A day out in Mexcaltitan

Normal service is resumed with photos!! 

Tepic cathedral

Lily

Loretta-the nun!!

The end of one of the streets in Mexcaltitan

Eugene and Lexi

Apologies to those of you that I confused last week.........we leave here 18th September and head to Peru on 19th and travel in South America till February 2103 and only THEN will we fly from Brazil to Barcelona and then home!!

This week we have had variable weather from boiling hot Sunday to cooler with a bit of refreshing rain some days but the whole place continues to be greener than green and plants in the field next door have now grown to over 6 feet. Various wild flowers are appearing and last Sunday there were half a dozen small parakeets in beautiful shades of green. We are also blessed with thousands of butterflies everywhere, they just flutter up as you walk.This is all around us, it is a very relaxing place to live..........if it wsn't for the drummers!!

On the food front we had Chris' special BBQ ribs yesterday-they were yummy. On Sunday Chris, Miguel and I drove out to a restaurant in the countryside called La Sierra. It was Mexican fast food and definitely not MacDonald's!! Its was a BBQ place so as you sat down they came with a salad ( which we found out to our cost was chill++), some home-made cheese, home made gorgeous tortillas and the inevitable salsa.......which can be red or green and is always hot!! There were no menus just choice of lamb, beef or goat. After four months of abstinence I had lamb and it was to die for, they cook whole legs of lamb and then shred the meat..........muy rico-as they say in these parts. As we entered the restaurant there was a BBQ with loads of different meats on, so I asked the waitress what it was and she brought us a taste......a large plate with pork, grilled lamb and chorizo. Although it was simple food, beautifully cooked and speedily served in simple surroundings we nearly fell over when we got the bill. Three plates of lamb, the starters, two beers, two drinks, a coconut ice cream endless fresh tortillas and it was 235 pesos which is under £12. We pay that for two plates of coconut prawns in the laguna. As you can't really buy lamb in the butchers we will definitely be back!!

Chris was up in town on Wednesday for his Spanish class and I nearly lost one of the dogs.......thankfully he turned up. We all went into the field and the 3 dogs went racing away and five minutes later there was still no sign of them. I walked the usual route and Lexie turned up so I put her lead on to avoid losing her again, got near the end and little Lily turned up..........but still not a sign of Eugene and usually you can see where he is as he moves the plants around. 

So I took the other two back to the house and set off again to look for the final bit of the jigsaw---------I love the Spanish word for jigsaw el rompecabezas. It was hot and I walked around the field again until a very tired looking and sheepish Eugene came out from the undergrowth. It took him about half an hour to cool down but at least by Chris came back I had all 3 dogs!!

Yesterday I had a fabulous day out with Miguel. I picked him up at about 6.45 am and the laguna was shrouded in low cloud -it looked fabulous. We were heading for Mexcaltitan, an island where it is believed the Aztecs first created a city. We drove north to Tepic and then out north west on the road to Mazatlan ( just in case anyone wants to look at a google map!) 

About half an hour past Tepic we stopped for breakfast at a roadside place............you never know what to expect in Mexico........quite a big place we had huevos revueltos mexicana y frijoles y tortillas ( Mexican style scrambled eggs, with onion and chill and beans and tortillas) Behind where we sat was a large swimming pool with bright yellow painted walls and a couple of murals..........one of which had  a Marilyn Monroe style blond in a purple bikini!! Random!! 

We then drove through Santiago Ixcuintla and you then take a road heading north that ends at the ferry at La Batanga. The road goes through a couple of villages , one with a church painted Wedgwood blue, then it becomes a  fabulous flat and straight road. It changed from pasture to miles of wetland with beautiful waterlilies and  storks, heron and egrets. Then it became mangroves as we drove up the middle -you could see for miles if another car was coming-the only obstacles were herds of cows enjoying a dip in the water. It was so peaceful and different.

The information we had suggested there was a ferry timetable across to the island ; so we weren't sure how long we would have to wait. But a little old man came across to the car said horita ie NOW , he hinted he would look after the car ( I gave him 5 pesos) and off we went. 

