5C's Que Pasa

I just want to thank you all so very much for your input into the black tank post. There is so very much to absorb ( is that a pun??) and hopefully some of you picked up some pointers in addition to us.  You truly inspired me with your comments.  We will be sure to let you know what path we take.

Today was my weekly 90 minute massage session.  I think that I am finally making progress with a serious issue.  Only three more sessions to go before we have to say adios to the Isla.  It is very obvious to us that we will be coming back to a different Isla next season.  Looks like many more roads within the village are going to be paved.  No idea how the sewer situation is going to pan out.

Colin is living on about 5 hours of sleep.  No further details as he is so involved in the competition, master classes and the evening gala that I am last on the list.  Ours hours just don’t mesh.  Actually after the evening performance the performer, entourage and special people ( Colin included ) go to a late 11PM dinner.  Once Colin gets back to Heriberto’s home, they start to play guitar until the wee hours of the morning.  But he is very happy 😆

You might remember my post not too long ago about Mama Pi.  She was taken to the shelter about a week before she was due to give birth.  She delivered 11 pups two days ago. Two were white and six were black and three were born dead.  Someone sent me this photo.  I think that the Mom looks exhausted and overwhelmed.

One of my hibiscus decided to give me four huge blooms at the same time.

Lovely huge blooms but they are so heavy that they turn inward.

I planted my poinsettia and it is flourishing.  That is swiss chard on either side.

It was a two cruise ship day today so the beach was busy.  Thankfully it was a great day weather wise with little wind.  Yesterday the wind was so strong that no umbrellas were able to stay put and you could see the sand flying along the beach.

However the waves were strong.  It took several minutes to get this boat out over the waves.

On my walk this morning I was surprised at the number of fish that had been thrown onto the beach from the very high wave activity.  Sadly I did not have my camera with me.  I also saw my first yellow/back water snake.

This is from Google as I did not have my camera with me.  It is a yellow bellied sea snake and they do bite and are poisonous.  We usually see then the end of February for just a few weeks.

As I was searching through my files for the snake photo which I know that I have somewhere, I came across this photo of the girls.  It was taken in June of 2015.  Such sweet girls.  Gosh they sure did have a good life.  Taken on our lake in Kelowna.

A Princess ship, first one out this evening.

The second ship was from the Norwegian cruise line.  They were both headed for the Baja.

There was a mere moment when both ships were in the same frame.  You can see the outline of the Princess ship ( a blunt up/down box shape ) on the the left of the Norwegian ship’s curved prow.

Meanwhile back on the beach we had some serious fishing going on.

So ends another wonderful day on the Isla.  Gosh all of this and I did not go anywhere except for a walk on the beach.

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His bags are packed.

There he goes.  Adios mi amor.  He has his guitar and cameras and a few clothes.

Colin left yesterday about noon to attend the Culiacan International Guitar Festival.  It was to be a week of intense music day and night and I chose to stay home so I could continue my research and just maybe relax a bit.  About 4PM I got a frantic phone call wondering where Colin was.  What bus did he catch, etc.  Turns out the bus was very late leaving but meanwhile I got myself into a wee panic as I was worried as to what happened.  I finally had a 5 minute phone call with him.   He only just got there but he had to leave right away for the concert hall.   He barely had time to change.

After some student competitions he attended the main event of the day.

This was a group out of Cuba and Colin said that they were excellent.  This was their first concert trip out of Cuba.

Here is a video of their music done in November 2015, a few members are different and they are now only eight in the group.  I agree, absolutely wonderful musicians.  They are playing one of favorite pieces of music from the opera Carmen.

Fortunately for Mazatlan they were giving a free concert here in Mazatlan tonight at Casa Haas.  Colin told me that I should go as they were so very very good.  So I could have gone tonight and I even had friends attending but I was reluctant.  I am not a fan of getting off and on the lancha and certainly not on my own in the dark.  I was unable to get anyone from here to go with me.  I have no qualms about going around Mazatlan or the Isla on my own just the thing with the lancha.  I know people who have fallen into the water and I don’t want to be one of them.

Colin with members of the Cuban group as well as Maestro Heriberto Soberanes.

Colin is so happy to be with all his friends again. Look at that grin.  So glad that he is able to take the time to immerse himself in the music.  He told me just this morning that he only got 5 hours of sleep last night and he will be going all out all day today.

Meanwhile back here on the Isla I watched the sunset on my own.

This is for my Mazatlan readers.  There is a performance at Casa Haas Thursday with the artist who is doing the grand finale in Culiacan on Friday.  You might want to pick a few of the free tickets.

We headed out about 11AM to pick up our laundry.  He wasn’t there!  We did get it at the end of the day thank goodness.  I haven’t seen these flags on the navel vessels before.  Not sure the reason why but it was nice to see.

