Gringos got wheels and the flu

Hi, Everyone, we've been out with the flu all week, and the Nov 26 weekend we spent celebrating American Thanksgiving up in Phoenix. Even this will be a short blog, since there hasn't been much going on but a lot of coughing.

We are so happy to report that we have our car back, with a mostly rebuilt engine. Facebook followers will already know that. 5000 pesos($400) for pretty much a rebuilt engine. And it took us to Phoenix and back. We should really buy a little four-wheeler runaround for Mexico and keep the car for trips. But first, tax season! oh yay.

We are thrilled that Dan arrived with Taz and the van, and it's nice to see the van parked where it should be.


Cheryl isn't having as smooth a transition, as she finished work Friday with plans to fly down here early Saturday, and was promptly snowed in. I sent her this picture of our backyard to let her know once she gets down here it will all be better:


She has managed to get on a plane today, we think. If she got on the flight she was planning on, she should be in Phoenix within the hour.

We felt up to going for a beach walk on Friday:

Beach walk? Let's go!


The friends together again. Taz is staying at our place while Dan's picking Cheryl up. Taz will sit and let Shadow lick her face, and they like to have paws touching.


A girl in her element.

After a beach walk, the $3 beer. Nice location, don't you think?

That's a whale rib bone below.


It's a big beer for 3 bucks.


And dogs are allowed- what could be better?
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For our golfing friends:


Did I say a short blog? That's pretty much it, folks, we're alive (we think), and hopefully will feel up to doing a bit more this week, although Friday was a cautionary tale, we did too much and had joint relapses yesterday. I've discovered an herbal tea here that loosens up the old chest though, so there's hope yet.

Last minute addition- a friend sent us some photos of the old neighborhood. So here you go:

Our house in Calgary today:


Our House in Mexico today:

What a day!

Yesterday we were invited out on the Pancho Villa. It was sunny and calm as we cruised out of the harbor, and by the time we anchored at the first fishing spot, jackets and sweatshirts were off. We got to talk to Ray, the captain this time. He was telling us about the overnight trips they take, and the whale watching tours.

He said he does one trip every year with just a bunch of locals. They overnight to the Golden Reef off the Baja, and everyone just sleeps wherever they can, bringing air mattresses and everything. He implied there was a lot of boozing, so I suppose everyone just sleeps wherever they pass out. Then they fish for 2 days, and steam back Sunday night. He wants to get us out on the whale-watching trip and later maybe some overnight fishing. He also dives, and here's a picture of him catching a lift on a whale shark.


On the way out Ray spotted some dolphins and they turned the boat that way. We got to watch them play and jump, and some of them followed the boat- they are FAST!!


I'm hoping one of the guys who had a camera will send me some of his shots. Unfortunately when you have a handful of fishing rod, it's hard to take pictures. Maybe next time I'll devise a way to wear it around my neck on a lanyard. Here's their main salon on the boat. The stern is behind those windows.



There were no chairs this time, and I decided to sit on a corner of the upper deck (basically on the roof of the salon) and fish from there. It was very comfortable, and also happened to be the most incredible place to catch fish!

For about an hour I was pulling in a fish and sometimes two every time I dropped the line! I lost count, but I think I caught about 30. I know my arms finally got so tired I had to stop. Chris on the other side was catching them equally fast. Both of us caught double triggers, which meant we were pulling up about ten to 15 pounds of fighting fish. Today my arms are actually a little sore, but I dreamed of fishing last night! It was just a great time.



While you're fishing, pelicans are floating near your line, eying you and your possible catch. One of them actually came over and grabbed one of my rock bass as I was pulling it out of the water! I didn't know what to do, and the crew shouted, pull it out!! So I did.

These guys and brown pelicans all around the boat.

A little later we saw a sea lion. Usually when you see a sea lion, suddenly the fishing dries up. Happened this time as well.


Ray told us of a superstition that doesn't allow bananas on a boat. If a captain sees that someone has brought a banana on board, he will likely cancel the trip.