The lancha was 80 pesos for up to 5 people but we looked up the road and there was no sign of anyone else so decided to just go. It was a ten minute trip through the mangroves and then for 50 pesos more we went right around the isand. We were both staggered at how small it was ..........and a very simple design a central square ( it was circular!!) with streets radiating from it and then one parallel street going all the way round. We had planned to enjoy the local speciality Shrimps-most of the work is shrimp fishing but it was too close to breakfast. We wandered round town , it was hot as we were now at sea level ( SAMAO is quite high) and visited the tiny museum and the church of St Peter. It was a lovely little place but there are no signs of the Aztecs, no artifacts etc , so who knows?? We were the only tourists on the island and gringos to boot so we felt pretty noticeable, but as usual everyone was really friendly. Surprisingly there was no queue , or wait, for the return lancha. 

Mexcaltitan-from the air

P.S. This is not my photo!!

The car was still in one piece and the little man was now the toilet attendant , basic but clean!! We set off to retrace our steps and drove slowly down the road enjoying the flora and fauna of the wetland. 

As we had driven through Santiago Ixcuintla we had spotted a Jesus statue on a hill so thought we would stop off. It was easy to navigate the town centre , mostly one way, and we parked outside a beautiful church in the Plaza Principal. Sadly, the doors were closed but to the side there was a gate open so I thought it was an alternative entrance but it was only the church offices. I asked a woman in the office if it was open today and she said 4pm ( it was about 12.45) . She then asked if we wanted to look and she opened up the church specially for us. Such lovely people xx

It was the parish church, so quite large, very peaceful and a lovely interior with pale green walls, a beautiful cupola and carved pews etc. From there we walked out into the full heat of the day and ended up in an open door ice cream parlour.........seemed a better option than lunch in the heat. Again we chatted with alovely man from anearby town who gave up his table for us. We looked  at a few of the colonial buildings and then set off to find the Jesus statue.........we got part way up a very cobbled street but it petered into nothing. 

So we headed off home.......... bought some lovely biscuits from a guy filling up at the petrol station........this is Mexico!! 

 It was a long day I got back to the laguna about 4.45 pm but it was very enjoyable. I was glad Miguel had suggested it, it was a place I had hoped to see on our beach trip but we changed those plans at the last minute.

Today is Saturday so, once the dogs are walked ,we will have breakfast out and then unless I can think of an excuse I need to do some cleaning in the house it is cloudy and cool so it would be a good time to do some housework. Chris isn't too good at the minute he has a bad heel.........plantar fascitis ........I think .......and it has set his knee off!!Chris is beavering away on the plan for Chile and I need to get the Argentina one started, it will be better to have a rough outline before we go as you don't get much time when you are on the road!!

We want to come back to Mexico someday and see the country, together with other parts of central America. A camper van would be possible as the distances are not huge like in S America but that it for the future!!

Hope life is good wherever in the world you are.

Till next time

Norma xx

Just over 5 weeks left!

Its 6.30 am here at the laguna and it is cool and quiet, well quietish!! Bit of birdsong and insect noise. It continues to amaze me how stunningly beautiful it is; as I was swimming yesterday the laguna was still and the landscape so green.

We have only 5 weeks left to enjoy this before we set off on an entirely different adventure and even with that I have got the final parts planned. We arrive in Barcelona on 26th February , early in the morning, and leave the next day. Normally we would leave booking a hotel/hostel till nearer the time, but I just checked out a few places and saw that more than half of the hotels were booked for that night. Tried a place I liked and got a reply to say there is a 3-4 day international mobile phone congress on!!  So, I've booked a room , with free cancellation in case out plans change. We have the flights back booked now, Singapore airlines Sao Paulo, Brazil to Barcelona and then the next day Barcelona to Newcastle with Easyjet.

We've had a busy week ,on Thursday Miguel came down to the laguna and Chris did fabulous ribs on the BBQ. The pork ribs here are about a foot long with loads of lovely lean meat on them. For starter I did a traditional Mexican dish with Jicama. Its a root, a bit like Kohl Rabi but its very crispy and refreshing and you slice it thinly and serve with chili and lemon juice...........well what else this is Mexico!! 

