Fancy breakfast and shrimp with heads vs without heads

My land lady's uncle eithers owns or manages one of the restraunts on the beach, it's a fairly upscale place and caters mostly to the tour guide companies that bring  tourists over on guided tours from the Golden Zone in Mazatlan and to the crusie ship people. So most of their clients are there with reservations. For 3 years now he stops me on the street when he sees me and ask sme if I have eaten at his place yet, so far I never have, I really have no desire because places like that usually annoy me but yesterday he asked me again I figured that just in case it means a lot to him that I eat there I needed to go over there and have a meal or two, so today was to be the day. I would go over there for breakfast before all their tours got there. I was surprised that they open for breakfast because all the other places on the beach do not...tourists don't usually get here until around 10 or 11 am. As I leave the house I go to grab some money I am thinking that it will be about 3 times more expensive than the places I usually eat at, at first I had a 50 peso bill in my hand, which is kind of what I thought their breakfast would be but then I thought I might not have anything left over for a tip so I grabbed a 100 peso bill instead and put it in my pocket, thinking that would be plenty even for an expensive breakfast. I get there and find out that any breakfast with meat (bacon or sausage) is over 100 pesos...wow, and does not include coffee. So I guess I will just be having eggs and coffee. I order coffee con creama and he brings me just coffee...no cream, so I ask for cream and he bring me the powdered stuff that I call heifer dust, I am not sure what it is made of but cream it is not, and not made of anything close to cream...no closer to cream than the sand between my toes is. Now this is normal in any Mexican tourist restraunt but not in a real Mexican restraunt (memeber....not my first day here) Now I already know what will happen if I ask for cream or milk, he will bring me a glass of milk and charge me another 20 pesos so I decide to just leave it alone and not drink my coffee because I just cannot drink black coffee. I would have liked to just guietly dump it under the table in the sand so that I don't have to explain why I didn't drink my coffee but you cannot do that in these kinds of places because you have 2 waiters standing at each of your elbows hovering....this is why the food is so expensive. Most tourists like this type of catering, it makes them feel important and pampered but to me it is just annoying (and of course it brings up the price of eggs) It's just like when you go into a store in the mall at home and before you have even stepped in the door the sales clerk is in your face asking "can I help you"? And I feel like saying "well gee I haven't had enough time yet to get my self into any trouble so I really don't need help just yet, but stick around I might get myself stuck in a really tight pair of pants yet...then you can help me". So..no slipping the coffee under the table here. The worst part of it all is that uncle isn't even there to see that I am finally eating in his restraunt.....do I have to go again now? Now don't get me wrong here I am not dissing this place it is a very nice place, the place is clean and pretty, the food was very good, the eggs came with the usual beans and rice and tortillas, the service was prompt and polite there was just too much of it for me, but I
can have the same good food for 1/3 of the price elsewhere and get creama for my coffee. Next time I go I will come along the back way and see if uncle's truck is there before I go in. Soon as I got home the watermelon truck came by my house....get this! I buy a watermelon for 10 pesos (that is just under a dollar) and a cantalope for 5 pesos (something like 40 cents) ...unbelieveable! We Canadians must learn to grow out own food somehow otherwise we will forever have to pay up the nose and the hummhum for stuff. Driving down here I saw fields and fields of greenhouses, why can't we have fields of greenhouses? Is it because that would be way too easy and that is why no one has thought of it, or is it because it is way more complicated than my uneducated head can understand?

