexico and where to live, and all the rest. I am very happy that we are starting to get these issues resolved. We have figured out how to handle banking, how to learn Spanish, how to get medical care, where to live, and have found a place to live and rented it (huge!!!), have received temporary residency in Mexico (also huge!), have figured out how to buy groceries (yes, there are differences!) and have bought groceries and many other things even with almost no Spanish, have tried a lot of different foods that I've never eaten before at a lot of different restaurants and eaten at lots of taco stands on the street, have driven all over this area and taken long trips to the central highlands (very, very fun!), have learned how to drive in Mexico (very different!!!), Have encountered lizards and possibly a small scorpion (killed it), and have been sick and were able to get care, and a lot more!

We found a house! - Marge

Our House in Ajijic!

The plaza

The path from the malecon to the main street of the town at night

Our street

Dinner at Casa Domenach while listening to folk singing

Seafood paella at Tabarka restaurant--good but the monkfish is even better!

Ajijic at dusk

We have a house!! Spent 11 days in Ajijic deciding that Ajijic was the place we want to live, searching the town and surroundings for neighborhoods we like, and looking at listings and calling agents and walking everywhere and asking people we met and finally finding a wonderful house to rent! It's 3 bedroom/2 bathroom (one off master, with tub!), on a quiet one-lane cobbled street, fully furnished, with a washer and dryer, balcony overlooking the street, a fountain inside, a garden in the front with a place to park the car - with a gate (Otto can be let outside!), and a garden in the back, a cupola, a mirador (seating area on the roof) with a great view of Lake Chapala and of the mountains behind the town, located two blocks from the malecon (the mile long walkway next to the lake), 5 minutes to the plaza and the main streets of the town and 10 minutes to The Lake Chapala Society! Weekly maid service and gardener included in the rent--$800 per month. In a Mexican neighborhood. There are many Mexican shops very close--a tienda (neighborhood grocery store), a butcher (can hardly wait to go there)!, a fruit and vegetable place, a market of small booths on a small square at the corner every Saturday, a bicycle repair shop (maybe I'll get one!), and lots more! Very happy! We signed the lease on our last day in Ajijic-with our car all packed, on our way back to Puerto Vallarta! The manager speaks no English! Fortunately her friend was there who does speak English. Also fortunately I am starting an intensive Spanish course on Monday!

We are very happy to have a home! Very much looking forward to starting our new life in Ajijic! Looking forward to unpacking all our boxes! The house is ours as of May 1st. We'll drive up to Ajijic from Puerto Vallarta with all our stuff on about May 8. Really happy about this! :)!!!

Moving to Ajijic! - Marge

We are now in Ajijic, our future home! Loving it here! Beautiful town, beautiful lake, beautiful high hills all around; has The Lake Chapala Society, a wonderful organization for expats which offers support, information, the largest English language library in Mexico, free yoga and other exercise classes, Spanish language classes, and much more; great climate--cool in the morning and warm in the afternoon, and brightly painted walls and doors and window frames and everything painted that can be painted--turquoise, salmon, fuschia, lime green, lemon yellow, lavendar, violet, azure, pink, orange and purple--and every other color; with palm trees growing up behind the walls, and trees with giant, yellow blossoms and trees with purple foliage and climbing vines with the brightest red flowers and cobbled streets where horses frequently go clopping by.

Have been here a week so far, looking for a long term rental Love it! Especially the lake-largest in Mexico, which stretches all the way from the edge of town to the horizon-with reeds growing by the shore and a backdrop of mountains. There are horses grazing picturesquely next to the water, and snowy egrets standing in the shallows like aquatic versions of those flamingo lawn ornaments. Also, white pelicans with their long bills, that soar along low above the water and scoters or coots or whatever they're called – little black ducks, swimming together by the shore. The sky over the lake is huge, with great pink and orange sunsets. Yesterday, there were clouds, and in between the clouds, stunningly beautiful shafts of sunshine shooting down! And the malecon, a mile long walkway next to the lake, with palm trees planted all along the way and cast iron benches. Yesterday when we walked along the malecon there was a man playing an instrument--a flute? A clarinet? by the water and, further on, two couples slow dancing to a song in Spanish.

