MISCELLANY

About Spanish and Other Matters

 

We are in the middle of the Festival of Our Lady of Peace, the patron of Bucerias.  As we have mentioned in previous years, this is quite an event, one of the central events of the year.  Those of you that have attended 4^th of July festivities in a small town like Beverly or Plain City have an inkling of this combination of street fair/vendors, performances, parades, and nightly 'peregrinaciones' to church.  Fireworks – especially the 'flaming' tower - mark the beginning and ending of this week-long event.  Oh, and let's not forget the blessing of the fishing boats.

 

It has been somewhat cooler than usual.  Daytime temperatures have yet to exceed 30c (86f) and have stayed generally about 25c (77f).  We have not even needed our fans.  We certainly are not complaining; nighttime has had almost perfect sleeping weather.  Mrs. T has commentary about that below.  Our many friends from Winnipeg and other places in the Canadian provinces are happy to be far from the -45c (-49f) temperatures; yes, that is below zero without the wind-chill.

 

We have settled into our normal grocery shopping, food prep, etc. that is everyday living.  And we continue to refine our condo with new art and kitchen implements.  Probably about time for another batch of cookies.

 

Mrs. T is getting involved in local activities as well as doing her weekly scuba diving.  Here is her take on some of the week's highlights.

 

I am taking a Spanish class at the Bucerias Bilingual Community Center.  "Use me gusta (I like) in three sentences," our teacher, Bobby said.

 

"Me gusta limonada," I replied, "Me gusta chocolate."

 

"Bueno, una mas," Bobby said.

 

My mind went blank, all Spanish nouns deserted me; suddenly an inspiration occurred.  "Me gusta mi esposo" (my husband) I said.

 

"No! No!" Bobby said "You would never say me gusta for your husband.  Me gusta is only for things you like all the time!  You know some days you like your husband and some days you don't".  (This is true but I wondered how Bobby knew!)  "For people you say quiero," he continued.

 

I went back to the condo.  I saw the little iguana who suns himself on the wall beside our condo.  "Hello, how are you today?" I asked him.  The iguana turned his head and looked at me.  "The iguana looked at me when I spoke to him, I think he likes me," I told my husband happily.

 

"He would look at you no matter what you said," Dan replied "Next time say I am going to shoot you and fry your a$$ for dinner, and he will still look at you!"  (Probably would taste like chicken.  dt)

 

Bobby was right, sometimes I like him (i.e., Mr. T – she likes the iguana all the time.) and sometimes I don't.

 

I am happy because I traded a painting I made with the pie man for 2 pies (one pecan and one apple).  He says he wants at least one more painting for his house.  Also the owner of Los Helechos, a nice Mexican restaurant, has told me he will trade me dinner for two for a painting if I have one he likes.  (I am trying to get her busy on this.  dt)

 

We bought a beautiful Huichol (local Indian tribe) beaded work. (Posted previously in the pictures.  dt)  It is about 3 ½ feet in diameter and is a portrayal of the sun and the moon, which represents marriage, the union of male and female, or the eclipse depending on who you ask.  (It contains a lot of other symbolism, much associated the indigenous culture.  dt)  The salesman at the store where we bought it said it took about 4 months to complete, and I can easily believe that.  He assured me that the work was made of the finest Czech glass beads.  Talk about authentic!  The Huichols are interesting because they still maintain their traditional life style in some villages in the mountains where some tribe members do not speak Spanish.  This is one of the tribes which use peyote on their vision quests.

 

Our neighbor, Diane, who is a great bargainer helped me buy a Mexican blanket that has a peacock woven into it.  This was necessary because the nights here have been unseasonably chilly and when Dan steals all the blankets I am reduced to hoping for a hot flash!  The peacock blanket matches our blinds so it worked out well.  I am not sure Dan is too enthused about the peacock blanket, but king-sized blankets are hard to find.