We were meeting friends, Hannelore and Peter at the Plazuela Machado as we were attending a Sunday afternoon concert, one of the Camerata Campbell ‘symphony’ concerts.  This is the seventh year that Maestro Gordon Campbell had been putting on these Sunday afternoon concerts, some more symphonic than others.  We have been fortunate to attend some of the concerts every year since the very first year.  The reason the concerts were scheduled to start at noon is so that men could attend and still get home in time for their Sunday afternoon sports 🙄 Cost of each ticket is 300 pesos/$20.70CAD/$16.00USD  no matter where you sit in the Teatro Angela Peralta, so best to get your tickets early and have a choice of seating.  The program for 2019 has been chosen and it sounds wonderful.  We saw so very many friends yesterday.  Blogger Kathy who writes Kathy and Eric’s Travels were the first people we saw.

Kathy and Eric looking forward to a wonderful few hours of music.   Kathy writes an interesting blog about Mazatlan including reviews on some neat restaurants.  She and Eric also ride their bike around the countryside and post some wonderful photos to places many of us will never get to.

With his back to us is Jim ( musician and singer ) speaking with Hannelore and Peter.

The group is called Rondalla del Sector Educativo and are from Culiacan.  They are all secondary school teachers.  Many also teach music.  One fellow teaches teachers how to teach and another writes the curriculum that is being taught.  Amazingly thirteen of them play classical guitar and one the bass fiddle.  And then they began to sing 🙂  Incredibly amazing.  We were spellbound.  Of the fourteen in the group, six are from the same family.

Colin knew the fellow in the middle, Leoncio Bernal Amador, from his many years of attending the classical guitar festival in Culiacan.  He is the Artistic Director and does all the musical arrangements.

This is just a small snippet of how they sound….

We met our long time friend Bella who was there with a friend as Carl her husband was doing something else yesterday.  We also were greeted by a fellow who’s name escapes me but it think it was Lydia’s husband Craig??  They used to RV here in RV 1 long ago but now own a home in Mazatlan.  And then another lady came up to me and again I could not recall her name  ( she had huge dark sunglasses on ) but I think she lives here on the Isla in the 9 plex.

But one of the highlights of the afternoon was running into Barb and Don who we met nine years ago, our first year on the Isla.  They stopped RVing in Mexico several years ago but are staying for a month in a condo in Mazatlan.  They live in Ontario but even took the time in July of 2014 to drop by and see us in Kelowna.

I can’t make a ‘click on this link’ in a photo caption so here is the link to their visit to us on July 20, 2014.  Barb reminded me that she still reads my blog every single day.  I know that she has been reading since I started blogging.  It was wonderful to see you both.  I also had the opportunity to shake hands with Maestro Campbell and thank him for bringing this talented group to Mazatltan.  He was almost speechless with how overwhelmed he was by the wonderful concert and that says a lot as he is seldom without words.  He mentioned bringing them back for the tenth anniversary of the Camerata 😀   I hope that we will still be here two years from now.  Meanwhile I bought a CD of their music for 100 pesos.

The delightful afternoon continued on as the four of us headed for a late lunch/early dinner at La Bohemia on the Plazuela.  I just had to take this photo of the interior during the daylight.  I wonder if there are photos of what this house looked like back in the day.

We had a good meal but it was not perfect this time.  Two plates had to be sent back to be heated.  But that did not stop the never ending conversation.  We always enjoy getting together with Hannelore and Peter.  We really must try and get together one summer.  They only live about 2.5 hours away from us.  They are also loyal blog readers.  I love when my blog readers become good friends.  Thanks for the chocolates 🙂

As we were waiting for our launcha to take us back to the Isla I took this photo.  I really like all the colors of the life jackets.

Next stop was to pick up our laundry. Yes, he was there. While Colin was inside I took this shot of the dog hopping up and down all around this grilling drum.  He was really trying to get a scrap or two.

So ended a truly wonderful Sunday.

The time has come.  We need to make a change.  Our black tank treatment which we changed two years ago after cleaning out our tanks professionally is no longer doing what it should be.  The 100% biodegradable treatment we started to use is no longer effective.  Tank Techs RX worked well for two years but now the odor we have when we dump is not pleasant at all.  The previous tank treatment we had used worked great but was discontinued.

So now I need your help.  Seriously, I want the input of all the RVers who read this blog post.  It won’t take but a moment or two for you to make a comment or even email me on what you use to treat your black tank.  Or do you even use anything?  I know that many do not.  Please make a comment as this will help not only us but many others who read my blog.

I ask you again to please make a comment as we really need your input.  We are even getting smells out of our stack before we need to dump.  The RV tech here told us that it was possibly the enzymes eating the you know what stuff 😳   We aren’t sure about that.  Please help us out and give us some advice.