On Friday we thought we would go and have a beer outside the little shop in the laguna, but there were a load of locals who were wasted, so we drove to Catalina and they were still open and we had a couple of beers with a view of the laguna. It was lovely, as usually, Moni and Aurora are hard at work and we only get a brief chat but we sat and chatted to Moni and learned a bit about her family. She is one of 10 and now runs the restaurant and lives across the road in a house behind the restaurant. We chatted about all sorts and all in Spanish, Chris has improved amazingly. He works really hard to revise for his lessons and he can now do sentences which is great.

Last Saturday we went to Tepic in the car to stock up on essentials, wine, granola etc We went to a Mexican buffet place for lunch and saw our first live Olympics -we managed to catch Jessica Ennis in the 800m, the long jump gold and I am sure our shouting at the TV helped Mo Farrah to gold!!

On Sunday after church I went to check on Loretta , the nun, who finally seemed to have turned a corner and then popped in to see Maria de Jesus. She is a lovely lady who lets Chris and Pedro use her house for Chris' Spanish lessons. I wanted to have a recipe for Pozole, so got one for both the red and green varieties. (Pozole is a traditional pork stew type dish with corn) She also showed me how to make a dish with requeson, which is low fat soft cheese. We chatted about different foods and I said I sometimes cooked Thai food. We then had our favourite coconut prawns for lunch at Catalina.

Tuesday we booked the car in for a full service and went to Tepic on the collectivo and just wandered round like tourists. Its very efficiant, it goes from the market square and once it is nealry full it sets off. It takes about an hour, costs 25 pesos, and drops you off at the main square in Tepic. The cathedral was open and it was very simple and very reflective. There are 2 main museums, one of which is the regional museum. The latter was closed so we could only visit the Cinco Pueblos, the five peoples, which was tiny and told a bit about the main indigenous groups in Mexico. 

The highlight of the day was a vegetarian restaurant which had a wonderful buffet spread. For 85 pesos (£4.50) we got fresh pineapple and parsley agua fresca ( its a sort of watered down juice, really refreshing) and then as much food as you wanted. There were little tostados with guacamole, lovely spinach pancake pinwheels, creme of garlic soup ( a local speciality), there was a wonderful array of salads, fresh quesadillas, cabbage stuffed with requeson, a lovely soya souffle, tamales ( steamed corn, it reminded me of steamed pudding) potato and cheese cakes . It was all so tasty and the staff were lovely. A definite place to return to before we leave. 

On the way back there was an example of the relationship between men and women in Mexico. There was en elderly couple behind us on the bus and they got off before SAMAO and he got off first and held out his hand.........to get her to pass down a polystyrene container .......and there was me thinking he was going to help her down.........oh no she had to struggle herself.!!

Jose in the garage is a lovely guy.We collected the car and the service had cost £32.50 , a big chunk being the cost of the oil for the oil change. The labour was 100 pesos, £5, and it was cleaned inside and out.

Wednesday Maria came down to the laguna and we made a Thai red chicken curry and a Thai sweet n sour vegetable. We also did a funky snack thing I learned to do in Koh Lanta with salad leaves that you make into little pockets and fill with dried shrimp, ginger, onion, chill, lime and then drizzle with honey. think she enjoyed it, when I went to pick her up she had a funky yellow 1800cc VW beetle in the garage. It is 32 years old , so even though she can appear the serious school teacher, ( she was a headmistress in her final job) maybe she had a racy past!!

I had a quiet day to myself yesterday as Chris was up in SAMAO helping fix windows in the dispensario, they have more to do today. Its one of the advantages of living in a place that you get to feel part of the locals. 

Tonight we are off to Samao to eat with Miguel; Isabel, his landlady will make some food for us. We are then off to Maria's house for a evening of games!! We aren't really cards and dominoes players but it should be fun to play in Spanish!! Of course my competitive spirit will mean I want to win. ( Reference swingball, before my family make that comment!!)

Well that is about it for this week, hope you enjoy reading about our time here in Mexico and lovely to hear from people. No photos this week..........double ration next week!!

Greetings from the laguna

Morning, or afternoon or evening depending on which time zone you are in!!

One of the things blogspot allows you to do is to see where people are logging on from in the world..........Russia seems to be a strange place to have a large number of views!!

