Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Just keeping busy last few days here.

We went back to Cerritos beach yesterday morning to see if the store keeper had brought my purse that he said he would get. NOPE. He says he'll be sure to have it next November!!! So bought a different one for another vendor. Not sure I like it. But it will do. When I looked at it in the store it looked dark blue. When I got it outside it looks almost iridescent purple. But the front part is all embroidery so guess it doesn't really matter. Transferred all my stuff into it. The old one was really getting ratty looking.
Then we walked over to the beach, not near as crowded on a Monday and with the tide part way in.  

 From there we drove to the Golden Zone - the main tourist shopping center in downtown - not old town, but where all the hotels and tourists shops are. Saw this set of dishes in a window of an expensive shop. Have never seen anything like them. Really colorful. To get into and out of the shop a guard has to unlock the door. They had mostly jewelry in there so...
 Just walking along popping into and out of little shops. Those are apartments above the shops, One was advertised as for rent. Most of the t-shirts hanging there had nasty sayings on them. Why do people buy them?
 The stairs heading up towards the apartments. Like the tile accent. 

These two boys were about 12 years old, guess they were headed to the beach to try to sell their stuff. Schools were closed because of Carnaval. 
I love this chicken it is about 2 feet tall. So colorful. But way too much money for something so easy to break. 
But these are pretty neat too. Didn't ask the price.
The cat is kind of weird, even for me. 

Love love this. About 18 inches long and about that tall with the guys sitting on top. 5000 pesos around US$ 250. It would go so good with my ford truck Bill bought me last year. 
The other side of it. 
Here in Mexico we are only able to get Mexican TV using our digital antenna. It is so weird, one day we'll get 14 channels - then half way through a program it goes off - no signal. Then we have to do channel search and might only get 2 or 4 channels, none of which are the one we were just watching. Some times moving the antenna makes it better, sometimes it makes it worse. Some times moving the angle of the TV makes it better - weird huh?
We are feeding the  birds still but have discovered if the Jeep is parked facing and near the tree the birds don't come. When the car is facing away from the tree and further away the birds come immediately. Are they afraid of the eagle? 
Went out to dinner last night to Torres with John and Jackie, they were staying there for one night. Always good food and company. 
Some more pictures from the Carnaval parade. Hooray - today is the last day of Carnaval by tomorrow it should be okay to go downtown to old town again. 





Tomorrow we'll have a busy day. Got to pick up my glasses, found the camera repairman and hope he can clean the lens of my new camera. Then out to dinner with John and Shirley, they are on their way back to Idaho. 
Hum...there was something else I wanted to write about but don't remember what it was.


Monday, February 27, 2017

A black and white sunrise - but colorful evening

I didn't get out of bed today until 8:00, very unusual for me.But then I didn't go to bed until midnight. Today we have to go back out to Cerritos to see if the storekeeper got the purse I ordered. And then having dinner with friends tonight. Tomorrow we are having breakfast with friends, Wednesday I have to pick up my glasses and we'll be having RIBS with our friends who are heading home to Idaho. And Thursday we are going to La Noria. Our days here in Mazatlan are quickly counting down. 
So - weird sunrise yesterday morning. A kind of black and white one. Did not fool with these pictures, this is just how it looked. 

 Turned out to be a really nice day though. We got ourselves out of the RV and took a ride to Cerritos, just up the road from us. It is where we go to watch the fishermen come in. NO fishermen yesterday. A sunny Sunday during Carnaval. The tide was out and the beach was full of people. Swimming, rock climbing, eating and dancing. I counted three different groups of musicians there. 


Lots of shade tents and people eating and enjoying the day.
 Even tables between the boats.

 I was waiting for her to finish her call to get out of the picture. But finally just took it anyway. Just like the combination of colors and items. 
 Three on a motorbike. Kid, mom and dad. 
 We left this area and went down to the restaurant La Bruija - I'd bought a blown glass flying pig there several years ago and managed to break it over the summer so wanted to replace it. The glass blower wasn't there but he'd left some of his pieces - one being a flying pig. So got that.
Also looked at a really neat all leather purse. Pockets for all my stuff. Is $30 a lot for a leather purse. 

Didn't buy it. But still thinking about it. 
Came home for a while where I tried to keep up with the Daytona race on line, just watching the leaderboard. Even that chews up data. My oldest son kept texting me where my favorite driver was. #18 won the first stage??? What is a stage? Guess when we get home I'll have to catch up on things. I hate Daytona - it is nothing but a destruction derby. In all three races - truck, Ixfinity and Cup only half the field finished. If I was an owner I would just enter a piece of junk and to heck with it. 
Then we went to La Mona in the Marina for early dinner, pizza. Got there just after the race ended and they had the victory celebration on TV. Glad for Kurt and for Mike Walthrop.
One of the posters in La Mona. 

 I have a setting on my camera to take pictures of food Of course I never remember to set it. So yesterday while waiting for our pizza I did remember - took this picture of my ice tea. But forgot to take a picture of our pizza!!!
Came home and watched the big Carnaval parade on TV. I think is was the nicest we've seen. 
Lots and lots of bright colors. The Malecon. See the heart on the hotel in the background. 
 Just some of the colorful entries. 



