Departure at High Noon

The camper is on the truck, cleaned, packed and provisioned; condo sheets are washed and in the dryer. The floors and bathrooms will get one last lick and polish, and we'll be on our way by noon today, Friday January 30.

Destination for our first day most likely will be Ciudad Tepic. That will make a short trip tomorrow to the Guadalajara area.

The photos above are of "the farm", where we store the camper, by gracious invitation of Jesus Ernesto Cardenas, our notario and amigo and Rick Westerdahl, another good friend and Mazatlan social director! The group photo of amigos Marta, Antonio, Rick, Cranda, Larry and Bonnie was taken last Sunday at a local favorite restaurant, showcasing an amazing barbeque pit which provides a wide selection of meat to hungry carnivores....pork, lamb, goat, beef....the list goes on!

Stay tuned for MORE updates and photos along the road to Oaxaca in the coming days!

Oaxaca-Bound!

Preparations are now in full swing for the coming trip to Oaxaca and points south. We’ll drive out to “the farm” this morning and load the camper back onto the truck bed. Then, it will be a busy few days as we provision up and get set for departure either Friday or Saturday.

The basic itinerary, ALWAYS subject to change, is:
Day One: Mazatlan to Guadalajara/Villa Corona Hot Springs
Day Two: Guadalajara to Patzcuara OR to the Mariposa Monarch Butterfly Reserve
Day Three: Explore Mariposa Reserve
Day Four: San Felipe to Taxco
Day Five: Explore Taxco/shop
Day Six: Taxco to Puebla
Day Seven: Puebla to Oaxaca

We plan a two week stay in Ciudad Oaxaca, to explore the city and the villages and ruins situated in the surrounding Valley of Oaxaca, to shop and to sample foods of the area. Oaxaca is known for its delicious mole (MOH-lay) dishes. We will probably depend on Sly to report on the goodness of the little chapulines (grasshoppers), friend crispy with onions and served with lime juice in tortillas!

Ciudad Oaxaca was designated as a UNESCO world heritage site some years back, due to the history and rich mix of cultures. We’ll be sharing some information about the region, along with our experiences, in coming blog entries which will be made as we are able to connect with the internet …..hopefully, often!

It should be a fun trip! Come on along!

Fine Dining and Music on the Street

Wonderful tacos! Beautiful Music! Terrific friends!

Last Monday, we headed to Canuck's with amigos Rick and Cranda for "Open Mike" - a weekly event which provides brave amateur performers (mostly "of a certain age") some stage time to share their talents in front of a remarkably kind and tolerant audience.

On our way to this favorite gringo watering hole, we stopped at a local street-side taco establishment for some good comida! Yum! Larry was LOVING that delectable dish, while we were seranaded by a street musician. Live music is EVERYWHERE!

Baseball Playoffs in Mazatlan

The Mazatlan baseball team - The Venados (The Deer) is in the playoffs to get to the Caribbean

World Series! The game we attended was a lackluster performance on their part, but they ultimately won the quarterfinals agaist the Guasave team.....

Three brass bands, all playing different "tunes" simultaneously; mucho Pacifico cerveza consumed by the crowd made for an entertaining evening! The game itself seemed to be of secondary interest!

Sly Speaks Up on Acceptance

Well, MY Aranese language teacher’s “nombre” is Ana Louisa Arana (pronounced ah-RAH-nyah. There is supposed to be a ~ above the n in her last name which makes the “ny” sound.) Oh, these Sinaloan senoritas are visions to behold! Those multiple dark eyes, those complexions kissed by the Mazatlan sun, those eight long legs and those shapely thoraxes . . . Aye, CARAMBA! (Loose translation: Good heavens!) You can imagine that I am a VERY enthusiastic student who hangs on Ana’s every word! …….but, I digress.
The Aranese dialect is spoken by the spiders ad tarantulas down here in Mexico. It’s quite similar to Spanish actually, so I am able to practice my lessons with Bonnie and Larry. We are making surprisingly good progress.
On my outings however, I’ve noticed some tension between the lizard tribes (geckos and iguanas) and the spider tribes. Seems there are issues over the difference in the number of legs. The lizards consider the spiders to be inferior because they were born with eight legs rather than four. Some lizards have even gone so far as to suggest that the spiders just cut off their extra legs so they will fit in better with the four-legged crowd . . . a pretty silly and narrow outlook, don’t you think? I don’t hear the two-legged tribe members asking THEM to shear off a set of legs! I wonder why they just don’t all get along and accept each other just the way God made them?

Getting in Touch! Feeling at Home!

We FINALLY started our Spanish lessons last week! With just four two hour lessons under our belts, we’re getting brave enough to speak a little Spanish in public! Though we are FAR from fluent, the initial response to our efforts is creating some incredible and heartening experiences! Consistently, local residents have been meeting us WAY more than half way as we have faced confusing situations. For instance, there was the mujer (woman) and her hija (daughter) who guided us through our second attempt at the tricky process of paying our local property taxes. We were unsure of what documents we needed and which line to get into at “La Municipia” building, what with all the people milling around. The daughter took Bonnie over to one line to show copies of documents needed to get the tax printout that verified the discounts for paying early, being part time Mexican residents and being OLD , while Larry and the mother waited in the line to pay. Voila! Done! After sharing “besitos” (little kisses on the cheeks) and saying “Muchas gracias” a number of times, we were on our way!
There is a sense of isolation that comes with not being able to communicate in the native language. The personal impact has been challenging for us (especially Bonnie), to put it mildly! Sly will share HIS perspective on not knowing the local “Aranese” (Arana = Spider) dialect in his next blog entry….