Yesterday I had a special treat, there is a husband and wife that drive around on Wednesdays and sell tamales out the back of their truck...shrimp tamales, my favorite. There is also a lady ( my land lady's mother) that sells tamales on some Saturdays and they are sooooo good. Her shrimp have the heads and tails and shells on them which is always a bit of work to eat but sort of good for me because it slows me down and lets me really savor the taste if they weren't whole I'd snarf it down so fast and end up missing the enjoyment of eating. I was told that the shrimp taste much better if they are cooked whole instead of headless,tailess and shellless. The Wednesday tamales did not have heads, tails or shells and there is a big difference....oh yes, not as juicy and saucy.....would never have thought that it would make a difference. Had I never had the Saturday tamales I would have been very satisfied with the Wednesday tamale and I will still buy them on Wednesday but I will look forward to Saturday's tamale much much more. I will take pictures next time I promise. I love how everyone drives around here and sells their wares, I always say that if you are patient enough everything will eventually come to your door, the other day a guy was walking door to door selling pillows and a lady was walking around selling dolls. Then I saw a truck driving around selling PCV pipe, all lengths and sizes. 2 days ago I opened the door to my house and the glass in the door fell out and shattered....what a mess I had. I went to find my land lady and asked where I could buy a new piece of glass and she said I had to wait until the glass truck came by some day. So, until then I put in some card board with duct tape. Life here is about relaxing about things, nothing is ever a rush or a big deal. I'll tell you what is a big deal though...iguanas eating my plants, now thats a big deal. I have chased them with a broom for days now, I even put bleach and water in a spray bottle and squirted one in the face but he keeps coming back. So now I am busy all day moving my plants around to confuse him, I play musical plants. This must be why people don't have gardens, too much compitition. I always wondered why when a family is always starving would they not plant gardens. I learned in Africa that is is just way more complicated than that and maybe that is also why we don't have commercial greenhouse at home, maybe it is not as easy as it looks to me just like growing a garden in Africa is just not as easy as it looks, and why having a poinsetta here is hard work. These Iguanas however have picked the wrong garden to eat in because unlike the rest of the people here I have nothing else to do than chase Iguanas around with a broom and move my plants every few hours. But I have to go now it's 4:30 and it is hammock laying time but first I want to quickly gather up some more horse poo for my compost pail.

Gutting my first fish and coconuts

December 12 2009

A few days ago I was sitting in my sunporch watching 3 fisherman as I do every morning,I call them Peter, James and John because it's a scene that just seems to come right out of the Bible, it seems so surreal. One of them comes over to my little abode here and I reconized him as my landlady's cousin, he offers me a fish, I try to pay him but he would not take any money telling me it was a gift. So I accept the fish and anticipate my delicious supper I will have all the while thinking of how I can repay or regift this man, I know it was a true gift and he does not exspect anything in return but at the same time I would love to do something for him as well. I wish I would have brought some manly looking yarn I could knit them all mittlets. They knit up so quickly and I imagine it is cold on the water so early in the morning. All I brought was girly looking yarn....I'll keep my eye open. If I would have thought of this earlier, (I just thought of this now) I have a friend that flew in today from Canada, she could have brought me some. oh well...anyway...the man assumed I knew what to do with a whole fish, I do know what to do with it in the pan but have never been apart of the pre-pan prep, have stood by and watched but have never participated. So I did what everybody else does when they get stuck...google it, yup I found a perfect little video that showed me step by step how to gut, clean and fillet a fish. Not really all that hard either. I fried it up with some potatoes and onions and it was so good. I will not shy away from the fish market anymore, I will have fish on a regular basis now. But now I have a message for you all....Teach your children how to gut and fillet a fish, don't let them end up like me and have to find a video, it was only by luck and chance that I had internet working that day, there isn't always internet (I know....hard to believe that that could happen) so, if you have no children teach someone else's children....teach somebody. It's an important skill to have. If you are a teacher teach your students this, have fish gutting day in school.
By the way, these pictures are starting to make me mad....they won't go where I want them.

I worked hard all year so that I could be here and not work and even though I have now been here for 2 weeks and haven't been doing anything I still haven't relaxed just yet. I'm not doing anything but I am walking around feeling like I should and almost feeling guilty that I am not being "productive". I sit here and read and see all the other people going back and forth to work and I know they see me sitting here reading everyday and not doing much of anything and I wonder what they are thinking of me. I want to explain to them how hard I worked to justify being lazy but I know that is just silly, and not like they haven't worked hard all their life. One of my landlady's cousins (she has many) drives by here 21 times a day doing 21 different things, one day he is building his house and it driving by gathering wood from the plantation, the next day he is building steps for the people at the trailer park, the next day he is driving the brick delivery truck and one day him and a friend (maybe he was a cousin too) are climbing the palm trees along the road picking coconuts. If a coconut falls on a car it can do a bit of damage, can certainly smash a windshield. He deminstrated how to climb a coconut tree, he made it look so easy I even tried and it seems I really really need to practice before I will get to any coconuts. Today as he was driving by he stopped by my house and quickly climbed a tree and picked about 5 coconuts and of course offered me one (as a gift) he pulled a machetti out and cracked it open for me right away, (everyone has a machetti in their back pocket here) I love coconut water, I put some in my fruit juice very morning. I feel bad for him that he has to work so hard and I am swinging in a hammock all day reading a book. I have to get over this. Next week I am going to the mainland (for sure) and buying a canvas and start painting, I did bring my paints. At least that way I can be productive and relax at the same time, making me not look so lazy.