We are back to normal life in the laguna which is just stunning now, 6-8 weeks of rain has made it into the greenest of places and when it comes the rain is so refreshing. We get thunder and lightning 4-5 times a week and it rains a little bit most days and a lot some days. It's scary sometimes and the other night the window frames were rattling with the thunder overhead.Last week we woke up to rain one day and it drizzled on most of the day.

The weather has been doing funny things to the laguna though, the algae has been worse but yesterday we had our first swim and it was wonderfully clear. The Mexicans look out at us as if we are mad, our hairdressers asked did we wear life jackets and weren't we scared of the eels, another person asked had we seen the monster!! Well, no, we just swim, sans life jackets and the only thing we see is the odd passing leaf!!


I've had a dose of Delhi belly this week-think it might have been the breakfast last Saturday. Lazed around feeling sorry for myself just wanting some peace and quiet...........huh no chance in Mexico, what with the drummers, the birds, the insects etc Feeling better now though and it did get rid of the little bit of weight I put on on holiday. Every cloud has a silver lining, as they say.


Chris and I are in planning mode for South America, I might start my colour-coded spreadsheet soon ( this is something that only people who have been with me on a trip to the Edinburgh fringe will understand). He has various pieces of paper with his hand written scribbles......so hard to read......good job I spent years deciphering the handwriting of doctors when I worked as a dietitian.


Our friend Loretta is making slow progress, she has had typhoid and I am staggered that the order of nuns don't vaccinate the sisters who venture off to foreign parts. I'm hoping to visit today to see how she is doing. My jabs are up to date for everything possible except rabies.


I was ill over the weekend and was so looking forward to luscious coconut prawns but had boiled rice and plain grilled fish...........this Sunday...........the prawns. Tomorrow Michael is coming for dinner ( he was ill last week to ) and Chris is firing up the BBQ and he has been marinading huge pork ribs all week. I don't like loads of meat but I'm sure they will be delicious. 

This pirate ship is specially for my little mate Alexander xx

Having climbed to the top..........

There is only one way down!!

We keep hoping that we will get some cooler morning weather to walk round the lake but we have had clear warm days and cooler nights..........so much better than June!! When we go to South America it will be really cold at night in many places , those Andes are pretty high!! Maybe I should stop the HRT and have built in central heating.


That's about it for now, I'm off to town about 10 and next week we are off to Tepic on the collectivo-that should be fun. Collectivo's are small minibuses and they leave once they are full. Its about an hour to Tepic and it drops you in the Plaza Principal-we thought we would go and look at the cathedral, museums etc.


Apologies about last week's blog-not up to the usual standards-the spellchecker on blogspot doesn't always work.......here's hoping.......

Till next time

Norma xx

Back in real Mexico..............

Hello,

Our break is over and we are back at the laguna and spent yesterday getting the house back how we like it.

The second week of our break was better than the first. The down side of San Pancho was that the sea was really only for looking at. The undertow was really bad so swimming was out of the question. We enjoyed our time in San Pancho but the longer we stayed the more sanitised it felt. It is making its living on mainly US money and in exchange the "nationals" ( as the Americans call the Mexicans) are "managed". So nearly everyone in all the shops and restaurants speaks English, there are no hawkers on the beach and we did not get served one portion of frijoles the whole time we were there. Frijoles, mashed beans, are the Mexcian staple!! My camera disappeared while we were there, I know exactly where I left it but next morning the waiters denied seeing it. Luckily I had just downloaded a load of photos onto the netbook. Phew!

We had a couple of day trips from S Pancho, Sayulita is a hippy surfing beach. We met a lovely Japanese young couple who have been travelling for 5 years. Chris bought me some lovely garnet earings that they had made. That is really outside the box for their culture and we wished them well.

Another day we went to La Penita where there was meant to be a huge market with crafts.......it was a disappointment only 3-4 stalls the rest was the usual market tat. I did buy some lovely fish, it had just been landed and 2 large fish cost 60 pesos ( that's £3) and he filleted them too. The beach was dreadful too, full of rubbish, not a pretty sight........although the sea was full of beautiful majestic pelicans.