 

Diving this week was fantastic.  There were three snorkelers but I was the only diver.  Before we dived we cruised around to look for whales.  We found three, a mother, a baby, and one other.  When there is a baby they always travel in threes.  After we followed them a little while the baby started jumping.  I think he must have just learned to jump.  He jumped with a half turn, he jumped completely out of the water and then he jumped halfway out.  This seemed to be his repertoire which he then repeated several times.  Then he must have been tired because he swam normally for a little while before he started again.  His mother swam patiently beside him.  It seemed to me he was having a wonderful time.  (I am not sure Mrs. T knows whether this was a 'he' or 'she' baby.  dt)

 

Alex, the divemaster said he thought the baby was about 2 months old.  When whales are first born they do not know how to swim and the mothers swim under them pushing the baby to the surface to breathe and then taking them down a little way.  You could tell that our baby was way beyond that.  Alex said that where these whales were swimming was not too deep.  If young whales go too deep they cannot get back up and drown.  So you can tell how old they are by where they are swimming.  They are carefully guided to progressively deeper water as they get older.  All the time the whales are in Mexico they do not eat but live off stored fat, except the babies who nurse.

 

After seeing the whales we went diving.  Since I was the only diver it was like Alex was giving me a personally guided tour.  Also when there are fewer divers usually the more I see because the other divers don't scare things away.  That certainly was true this week.  We saw two gigantic sea turtles.  We saw several different kinds of eels.  We saw several octopi.  The best part was when we swam by the top of a seawall and looked down and saw every fish in the Pacific Ocean swimming right below us.  Alex said it was the best dive he had had all year and I felt the same way.

 

That evening we went to the fiesta.  The Fiesta celebrates the saint day for Our Lady of Peace who is the patrona for the local church.  The fiesta lasts for eight days, and has rides, fireworks, music, dancing, and fair food (especially chocolate-filled crepes, mmm!!!). 

 

We were trying to decide which street the first peregrination would go down.  (There are both civic parades and religious peregrinations.  dt)  Dan suggested I ask some older ladies who were sitting near the church.  I sat down and was talking to them.  Dan took a picture of us.  Immediately one of the older ladies said "Oh you are taking my picture."  She threw off her shawl and tugged down her blouse to show more cleavage.

 

"Don't do that with my husband, he's dangerous," I said. 

 

"In my life I could use a little danger!" she replied to general hilarity.  (Is this what they mean by cultural immersion?)

 

 

Soon we will post some new pictures to the usual spot.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157603660415941/

 

Time to watch some of the NFL playoffs.

 

Dan and Rebecca

 

http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/

 

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ARRIVAL

BUSY WEEK

 

Well, our first week has passed rather well.  As in the last few years, R's sister Rita came about the same time during her holiday break and was able to spend a week with us for a little r & r.  We think she had a good time and returned recharged.

 

The condo was in excellent shape when we arrived.  And once we restocked the fridge and pantry, we were basically relocated for our winter relocation.  Mrs. T provides a brief of our arrival:

 

 

Buenos Dias from sunny Mexico.  Getting here was a bit of a trip.  For the first time we went through Mexico City.  We got off at gate 19 and were directed to go to gate 10 where there was an information station with people who would tell us where to go (so to speak).  After a rather long wait for someone in immigration to take two seconds to stamp your passport (about the same in the US), we headed to gate 10.  From 19 to 10 would not be very far we thought.  Well we walked and we walked. "It sure is a long way between gates," Dan remarked.

 

"I just hope when we finally get there they don't send us back," I replied.  Sometimes it is a bad idea to put such thoughts into words.  When we arrived back at gate 17 Dan asked, "Do you think we need to check in again?"

 

"I don't think so since you did at gate 10," I responded.

 

After a few minutes watching other people check in, Dan decided to disregard my advice (fortunately!).  "We have one seat for you but you have to wait five or ten minutes until we get the other," he was told.  

 

We waited and waited.  "The flight is overbooked but we have asked for volunteers.  You may not get to sit together," the attendant reported. 