San Miguel, so popular no one will go there - Eric

Ah, San Miguel de Allende, you may have been done in by your awesomeness.
Yogi Berra used to talk about a place so popular no one goes there anymore. For now, crowds are flooding into San Miguel, especially during the high season. That's one of our problems with it. Just too crowded. With too many people, one man's 15th Century World Historic Site with ancient architecture, churches and central plaza just becomes another's 21st Century tourist trap.
Butt our main problem is pollution, especially from bus exhaust. With Marge's health concerns, that's a no-go. Also, San Miguel is way up in the high desert country. It's 6,000 foot elevation is twice as high as Snoqualmie Pass. Also hard on Marge's health.
It wasn't Yogi who said you never get a second chance to make a first impression. But our drive into San Miguel made us feel we had been transported into the most rural area of eastern Washington. The directions were like "Go 18 kilometers past Othello, turn left 20 kilometers to Washtucna and then left 10 kilometers to Dusty." All of a sudden, in the middle of nowhere appears a city of 85,000 people with nasty speed bumps and jammed narrow streets. Not quite the quaint little village promoted by retirees who moved here and reinvented themselves as authors or artists.
After all the research, we had high hopes for San Miguel. Trouble is when searching for the Land of Milk and Honey, once you arrive the milk might be nonfat when you wanted whole.

Why we are not moving to San Miguel de Allende after all - Marge

Here we are in San Miguel de Allende. We left Puerto Vallarta and the broken stove and various issues in our dust and drove up here to the central highlands a couple of days ago.

We are not moving to San Miguel after all. Had been so sure we would! All the wonderful descriptions! And the stories of people arriving for a vacation and buying a house here after a few days! All the art! The culture! The beautiful streets and the wonderful plaza-the jardin-where people sit in the morning drinking coffee. We pictured ourselves drinking coffee there too! Not sure what happened but the town we read about is not the town we found! First of all, the air is bad, the exhaust from the many buses is so bad you don't want to inhale. It's astonishingly bad! Nearly unbearable. Also, there were fires outside the town when we arrived, with flames right up to the road in places, and I believe they're still burning. There's an air inversion, trapping the smoke from the fires and the bus exhaust and the car exhaust and all the rest in place above San Miguel. The sky is hazy. There's no horizon!

The strangest thing, never mentioned in all I read about San Miguel, is that the town is all alone! It's in the middle of the most enormous, arid wasteland! Like the driest parts of eastern Washington, with no towns nearby (except Guanajuato 30 miles away) and no villages or settlements only the high plains stretching as far as the eye can see, as you drive, all a kind of beige with blackish vegetation and a few different kinds of cacti to add interest. I had no idea how isolated the town is! You have to really want to go there! And the altitude--over a mile high. The air is thin and you have to be conscious of breathing (either the bad respiratory effects of my recent influenza or the altitude--or possibly just nervousness about the altitude).

Also, there are too many people! The sidewalks are narrow and crowded and every few steps you have to step down into the street to let someone go by. Everywhere there are crowds to push through, while trying not to breathe deeply. The streets are crowded too. You can leave your car at home but even in a taxi or a bus, getting anywhere takes a long time. There is too much traffic and no place to park. There are expensive shops full of expensive goods for expats, and galleries with expensive art. There are classes to take (some that sounded very interesting to me!) but many are priced in dollars, and cost way too much for people living on Social Security and a pension! There are charming restaurants where you want to take a picture of your food and post it to Facebook, but we haven't gone to them--too hard to get there. We have just been eating at local restaurants or at our Airbnb rental. Both of us had influenza and neither of us is completely well. That doesn't help, of course.

Since we have decided not to live here we are cutting our stay in San Miguel short. Leaving soon for Ajijic. Maybe we will live there? I hope so!

Tuesday night in Ajijic - Eric

With our stove in Puerto Vallarta still on the fritz we fled to check out San Miguel, our intended permanent home in Mexico. On our way, we stopped in Ajijic for the night.
Marge suggested we go to dinner at this little hole in the wall that features four expats singing old folk songs on Tuesday nights.
Lighted candles stuck in wine bottles on the tables. I haven't seen that since 1969! Coffee house in the basement of the Campus Ministry at WSU, as I recall. Called Konia House or something like that. Don't know why. It also had upended giant wooden cable spools as tables. This place didn't have those. Surprisingly, the whole candle-in-bottle thing fit perfectly. And the food was magnificent.
The embarrassing thing was, not only did I know all the choruses but I also knew all the verses to the songs. Marge knew most of them, too. Usually, the danger when Marge really gets into the music is that she ends up dancing on the table. This time I was more worried about her slipping into a peasant dress and becoming a guitar-strumming strolling waitress.