Oh...today my shower worked, there was hot water and there was lights, all at the same time.....a truely great day.

The story about the shrimp, kitties, a new shower, a lot of plants, Casa Damasco and amazing sunsets

December 08, 2009 (sorry, I have not yet located the spell checker button....I might have to hire na editer)
I haven't writen anything in a while and that is not because nothing is happening, lots is happening and I am very busy. It takes a long time to do anything here, sometimes it takes me almost until 2 in the afternoon to do nothing. Let me tell you about my water story and then you will understand why it takes careful planning to do laundry or water plants and flush toilets. I have 3 little buildings with bathrooms in them because this used to be a restarant. One building has 2 bathrooms in it, each with a toilet and sink, on top of the roof is a tanaca (water tank) both those bathrooms draw water from that tank. In the second building is a toilet and finally today a shower (toilet doesn't work) on it's roof is also a tanaca. Beside my house is a laundry area that also has a water bin (not a tanaca) There is also a little pump house that houses my electric pump that pumps water from a well somwhere. Now when I have the pump on water runs to both tanacas and to my laundry station at once. So, if I fill my tanacas to the top and then if I want to use water to do laundry a few days later and I turn the pump on and if I have not left some room in the tanacas they over flow. So when I do laundry or water flowers or do dishes I have to make sure my tanacas are not full. This takes some planning. What I need is some shut off valves so that I can isolate an area and still have water in another area (this comes from my work with irrigation) So, the next time I head into the mainland I plan on stopping at a hardware store and buying some valves for this place. Also when I am filling my tanaca there is water running into my laundry area whether I need water there or not (overflowing my bin and making a mess) and when I mentioned this to my land lady she cut a stick to size and jammed it into the hose....fixed. Why didn't I think of that? So you can see how this all takes time, and going to the mainland to pick up these valve will take time too adn if that hardware store is open the first time I go there that would be a miracle, they will have some hours that will go somewhat like this, closed on Mondays, open from 10am to 11 am closed from 11 am to 3 pm and open from 3pm to 8 pm on Tuesdays and Wednesday, on thursday open from 1 pm to 5 pm and open on friday from 10 am to 11 am and from 1 pm to 5 pm, closed on Saturdays and Sundays and then I will get there at 10:30 on a Friday and they will be closed because it was someones birthday...that is kind of how it will go. I am still trying to make a pedicure appointment, been trying since I got here, on the upside, when I do finally get in she will give me a first class pedicure and it will cost me 100 pesos which is just under $10.00. And really what else do I have to do other then take a boat across everyday, I have nothing else to.....oh hang on!!! I hear water running, something is overflowing again.

Another thing that keeps me busy is my kitties, it all started with one....well, it started by me seeing a rat the first day I was here, hadn't even moved in yet was just helping to clean up. I decided I would borrow a cat then my friend Kathy went to have lunch at one of the beach restraunts and a cat had a unforunate accident in the kitchen and she came to my house with a half dead cat begging me to take care of it, I had wanted a cat but not really a half dead one, but of course I caved in. The first day the cat did not move at all but was breathing, the next morning it did sit up and look at me and lick some tuna water. Unfortunatly that was the day that Kathy and I decided to go to up into the mountains to Copala looking for pottery and plants and we didn't come until late and the cat was gone, she must have felt better and took off. So we headed over to the restarunt where she had come from to see if she was there, she was not, but the cook was very frustated because there was a litter of kitten hanging around and he didn't want them there....did we want them? He said we could have as many as we could catch, I only wanted one, a little cute grey striped one. We managed to catch it after a bit of a chase, we ahd it cornered under some wood and right beside it was a little orange one, wedged in real tight. Kathys says "look, we can get that one too" I say no, I only want one, then the cook says that the ones we don't want he'll kill anyway....so we take the little orange one too. And now I have 2 kitties in cage. We made a nice big confined area for them, it's about 7 feet long by 2 feet wide, the plan is to keep them caged until they love me enough to not run away. That was just yesterday and today already I was able to take each one out of the cage and hold them (individualy) while they did not relax in my arms they also didn't fight or try to get away. They are very cute, they sleep piled on top of one another and give each other baths, they tumble around and do summersaults, I am not sure if they are boys or girls but if one is a girl and the other a boy I will name them Jack and Jill. I am sure they will be very intertaining.