Our friend Dan and Shadow's friend Taz arrive today!! In a knockout session of driving, Dan made it to Phoenix in 2 days. He's on his way here now, so we'd better get ready! What can I put in his house.... balloons? I know for Cheryl we could fill the place up with lime chips...we'll think of something.

Fishing Trip

We had Peter and Betty down last week from Apache Junction, and that was great! Peter has a new smoker and we reaped the benefits as he brought down a bunch of smoked ribs along with his special barbecue sauce. Man that was good! Come back soon!

Our car is still on the fritz, Oswaldo thinks he has a line on a new motor. We're going over there today for a visit to their new home, I might learn more then. Meanwhile, Tina was kind enough to loan us her Samurai- it makes me feel tough!!







In case anyone missed it in that last shot, Shadow in mid-ear flap.


It's bike rally week here, and we have been out to a bit of it. The Cellphone Cowboys were playing at JC's on Friday, and we sat on the patio and watched the action below. Tons of chromed-out bikes, and jeeps loaded with pretty girls, some of whom for some reason wanted us to see their breasts. We stayed out late for us, like 10:30!! Then yesterday we spent a bit of time at the Sandbar, where Tina was spanking people at their request. Why? Cause it's bike week!

Friday before we went to JC's, we went out on the Pancho Villa for a fishing trip. We left at 8 AM and got back at about 2:30. She's a 57-foot Californian. Annette, one of the owners, is working on getting advertising for the RPNO and while she's out, she talks up my website biz. I've just finished a website for Ramon's, www.lacocinaderamon.com.





Carl caught one before I did. This one went into the bait bucket.



We both caught rock bass, and I caught a triggerfish. The biggest fish caught was a triggerfish about 15" long, and about ten pounds. That one wasn't caught by us. There were 14 people on the boat besides crew. On the way home, they filleted and skinned the fillets, then bagged them up. We got about 3 pounds, and ate a pound that night for supper. The trigerfish was meaty and firm, and the rock bass was softer but a little bony. Tasty, though!







There was a really nice sunset on Friday, too, which we caught from our back yard.







Here's our newest addition, a little fireplace for the back yard. We tried him out last night. I think we need a name for him- anyone?

2 dumb gringos blow up their car

OK, this will be short and sweet because I'm wiped out- what a day! We packed up for our trip to Phoenix and were on the road at 7:30. At about 8:15 the car stalled, we pulled over and there was steam pouring from under the hood.

When the steam cleared, the rad was empty. Carl spotted a broken hose and we hoped that was the problem. Still, it wasn't looking good for getting to the book sale on time. We tried to flag someone down, and finally after a while a Koppel truck driver stopped. He told us there were no Green Angels on this road. By the way, all the conversations related here were almost totally in Spanish, no one spoke English. Which is fair enough, since it IS Mexico.

We decided that I'd go with Javier the truck driver and try to get a tow truck in Sonoita. We were about halfway there. Carl would stay with the car. Which works out well, because I like these kinds of adventures and if I stayed with the car, my head would explode. Whereas Carl was able to have a little nap.

Javier's truck was full, so the fastest he could go was 60 kmh. But we got there. We even chatted a bit. He grabbed something to eat for his breakfast, (he was headed for Mexicali), and then we went to a mechanic. That person couldn't help. So Javier took me to a taxi stand and explained what I needed.

Soon Manuel came over, and he said he was a mechanic and could give us a tow. There's a new word- remolque. I was glad I had my English/Spanish dictionary. Manuel took me in his taxi, and first we went to his place to get the keys, then to the school to get the truck from his son, then to his brother's place to pick up a trailer, some water and tools, and his brother. And we were off. Got back to the car about 9ish. In conversation I learned (I asked) that Manuel has 6 children. He grinned and thumped his chest. Virile!!

I was able to tell him in Spanish that it was a red car, in a rest area on the left, just after a curve, as we approached the area. So we loaded it up and went back to the brother's place. I got to ride in the car on the trailer, that was fun. I had a plan that if the trailer broke free I would start the car so that when I hit the airbag would deploy.

