Life is a Crazy Fun-filled Ride

Life the past few weeks

The last few weeks have left me feeling a bit like the little guy to the right as I’ve been running between charity events. There’s so much going on in PV for instance more fashion shows, trips to the cat shelter and various other events. All of the charity organizations are cramming in as many fund-raisers as they can before the “seasonal” people (ones who stay short term) go back to their thawing frozen tundra.

Following the PURR fashion show, a sinus infection knocked me flat for several days so I spent my time lying on the sofa with a warm sinus pack over my face. Steve bought me some penicillin from the farmacia, and I started it a few days in. Yes, you can buy it here without a prescription. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing but at that point, I didn’t really care. A few days later, I was recovering, but I had an allergic reaction to something. Maybe I had too much of a good thing? If it was the penicillin, it may have been a different quality than in the US.

Mis amigas - also my English students!

Still not fully recovered, I began volunteering as an English teacher for an organization, International Friendship Club, two afternoons a week. They offer free English language classes to locals who aren’t able to afford a school or a more formal classroom environment. My three students are at intermediate level, and they are the sweetest young ladies that you could ever hope to meet. Kharla owns ALAS Escuela de Canto, a dance and vocal school, and Esmeralda is a beautician. Hilda is a student at University and hopes to become a psychologist. I’m definitely not a teacher, and we’ve not had a curriculum or syllabus to follow, so it’s taken a great deal of work. Thanks to the Internet, I’ve found lots of resources that have helped tremendously. I’ve also found plenty of fun things because I like to break up the class time with a bit of entertainment. Some of the other teachers have also used these for their students. One of the “beginner level” teachers has asked me to adapt a board game that I downloaded for her students’ level. Sounds like a challenge.

Worth the climb to see this!

The first week of February we took an overnight trip to Yelapa, a small village on a beach just south of PV. The water taxi trip out to the village was wonderful, and the coastline scenery was beautiful although Steve didn’t get to see much of it. We were packed like sardines onto the boat and he was crowded into the middle. The water in the Yelapa bay is much clearer and is more turquoise than around PV. When we arrived, we realized that our hotel was just a few meters from the beach and our room was overlooking the rocks next to the pier. 

The village of Yelapa is a sleepy, tiny place with nothing but a few homes that we passed by as we hiked to the waterfall. The falls are beautiful and plunge into a pool at the base. You can swim in the pool, and a couple of people were brave enough to do so, but it looked freezing so we didn’t give it a try.

Our room with a view

While the view looking out from our window was spectacular with mountains behind the ocean waves, the surf continued to get stronger during the afternoon and evening. By the time we went to bed, the waves were enormous and crashed thunderously, so that we didn’t get much sleep. The following morning, the surf was still wildly pounding, so when it came time to board the water taxi, it turned out to be much like a James Bond stunt. You had to judge when the boat was going to raise or drop. Then you had to plan your drop into the boat at just the exact time. It provided a memorable experience!

Two of the quinceanñera princesses

The week before Valentine’s was spent working on various documents for the Corazón de Niña’s grand gala on the night of the 14th. I helped with the last minute organization of the auction items and getting the bid sheets put together and printing reserved table tent cards. The whole weekend from the 12^th through the morning of the 14^th was taken up with other last minute tasks. The theme of the gala was a “quinceañera” for three of the young ladies at Corazón. A quinceañera is a celebration for a girls 15^th birthday, but it’s more than just a birthday celebration. It is an elaborate fiesta with a special entrance and introduction/presentation to the guests, much like a coming out party. Each of the girls had “adopted godparents” (major donors) who funded their gowns, jewelry and the pampering before. The girls had elegant long ballgowns that they had made especially for them in their favorite color. A tiara completed their outfits.

Perfect finale

The gala was held outdoors overlooking the ocean with perfect temperature and very little breeze - it was wonderful. There was even a beautiful pink sunset to make the whole scene even more picture-perfect. The evening included dancing to a live band and fireworks. All of the children from the home got to attend and have dinner with the guests and watch their “sisters” celebrate their special day.

Coming up for some air

A couple of weeks ago, we shared a whale watching excursion with some of our friends. Due to the el niño the water in the bay is too warm for the whales to have their babies, which is the reason they normally travel to Bandaras Bay. We had to travel an hour towards the mouth of the bay before spotting our first whales of the trip. We saw several whales that day as well as some sea turtles and a manta ray that rode alongside our boat for a little distance. We also found a pod of small dolphins that we followed and cruised beside them while they jumped and played. Our guide, a marine biologist, filled us in with numerous facts about the whales that we’d never heard before. It was a fascinating trip.

Waving goodbye to us

Other activities that have been filling our time are helping Esmeralda get business cards and flyers designed. Steve designed a business card for her that she fell in love with so now we need to get the flyer done. I’ve also been recommending her to most of my ex-pat friends. Kharla has been judging The Voice here in PV. It’s run very professionally and since Kharla was performing the final number on Sunday night, we went along to support her. She has such an amazing voice and it was fun listening to her critique the contestants in Spanish.