 This years queen. The dress weighed 25 pounds. 
 Last years queen in the silver on the right. 


Just some of the entries. Will post more in the coming days - especially if I don't have anything interesting to write about. 

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Bill is worried about my mental health!

Maybe he should be. We have been busy and I have been taking pictures but have not felt like blogging. No reason except that I didn't feel like it. Some days the words just don't want to go from head through fingers to blog. (Maybe they still don't, in that sentence I misspelled three words.)
Any Way. 
This is one of the few times we've seen the iguana at Torres Hotel. The weather has just been too cool for them to come out. Don't remember him looking so old and skinny. 
Watched the birds for a while in the morning. See the one hanging upside down. Even they seemed out of sorts - several confrontations among them.
So pretty. 
The birds at Torres restaurant are very clever. A waiter made a mistake and didn't put a sugar container under cover. As soon as his back was turned this guy took advantage of it. See how many packets he has picked up. 
He dropped a bunch of them, can just see them by table leg on left corner. He took the one in his mouth and flew away, the other bird was checking out what was on floor. 
For the last few days I've had the "Isn't it time to go home yet?" feelings. There are a few things keeping us here. I've ordered new computer glasses, they won't be ready until next week. Our friends from San Blas will be heading north and stopping here for ribs next week and the mechanic is coming by next week to change the oil in the Jeep and Arvi. By the time all that is done it will be the weekend next week and we don't like to drive on the weekends. Lots of people will still be going home from the Carnaval week. 
 Surprised to see the mist here. 
Speaking of Carnaval it has started. Driving into old town yesterday we went past the area where today's parade will pass. Lots of bleachers have been put up. It was really sunny and warm at the RV park.
Lots of people have put out their chairs marking "their spot" to watch the parade. Some were already sitting in them. They rotate people from the family throughout the day and night. It is okay for families to use their own chairs. 
Guess the helmets are marking someone's spot. See the hat vendor with all his merchandise on his head. He should be making a lot of sales as the mist burns off. 
Several time along the Malecon traffic bogged down because of police cars stopped at the curb. What were they doing? They were confiscating chairs. It is not permitted to put chairs out and then rent them to people. How do the chair renters get around that? They either say they are all for their family, which is not always believed, or a little cash passes from hand to hand. The TV news is making it into a big story.. 

Guess this group is even going to have a sun shade. No one bothers the chairs that are there. The parade is tonight, we'll be watching on TV - away from the crowds. 
Our normal route into town is all blocked off due to Carnaval activities - drinking and partying and dancing. Have never seen this before. Looks like the building is abandoned.
Another one I haven't noticed before. It is prettier than the picture. Sun was wrong and I was slow seeing it.
Heading down the hill towards Centro - three colorful homes in a row. 
This is a day care center.
Our favorite parking lot was closed, so we headed to our next favorite. Couldn't get into it either as the propane truck was blocking the road. Even the tiny lot we've seen driving past it was closed. But we did pass this wall with graffiti. 
As we passed this street I noticed a parking sign. The red sign with the E - so we turned down the street and found a parking structure that was open. And inside. And with room. It is only two blocks from the Central Market. Have to remember it is here. With the yellow house at the end of the street it will be easy to find. 
Went to the Central Market and Bill got a couple more shorts that he likes. Walking back towards the plaza we stopped to watch this woman making a colorful basket. 
Looks complicated to me. 
And stopped to listen to the flute/guitar player. And I got a CD this time. Haven't played it yet. But has some neat music on it. 
The pigeons sitting in the tree and on the roof of the government building, waiting for some one to buy feed for the. 
Stopped at the optometrist and ordered my glasses. They will be ready Wednesday. At least by then Carnaval will be over and hopefully the street will be open. Last night there was a big fireworks display out over the ocean, we could here it from here and see the high ones going off. About 8 miles away!
My laptop has been giving me more problems. Some days I can't get into my email at all. Other days it is fine. Then one day my videos wouldn't play, just got green screen. That comes and goes. Also get a lot of "cannot load that page" but next time I try it works fine. Grrrr. Also something happened to my phone! - cannot be used. Thank goodness we brought our other phone. I sent the number to it to our kids but forgot to mention it was me. Got a couple of "Who is this?" return emails. 
Lots of RVs have been passing through the park on their way home. 
To improve my mental health we went out to dinner last night. Even had drinks. Here is the waiter delivering my drink. He has to come down stairs! First alcohol since we've been here. 
It was a Miami Vice - pina colada and strawberry daiquiri in same glass. Had to look up spelling of both drinks. 
Serving the table next to us. He had about four drinks in his hands that he served first. Then he kneels down so the customer can take the glass off his head 
And guess who else had one. He recorded a 2nd drink - then took my almost empty one and I got the full one. I could not finish it so got a "to go" cup for it. Enjoyed it after getting home. 
Mental health is improved. Another sunny but cool day is expected. I'll keep track of the Daytona race and we'll watch the parade. Bill cooked a great breakfast.