Mixed Bag of Emotions!

March into April has been a mixed bag of emotions. So many charity events continued in the first half of March which meant we attended various dinners and other activities. Finally, the day that we’d been eagerly awaiting arrived when Stef, my middle daughter, arrived for a week-long visit.

Steve and I ordered loads of things that we can’t get here in Mexico and had them sent to Stef the week before she left. We thought if she gets stopped in customs, we’d need to allow some extra time for her to come through. Our order was an entire selection of very weird stuff most jewelry making supplies and watercolor paints but we were nervous. I knew she could say these were for workshops while she was here. Steve ordered some electronic equipment for our hi-fi and some glue to mend one of his speakers. She had no real excuse for carrying either of those but she’s a resourceful girl so she could come up with something.

Of all the luck – she did get stopped by customs but after they thoroughly looked at the glue, she was passed through. This was after we spent more than 2 agonizing hours of waiting for her. Steve went to the Delta desk to ask why she hadn’t come though yet. He said that his daughter was on a flight and it had been 2 hours since the flight landed but she hadn’t come out yet. The lady at the desk was very concerned and sympathetic and wanted to help. She asked Steve what flight and how old his daughter was. He was so embarrassed when he had to admit that she’s in her forties so old enough to manage customs! Oh well, we just had to wait!

Stef finally arrived through the exit and we were on our way to a week filled with more than enough activities to fill 3 weeks. And then there’s still more to do when she comes back. We started off with Champaign on our balcony while watching the sunset. What a welcome!

Sunday, we walked into town and had lunch on the beach and then wandered old town where Stef was amazed at all of the little tiny shops who sell all sorts of things from t-shirts to absolutely anything you can imagine. Sunday night we had a light snack on our balcony because we’d had a large lunch. 

Monday morning we met Carlos on the pier – never saw him before but had talked to him on the phone but he found us. He has a boat that takes you out snorkeling which was one of Stef’s requests. Carlos took us out to los Arcos – 3 big rocks in the bay about a 45 minute boat ride where the snorkeling was fantastic!! We all 3 snorkeled until we were exhausted and then headed back all the while watching for sea turtles. We had lunch on the beach again before heading back to the condo to collapse for a couple of hours.

 Stef went into town on her own one day and ended up on the beach and she texted us that she would be out paddle boarding when we walked down to meet her. An hour later, she was completely exhausted so we replenished with yet another lunch on the beach – ceviche this time. This was pretty much the theme of the week – lunch on the beach with lots of margaritas and then a siesta.

I had to attend a final event for my English students Thursday afternoon so Stef went into town with me but went shopping in the surrounding local markets. The day before we’d found a shop that we loved and she wanted to go back. It was Steve’s fault that we spent so much time and money in there because he’s the one who pointed it out. It’s become one of my favorites now – I have a wonderful top and necklace from there.

It was so sad to see Stef go home, I wish she could have stayed longer but she was very anxious to get back to her two young sons. We are now just waiting for them to come down this summer.

 

 We had blocked all activities the week that Stef was here but the last half of March and first of April was again crazy with events and meetings. The PURR Project sponsored a spay and neuter clinic in the center of PV on the 3^rd of April. The first Sunday of every month, an animal group sponsors a free clinic to get pets (and street animals) spayed and neutered. The culture here is that they love their dogs – especially their male dogs, but they let them run loose and because they run the streets so there are a lot of street dogs. With cats, they let them run free too, so there are a lot of street cats and the island in the middle of the city has become a place to dump unwanted cats. This means that there are a lot of street dogs and cats that no one pays attention to. The animal organizations are trying to educate the locals that it’s wise to neuter them so there aren’t so many strays.

 

I took the early shift, it was the weekend of our day light savings time change so I was at the clinic location at 6.45 (this means that it was really 5.45am). Steve dropped me off with our 2 cat carriers and some boxes that would be used after the surgeries. The set up was major confusion to begin with because the coordinating vet forgot about the time change. By the time he arrived and we had the tents and tables set up (yes, it was outside and not exactly what you’d call clinic sterile), we had long lines of people with pets and I was trying to check them in and filling in forms in Spanish!!! Yikes!!!

Steve took the late shift to help clean up and take down the tents. Actually, I had the whole day there because there was a cat that I wanted to be sure his owner knew that he probably has a heart problem. I was exhausted – I can’t imagine what the vets were feeling. We processed nearly 50 animals!

Marilyn who never steps into a kitchen makes a chili relleno!

But just a couple of days later, I had a fun activity - a Mexican cooking class. There’s a lady who cooks traditional Mexican food who treated us to a cooking class in my condo. I invited friends from two of the charities that I’m involved in but they didn’t know each other. We had a great time and also had many comments on Face Book about one of the group who never goes into a kitchen. She actually made her own chili relleno.

Sadly, to wrap up, my father-in-law of 25 years passed away last week.  He was an amazing man who never knew his real mother or father, but was lucky to receive the love of a woman who took him in as a baby, and whose name he took when he reached adulthood. He raised 5 incredibly amazing children who are all independent individuals, living in 4 different countries. He achieved many things in his life and will be remembered for his love of racing (bikes and motor cars), his love of painting, his love of music but most of all his love for his children. Oh – and he had an incredibly wicked sense of humor (humour)! (Wicked for those of you not British, means that he loved a joke and especially a joke that made you feel silly!)

I'll miss you!

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