Influenza in Puerto Vallarta! - Marge

On the Taco Stand tour

on the Taco Stand tour

On the Taco Stand tour

on the Taco Stand tour

Our blog is finally done! Here I am writing an actual blog entry! So happy about this! Also, so much to report. Hard to even know where to start! Have been sick. Got influenza. It attacked me hard and fast. Fine before breakfast. One cough as I ate, then it hit me like a hammer. the afternoon was bad but that night I could only sleep for an hour at a time between sweating and coughing and feeling almost too weak to lift a glass of water! The next day, my birthday, I spent at Emergency. Turns out there's an influenza epidemic in Puerto Vallarta. The hospitals are full. Many of the victims are Canadians. They're bringing it with them and spreading it around to the rest of us. The doctor said 80% of the time it turns into pneumonia. Hoping that was hyperbole. Had a bit of a relapse a couple of days ago. Went back to Emergency. Feeling a lot better today. Now Eric is sick! And, besides all that, we have no stove. It broke on Valentine's Day. It's been broken ever since! All through being sick. No way to cook a meal except in the microwave. Repair people have come. No actual repairs have been made. Now the estimate is that it won't be fixed for up to 2 more weeks!

Our Trip to Puerto Vallarta - Eric

With Marge still battling influenza, our blog has been slightly delayed. I thought I would fill in the lull on Facebook with more true tales from the road to Mexico. When I last posted a long time ago we were buying underwear at J. C. Penney’s in L.A. to replace what was stolen in Salem from our car carrier. After saying goodbye to Brian, Gwen and Charlotte we headed southeast into the desert. Reading the billboards along the way, we deduced that washed-up old rock stars never fade away—they just play the casinos in Palm Springs and Palm Desert. We crossed the border into Arizona where the speed limit is 75. Those Arizonians are such libertarians. We decided to stop that night in Tucson instead of trying to reach the border at Nogales. I would drive and Marge would make a motel reservation via cell phone. Tucson is a pretty big city and it was January. What could possibly go wrong? By the time I got to Phoenix, Marge was frantic. It turns out Tucson hosts a giant gem show the last two weeks of January. There was no room at the inns—especially for a couple with a dog. We pulled into Tucson with no place to stay. It was time for me to man up and personally find us a room. I strode into the motel lobby. The clerk was handing a keycard to a guy. “If you got a room for him, you’ve got a room for me,” I declared. “Yes, we do,” she replied. Now the $64,000 question: “Do you take dogs?” “Not unless it’s a service animal. Is your dog a service animal?” I couldn’t pull it off. My poker face let me down. Just then a little old lady came down the hall with a little doggy. “Is that a service dog?” I asked darkly. “Why, yes it is,” she said sweetly.” Anyway, the motel clerk called a Red Roof Inn, they had a vacancy and they took dogs. It wasn’t that great a place, but considering the circumstances we were happy to get it. Uneventful border crossing--they just waved us through. No stopping until the immigration office 21 km. down the highway. Navajoa was a mixed blessing with a nice Mexican dinner next to a shimmering pool but lots of mosquito bites. A nice older couple clued Marge into an ex-pat way station in Mazatlan on the road to Puerto Vallarta that allowed dogs. One of the motel clerks even speaks English, they said. However, that clerk wasn’t on duty and the other clerks couldn’t communicate with Marge on the phone. So Marge in Mexico called her sister in New York to ask her to call Mexico to make a reservation. But her sister wasn’t that confident about her Spanish. Janice teaches at a high school in New York but this was late Friday afternoon and the teachers and students were long gone for the weekend. Of course, Janice was still working. She found a Freshman Hispanic student hanging around and convinced him to call Mazatlan and make a reservation for a couple with a dog. Of course, they hung up on the 14-year-old. Janice called back and tried her best. But when she had to ask her freshman tutor, “How do you say king bed in Spanish?” it turned out the English-speaking clerk was now on duty and the reservation went smoothly! But the ex-pat way station turned out to be a Spring Break flop house right on the highway and across from the beach boardwalk. There was a giant statue of a garish snail with a pixie on its shoulder out our window. Fifty years ago we might have been thrilled. Otto and I did manage to cruise the boardwalk a bit and he had his eye on a foxy terrier. (OK, that was an alternate fact.) I woke up early in the morning to the sound of Marge quickly packing up the car. It was on to Puerto Vallarta!

