After receiving multiple emails about some baby kittens on the island in the center of Vallarta, Steve and I went down early one morning with a carrier to look for them. We managed to catch one tiny black one who was so hungry. We think we know who the mother is but she must have stopped feeding him. One of our friends who fosters kittens took her, and we just need to find the others.
There have been plenty of others all over our island. During the July clinic, we had two young cats wander into our clinic and were very friendly and social. We decided to do the surgery on them as one of our volunteers agreed to foster them until they could be adopted. They were so friendly, it was apparent that they had been with humans and had been dumped. They just wanted attention. We seem to be in continual “kitten season,” and so many are dumped on the island.
The first week of June, I had one last-minute conference request for the season in Pittsburg. The temp staff gave me so much information about their city, but I never got to see any of it apart from large windows in the conference center. Early one morning, there was the rising sun shining on a bridge close to the center, so I captured the moment before getting busy with conference attendees.
On my flight back from Pittsburg, I decided I was definitely ready to go home and stay awhile. I’d done 7 week-long conferences in 9 months, plus I’d arranged social events for 3 other meetings. Although I love the onsite work, that many weren’t quite what I’d intended for retirement. Now that I’m back I’ve been trying to cut back some on the additional social events too. I need my space!
When I returned, I decided to learn how to put together photos with music and worked on a video for the Cuale Clinic. I’d read about some software that was easy to use so I started with that one, only to find out that it wouldn’t allow me to save it in a format for Facebook. I downloaded another software package and went to work again. The time consuming task of finding and selecting the photos had already been done so it didn’t take as long. The video has now been on Facebook for a week and is proving very popular. If you’d like to check it out, the link is https://www.facebook.com/cualespayneuterclinics/
Stef and the boys visited for a week this month, and while we tried not to get too booked with tours, we still were crazy busy. We had lunch on the beach most days, and one of their highlights was a full red snapper for both Fynn and Lake. They ate quite a bit of it but couldn’t quite manage the whole thing. It was fun to see their expressions when the fish arrived with head and tail intact.
We also managed to swim and snorkel on most days. We spent one afternoon on La Playita’s beach, and another day we went on a boat with some friends and spent the whole day site seeing, swimming, snorkeling and again – eating on the beach! We also had a swim with sea lions, which the boys voted better than swimming with the dolphins the year before. By the last day, everyone was exhausted, so we relaxed by the pool; went to a little typical Mexican restaurant in the old town. The boys had bacon wrapped shrimp tacos for lunch – not on the menu, but they are made especially when requested. We then wandered down to the beach to have frozen yogurt.
Steve and I are now planning some smaller trips around Mexico during the next couple of months. We’ve explored the Gulf Coast of Mexico, but we want to visit some of the western coast and some areas to the south. Our trip to Copper Canyon was just the beginning and sparked our interest in exploring more of Mexico. Our first short excursion is next week to Mascota, Talpa and San Sebastion, all very small traditional villages.
Summer has settled in here in Vallarta with temperatures in the mid to high eighties and humidity about the same. When you have a day of 88° F in temperature and 85 percent humidity, it makes for a very sticky day. We have what we call two shower and three shower days. You can tell what the temperature and humidity are by the number of showers you need to take, although you never really get dried off.
Everyone enjoy the rest of your summer and hope you are keeping cool. For those of you in the southern hemisphere, stay warm!
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