Saturday we went to Playa los Ayala which we loved. It was the southern end of a big bay and it was Mexicans at play. The sea was quite gentle, so we had a swim and the water was full of daytrippers with their inflatables. Swimming is not big in mexico for some reason and sadly it is a cause of deaths each year. There were sellers everywhere, fabulous frsh fruit, cocunut cakes, drinks, inflatables loaded up on a bike, jewellery and fresh oysters.

We then drove to a place called La Tranquilla. A huge complex with 2 massive hotels, three hotel shells ( the money ran out!!) and a golf cousre with 2 people on. The whole complex was bigger than SAMAO and is aimed at the "all inclusive crowd" who don't want to mix with the locals. I looked the hotel up on line and it and it is luxurious and a snip starting at 264 US$ a night.........and that doesn't include breakfast....but you get your own private plunge pool on the balcony!!

From there we drove to Punta de Mita a lovely spot that used to be a little fishing village. Chris met some dive guys and we decided to go there, instead of 2 nights in San Blas, so that he could dive on Monday. There was a cheap mexican hotel for £30 a night and we changed our plans. The diving didn't come off so we just spent a lazy time and avoided the really expensive food spots........we had a huge plate of seafood lobster, octopus, filleted fish, whole fish and larhge prawns with salad and rice. The food was beautiful, the beer cold and the waiter was lovely the table tops were plastic and the waves were lapping feet from the table. The same thing was on offer with tablecloths and wine glasses and a slimy waiter for 3 times the price further up the beach.

If La tranquilla looked posh on the headland at Punta de Mita was the Four seasons resort. It is $450-4,500 a night but Jack Nickhlaus did design the golf course and Barack has stayed there!! It is all a bit obscene and the final straw for me was on Monday night when I wanted to get some cash from the ATM and it only dispensed US dollars.........it is hard but I can see how the locals can be swayed because it does provide jobs. On the return journey home I knew I was back in Mexico when we ended up in Compostela town centre by mistake and there was a man on his horse and three shops selling saddles etc.

We got back about 2 on Tuesday and at 5 I went up to SAMAO to stock up on fruit and vegetables. There had been thunder and dark clouds but as I got to the sign for SAMAO the heavens opened and the rain was full of hailstones. I managed to park right outside the veg shop.........well at the second attempt the first time I wasn't close enough to the high kerb and didn't fancy putting my foot in half a foot of water pouring down the street.

It was great to have a break and David and Conception seem to have enjoyed their time at the laguna. However you can't be in "holiday" mode all of the time and I am glad to be back at the house cooking food how we like it and having our own space.

There is still stuff to do in the garden but that can wait. Chris did some repairs yesterday, on the outside door,and the key snapped in the main door and he managed to fix the strimmer too. It is amazing how much the garden has grown in 2 weeks. Those seedlings that I took a photo of a few weeks ago are now about 3 feet high!!

Angel arrived about 45 minutes after David and Conception had left, he'd been unwell since Saturday with diarrhoea........but had to wait till we were back. I sent him back home with some electrolyte sachets and Imodium and he was back yesterdy saying how much better he was and what a good doctor I am!!

Sadly our drumming neighbours are still here and we got a welcome back session on Tuesday night and then 2 hours yesterday. They are terrible drummers and it is just monotonous noise. I was thinking we could rig the music sytem up with a long lead and play music at full blast at about 3 in the morning.......

Yesterday we popped up to SAMAO to collect Chris' bank card. It was fedexed from the UK and only took 5 days.........Chris was like a kid with a new toy tracking it online. As usual we went to the doctor, Lulu, to collect it. Our friend Lloretta, the American nun, was there and we took her home as she has been unwell while we have been away.

Chris, who is so observant, found a business card stuffed in the number on our gate. Ququis, the vet, had popped down while we were away. Think we need to invite her for some food and she can come and check on the animals.

Miguel, our American friend from Iowa, is coming down tonight for a swim and some food........assuming we don't have rain again.He's just been home so it will be good to catch up with his news. 

We have 8 weeks left here and as it is cooler now, we need to get some walking done to improve our fitness for Machu Pichu and the rest of the S America jaunt.

Very expensive Corona but fab view!!