As I said before kathy and I drove to Copala and stopped along the way at nurserys and pottery stands. I am always amazed at how cheap stuff is here and that includes plants, seriously we get ripped of on everything at home. I noticed this is California already that food was so much cheaper but then they grow a lot of our food and it has to be shipped. I think us Canadian need to learn to be more industrous and start try to feed ourselves, like for example lettuce, I saw fields and fields of lettuce, could we not grow something as simple as lettuce, if it grows in my garden we should be able to grow it commercially....am I wrong? And so it should be with plants, I bought 2 huge drapping hanging plants, they already drape about 5 feet down for 50 pesos a piece, pointsettas for 65...thats just under $5.00 (although I think something happened with our dollars in the last few days...I should check on that) Anyway, between the 2 of us we had the back of a Chevy S10 full of plants, they had to give us our own boat to cross, we nearly filled a boat. My half of the boat full only cost me about $55.00 or so. I've been gathering horse manure from the road behind me to mix in my pots with the sand. As soon as I set out the the vine with the bright red flowers I had a Hummingbird, so.....off to the mainland again and bought a Hummingbird feeder, bird is still flying around but hasn't found my feeder yet.
I love growing stuff and can't seem to even think of living somewhere for even a short period of time without growing something. The nurserys that we visited didn't have any vegetable plants so I saved some seeds from a cucumber and from some grapes and planted them in a pot. Another friend stopped by and gave me some dill seeds and then I found some Camomile seeds as well. So that is my garden for now, but I will keep my eyes open for some more vegetable plants or seeds. Trying to do my part to feed myself.

Had some friends over for lunch a few days ago (Saturday) and so I had to hunt around for shrimp and scallops and bacon (time consuming man) I decide to fry them outside and so I haul my hotplate out and amzingly right above it is the plug from the end of a string of Chritmas lights that I had hung around my palapa. So I plug it in there and BISSSSSST! and my lights are out, as I am standing there rubbing head (this is what I do when I am thinking) I notice that all my lights are out, even in the house....oh dear, did I blow everything up. Nope it wasn't me, the whole Island is out. Ok...so I fire the big BBQ up and we still had a fine shrimp fry and a great visit. A tray of fresh homemade buns were also left behind for me and since my friend travels around with Dillweed seeds in her pocket I also got some Dill seeds for my garden...should have Dill by New Years. (maybe) Another great evening, power was out until 9 pm and it was very very dark here....need to get more candles next time I am in.

Yesterday I went to Casa Damasco for the first time to visit, I cannot volunteer but I can visit and visit I did. There were soem different faces and a few missing faces which is always sad. My visit was awesome, the place was very clean, I was impressed. Or maybe I can now look beyond the dirt and just see the people (I struggled with that last time) I did have some gagging reflexes and had to back off a bit a few times, something I really need to pray about (again). Amazing how God sends angels to the right place at the right time, there is a young local lady (about 24) volunteering there and she can handle it all and with a smile and a sense of humor, I sure do admire her, do not know what her story is or how she got there but she was sent....you can tell. We call her Angel. I got a ride to the docks with some friends and on the way we talked about the financial injustice that happens all over the world. How some people retire in 3000-5000 square feet homes and others have the space of a roll up foam pad on the floor with his neighbour being 1 foot away on his foam pad. It's a doom and gloomy subject and people don't like to talk about it because " what can you do about it anyway" seems to be the reaction, but when you see it day in and day out you can't help but think about it. This place relies on donations for food, we fed 24 people on Monday. Donations do not come in as a set amount on a set day, they come in as people donate, so they never know how much money they will have or if they will have any. Us north Americans are here for a time and we do what we can while we are here but we do leave, we come and go...because we can. Most of the people at that house can not come and go, this is their last home before they pass on. There is a part of me that always says "don't go back there, it's too hopeless" when I leave but there is an other part that always says "you can't not go back".

