5C's Que Pasa

We were headed into Mazatlan but this time via the Playa Sur embarcadero. As you can see the locals are cold and wearing heavy jackets.

So much rust on her bike chain but it still is taking her where she needs to go.

The lancha arrives.  Unlike the main embarcadero there is no handle to grab onto to get into the boat. Due to the shape of these boats they have to come into dock with the prow directly into the dock which makes it a struggle to get on and again to get off.  At least for this senior.  I just can’t lift my legs high enough, maybe its my two titanium hips.

Two car carriers in port yesterday.  Such massive vessels.

Some tuna boasts in for maintenance.

The dock on the Mazatlan side of the port at Playa Sur.

From here we were walking.  There has to be a better way to fill this hole!  Much later when we walked back only about 9 inches of orange was showing.

Interesting tree roots and not much space to grow.  Our first stop was to drop off my camera as it has a large dust spot on the CCD.  Colin believes that it might have become visible after I dropped the camera at the Grand Canyon.  It will be ready in a few days.

Lovely new road and sidewalks on both sides closer to Centro along Carnival.

First stop was a Panama bakery to get some croissants for a special meal.

Their cakes always look so good that you want to buy one.  We refrained.

Next stop was to the Micheal  Gallery on Angel Flores to get three new wine glasses.  I wanted a small cup but the new ones are huge, taller and heavier, virtually unbreakable.  I will have to restrict myself to only half glasses of wine or I will unknowingly be drinking too much vino.  Always so many  wonderful and unique things to see here.

Next stop was to get some plastic covers for our new tablecloths.   As the fabric store was right across from the Mercado Pino Suarez I went in to get some oranges for our orioles which we have not yet seen.

Of course Tony’s Burgers was just down the aisle.

Colin suggested we split a shrimp burger which was just enough.

We also shared a litre of fresh squeezed orange juice.  It took a lot of oranges and was refreshing at only 50 pesos/$3.25CAD/$2.45USD.

We were back shortly after 2PM, tired but happy we did that big walk.  I clocked in over 12,000 steps yesterday.  It was warmish as I had dressed for the cool weather but the sun and humidity came out.  Still better than rain.

The best part of the sunset happened behind us.  There were storm clouds in the distance with a rainbow running thru the middle of that pink cloud.  My camera was in the shop and I had no idea how to use the large camera so I missed getting a good shot.  Not sure if you can find the rainbow.  Despite not getting a great shot it was still special to see.

Audrey took this photo which it better.

There were two cruise ships in port Tuesday but the weather was not cooperating.  Some did come to the beach but did not stay long.

It was the perfect day for me to trim some of my plants.  Cool, breezy and I did not have to wear my hat.  I took all of this off two very prickly bougainvillea.

All of this hibiscus and half of the orange flower plant ( no idea of its name ) were covered  with this one fast growing bougainvillea.  Sorry I never got a photo of the plant at the end of this row that I also pruned.  It took over two hours to get this job done and it all looks great right now.  Interesting how this side of the yard does well as opposed the other.  My Bird of Paradise on the extreme right had bloomed before we got here.  I have only seen it bloom the once.

One of the different palm trees that we planted about 7-8 years ago.

Last year was the first time we saw these fruits or seeds.  When we arrived less than two weeks ago they were all green and suddenly have become colorful.

When Colin went to dump yesterday and opened the sewer connection in the ground, several large cockroaches jumped out.  We never stay connected, only when we are about to dump, as we don’t want any critters crawling up into the RV.  Those cockroaches were enough to prompt him to move anything that we had stored on the ground under the slide outs.  We don’t want any uninvited visitors.

The boy band and the vendors did not have a good beach day yesterday.

One of the ex RVers who now rents a house here on the Isla puts on a spaghetti dinner once per month at one of the beach restaurants.  Great margaritas for only 50 pesos.  It was well attended by many on the Isla, not just RVers.