Los Americanos on the beach at San pancho

San Pancho sunset

Okay, just got to do the spellchecker and then I will add some photos. Not sure why but this takes me best part of an hour to do..........maybe I say too much!!

Till next time

Take care

Norma xx

If it begins with a "T " we don't want it!!

Intrigued by the title?? We have just spent a week in Puerto Vallarta and got fed up with the endless hard selling of Trips,Tours, Tequila and worst of all TIMESHARE!!

Everything was a front for timeshare, half way through eating a meal........the waiter asks do you want to make 3000 pesos just an hour to look at a place........its raining today come for lunch and we will have a little chat about timeshare. Hey amigo I remember you from last year.......Yeh Yeh!! The worst bit was these sad people could not understand that we know "there is no such thing as a free lunch" and our time is our time not something to be bought and of course as house sitters we have access to free houses in exotic places.

So PV was not a great success, expensive, built-up, busy and honestly we could have been in any resort in the world. You couldn't even walk on the beach as each bit was owned by the hotels. Some bits were okay but we didn't even find a good Chinese as we had thought we might.

Chris did get his advanced diving certificate-but even then he said the diving wasn't very good.

Luckily we only had to stay one week and now we are in sleepy San Francisco, Nayarit........fondly known as San Pancho.  It is a world away, on the surface anyway!!

We are staying at Roberto's bungalows, we have a lovely first floor terrace -with outdoor kitchen, an air-conditioned bedroom and bathroom.There is a small pool to cool you down and the beach is about 10 mins away and not a private bit in sight. We sat watching the sunset last night and it is fabulous. It is pretty dammed hot though and the sun has been baking us since about 9 am.

Its a place that one of the previous Mexican presidents decided could get him know as a humanitarian to get the job as UN secretary of state........San Pancho got water, sewage, a hospital, schools, houses and full employment and he didn't get the UN job!! Since then it has been "invaded" by rich Americans and Canadians........luckily this is off season so its not too bad.

President Echeverría adopted San Pancho as the site for his particular vision of a “third world” “self-sufficient” model town. As a result of his special interest, funds were poured into the humble village that at the time did not even have electricity. Nonetheless, an infrastructure was constructed. Roads were laid and proper housing was built for the small population of fishermen and farmers. Not to mention schools, a fishing museum, industrial factory, and modern fully-equipped hospital were all constructed and inaugurated by the president as part of his dream of turning San Pancho into a “university of the Third World”.

While the factory that processed local fruits went on to provide jobs for the community well on into the 1980s, the rest of Echeverría’s vision for San Pancho was brought to an abrupt halt with the end of his presidential term and the miserable state of the Mexican economy at his term’s end.  Consequently, the ventures the President had proposed failed, and San Pancho drifted back into a drowsy tranquility. The fishing museum that had once housed perhaps the largest palapa in Mexico and was graced with elegant fountains, shortly fell into disrepair. Once the fruit processing plants closed down, and the “university” building went vacant without any students or professors to fill it, the overgrown tropical vegetation reclaimed the new developments and San Pancho went back to its sleepy existence. The town’s inhabitants went back to fishing and growing fruit, and with San Pancho still hard to reach, little changed.

Oh and the president fiddled public money to do all of this.....now there is a surprise in Latin America !!

The owner of the bungalows is American, his name is Earl.....yeh really!! He is a larger than life charachter and yesterday his neighbours let us chill in their garden while we waited for Earl to return from the airport. The food is lovely and met a lively Chilean guy who makes great bread in his restaurant. Last night I sat with a mango margarita.......well okay with 2.......... as we watched the sun set over the ocean.....knowing that the nearest landfall is 3,000 miles away. 

We had a lovely walk on the beach and have spent the day chilling by the pool. Hoping to cook tonight as a change from all of the rich restaurant food.

Sunday we are off to San Blas........where allegedly the mosquitoes are horrendous!! Returning to sleepy SAMAO on Tuesday. I've enjoyed the break but will be glad to get back to real life!! Will post some photos next time.

Bye........Norma xx

Holiday time

After 11 weeks it is time now for a break..........we have 2 weeks away from the house sit and are going to the beach. If you look on a map of Mexico on the west coast you will see the riviera Nayarit. We head for party central Puerta Vallarta first and then move north to San Pancho, Lo de Marcos and finish off in San Blas before returning here in 2 weeks time. 