Manuel and his brother took it apart and we took the radiator to a...guess what? a radiator place. Where they basically flushed it and rebuilt it. Completely. Took about an hour and a half. And cost $1565 pesos. Then Manuel took us to a bank at my request, and then we bought a thermostat and a tube of some goo and a bottle of coolant. $265 pesos, are you keeping track?

Back at the shop, which was outdoors, we watched the buzzards hover overhead( no, really!), and tried to talk to another really nice man who had two of his 8!! kids with him. These kids were beautiful. Yes, one thing I know how to ask, ¿cuántos hijos tiene?

Now it's about 2:30 Carl and I are saying, ok, we'll skip the book sale and just go visit Peter and Betty, that will still be fun, and we can have a hot tub, stay tomorrow, we can still do a little shopping, it'll be great.

About 3:30 the car's all back together. They ask me to start it, but there's still a lot of steam. Shut down, work some more, start again, the gauge is going up towards hot awfully quickly. Now I have three guys all talking to me in rapidfire Spanish. They see the deer in the headlights look and then just one guy speaks, slowly and with a few English words thrown in. Seems the cabeza (head gasket) is blown. The motor basically needs to be rebuilt.

It would take 2 or 3 days there. Can we drive it back to Puerto Peñasco? They don't think it would be wise. Maybe if we stopped every 2 or 3 kilometers and filled it with water, but water is coming out of the exhaust, they don't think we'd make it.

OK. OK.... how much would you charge to tow us back to Puerto Peñasco? At this point I'm just grabbing words at andom out of the dictionary, I'm tired. Carl is too, but we've both kept our cool. The have a chat, and for the work they've done, plus the towing they've already done, plus the tow back to PP, they say $3000 pesos. I say, ok, bueno!

So we get the car back up on the trailer, and we climb out the windows, get into the truck and we're home. We'll see a mechanic (Oswaldo's trustworthy guy) on Monday. Now we have to cab over to get Shadow, then we'll walk him home to work out the day's kinks.

Oh, the total? 4830 pesos, about $389 USD.

Off to Phoenix

It being late October, the book sales start again in Phoenix. So we're heading up early Friday. I'll drop Carl at the sale (Shadow will be with his dogsitter Adrienne, which he loves, don't let him tell you any different.) Then it's clothes shopping time! I'm meeting a friend, and I have a whole list of other things as well, from as pedestrian an item as red wine vinegar to a new soft-sided cooler. OK also pretty pedestrian. However, Carl scored the perfect collapsible book cart down here, with folding boxes:





Cheryl and Dan's friends have been here for nearly three weeks, and we've spent some time with them. They are loving the beachy life. Actually, it's a daughter of friends of Cheryl and Dan's, and a friend of hers, so they aren't actually even friends of friends, they are total strangers, but lots of fun. Cari-Ann and Nick:



We've been out to dinner a few times, and had them over here once. And we went out to Pinacate once, sans Carl. I'll go again, it's quite beautiful- the sun is so intense here that the signs that were facing the sun are burned out:














I've done a little snorkling latey, and have seen many sergeant fish, little and big:


As well as a garfish:


triggerfish:

and button jellies, which aren't really jellies at all, and don't sting but look like little blue daisies.


We also saw the most amazing schools of little tiny fish on the shoreline. It was like a black cloud moving along the surf, and when you got close you saw it was composed of thousands upon thousands of little fish. They moved as one, and if you stuck your hand in amongst them, there would be a gap around your hand, and when you removed it it would close up again.

The little boy next door just came up to me and said, "What's up?" with a big grin. What a cutie! I used to just get scowls from the little boys around here (I think because we made their Oswaldo move away), so it's nice to get grins and waves and "what's up"s.

