December slipped by so quickly, we hardly had time breathe! There were, even more, pre-Christmas parties than last year, and then Christmas day on the beach. A week-long visit from Steffanie and our two grandsons, Lake (13) and Fynn (8) followed these festivities.
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| Selling raffle tickets - winner! |
There was the PuRR Project Luau on the beach the 2nd
week of December. An annual event that last year experienced a torrential
downpour. Everyone huddled under the palapas – not that they helped. I remember
water pouring down my back during the whole thing. This year, the weather
couldn’t have been more perfect, and supporters filled the beach while enjoying
the BBQ pork, plus all of the fixings. I was selling raffle tickets, and when
sales started to slow down, I started a competition with a friend who was also
selling tickets. Guests thought there was a prize for the winner of the most
ticket sales and the MC , so we managed to sell more tickets than ever before. There was no
prize, but it was a lot of fun and generated more ticket sales, meaning more pesos
for the kitties.
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| albóndigas – so yummy! |
We had a pre-Christmas party hosted by one of our
friends and then Christmas Eve brought us to a Mexican friend’s house where we
had a potluck dinner. She made us the "best ever" meatballs (albóndigas). Christmas day, I fixed a traditional turkey dinner,
with stuffing and gravy and mashed potatoes. I just felt the need for a
traditional Christmas meal, and besides, I’m convinced, the stuffing has
something addictive in it. Our dinner was only two hours before a meet-up
dinner with friends on the beach at 4 pm. We were far too full to indulge in
the Mexican fare as we’d just finished our turkey dinner two hours earlier, but
we did enjoy the drinks and catching up with friends during this time.
A few days later, Steffanie (middle daughter) and
her two sons arrived for a whole week. And what a week it was! They had started
off the trip with a long wait in the airport before even boarding for PV, so we
took it easy the first day. Shopping for their fitted snorkeling gear
(Christmas present) and then lunch on the beach, followed by shopping in the
markets and then a test run in our pool with the new snorkeling gear.
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| Fynn with his sea turtle |
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| Lake with a dolphin |
Every day was filled with activities
such as whale watching – lots of whales and two of them were playing with some
dolphins; releasing baby sea turtles at sunset; massive fireworks all over
Banderas Bay from our balcony on New Year’s Eve (day2), a full Mexican brunch
on New Year’s day, followed by swimming and a first go at snorkeling off the
beach, resulting in a lot of scrapes due to rocks (day 3); zip lining down a
big mountain - the trek up was exhausting and it took 14 zip-lines to get
down!, followed by water slides (day 4); snorkeling in the bay and a dolphin
playing with us alongside our boat on the way back (day 5); and last full day
was swimming and playing with the dolphins up close and personal (day 6). We
had lunch on the beach each day so that the boys could swim in the waves while
waiting for their food and continue swimming after lunch. Restaurants here are
very lax about letting you stay at your beach-side table while the kids swim.
By evening, they were completely exhausted, as were we adults, so everyone
slept soundly!
Due to an incident at the PV airport, it was shut
down the afternoon the kids were scheduled to leave so their flight was 4 hours
late leaving PV. They missed their connecting flight in Dallas so spent the
night in the airport while waiting for another flight. They were scheduled much
later the following day, but Steff’s friend got them an earlier flight into
Washington, DC – not Baltimore. He picked them up, and they arrived home around
24 hours after they left. Not a happy ending but they didn’t care. They are
ready to come back!
Our schedules picked up after they left with weekend
commitments each day and Sunday being our Cuale Spay and Neuter Clinic. We keep
getting more and more animals (81-85), which is fantastic, but it means we have
a much longer day. This time, I had to be there at 7 am to meet a new
volunteer, and we didn’t leave until after 5 pm. It makes a very long and
tiring day when you are bending over animals taking vitals and then cleaning up
the area to make look as if we were never there.
This week is filled with Spanish lessons and getting
started with the English classes for the locals. Our teaching group is trying
something completely new this year, thanks to a couple of us taking the ESL
course in November. It’s taking a lot more organizing and time commitment, but we are hoping it will mean a much easier start to the actual classes next week.
I’m also the tour guide for the PuRR Project this Wednesday, so it means at
least a 4-5 hours of coordinating and then going on the tour. Can’t say that I
mind as I love spending time with the cats.
At the moment, I’m just looking forward to Saturday
and Sunday as I have nothing scheduled. A rare, and much-needed respite after
the crazy last few weeks. I want to leave you with two inspirational quotes and a wish for a very special and happy 2017!