Some of you may be thinking holiday...............surely every day is a holiday but no!! Imagine if that was how you lived you life?? Eating and drinking constantly ..............fatty body and fatty liver!! So really  looking forward to being in hotels, not having to cook, clean etc and not tied to the dogs and cats. 

We have air con too so every time I start to melt it will be switched on. We have only booked the first hotel-mainly to get somewhere to start off and to fit in with Chris' advanced diving course...........if he completes it he will be able to dive to 30m. He is however very nervous about doing a night dive with only a hand torch between him and the black ocean.

We had a fabulous day on Sunday some friends invited us for breakfast and they live close to the lake on the other side. Fabulous setting and lovely food and company. Julia uses a felting technique to make shawls in her studio overlooking the lake and Jorge is an architect and he designed two of the three houses on the plot of land they have.

Much later in the day we went to the laguna for lunch and had Mona's fabulous coconut prawns. Catalina's was heaving with folk and there was dreadful mariachi band playing but it all adds to the atmosphere. 

Today has been baking hot and very humid but we went up to town to do some last minute bits, Chris had his massage, Loretta ( the nun) has an English medical student for 2 weeks so we popped in to say hello. Last week I went to see Lulu, the doctor and fogot to pay..........oops-so put that right today. SAMAO feels very much like home now, lots of the people in the shops, market cafes etc know us now so there is always plenty of Spanish practice.

Chris has been in touch with his bank recently, someone has used his debit card details to run up a bill at travelodge for about £400. So we are in the process of a new one going to Auntie Pat's in Newcastle and then forking our £40 to have DHL send it over.............couldn't trust it to the post!! As Imogen's boyfriend pointed out if you are going to commit fraud surely you could spend the money somewhere plusher than travelodge!!

Well, shorter than usual but still have things to sort before the trip. We have wi-fi in some places so will write from the beach.............and expect lots of pictures of lovely beaches............and the odd margarita...........and I am dying for a Gin and Tonic.....haven't seen gin anywhere!! The first hotel has a pool bar and happy hour!!
Vaya bien
Norma xx

Dedicated to Tessa-RIP

This week's blog starts on a very sad note as my good friend Tessa passed away on Thursday back home in England. She had battled with cancer for several years first in her bowel and liver and finally in her lungs and bones. We were students together in London and shared a flat in Hackney, Jill, Nicky, Tessa and me. Tessa was studying Philosophy and the rest of us Dietetics. Dietetics was one of those full on courses, we had only Wednesay afternnons off, wheras Tess did about 12 hours a  week and read strange esoteric books. 

Jill was with Tessa the day before she died and I just had to say my goodbyes from a long way away. I did remind her though about Tessa and her mammoth cooking sessions. She lived with 3 people who loved cooking and studied it as part of our course but she insisted on taking her turn cooking. Thursday was her day and when we got back to the flat she would still be in her fluffy blue dressing gown and the kitchen would invariably be covered in flour as she created our meal.............her Guiness burgers were wonderful. She went to work in Ancona, Italy doing TEFL and I went to visit and we ended up on in the audience of some crazy Italian game show sponsored by a yoghourt company!! Happy days.

Here in Mexico life goes on and Tessa's passing focusses you on the need to take opportunities as they come along without any what ifs..............just go for it. 

We are well and truely in the rainy season now-rain some of most days but still some sun. Had another little glitch with the power which as off 36 hours. The good thing is the house is not getting so hot and it is much cooler at night. The rain is pretty strong and is starting to change the landscape. We were walking with the dogs yesterday and I commented to Chris that it is like spring in the UK on fast forward. In 2 weeks it has gone from brown, dry and frazzled to verdant, I took a picture of some seedlings a week ago -they are now about 10 inches high. The rain was pretty bad in the North East last week too-there were some amazing pictures on line but it caused travel problems for everyone. Hope it is improving.

The rain is raising the level of the laguna too, its about a foot higher. Yesterday we went swimming about 11 and there was no wind and as I set off swimming the lake was like a mirror in front of me............very strange sensation and then swimming back to shore there was the beautiful reflection of the palm trees. It was surreal. 