We got the AC in the car fixed for our trip, and in the process found out that we need a new starter. Better here than in Phoenix. So we're just waiting for that to be fixed. Because they do that right way, no waiting. Sort of like doctors. I need to get my tailbone area infiltrated with cortisone, and the doctor, a specialist, said to meet him tomorrow at the clinic with the drug and he'll do it then. I made the mistake of looking at the needle and now I'm a little freaked out, but it will be ok. At least it's not going behind my eye. Been there.

In Phoenix we'll stay with Peter and Betty again, always fun. I've sent an order of MagicKitchen.com food over there, thanks to Greg, so we'll attack that on Saturday. And I think some pool swimming on Saturday is in order as well. We're staying an extra day this time instead of coming right back.

I'll blog again if anything of interest happens in Phoenix!

Foggy Sunday

It's foggy outside today, which is a first. Of course it's only 6:45 AM, I'm pretty sure the 38 degrees coming will burn it off.

My pool might be closed for the season, or at any rate it hadn't been cleaned in a while, so I stopped going. But I really want to keep my swimming muscles in shape, so yesterday I swam in the ocean from Penasco del Sol to Sandy Beach. Its a long way, and probably took me 45 minutes. So proud of myself!

I saw a Great Blue heron fly over me and land on the beach, and an osprey hung over me for while.



Ok, here's the deal, if you're going to read my blog, you're gonna have to see pictures of my cute dog.

Waiting for me to throw the ball.

Coming out of the waves


Just being cute

um.. walking. Ok not so cute.


Here are just some general shots of the beach and a guy with a metal detector who's there every day.




Our friend Tina at the Sandbar goes to Mirador beach every Monday with her guy and some other friends and they hang out and swim and play Bocce ball. She's invited us, and I think I'll try to make it. Then they go to the Thirsty Parrot to watch football, where you pay a nominal price for some draw tickets and every quarter you can win a jersey or a ball cap or something, and at half time they put out a big free buffet. She said once it was Chicken Cordon Bleu, next time it was Chiles Rellenos. Sounds good to me!

The new crock pot is great for cooking beans and anything that you might ordinarily cook in the oven. I just don't cook things for 6 hours as the recipes call for, usually I halve the time for chicken, it's plenty fall off the bone by then.

It's still 38 degrees here, but it's cool at night, and that's a big relief. During July and August, at midnight it was still at least 35 degrees outside. Now it cools down as soon as the sun goes down.

Our friend Tanya who was at Rene's and then was at Jerry's is now at the Shark Bite. Coming into the Malecon, down on the main drag, it's a little place up above the shops on the left. Last night they had $1.00 cocktails! I sat and had a Screwdriver and watched the sunset and chatted with Tanya, who was amazingly unbusy.


Twice this last week we misjudged the height and speed of the tide and got our clothes and towels soaking wet. Man, it comes in fast when it's a high high tide (comes further up the beach). Oh well, that's why we have a clothesline.

Last week a man came to the door. He was saying comprar, buy, and oro, gold, but I couldn't put it together that he was there to buy any gold we might have for sale. The people here are so patient, though! They will go over and over it until you get it.

Yesterday little Diana asked if she could come to my house. So in she came, and we talked and talked. No, she talked and talked, and I tried to understand. She drew pictures, she even wrote things down, but I still didn't quite get what she was asking. She said, (this is for Cheryl) "Recordar nombre de su abuela", and she drew a picture of a woman scratching her head- ok I have to scan this, one sec. Of course I kept it! By the way, I said, yes I remembered the name of my grandmother, but that wasn't what she wanted.

The bear drawing was because I was telling her that my teacher is telling me a story about The Clan of the Cave Bear.



She would say, "shoooooo!" like a rising sound, and then say, "¿Mucho? "

Then she said something about (She spelled it gugar) but I think she meant jugar.(play) Then she said gato en la computadora. I made her laugh by doing an image search on cats. Then I opened up snood and she played a few games. She's a great kid.

Got invited to another nine-year-old's birthday party. It's a boy this time, and Carl had the brilliant idea of buying him a soccer ball. The party is tonight, and I'm going to brush up on some Spanish phrases so I can ask people questions and then not understand the answers.