What happened to Sayulita? - Marge

We had heard such wonderful things about Sayulita--the famous surfing town north of Puerto Vallarta. We expected to love it! In fact, we already loved it, even before we got there! We had seen pictures - and they were lovely! And heard stories! Evidently a large number of people who visit Sayulita end up as permanent residents. Plus, the town was featured on HGTV's House Hunters' International--more than once! We watched each episode eagerly and added Sayulita to our bucket list--and our Places to Consider Moving to in Mexico list!

Then we actually went to Sayulita. Or a town that called itself Sayulita. Perhaps it was some other town that had just changed its name to Sayulita to capitalize on all those tourist dollars? Maybe the real Sayulita was  a little further up the coast and we should have kept driving? The thing is, it was very hard to believe this was the Sayulita written about so glowingly in all those articles and blog posts--and even a book or two! First of all, every one of the narrow streets in the town was full of cars. And the cars were barely moving as they went past all the little charming, high-priced tourist shops and past the cafes where people sat at tiny tables drinking expensive foreign beverages while inhaling dust and car emissions, and past the lines of vendors selling silver jewelry and inflatable beach accessories and carved wooden trinkets.

There were too many people for the sidewalks. And too many people roasting on beach loungers set out in rows along the small and lovely crescent beach. And so many surfers riding the great surfing waves there must have been collisions frequently.

We ate lunch at a table on the sand, at a restaurant where the menu was in English, close by a table reserved for a TV shoot, with people carrying movie cameras, arranging and rearranging table settings, calibrating lighting and angling beach umbrellas. They all looked very important and harried as they prepared to shoot what someone said was one more House Hunters International and someone else, one of the crew, claimed was actually an episode of Real Housewives of New York. "No really!" she insisted. But I wonder if there actually is such a show.

In the end, we had to hurry the half mile or so back to the highway where we had left the car, because our dog, goaded beyond endurance by the loud, sudden sound of a motorcycle engine revving - after putting up with the heat and crowds and not enough attention - suddenly ran out into the road and nipped the leg of the motorcyclist who was, of course, stuck in traffic along with everyone else in Sayulita.

Maybe there is a part of town we missed that is less crowded. Or maybe it was just the wonderful weather that drew so many people to Sayulita and we should go back when the weather is worse. Or maybe we just came too late. Maybe the town was loved to death. I've heard of that happening.

Housewives of New York in Sayulita - Eric

Eric waving on the beach at Puerto Vallarta, with Otto

There's some liquid stuff falling from the sky this morning in Puerto Vallarta. I have some vague recollection that it is called rain. Yesterday, we went to Sayulita, a small surfing town north of here. Very pretty but completely overrun by tourists. At Don Pedro's bar on the waterfront they were setting up to film a TV segment. Marge thought it was for House Hunters' International but they insisted it was for Housewives of New York.

View from the condo in Puerto Vallarta - Marge

View from the deck of our condo in Puerto Vallarta

Here I am sitting sideways on the settee (or maybe it's a loveseat), on the deck of the place we're renting here in Puerto Vallarta, gazing out at the Bay of Banderas and the Sierra Madre mountains across the curve of the water. Sunny here, late afternoon. The palm trees lining the beach all have long shadows. A barely noticeable breeze is brushing by me and there's a line of little twinkly flashes as the windows of cars going by on the road catch the sun. Learning how to live in Mexico. More lessons every day. No time to write more... Eric is urging me out the door. Have to go have more fun!