Here is an update on my shower, I have a shower...yeah! I have hot water...yeah! I have no lights:(
oh well...poco o poco (little by little)

December 02/09

Laundry day came and went yesterday, once again I found it to be a very relaxing experience, it is such a sense of accomplishment when it is all back in the house washed, dryed and folded. It also smells so good, a mixture of the wind and the sea and I do tend to go a Mexican with the fabric softener as well. I met a Mexican man once that told me that most men work mainly to keep fabric softener in the house......they looooove fabric softener.
Another thing that they love are Emperador cookies, tea is always had with cookies here. The cookies are nothing special, we have them at home as well, I believe the same cookie but with a different name.....I can't remember the name, rarely rarely would I ever buy cookies at home, but for some reason as soon as I get here I have to buy them to have with tea. They are just the plain regular cookies with icing in between, usually available in chocolate, vanilla or maple..like the Oreo cookie. They only come in a package of 8 here (like everything else, no big packages) which is a good thing for me. I ate a whole package yesterday, just because it had been 10 months since I had any. Don't really have an excuss for the package I ate today, I'll think of one for tomorrow's.
Did I mention I am right next to the RV park? ok....I'm right next to the RV park and they got 4 more campers today, 2 with Alberta plates, haven't meet them yet. The manager told me I could use their library anytime I wanted, I will sure will check it out yet. I'm pretty well set for books for a bit yet. I'm reading "The Silver Chalice" by Thomas B. Costain, lately I've been into books writen by people that have long been dead. Just finished reading "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy, I was surprised that I really got into it, I had always thought Mr Tolstoy was just for people with an ancient literature degree, turns out he was just as normal as anyone.....and a good writer, I really liked it and will keep my eye open for more of his books.
Today was fairly unevenful, I just sat around and cranked my neck this way and that way spying on all my neighbours and all the traffic going by. Dud in the trailer park came with his jeep and loaded up his tree stump and took it home to work on, hope I get to see his finsihed art. There were horses running all over the place today, I have no idea why they are so busy galloping by here. Cowboy with the mare and little foal were heading home down the beach when I went for my daily sunset walk and he hasn't slowed down yet and the poor little guy was way behind and crying again, am I am going to have to have a talk with the dud? And the funniest thing this morning, a horse pulling a wagon with a guy on it wearing a cowboy hat and a cowboy shirt unbuttoned all the way with shirt tail flapping in the wind, barefoot in sandels, galloping by at top speed and he was holding a surf board....a long board, a cowboy surfer?.....and what was the rush?
I managed to score a few coconuts which will be great in my morning fruit smoothie, but I don't have a macheti yet so I might have to flag down a cowboy tomorrow morning to open one.
I still don't have a shower in my bathroom, I have 3 toilets and 2 sinks but no shower, Nina was going to have someone come manana, and then they were supposed to come manana and they have still not come. Today her cousin came to check on me and was surprised that I still didn't have a shower, he said he would take care of it......manana.
I thought I made a video today for you all, I thought I did pretty good walking around my little casita, I even narrarated it really nice but when  I went to view it I couldn't find it on my camera....I guess I was just walking around talking to my camera with nothing being recorded. I really should read that big fat book that came the camera some day.
The guy with shrimp truck came by today, I am having friends over for a big shrimp fry on my outdoor stone BBQ on Saturday so I didn't buy any today because I want them to be fresh. Hope he comes by again Friday ro Saturday morning otherwise I have to go hunting for him, I might buy some scallops as well....hope my scallop guy hasn't moved from last year.
It looked like there were lots of tourists here today, lots of horseback riders anyway and a lot of people out in banana boats this afternoon. Cruise ships have been coming in a little more regularly now since the HINI scare has settled down a little. I guess business had been pretty skimpy here for awhile, first the reccession scare and then the flu scare really hurt things here. Ahhh but they can't scare me away! I'm here for the cookies!

