The conversations have changed!

When we got here in November the conversations were, when did you get here, when is so and so getting here and now it is almost the end of January and now it is when are you heading home....

I guess this is the normal conversation for "snow-birds" or retirees but we are still new to this.

It is confusing with the sun always shining!  It is January 28th but it feels like July and when we head back up to Canada it will be spring time! I know, I know you really feel for me, but I am not saying it to bug those of you sitting in the rain or snow, but trying to honestly make a point!
I keep forgetting that it is only January...

The last two weeks have been quiet, busy, uneventful and full of activities.  How's that for confusion.  We have played water volleyball daily, we have gone to trivia tournaments, horse racing, burger nights, fish and chip nights, taco nights, pizza nights, Played crib, scrabble, rummy, mexican train dominos, had happy hours (lots of those), seen a boa constrictor, seen whales on the horizon, watched squirrels trying to knock avocados from trees and seen many, many hummingbirds... 

the horses waiting for the gun!

my trophy for being on the winning team in trivia

Sorry no more pics cuz the whales were too far away, the boa slithered away, the hummingbirds and the squirrels were too fast and people eating is just too boring!

Our Street

Our street here at La Penita RV Park is named Edward St.

No one has been able to tell us why.  There are seven spots on our street  and all are occupied by BC'ers, mainly from the Island.  We have one trailer, 2 fifth wheels and 4 motorhomes.

looking down the street

Dennis and Helen's 

our's

Miriam and Ken's

Barry and Marion's, and dogs, Nkiki, Xola and Odie

Bart and Judy's , dogs Autumn and Maggie

Les and Bonnie's 

It is a good bunch of people, we were supposed to have a street dinner on Saturday Night but we had rain!

On Thursday Night there was the first BINGO, BEER and PIZZA night at the pool.  Reuben comes to the pool Wed thru Sat nights to make fresh pizza, a loaded Meetsa Pizza costs $145 pesos for a large, it just feeds Al and I perfectly.

Anyways, back to Bingo!  We decided to go, with me protesting because I never win... It cost $10 pesos for a sheet with 3 cards on it.  The first game the pot was split each person winning $240 pesos, yeah I was one of the winners, the next three pots were each $400 pesos, and the last game was black-out bingo and the pot was $750 pesos, yes, I won that one too!  I will probably never win again but that was fun!!!

Next week it is Trivia

Al has now gone out fishing twice with guys from the park, the first time all they did was rescue turtles tied up in an abandoned Mexican long line.  I had to look up what that was, so here is the wikipedia description:

Longline fishing is a commercial fishing technique. It uses a long line, called the main line, with baited hooks attached at intervals by means of branch lines called snoods (organgions).^[1] A snood is a short length of line, attached to the main line using a clip or swivel, with the hook at the other end. Longlines are classified mainly by where they are placed in the water column. This can be at the surface or at the bottom. Lines can also be set by means of an anchor, or left to drift. Hundreds or even thousands of baited hooks can hang from a single line. Longliners commonly target swordfish, tuna, halibut, sablefish and many other species

The second time he went out they caught fish!

This was a wahoo, yes, I had to look that up too! 

WAHOO

This tremendous fighter lives up to its name in fight and beauty. Related to the barracuda, this slim fish is best known for its frightening array of razor sharp teeth. Common at 10 to 50 pounds, it can reach over 200 pounds. World record stands at 158 pounds, the Bay of Banderas gave up a 221 pounder in 2004 but didn't qualify from record status due to the manner in which it was caught. Excellent eating fish.

Here are some pictures of the view coming back to dock the boat..

Here are some pictures I just felt like taking!

clouds floating by..

Al contemplating life!

more clouds

Tonight is a fish fry...I will let you know who this wahoo tastes!

Catching up Part 2

I think I forgot to mention in the last post that I lost all of the pictures that we had taken with the camera and also all files that I had updated or created since June, when my last back-up was done!  Thank goodness I had posted some pictures to the blog.  We might be able to get them off the old harddrive but I will wait until we get back to Canada to figure that out..

This is the market that comes right to us on Tuesday's and Saturday's.  We get fresh fruit and vegetable, beer, wine, dresses and sometimes crafts and even cheapie movies!