Our wonderful road trip to Puerto Vallarta! - Marge

What was left after the cargo carrier was amputated

Otto sleeping

Highway in Mexico

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta one week ago today! Drove 10 days in our little Hyundai hatchback to get here (with a 3 day stop in LA to see Brian, Gwen and granddaughter Charlotte). Over 2,800 miles! We filled boxes as fast as we could on our last day, way behind schedule! Having no idea the final bit of packing and storing would take so long! Finally throwing things into the car, the storage unit or the cargo carrier mounted on the roof rack almost randomly so we could get done and go. Didn’t drive out of the condo parking lot until 5;30 in the afternoon. Getting dark. Exhausted before we even started. Had to stop at my soon-to-be former job in Tumwater to drop off things and say a few more good-byes. Then finally on to Salem (yes, not very far!) where we arrived at 1:30 AM too tired to take our suitcases or anything else out of the cargo carrier on the roof rack or to take almost anything out of the car. We dragged ourselves into the motel and fell down onto the bed and slept in our clothes. The next morning, I went outside (before coffee!) to check on the car. Astonishingly, the cargo carrier had not even survived one night of travel before being amputated right off the roof rack! It was gone! All that was left were the cords, dangling down the sides of the car! Our first night! We had hardly started and already suffered a setback! We lost two suitcases, containing all our clothes for the trip, and Otto’s dog bed and a couple of pillows and a lot of my money collages which were all digital and can be replaced and many of Janice’s magnificent ink and watercolor drawings of which there are no copies so they are gone for good. Very, very sorry Janice for losing those wonderful pictures!! Astonishingly, the car itself, crammed full of just about everything we owned, hadn’t been broken into! And, strangely, I actually felt a little feeling of relief that we had less stuff to carry around with us (other than Janice’s pictures of course!!). That was the lowest point of our trip. After that, every evening when we arrived at a motel we unloaded almost everything and put it all back in the car the next morning. Every day we organized better and figured out how to make traveling easier and became more confident and enjoyed ourselves more. And each day we got farther and farther from all the places we knew and our old well-worn everyday lives and were more and more out in the open world, with the beautiful scenery, different every day, and the future out in front somewhere almost too far away to imagine. It was a wonderful trip. Wonderful to cross the border into Mexico (we weren’t even stopped—just waved through) and to drive three days through Mexico without experiencing any problems or issues of any kind other than almost destroying the car’s suspension numerous times when unexpectedly driving over enormous speed bumps (called topes--a very popular traffic control device in Mexico) and it was especially wonderful to arrive in Puerto Vallarta at last (thanks to Google, our guide all the way)!

We Made it to Puerto Vallarta! - Marge

Palm tree in Puerto Vallarta

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta late Saturday afternoon, Feb. 3, 2017. Very, very happy to be here! Very happy to have driven 3000 miles in that tiny car with a dog and a lot of clothes (a lot less clothes after two of our suitcases were stolen) and a lot of random stuff (a colander, steamer insert, lids to pans we didn’t bring, a bag of batteries) that we threw in at the end when we became desperate to leave-and a lot of dishes (Fiestaware)!

There’s such a great feeling of having accomplished something big! Loved the journey! Loved being with Eric having all these new experiences! Learned a lot! For example, gas station bathrooms here don’t have toilet paper. You have to bring your own! And, people pass on the right or left or wherever there’s a gap or even where there’s no gap! And, sometimes you look in the rear view mirror and there’s a car two inches behind you! And they often don’t signal and they drive right past stop signs! It’s exhilarating! I have begun to adapt! Would embrace the driving style more wholeheartedly if not for all the car crashes I saw and all those roadside shrines!

Also learning how big a deal it is to not speak the language! It’s like having a disability! Everything is harder! You have to guess at what the person is saying. You have to point and pantomime and draw pictures and do a lot of apologizing! You have to just finally decide to throw in half a capful of laundry detergent because all those instrucciones on the bottle are unreadable! And, is it even laundry detergent? Or maybe fabric softener? Who knows! Then you just turn the dial on what is, hopefully, the washing machine, to caliente hoping it means hot! Or is it the dryer? The dials are surprisingly similar when you can’t read Spanish. And, then, too tired after spending the day trying to buy groceries and do all the other things that need to be done when moving to a new place--in a language you don’t understand—you put the chicken thighs (muslos!) in the oven and notice that the highest temperature shown is 250 and you finally just turn the knob to a good looking spot and hope for the best because (after more thought than should be required for this) you realize you are in a centigrade world now!

I am so grateful and thrilled to be here. I am living consciously for the first time in a long time. The thing is, a lot of my life has been spent living by rote, by habit, by programmed paths that carry me through my days without noticing what’s around me or what happened or what I’ve done; but since we set off on our trip, and especially since we arrived in Puerto Vallarta, I am far more aware of the world and of experiences and sensations and find myself feeling far more alive and engaged. It’s not always comfortable but is surprisingly satisfying.

This morning we will walk down the hill to the beach and will walk along the malecon and will also try to find mayonnaise-mayonesa (thanks google!) so we can have egg salad for lunch.

Our condo is magnificent! Extremely comfortable with a wonderful view of Banderas bay curving around off into the distance and of the city and the beach far down the hill. We are surrounded by jungle, which frames the view with palm fronds and tropical trees! We are having coffee on the deck. There’s a warm little wisp of a breeze and the sun is shining (as it has every day since we crossed the border!).

A flock of green parrots just flew by squawking (Yes! Parrots!). Someone is playing a saxophone off in the distance (really, not making this up!). The rooster who lives in the neighborhood keeps crowing (all day and night). Every evening (so far) there are fireworks!