We are gearing up for a very busy March as it’s when the peak tourist season ends. We are expecting most of the seasonal people will leave before Easter.

We Started 2016 Off With a Bang!

Christmas crackers without poppers

A belated Happy New Year! Is there a more overused cliché than “where did the time go”? It’s probably up there at the top of the most over-used list. But, seriously! We are already two weeks into 2016! Our December was hectic and went by quickly but we finished with a quiet Christmas and New Years. Christmas Day was beautiful weather, so we ate our traditional Christmas turkey dinner out on the balcony overlooking the bay, complete with British homemade crackers. These were without poppers, as I don’t think those exist in PV. At least, we had the ambiance of having the crackers. 

Fireworks and lanterns viewed from our balcony

On New Year’s Eve, after sharing a meal with a lovely Mexican couple that we’d just met while waiting in the queue at the restaurant, we went home to watch the fabulous fireworks from our balcony.  In addition to several displays all over the bay, people were sending up lots of lanterns. The display provided by the city was spectacular and stretched to a bit longer than 30 minutes, which was longer than the one on Independence Day. It was all rather breath-taking!

2016 has started off incredibly busy with charity events. Corazón de Niña, a charity that we visited in December and decided to become involved with is in need of some help organizing tours of their home. It’s a children’s shelter for abused and neglected children, and it’s such an amazing safe shelter for 40 kids. I agreed to help get their weekly tours organized as these are used to help get donors. Steve has rescued several of their laptops that weren’t working and has fixed software issues as well as installing new keyboards on all of them. He’s finding it a challenge to work on the software installations only in Spanish! I think he needs the challenge!! He’s now spent the last couple of days at the home sorting out other computer issues so his technical Spanish should be improving.

Happy winner of my donated bracelet

ThePURR Project, a no-kill shelter for cats, is another charity that we are actively involved with. You probably saw the photos in my last post of 150+ cats at the shelter all being fed treats at the same time. This week we had a fashion show as one of the major fund-raisers for the year, and I got to participate as one of the models. There were fittings and emails and all sorts of communication throughout December and the first few days of January. But I got to try on lots of new clothes, so it was fun. The week leading up to the event was crazy, and I learned a couple of days before the event that my trousers and tops that I was to provide were changed from white capris to long white trousers, and I also had to add black trousers. Then my list grew again with the addition of both white and black tops. It was a bit of a last minute scramble to get the exact items that I needed. I also agreed to provide a rhinestone and leather bracelet that I’d made as a raffle prize. I’d sent two photos of entirely different bracelets along with descriptions to the organizer so that she could choose which one she wanted as a raffle prize. She got the descriptions mixed up and printed the wrong one in the program. I scrambled the night before making sure that I had both available along with everything that went with them.

I can do a little more that this

We’ve recently begun our Spanish lessons again after having a break over the holidays. I’ve been trying to speak Spanish to people in shops and stores, and I know that I’m murdering their language, but at least, I’m trying! A week ago I had to do some unique shopping, meaning not the usual food or clothes shopping. I had to get some photocopying done for Corazón, plus purchases from a fabric store, and a beading store. It meant that I had to ask for things and interact with store clerks and not just point. I wanted to buy some amethyst bead chips but didn’t know what the word was in Spanish, so I asked the girl for purple chips. She didn’t have what I wanted but she was able to understand what I wanted. I also had to understand when the clerks told me the cost. The supermarkets have digital displays that tell you how much you have to pay, but fabric and bead stores and even smaller stores like the one that sells batteries don’t have them, so you have to listen for the amount. While standing in a long queue at the fabric store, I listened as the clerk told each customer how much their bill was to see if I could understand. Numbers are one of my (many) downfalls, and when the clerks rattle them off so quickly, it’s even more difficult to grasp what they are saying. I was so excited when I was able to understand most of the amounts and especially the total of my purchases. I was even more excited to be able to tell Steve when I got home that from the time that I'd left and completed all of my errands and returned, I didn’t speak one word of English! I know it’s not much but I was excited anyway!! I’ve asked our teacher to work on numbers in our Spanish class on Thursday because I need a lot more practice.

So beautiful!

Saturday, we went to the theater here in PV to watch live streaming of The Nutcracker and it was amazing. I wasn't sure that I wanted to see it on a screen but we got to see the dancers up close and watch the expressions on their faces. It was just beyond beautiful.

Downtown is full of tourists as we are in the peak of the “high season”. It’s so good to see all of the shops busy as this is when they can make their income for most of the year. Is it the beautiful weather we've been having, or maybe the great exchange rate between the dollar and peso is helping tourism, as Mexico is now ranked as one of the best vacation spots in the world. Perhaps this is a good time for you to plan a visit to Puerto Vallarta? Do these pictures entice you to visit Paradise?