A weird day

This morning started off like every morning will...I hope. A beautiful sunrise, me having coffee in my sunporch waiting for Salvador (fruit/grocery guy), I planned on having eggs and toast for my second breakfast. Because I get up so freakishly early I have to have 2 breakfast, the first one is usally just fruit and yogurt, the second one required something more substanial, like eggs and toast. Aside from having fruit and vegetables Salvador also has other nessessities like eggs, bread, beans, rice salt, tostadas, corn husks, and sugar. I really never have any need of going to the grocery store excpet for creama and coffee and meat. He arrives right on time and I get my eggs and bread and as I am frying up my eggs it starts to rain...seriously, unheard of this time of year. It rained for a bit and then stopped for a bit and then it poured for a few hours. As I sat under my palapa (it does keep the rain out) I watched as 3 guys were fishing with a net,(Peter, James,and John?) I've seen them out there before, it is pouring rain and they are in the water up to their necks dragging their net in and out, I would have stayed home but they were very faithful fisherman. Not sure how bountiful the catch was. The horseman came with his horses but he must have been sent home for lack of tourists, it didn't take long and he was heading back, little guy was still galloping alongside. During this pouring rain I decided a hot cup of tea would be nice and then found out I had no electricity, I just can't seem to have all my utilities working at once, so I fired up my nice BBQ and kept a fire long enough to heat up a cup of water for tea. I am reading a book a friend gave me on Sunday called "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer/Annie Barrows, not a book I would have picked up but it has kept me intertained all day, I'm almost done. Every once in awhile I have to jump up and see whats going on, horses going by, 2 duds on a motorbike with a young horse on a lead rope running alongside, I was going to go to the store for cheese and tortillas (Salvador does not have cheese and tortillas) but the road is a mucky mess from the rain and I don't have rubber boots or any shoes other then flip flops, then I see a guy walking by barefoot, when you don't have the right footwear wear none I guess. I stayed home, I'm too busy spying on the guy living across from me (kind of kitty corner form me ) he has his door open and is sitting in front of the doorway painting a pictures, he probably has no electricity like me and has to sit in the doorway for light. I decide I must meet him and see what he is painting, but not today in the rain. I am not the only one that keeps busy with weird activities, there is a guy from the trailer park who has found a big tree stump that must have been uprooted during the storm, it's about 6 feet tall and is all narly and has many cervices and knots in it and he sees that it can be a work of art so he works on it with a chisle and pick getting the ants out of it, can't have ant in your art. There is a restraunt up the beach that has an old worn out ugly sign and he feels that once he has this tree trunk looking all fancy and artsy he will donate it to them and they can put a new sign on it. So, you see we are all very busy being busy bodies.

The rain has stopped and the sun is peeking out once in awhile, might even have a nice sunset and the electricity is back on, painter guy has shut the door to his house, and I will go and find some supper before it gets dark and I have to stumble around in the puddles. Stay tuned for an exciting Tuesday....laundry day. I hope I still have water tomorrow because it has to be laundry day, I'm looking forward to using my fancy laundry facilities.
A little side note; my pictures are scattered all over because I can't seem to figure out how it is supposed to be done, I had this problem last year as well and never did figure it out. I also can't figure out how to put captions under them.

First night in the little casita by the sea

November 29th (I think)