There was even live entertainment.  We had a great time.  Unfortunately the rain began as we left and continued for most of the night.  The Isla was also having a few electrical issues, perhaps because of the rain?  So we simply unplugged for the night to avoid the on and off repeated sequence of the electricity.  We had a great sleep listening to the rain on the roof and breathing that fresh smelling air.

Yesterday Colin decided was wine organizing day. We have wine stashed everywhere in the RV and I have no recollection of what I bought nor how many of anything. So while I sat at my computer Colin was pulling wine out. Those boxes in the back left each hold four boxes of 4 liters of wine, about 5 750 ml bottles. Wonderful BC wine that I legally brought across into the US.

He counted how many bottles and I figured out a system to organize everything. This way we get the same variety of wines every 18 days and are not only drinking one type over and over. So I now have 4 sets of 18 bottles inside the RV and the others are somewhere in the bowels of the RV.

Ismael preparing the soil to plant our last two new plants.  Colin was going to do it but the soil is so full of roots that you need this special tool to break the ground.

So many palm tree roots in that small area of the flower bed.  Looks like I never got a photo of what he planted.  Perhaps I will get a photo manana.

This car full of young fellows stopped along the beach just as one of the wandering groups of musicians was passing.  The band started to play but the guys mostly ignored them and were busy checking their latest texts.

Some of the working horses heading back home for the night with one of the new foals following behind.

Impromptu happy hour with Diane and Pierre.  Don’t they all look so very relaxed?

Some local fishermen out at sunset.

So ended a happy Monday.

They started at 7 AM Sunday to put in a new patio for Dave.  The materials had been delivered Saturday afternoon.

A family affair.  Rene in the white shirt and two of his threes sons, the wee guy in the blue shirt and the fellow in the hat who mostly manned the cement mixer.  This was a high end install.  Usually they only mix the cement on the road.  Note how they protected the RV with plastic garbage bags.

At the crucial stage two workers were brought in.

It looks wonderful.  Dave will be happy once he gets back from the US next month.

Meanwhile we got to work organizing our pots and plants for both the front and back patios.

It was too hot working at the back so we moved things to the breezier area.  We now have 14 plants in pots.  I would prefer to have all Terra cotta but we do have to move the plants to the back when we leave and they will still be plenty heavy in plastic.  Half are still in Terra cotta pots and will be replaced as those deteriorate.  Hopefully my plants will survive next summer while we are away.

I am very happy with my four very large pots for vegetables. I planted one pot with kale and the other with Swiss chard.  Once these two are doing well I will plant the other two pots so that I have a constant supply of fresh greens.

Diane came home from golfing with a lovely arrangement of flowers for her patio.  Something about left over flowers from a wedding.

We then walked over to Cindy and Richards patio for a happy hour.

A new vantage point for my sunset photo.

Cotton candy clouds.

I have no idea the reason why but the twining of the road from Estrella to the Airport road continues.  It’s not like there is a lot of traffic on that road.  Plus just last year they smoothed out the potholes, added guard rails as needed, etc. and the road is already in great shape.

We arrived at the vivero (nursery) with no problems as we knew where it was.  So many choices but really not a great as in previous years.  The hibiscus were leggy and had no buds.  Much inferior to past years.  However after much inspection of the plants we made our final selections.  Always nice to be greeted back year after year.   I was gifted a small plant this year.

We made a few more stops to find large pots.  What a creative way to keep your window from falling down.

We got lucky on our third stop.  We had decided on plastic as the price was right.  Why pay 250 plus pesos on a terra cotta pot when  for 91 pesos I could get a plastic pot  that worked just as well.  I made my decision based on the number of plastic pots here in the RV park.  All of the plants seem  to be doing very well.  Very scientific indeed 🙂

But which pot in particular?  We spent a great deal of time choosing and then scurrying over to the computer to check the price.  None of the prices on the shelf were correct.  We chose wisely and got our pots at 30% off.

We had also done a mini grocery shop and between that and the bag of soil and all of our plants plus 6 others for a friend and a few extra pots for other friends we had a full load.

A tight squeeze.

Too tired to walk we just enjoyed the sunset from our site.  One of the last banana boats of the day.