Moon from our balcony

Just before sunrise - again from balcony

Feliz Navidad

Thanksgiving for us this year was dinner with a few friends in a tiny Mexican restaurant, and although the weather forecast looked promising, it started to rain that afternoon. So we had Thanksgiving dinner on the beach in the rain. The owner of the restaurant did his best to make sure the last-minute cover that he put up kept us reasonably dry. He also did an outstanding job with providing a traditional meal of turkey, stuffing and potatoes with gravy. 

Guadalupe float

Food stands in main plaza

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the 12-day festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This festival seems to be more important than Christmas for most Mexicans and it has just finished. Every day is filled with parties, and there’s always a copious amount of food. People from PV and surrounding villages form groups, whether from church, school or work and walk in processions through town in the evenings ending at the Guadalupe Cathedral.
The main plaza next to the church was jam-packed with stands offering food; there’s music and dancing and, of course, numerous fireworks. At 9.00pm, the church bells ring continuously for about 15 minutes and the people who had formed the processions go into the cathedral for blessings and a service. Everything culminates around that time, so there’s music and lots of other noises all happening at once. We only attended two of the nights as it’s a complete assault to the senses!

Pork Pastor tacos

Trying out the cheek cabeza taco

Another staple of Mexican life in PV is the taco stand. There is one positioned on nearly every corner. Recently one evening, we decided to take a walking tour where we ate at six different street taco stands, had churros (fried dough) at another and then finished it off with a glass of raicilla, a homegrown version of tequila or mescal (Jalisco’s version of moonshine). This provided us with a real flavor of Puerto Vallarta. The tacos here in Mexico generally use a type of corn flour, and are soft -nothing like the hard shells that are found in the US. Our tastings consisted of fillings ranging from red snapper and marlin to pork and beef. Steve was much more courageous than I and tried the cheek and tongue cabeza (from the head of a cow). Most of the locals eat at a taco stand a few times a week, and they all have their favorites. It’s considered some of the best food in PV. It took me a bit to get past my concern over possible cleanliness issues but now that I have, I have to agree that the food is excellent!

Yeah! Treat time!!

It’s beginning to feel as if we are now living here, rather than just being on an extended holiday. Our days are getting busier with a variety of activities, and it’s not just because of Christmas coming up. There are so many charity events, and the expat community is very social, so there’s always a lunch or dinner to attend. One of the charities that we will be supporting is a no-kill cat shelter, PURR Project, so we went on a tour of the “ranch” (1/2 acre) last week. There are 150+ cats at any one time, and when we arrived, they all came running because they know that visitors mean food! We each were given a small bag of treats to give out as we wanted. It was tough leaving without taking one or more back with us but we knew that our two wouldn’t tolerate a feline addition to our family.

Visiting the nursery

Love this little one-eyed wonder

PURR has several fund raising events, one of which is a luau on the beach that was held last Friday evening. Unfortunately, the rain gods decided to spice up their evening by making us their entertainment. It rained cats and dogs the whole evening (pun intended). People huddled under palapas, but they didn’t keep out much of the rain, especially if you were near the edge as I was. We didn’t get to watch the dancers that were planned, but it was still a fun evening and one that will be remembered for a long time. Come to think of it, eating on the beach in the rain seems to have become a theme for us. The next big fundraiser will be a fashion show in January, in which I will be participating. The best part is that I get to try on a lot of new clothes. Please let the weather be dry that day as part of it is being held outdoors.

Adding the toppings

Perfection -- and happy chef!

Steve has been honing his bread making skills and is, of course, approaching it very scientifically. This means that more days than not, we have a lump of dough on the counter or proving somewhere under cover. I do have to laugh at his use of a cooking thermometer inserted into dough and experimenting with proving times, temperatures, and amount of yeast, etc. He’s happy and our home constantly smells like freshly baked bread, which would be great except just the smell makes me gain 20 pounds. He’s still making pizza and we recently had friends over for a pizza night where he tried out a couple of new toppings. Each pizza was a big hit and he has already had requests for a repeat performance.

So, it’s now only a few days left ‘til Christmas and this one is going to be a bit different. We’ve spent Christmases in tropical locations before but, this is now our new “normal”; so it’s good bye to the cold and sometimes snow. Doesn't mean we won't visit cold and snow in the future but for now we are happy in the tropics. The stores here are filled with all of the Christmas decorations you could ever want but the little snowmen kind of don’t fit in. Rather than shopping for presents, we’ve had to either transfer money to a bank account or order gift cards. Where’s the fun in that? There won’t be any lovely Christmas cards to open this year as all those also have to be electronic. Any that were sent will probably arrive sometime next spring, if at all. We are having a friend come over for Christmas dinner and we’ll have a lovely day but it will be a quiet one. That’s not to say that it won’t be menos que maravilloso navidad (less than wonderful), it’s just going to be different.

I hope everyone has a happy holiday and enjoy your time with those you love! 

Wishing you peace, joy and love!

Deseándoles paz, alegría y amor!