Its election day tomorrow and the expectaion is there will be change of government back to the party who ruled for 70 years...........and tolerated the drugs, narcos ,police involvment etc- a bit like the Italian mafia!! The potential new president looks like a bit of a slime ball........him and Cameron could be brothers. 

We went to Tepic this week and I spotted a sign in one of the shops that said stock up on beer now for the weekend!! I thought it was to celebrate the outcome of the election?? But no!! No alcohol has been sold since yesterday and can't be sold till Monday as part of the rules for the election. Not sure if it to ensure sober voters, or reduce potential violence?? In SAMAO you don't really see a lot of problems with alcohol. I bought extra beer on Thursday so we will be fine.


We are still ploughing our way through loads of mangoes and the stack of tiny fish I bought last week. Made a lovely fish meal yesterday. You put foil in a frying pan and then layer fish on the bottom, cover it with some fried-off veggies ( I used peppers, omions and mushroom and garlic) the another layer of fish and put on a foil lid. It took about ten minutes to cook and was lovely. We also manged to have a BBQ this week despite the rainy season. I was confident it would not rain, Chris less so , but knew if it did we had plenty of experience of UK BBQ's to just get the umbrella out. 

Its odd what you miss about home and despite the surfeit of frijoles ( mexican bean mush) we were both hankering after Henz baked beans...........albeit cold ones for me. Part of me is thinking that in touristy Puerto Vallarta we might find some!!


My attempts at wildlife photography are proving pretty useless although Mr Toad was easy ( see photo). There are fabulous birds of all sizes- a tiny little jet black wren size, lovely humming birds, golden oreoles ( yellow and black) and beautiful orange, blue and green ones about the size of a thrush. Never manage to have my camera when I see them!! The butterflies are stunning too but are less in number now.....chrysalis time?? One day last week there were millions of tiny frogs/toads the size of your small fingeranil hopping everywhere. 

We had a dog washing session yesterday as they were starting to get a bit whiffy. Eugene was really good and just stood patiently getting shampooed and then dried and brushed, Lekkie hates sitting still so it was a 2 person job and Lily was in the huff all day although she is so much whiter!! 


Had a bit of a pamper week too, had a 2 hour pedicure, including red sparkling toes for £5 and a massage, which is £2.50. They were 2 days apart and four blocks too so not quite as luxurious as it sounds. The massage was at the dispensario at the local chuirch, where the nuns have supported the devlopment of a centre using natural appraaches. Lloretta, the American nun, is planning to start helping people with health problems like heart disease and diabetes change how they eat. I hope to be able to help her with some of the practical preaparation to get this started. 


I will have loads of time soon as kinder finishes next Friday. Although I do worry that it will fold soon as there are fewer and fewer children. Last week 2 moved on, Yahomi ( from the drumming house) has gone back to Cancun to be with his mum and Itzel's family packed up and left for Tepic!! That only leaves 4 children and they got a teacher on the basis of there being 10!! The teacher doesn't seem bothered and hasn't turned up 3 times in the last 2 weeks.........once because it was foggy!!


Our South America planning is continuing and we could end our trip in Brazil...........this was never in the plan!! Although if you loook at the map the Iguazu falls ( an Argentian must see) are right on the border and we will get to see them from both sides. It will only be for an overnight stay to get a cheap flight from Sao Paulo to Barcelona and then the next day from Barcelona to Newcastle with Easyjet!! Trying to think creatively about what to do over the Christmas and New Year and we will also be in South America for Carnaval...........not Rio but who knows ..........

I am getting excited about the trip as I am getting itchy feet and Chris and I think we wouldn't do another 5 month house sit. Its lovely here but we are limited in what we can do beacause of the animals and as well there is not enough change in the weather for us to do the things we like...........long walks pretty much out of the question.

How's that for shoes and bags??

Inspiration for jabba the Hutt??

The photo of the bags and shoes is specially for my girls.......how about these for colour and high heels!! 


Well its now 7 am and time for a cup of tea, walk the dogs and then we will be off for our Saturday morning treat..........breakfast by the laguna. Eggs, frijoles, chilli and tortillas!!!




Till next time
Love 
Norma xx