Turns out I live on pony lane, in front of my house is the ocean and behind my house runs a road alongside the coconut plantation. Somewhere down this road I believe live all the people that have horses. They are constanly galloping by my house and as my friend Kathy pointed out to me they leave a lot of fertilizer behind (horse poo), the composting guru that I am I plan on scooping up some to add to my plants that I plan on buying soon. I figure it's so hot here it will compost in days. I must have a garden, I just can't live somewhere and not grow stuff. I plan on doing the scooping after it's dark out because the locals will think I am completly loco if they catch me out on the road picking up horse manure. So tonight I went out there with my shovel in the dark and guess what...it's dark, I can't see a thing, need to buy a flashlight. I have a candle but the wind kept blowing it out. People often ask me "what do you do all day there" they have no idea how busy I am and I really can't explain it, don't really want either, they might think I'm loco too. Anyway.......I was going to tell a sad horse story.....There is a man who rents out his horses on the beach to tourists for trailriding and every morning he brings his horses in from somewhere up my road. He has them all tied up together and comes galloping up the beach really fast with them and one of the mares has a little foal (cutest little thing) the foal is not tied up, he just runs along side but he always stays behind and the dud does not slow down or look back to see if the little guy is still there, poor little guy just running and trying to keep up. Today at 3:30 (same time everyday) dud goes home with his horse, just at my house he makes a turn into the plantation but the little guy is so far behind he goes straight instead of turning. After awhile I can hear him crying (neighing) and he comes back, confused, he turns, going in the right direction now but soon comes back when he can't see them ahead, he's just crying in such a panicky tone, my heart was breaking for him. He went left and right but kept coming back and crying and crying. He raced back onto the beach and just turned in circles for awhile and then came back and just circled around the corner and crying. Dud must have been all the way home before he realized he was missing the foal, it was about 40 minutes when he came back on his horse with the mare in tow, poor little guy was so happy to see them and finally go home. I sure hope dud slows down from now on. These are the things that keep me occupied all day. Since hurrincan Rick came to visit everyone is rebuilding palapas and the palm branches are being hauled out of the plantations, all day long wagon pulled by horses drive by my house, piled so high with palm branches sometimes you can't even see the driver, pickup trucks full as well. These guys know how to load up a truck or wagon to the max.

I spend the first night in my house and aside from a midnight visit to the bathroom it was pretty uneventful. I had taken all percautions to make sure I didn't have any creepy crawlys in the house.Nina had sprayed some stuff to kill off any bugs they have and I had chalked out all the holes the house to keep out cockroaches. They have a chalk here that cockroaches don't like, if you draw a line with it they will not cross over the line (so I am told) Must work, I have not had a single roach in my house but I forgot all about my bathroom. At 1 am I had to go to the bathroom and so I wander on over there and open the door and the place was swarming with roaches.....all sizes, unbelievable. So back to the house for my spray and sprayed the bathroom and as soon as I could see they were getting drunkin-like I took a broom and swept them out. Today I chalked the door way and any little holes. Will be keeping on top of the chalking from now on. I have geckos and iguanas running around all over the place and I don't mind them because I know they are harmless but at night when it is dark I assume every little scurrying sound is a rat, keeps me on edge a bit. The last bit of my evening was spent just sitting and thinking of how thankful I am to God for everything, it is truely due to Him that I am here and I must never forget that the more I yield to Him the more amazing my life will be and in turn I will not be able to help it but praise and worship Him, and I pray that this will spill out to my nieghbours and everyone around me. Once again I got a lesson this morning in the Spanish service on praise and worship.

My little casita by the sea

November 26, 2009

2 years ago when I was here I found a beautiful little house on the beach, the house is nothing fancy and really not beautiful, it is the yard that is so beautiful and it’s location. The house is just a little square brick building, one room. The toilet and shower are in a separate little building just off to the side of the house and an outdoor laundry area as is common in the Mexican homes. In the past there has always been someone living in it but this year it was empty and I felt it should be mine. Unfortunately hurricane Rick gave it a little beating a few weeks ago and the yard is a mess. It had palapas that came halfway down the beach and beautiful vines, plants and trees and those have all been ripped out and all the debris is scattered all over. The lady that owns it, who happens to be a friend of mine (I rented a place from here last year as well) told me she would have it ready in a week but all week I did not see any work being done there. Meanwhile everyone on the Island has heard that I am back and has a place to rent or knows someone who has. I did go and look at a few house and found some very awesome little houses for rent, all within my budget, I didn’t even look at anything that was not within my budget. All the houses that I looked at were nicer then mine but the yards were not nearly as nice, some had no yard. When my North American friends see the nice little houses I turned down they will think I am crazy but to me the yard and the view is worth more to me. Yesterday when I went for my 4 pm walk on the beach and stopped at my house and finally saw some work being done there. I quickly picked up a rake and helped rake up all the garbage. When we had a few piles made we set them on fire (don’t need permits) She got the inside of the house cleaned and has promised to come back tomorrow to clean the bathroom, which I can clean myself if she doesn’t come back. The yard is a project that will take longer. I told her I can pick away at it while I life there as well. It is a bit yucky though because when you have piles of dried palm trees and old rotting wood laying around here you get rats and all kinds of creepy crawly things living in there. (BIG creepy crawly things) So, there may well be a bon fire every night at my house for the next week or so. I will be slowly moving in over the course of the next few days here. Tomorrow I will go get my things that I have in storage here and see what I have. It’s been 2 years since I put it in storage and I can’t remember what all I have, it will be like Christmas for me. Then I will make a list of things I need and head to the mainland and do some shopping (not my favourite thing to do) I do know I need to buy some lights, the little place is not lit up very well. I also want some plants, a Poinsettia or 2 is a must....there are so cheap here. A friend already lent me hammock which is the key piece of furniture. As we were working out there last night the sunset put on a very colourful show for us and I knew I had made the right choice.

