5C's Que Pasa

How to you prefer to read?  An e-reader or a book?

I have started thinking about purchasing an e-reader.  We are traveling more and it would be nice to not have to haul three or four books with me.  Traveling in the RV makes it easy for me to bring along a large amount of books.  I prefer to hold a book to read.  However I have never tried an e-book device so maybe I might like it 💡

It wasn’t until George made a comment yesterday that I realized you can’t just go out and buy one.   This is what he wrote.  I would enjoy reading it, maybe will see if we can get a downloaded version.  Kindle format does not work on an iPad or Kobo, we will have to convert it to an e-pub format.

That is all Greek to me 😯   Amazon books only seem to sell Kindle e-books.  So does that mean that I have to buy a Kindle in order to read a book I purchase on Amazon?  I clicked on a Kindle link and got this…

Does this mean that if you buy an e-book on Amazon and get their free Kindle App that you can read that Amazon book anywhere, including George’s Kobo?  Somehow I don’t think so.   I am confused.  So if you only have a Kobo device then you can’t read an Amazon book on it, just on your tablet or computer?

So what type of e-device do you have and where do you find the books you read?  Which e-reader is the best?  I also want to know about reading outside in the sunlight.

Maybe I should just stick to reading a real book 🙄

I just finished this book a few days ago.  It was written by an American now living in Mazatlan, S.K. Carnes.  The Hotel Belmar is just a few blocks from her home on  Angel Flores here in Mazatlan.  The novel is a lovely story filled with the history of Mazatlan specifically and Mexico in general and centered around the ghosts who have lived at the Hotel Belmar on Olas Altas.  The ghosts are real people who have lived in the hotel over the years including John Wayne and Errol Flynn.  Susan has used the spirit life to unveil the history of the Belmar and at the same time reveal much history about this wonderful city.  If you have ever been to Mazatlan or plan to visit, this is a compelling read.   The book is crammed full of history but it is exciting to read what happened over the years.  I had no idea that Mazatlan is considered such an important place in Mexico.

Words from the author…

I wondered as I wandered past the old hotel with a commanding view of the Pacific. Wondered and wished to know the stories those walls could tell. All around the Hotel Belmar, the streets were named for Mexican heroes. Who were they? And who was left to tell these stories? Did the famous ghosts of the Belmar give interviews? Two years ago, I decided to find out.
The words of many Mexican songs tell such tales. Oh, to know the significance of which a Nation sings! Legends and superstitions layer Mexican culture. Unsolved mysteries. Secrets buried with the dead in mysterious graveyards and sunk with the gold and silver treasures of lost ships in the sands of Mazatlán’s famous harbor. Perhaps the greatest treasures were the stories waiting to be told.
The ghosts wanted to be heard because the community came to me with what they knew. I used my skills of illustration to create pictures of eleven infamous ghosts. The book was an international effort as I found myself, an American, collaborating with a Mexican “detective of history, ” a Canadian editor, and a Bosnian graphic artist to present this work of fancy and fact, drawing on research from Mazatlan’s archives, USC Berkley’s libraries and hundreds of books and articles. It was fun. It was exhausting. It was illuminating and gratifying. And it was just scratching the surface!

I don’t think that I have ever recommended a book before but please give this one a read.  You will be happy you did 😎

You can get the Kindle book by clicking here.  Only $5.84USD.   I like to have a book in my hands when I read and you can order a paperback by clicking here.  Only $15.00 USD.  There are also reviews to be read on those links.

The painters were returning, hopefully for the last time today.  However we were in desperate need of some fruits and veggies that we can’t get on the local veggie truck.  So Colin headed into Centro early this morning while I waited for the painters and did some gardening chores.  Of course he was back much before they arrived at 11:20AM.

I am happy to report that they are finished and that they did an excellent job.  The RV looks wonderful and we will be using them again next winter.  They did an amazing job at matching our custom paint colors.  It is almost identical and I don’t think that anyone besides us would notice any difference.  The quality and gloss of the paint is remarkable.

Of course I was going to post about it.  In fact I have four blogs ready to write ( different subjects ), all the photos are edited but time is my problem.  So much going on behind the scenes so to speak.  We have three sets of friends that I am in contact with who will be visiting as early as tomorrow.  However that has been postponed due to a death of a friend and they needed to return to Culiacan today.  They may return to Mazatlan next week.  We have other friends crossing the border into Mexico tomorrow with their RV for the first time.  They are most capable but of course I worry.  However I have given them all of my wisdom so they should have no problems 😉  Looking forward to hugging them on Tuesday.  Then I have a very good friend returning to Mazatlan for a week in early March.  She now lives on the east side of Mexico.

