5C's Que Pasa

We started Friday evening with dinner at a new Italian restaurant on Olas Altas located next door to the Freeman Hotel.  Long time blog readers and now friends Jenny and Brad who recently moved here, purchased the tickets for the evening and made the dinner reservation.  Of course it was all my idea :). We all enjoyed our meals at Piccola Roma.

I decided that it was not too far and I could walk to the theatre. Great choice as we got to see this lovely scene.

We were attending a Christmas concert, La Gala Navidena.  Santa was there to welcome us all.

Such a lovely setting.

A great first scene.  The backdrop is actually the street along Olas Altas.

It was a very energetic concert with a wonderful set that included several changes, the costumes, the professional singers, the many dancers, the adult choir in the background one either side of the tree and the children’s chorus were superb.  Note that the backdrop here is the same photo that I took above in my second photo.

Much of the dancing was of a Latina theme but there were even toy soldiers and other surprises throughtout.

The grand finale, here featuring the children’s choir.  Obviously some of these kids are going to be stars, great voices.  That is confetti dropping down.

It also fell on the audience, a good deal it. Glad it was not my job to sweep up.  We exited to several types of snacks and sweets in the foyer as well as Santa giving out huge bags of candy to all the children in the audience.  Truly a lovely Christmas concert.

We just couldn’t go home after all that excitement so we stopped off for a glass of vino before heading home.

Thursday I had an appointment to get my hair colored and cut.  I was unhappy with my hairdresser of many years here in Mexico and it was time for a change.  This is Gaby of Gaby’s Hair Salon in the Golden Zone.  She did the colour and highlights.

Her mother Rosie did my cut. It is a family run business and they are always busy.

I love my hair, most especially the price. It was 1200 peso less than what I have been paying. What is amazing is that they nailed my hair perfectly on a first visit.

Colin had come with me and just hung around, walked about and checked the area out as well as stopping to check on me every 40 minutes or so. We stopped here for lunch.  We were not expecting banda music on the beach.  We get enough of that on the Isla.

Tony’s is in the same complex as Gaby’s and had a shrimp burger on the menu.

So of course we tried it. It was just okay but we would not order it again. I was hoping that with the name Tony’s it just might be a great burger.  The plan was to eat and then do some shopping, as in me getting Christmas gifts for Colin but there was nothing close by and I am still not walking too much.  Looks like Santa might have to be sure to drop by as I haven’t done a good job this year.

We have started to use Uber as the pulmonias and taxis are very expensive to the Golden Zone where all of my appointments have been this past week.  Much better to pay 50% of the fare.  Yes I could take a bus for only 11 pesos but that would take longer and I don’t have the stamina. Besides Uber to the last medical appointment was only 30 pesos more, about 1.58USD.  Plus it is nice to have an air conditioned clean car.  I wanted to show you the red poinsettias that are being placed by the hundreds all along the malecon.  Quite pretty.

Those three cruise ships that we expected Tuesday showed up on Wednesday.  This Princess ship is that last of the three to arrive.

It was just being thrust towards the dock as we were leaving at 8AM for an appointment in Mazatlan.

Always a pleasure to cross the shipping channel into Mazatlan.  Three large ships is unusual though.  Holland America on the left, the Norwegian in the middle and the Princess on the right.

Long story short.  Instead of heading out to get an MRI, we first stopped to see Dr. Takashi Asaishi at Medicina Alternativa Japonesa.  He had returned my call by accident Tuesday evening and after hearing my tail of woe fit me in at 9AM Wednesday.  I wasn’t there fire minutes when he declared that my problem was thrombus.  Just a small clot in a small vein but enough to cause the swelling in certain areas, that heat and the pain.

He very carefully explained everything and also did a chiropractic check and according to him my body is not out.  So here I have an acupuncture needle behind my knee right next to the navy blue band.  He then hooked up an electrical nerve stimulation system which went on for a very long time.

Meanwhile the rest of the leg was ever so carefully massaged and then every 5 – 8 minutes a new heat compress was applied. Then I was flipped over and the massage and compresses continued on the front of the leg.  A good deal of Icy/Hot pain relief balm was also liberally applied.  The plan is to stimulate the veins to flow smoothly and to decrease the inflammation.

Dr. Takashi believes that this will help and that I am to continue doing what I can, here at home.  He is such a wonderful person and was the first to reach out to give me a hug.  Sadly he leaves Saturday with his family to spend Christmas in Tokyo.  He did give he his private email address in case I had any questions.

Those boats represent a huge amount of tourists visiting Mazatlan. We saw many of them here on the Isla once we got home.

Holland America was the first one out of port and was heading north.

Next was the new ship, the Norwegian Joy.  As you can see, a massive boat.

A feeding frenzy.

The Norwegian ship was heading further south.

Meanwhile the AC repair team was here and were working on taking out the old compressor at the back of the RV.

This fellow was working on removing the air filter at the front of the RV.

The old and the new compressors. Glad we decided to get the entire unit replaced rather than just the one section.

As you can see they worked late. They did not finish the job but got the majority of the work done.

Yesterday felt like a very long day to me.

The Princess headed out quite a bit later.

During ant patrol on Monday night Colin found a bunch of ants coming into our yard, over the wall carrying foliage from something on the other side of the wall.  He tracked them to a new nest in our yard and sprayed them.

Tuesday morning had us heading into Mazatlan for my second chiropractic appointment.  We were sitting in one lancha and  I noticed that the next one over had some Christmas decorations.  So nicely laid out and the first time I have seen one of the boats decorated.

I am going to gloss over my treatment. Suffice to say that the chiropractor and I were not on the same page and she really did not seem to be helping me.  Plus she was bullying me.  I was rather down when we came back home.  This Carnival ship was in port.  There were supposed to be three ships in on Tuesday but only one came in.

I can’t describe how shocked we were once we got home, to see one of my new and favourite hibiscus totally stripped of blooms and leaves.

And the one next to it half stripped.  What the heck?  Ants or a dreaded iguana.

Then mid afternoon I spied pieces of red and green moving along my brick edging next to the garden which is along that dreaded wall.  The read arrows show some of the ants eating my newly planted ( two days ago ) bougainvillea.  Colin got them all and even followed them to yet another nest in our garden.  Sprayed that also.

I was relieved to be able to sit and enjoy some Pinot Grigio during happy hour.  Enough stress for one day.

Happy hour was supposed to be because of the three cruise ships in port.  I found out today from Sue ( dancing Sue ) that she also had a happy hour for the three ships.  Oh well, next time.  It is not often that we have three in port at the same time.

Adios.  I hope that they all enjoy Puerto Vallarta as much as they did Mazatlan.

Colin with Care and me with Caeli.  Lots of love.

Gramma Katie with her grand dogs.  This is the back cover of our 2019 calendar.