November 29, 2009

This morning I went to get my things that I had stored and moved into my little casita on the beach. Shortly after getting there I discovered that I didn’t have water, what the heck? Had water yesterday. My water is pumped in from a well, I have a pump house and was shown how to turn the pump on and off, it was supposed to be as easy as flicking the switch on and off. The pump burrs and makes noise but no water. So I shut it off and plan on going to find Nina, but first I have unpacking to do and organizing...so exciting. I had gone shopping yesterday in Mazatlan for some supplies. I bought a twin sheet set for 210 pesos, a bath towel for 49 pesos, a twin sleeping bag for 87 pesos (yup that’s under $8)a thick blanket for 79 pesos, these were the big items. I also picked up some smaller stuff like candles and a BBQ lighter, bath mat and such. I organized my little place as best as I could without water, all my stuff that was in storage needs to be washed. Salvador (my fruit and vegetable guy) came by around 9 ish. I had run into him last night at one of the restaurants and had asked him what time he would be by. He drives the same route everyday and does pretty well at staying on schedule. I also caught the water guy this morning; I will be boiling my drinking water but...no water today, so I bought some even though I am against buying water. It hurts me to buy water, even though it only cost me 12 pesos. The water guy was so sweet and had fun with my Spanish; it took me a bit to understand that you can only buy as many jugs as you are returning. I did eventually get that and then remembered that I had gone through that whole ordeal last year only then I didn’t have a jug to return so I could not buy a jug. Luckily for me there was an empty jug in this house that I could return to him. How does one get started when you first move here if someone didn’t leave a jug behind for you, and people wonder why it pains me to buy water. Then I wandered over to get some lunch, a big tuna sandwich and then Kathy came to visit and drop of borrowed water dispenser and some duct tape to tape plastic around my mattress (just in case of creepy critters) then we chatted away the afternoon. I wandered over to the RV Park and met some wonderful fellow Canadian and a nice couple from Quebec  and for a small fee got set up with internet. So for the next few hours I sat under my palapa and updated my blog site as I watched 2 guys do some kind of kite surfing in the ocean....life was great, then I lost the internet connection, just as my pictures were being uploaded....dirty dog! Just then my friend Lydia (missionary with the La Vina ) called and told me she was on the Island and could I met her to give her a book I had brought from Canada for her. The book is “The beautiful side of Evil” by Johanna Michaelsen, very good book on how the evil spirit can disguise himself. The author grew up in Mexico and writes of her experiences of being deceived by the evil one. The things she writes about remind me a lot of things that I see here in the Island. Despite all the darkness here there is hope, today a 12 year old kid came to Lydia and asked to be put into a drug rehab facility. Another kid (these 2 boys were friends) was put into this same facilities 2 weeks ago, he had been there in the past and had run away, had also run away from an orphanage that Lydia had put him in so we just have to pray that this time God will get a hold of these boys. So my day went on and I never did go talk to Nina about my water...oh well, manana. I just finished watching the sunset over the ocean and now have to go over to Miguel’s restaurant and get some supper. Since Miguel’s is just around the corner from my house I’m sure we will get to be good friends. Yesterday I had enchiladas that were awesome, not sure what I’ll try today..