And the bread lady brings her truck full of baked goods once a week.  We also have the "honey" man and occasionly the shrimp vendors.  And not to forget Ramon who is in the park daily making sure that we all have bottled water!

We went twice during the month to a nearby beach in "Chacala" with friends from the park.  The beach is very smooth and usually great for boogie boarding but both times we were there the good waves were few and far between.

All around the park Christmas decorations were popping up!  We added some lights to our assorted trees.  

It is hard to get good pictures in the dark... 

Poinsettas were plentiful down here..Ramon delivered them to your door for $60 pesos (under $6).

December weather was perfect up until the 20th.  Then a storm moved in and it would rain and thunder every evening. 

The park was full by the 24th with many Mexican families parking in all available sites and spreading there tents and awnings everywhere!  How they survived the torrential rain and lightning storms is anyones guess.

We were very lucky to be able to celebrate Christmas outdoors at the pool.

Boxing Day was the La Penita International Water Volleyball Tournament. What fun there were three teams, one made up of Canadians, one of Americans and one of Mexicans.  The Canadian team had too many players so some were spares for the other teams.  Al played one game as a Mexican and 2 games as an American!  The American team was the winner! (They had a lot of younger players compared to the Canadians)

I developed a lung infection right before the rains started so I was sidelined for most of the Christmas festivities, but I saw a local doctor and he gave me three different medicines to take and it is clearing up.  The cost for two doctor visits and the 3 medicines was $900 pesos ($85).  That was cheaper then the cost of medical insurance for the month in BC.

New Year's was a very wet occasion, but it didn't stop the park from celebrating!

By this time, Al had developed a cold so it is amazing that we lasted until midnight but we made it...

On the 2nd of January the sun came back out and we are now drying out from what the locals say was one of the wettest December's ever.

Let's just keep our fingers crossed that January, February and March staying sunny and dry!

Catching up since our Motherboard died! Part 1

Our troubles with the computer started around the middle of November.  Our computer just wouldn’t wake up! We tried everything and then it turned on, silly us we should have run to get the external harddrive out immediately but no we didn’t even think about that.  We used the computer for the day, if fact, I worked on a post with lots of pictures but couldn’t post because my internet time allotment had been used up. We closed the laptop and the next morning it would not start no matter how nicely we talked to it (or how much we swore at it).  We took it into La Penita to a young fellow who used to work for Toshiba in the states, three days later we got the news that its motherboard had died, and that to replace it in Mexico would be more expensive than buying a new laptop.  Our daughter, Alyssa was due to arrive in Nueva Vallerta at the RIU Palace for a week, so we asked her to bring us a “spare” laptop that was kicking around.  It was an IBM Thinkpad, a 386 dinosaur that weighed about 18 lbs and wouldn’t even connect to the internet here, so thanks but no thanks…We were investigating having one shipped to us from Canada, when Carole, the manager of this beautiful park said that she had a new computer that she had bought in May on her way home through the states and had not liked the Windows 8, so if we didn’t mind that she would sell it to us.  So now we have a Toshiba laptop that won’t turn on, a IBM think pad that we should probably use as an anchor, and a HP Pavilion G7 with Windows 8 that we are slowly getting familiar with.

So when I last posted it was the day before my birthday, I can’t remember every detail but I do know that we went into Nueva Vallerta to meet up with Al’s brother, Byron, sister-in-law, Patti, nephew, James his wife Shawna, their son Thomas and Terry and Jeannette their friends from Bissett, Manitoba. They were staying at the RIU Palace for 10 days, it was totally booked, so we stayed at the RIU Vallerta which was just down the beach.  We spent some good time with them and thoroughly enjoyed our visit!  (They are now back in Manitoba in the snow and cold)  Sorry I couldn’t resist that…

The view from our room at the RIU Vallerta

The beach in front of the RIU Palace

The malecon in Puerta Vallerta

Dining at the Riverside Cafe in Puerta Vallerta

Thomas was the photographer for this night, good work buddy!

The first week of December, Alyssa and her friend Mary arrived to also stay at the RIU Palace for a week.  We met them in Bucerias for the day and wandered around the market there and had lunch on the beach…

Please read part 2 to see our Christmas and New Years photos!