 

We waited some more.  People were starting to board.  "We have another seat but one of you will have to sit in first class, perhaps the lady," the attendant said.  Not wishing to offend, of course I agreed.  The flight to Puerto Vallarta was short and uneventful.  (I could hear Mrs. T having an animated discussion about scuba diving with her first class neighbor; I had a nice chat with my seat mate who does interior design for private jets. – dt)

 

After retrieving our luggage, we found all the ATMs at the airport were broken.  We had a bit of a delay obtaining a taxis, but at last a little tired, a little disheveled, and a little grumpy we arrived at our lovely condo in Bucerias.

 

I would have been willing to take a nap, but Dan pointed out I had slept almost ten hours on the various planes (Do you think I might have overdone it with the anxiety medication for the trip?) so we unpacked and got the things we left in storage out and arranged. (Our condo has lockable storage. – dt)  I did bring 48 pounds of stuff for the condo – you are allowed 50 so I don't know what Dan was grousing about – but it was mostly books and did not take long to arrange.  Dan got the computer up and running and all was well.

 

The next day my sister Rita joined us for a week.  We took Rita up to Sayulita, a little town up the coast.  It has lovely little art galleries and also a lot of surf shops.  Because of the geography Sayulita has a constant series of medium sized waves and a lot of people come there to surf.  As Rita and I were watching the surfers we both admitted that it was something we had always longed to try.

 

Dan has stated that when I am with Rita I act differently, perhaps less inhibited.  The next day Rita and I were hanging out at the beach near our condo.  We were watching a group of little boys boogey boarding.  Well surfing might be a bit beyond us, but boogey boarding surely was possible.  After all if these little boys could do it how hard could it be?  The next day Rita and I went shopping at the new Mega store.  Although we had invited Dan to go with us he had declined, and there was a large pile of boogie boards, on sale, special price.  It obviously was meant to be.  I chose a purple one with white fish, Rita bought a pink one with a big yellow sun.  We could not wait to try.

 

When we returned home lugging our purchases Dan seemed to be a little skeptical.  In fact he refused to accompany us to the beach!  You may not quite believe this but WE DID IT!  Not every time, but with advice from a helpful man from Canada, we were able to ride the waves (or perhaps I should say wavelets as they were pretty small) about one time out of four.  We were thrilled.  With a little, make that a lot of, practice who knows what is possible.

 

The next day we decided to go to Puerto Vallarta to visit the galleries.  We saw some great sand sculptures on the beach.  The traffic was terrific.  As there are few traffic lights you usually say a short prayer, wait for a break in the traffic and dart across.  Did I mention that the streets were made of very uneven cobblestones?

 

Well Dan and Rita made it across nicely but I caught my sandal on a cobblestone and fell flat on my face.  Traffic screeched to a halt.  Approximately one third of the population (300,000 last count) of PV gathered to stare. Do you know how to say embarrassing in Spanish? I shook myself and slowly started to rise.  A little man rushed out and said, "Take your time, lady, get up slow."

 

Dan and Rita rushed back.  "Are you all right?  Why did you do that!" Dan shouted.  Shakily I got to my feet.  My pants were torn and both knees were scraped and one was bleeding.  My left had hurt quite a bit but it was pretty clear I would survive.  The little man directed us to a nearby pharmacy.  "If you tell them I sent you they will give you a discount," he promised.

 

The first pharmacy could not help but after I limped to a second one I found help.  The pharmacist and her assistant sat me down and washed my knees with peroxide, clucking sympathetically at my moans, slathered on some triple antibiotic and made up two bandages of gauze and tape which they gently applied.  Dan was looking at me disgustedly as if thinking "I can't take you anywhere."  We did some more browsing and shopping.  Then we stopped for supper at Senor Frog's.  As we walked back toward the bus stop someone touched my arm.

 

"I hope you feel better, lady," said the man who had directed me to the pharmacy.  (Mrs. T will have more to say in our next installment, I am sure.)

 

A few new pictures:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/9151458@N07/sets/72157603660415941/

 

We see there is a heat wave in Columbus; your daytime highs match our night time lows.  It seems a bit cooler here than usual.

 

 

Happy Birthday to all of you – particularly MOM – with January birthdays.  Your cards are in the mail.

 

GO BUCKS!!!

 

 

Dan and Rebecca

 

http://casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com/

 

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