So instead of doing a proper blog I stole a few hours for myself today.

Again another gift from Mother Nature.

We knew that the painters would be late ( as usual ) so went for our morning walk.  So glad that we had the camera with us.

We and this bunch of the horses were the only things we saw on the beach this morning.  That is a  foal on the right.

For the first time ever in all the years we have seen this fellow he stopped the wagon and the horses.  He was asking Colin where our dogs where.  I guess that he has been wondering the past year but today the conditions were right for him to stop.   Very sweet of him.  He wanted to know if we were going to get more.

These two took advantage of the stop to chow down.

And off they went.  Yes they are thin.

We did just over three miles round trip and on the way back we kept finding peanuts and twigs along the beach.  All off the horse cart.  I can only assume that he gets some of his feed from the peanut farm here on the Isla.

So the painters eventually did arrive.  We were shut out of the RV for a bit as they did their thing as the door was taped off.  Actually today it was only the main fellow and his very young son who came.  I think today was a school holiday as we saw many young ones on the beach.  Colin gave the kid a guitar to play with for a bit which kept him happily occupied.  They will be back yet again tomorrow 🙄

In answer to a comment left on my last post, yes we we do need our generator heading North.  The first night we are dry camping ( and it is so very hot that we need to run the generator to run the AC to cool us off ) and the second night even thought we are in an RV park here in Mexico we do not plug in due to faulty electricity.  Then once we cross into the US we do not stay in an RV park until Lake Havasu.  Plus it will be at least 70% cheaper to get the generator radiator rebuilt here in Mazatlan.  North of the border parts will have to ordered and that will take weeks if not longer and so on.

There was some great news today.  A couple have been found who are ‘honored’ to bring down our skylight.  They actually had to have someone fly down with a part they needed years ago so they get it.  So I ordered the part and it will get to them in about a week with enough time to arrive before they head South out of California 😀

It almost looked like this was going to be the best shot of the sunset.

But it turned out to be a very special end to the day.

So how was my day?  Well I am over 12,000 steps, that should tell you something 😯

The best part of the last 24 hours is that for our very late dinner last night, we cut and ate our first meal of kale.  It was very good.

We had a good beach walk early this morning just beating the incoming tide.  We met some folks from RV2 who had seen some newly hatched tiny turtles cross over the sand towards the water.  They did not touch them but made sure than none of the birds in the area got the babies before they reached the water.  Sadly when we reached that area we did not see any turtles but we still had a good walk.

The painters were two hours late this morning.  They arrived while I was out collecting money from others who were signing up for the fireworks cruise.  We still have four open spots.  While I was gone Colin cleaned the inside of the RV.  He is so very special.  He was outside playing his guitar and I was inside here on the computer ( where I spend way too much time ) when I heard a thump.  I had a feeling and sure enough as I raced to the bathroom I could see that the skylight over the shower area was broken.

Apparently one of the guys had dropped his sander on top of our skylight and broke through the top layer.

My heart sank.  Of course you can’t get these in Mexico.  I spent three hours on line and on the phone trying to find something in stock in Tuscon..  We have friends there for another day before heading here but no one had anything in stock.  I did try to call your Telus number A & L but it shut down after three rings.  No worries as we can’t get the part we need.  I did find the part being  sold in Missouri, however shipping that skylight here will cost more that the cost of the part.  Regardless that skylight does need to be replaced.  Yes the painters will have to pay for it but I do feel badly as that will be all of their profit.

Eric was at RV2 today and did come to check out the damage.  Hard to tell by the photo but he was able to duck tape the pieces together for now.

Eric verified that the part I had found online was the correct one.  He told us that he had taken our muffler in this morning and that there were no mufflers like this in Mexico.  So hopefully the shop will be able to repair the one we have.

The sun still set.

We can only hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

Colin managed to drive out and pick up our clean laundry and drop off the soiled laundry.  Not sure how we will we have time to get into the mercardo in Mazatlan this week to replenish our veggies and fish.  The painters say they will be here by 10AM tomorrow 🙄   We shall just have to see what the day brings.