5C's Que Pasa

I left yesterday at 12 noon and returned about 2:20PM today.  In that time I have had only 5 hours of sleep. Twenty one of those hours were spent either speaking with a wide variety of engaging and intriguing people or listening to some of the most brilliant and emotionally rich music I have ever been privileged to listen to.

Or course it was great to spend time with mi amore Colin. I have been to Culiacan before but Colin showed me an intense 90 minute walking tour of centro before we had to return to out hotel and prepare for the concert.

The lovely mercardo in centro. Much narrower aisles then the one here In Mazatlan but cleaner and overall nicer looking.

We had a bit of private time and a small snack here.

The view from our room at the Ramada Inn on the 7th floor.

It was a spectacular visit and concert and I will address that in more detail in the next post.  I just wanted to let you know that I am back and that the girls are just fine.  Caeli saw me first but wasn’t too interested in greeting me.  She had already bonded with her sitters.  Colin and I have often said that if something happened to us that she would very quickly adapt with whomever she found herself with.  Carmeh on the other hand was frantic in her greeting.  I had to hold her for a very long time and when I finally put her down she yet again wanted to be held.  That is not her normal persona.  She even leaned her head into my chest.  I have been home for 5 hours now and she won’t let me out of her sight.  Carmeh would not adapt to anyone but us.  I was pleased overall to discover that they did eat and did heed the sitters.

Linda and Kevin dropped me off and had to leave right away due to another commitment.  The sitters left within ten minutes of my arrival and suddenly I found myself alone with the girls.  I was happy to see and hug my girls but suddenly I became very sad and emotional.  I was moved to tears and I wanted to be with Colin.  It did not take long for me to figure out that I was going through a decompression of the high I had been enjoying the last 26 hours.  I am normally just fine on my own but the difference between the intensity of emotion and wonderful moments of my visit and the sudden silence and isolation made me feel abandoned.

The girls and I had a long late afternoon beach walk, then they slept for a long time in a very deep sleep.  That made me wonder how much they slept last night.  Typing this post has steadied my emotions.  It is rather difficult not being able to contact Colin and hear his voice.  He is so involved with the Guitar Festival that he only has time to send me  3 or 4 quick sentences over the day.

I am currently enjoying a lovely 2012 Chilean Select Terroir Sauvignon Blanc  by Santa Ema that I picked up in Culiacan but only had time for a glass while there.  Needless to say I carted it home and it is simply splendid now that I have re chilled it.

Happily back in my leisurely groove here on the Isla.

Guess what 😯   ‘The Road’ is about 99% paved.  We left via the beach and returned on the road and we were surprised to see the final paying happening. Perhaps just 1/4 mile left to go.

I remains cool and windy here.  Apparently 25 states here in Mexico were affected by this storm.  Hopefully we will be returning to some much warmer temperatures in a few days.

Surprise 😯   I’m leaving and also heading to Culiacan.  Sadly the girls are staying behind.

There is a particular guitarist that I want to see, you could say he is one of the best classical guitar players in the world if not the best.  I did travel with Colin and the girls in 2012 to see David Russell perform in Culiacan and we had a delightful evening post concert. This post explains how little sleep one gets during the Festival, this was posted on March 10 2012, and explains how I and the girls got to Culiacan that year.  I really can’t believe how cheeky I was back four years ago. We just can’t take the girls any longer.  Carmeh has been too fragile the past few years plus Heriberto’s sons, our built in dog sitters, are studying away from home and we could not leave the girls alone in a strange home.  Think dog ramps,  slippery ceramic tile floors, stairs, etc.

OMG, was that really me back in 2012?  I did have a huge crush on Ricardo……

I have to admit that I did have a marvelous time that year.  David Russell never performs in the same place twice.  He had such a great time in Culiacan in 2012, the year I attended, that he came again in 2013 ( Colin wrote this post in 2013 ) and now this year will be the third time.  Of course I just have to go.  As Colin traveled by bus he can’t turn around and come back to pick me up.

Actually I never intended to go but things simply fell into place.  Our good friends Linda and Kevin who hosted Heriberto and Isela one evening in February were eager to listen to David Russell play and are traveling to Culiacan today.  However they have to be back on the Isla mid afternoon Thursday as Linda is teaching a beginner English class to some local residents.  Perfect idea 💡  I will leave with them about noonish today and return tomorrow by 3PM.

Also after some serious thought on both our parts, our dog sitter situation fell into place.  I won’t bore you with the multitude of instructions I have left and the numerous post it notes.  This will be the first time that they have been left overnight.  Hopefully it won’t be as hard on them as it is on me 🙁

Meanwhile the storm did begin to take place last night about 5:30PM.  The RV was even rocking in the high wind.   At that moment I realized that I might have to abort and stay here.  Now thunderstorms were forecast for  today, Wednesday morning.  It did get very cool last night.  Quite the storm.  After my shower I put on my flannelette nightie 😳   Well it was that cold even with all the windows closed.

Wind was up….

…as was the surf.

Carmeh tucked in on one end of the sofa.

Caeli tucked in on the other side. They did not want to move to out for their final bathrooms but they did and then we all piled into bed together.

Friend Croft has family here in midst of this storm.

We woke up to 58F/14C and sun peeping through the clouds.  Other than the rain showers the storm was a non event.  Other than cooler temps for the next few days things will be returning to sunny skies.  Good thing as we have two cruise ships in port today.  It was cool in the RV but the girls had it figured out.

Sitting in the sun on the dash.

So I am off to Culiacan.  Hopefully the girls will be fine.  They will be alone for 3 – 4 hour periods of time and overnite.  That is the tough one for me.  However I think they can handle it for one night in their life, being alone from 10PM to 8AM.  Tricky deciding to leave the A/C on or off because of the unusual weather situation.  Final decision is to leave it on at 76F with the windows closed.  That way they won’t get too hot nor too cool.  The A/C will only come on if the temperature rises above 76F, meanwhile the fan will run on low.  Much easier than teaching someone our A/C situation and having to open/close all the windows.

Adios everyone, talk to you soon.  I already miss my girls 🙁

…while Colin stayed home to dog sit.  I really wanted to go to this play reading and Colin really wanted to stay a few extras days in Culiacan after the International Guitar Festival ended.  So we negotiated.  He wasn’t keen on attending the play reading but as I had already mentioned I knew that this was going to be extra special and wanted to attend.  So rather than leave Sunday afternoon as is his normal or even delay his departure to Monday noonish he waited until today, Tuesday.  However instead of returning mid afternoon Saturday he won’t be returning until after dinner Sunday.  We are both happy with the deal we made 😆  I should explain that it would have been too difficult on the girls if he left and then I left a few hours later. Well at least in my opinion.  I just didn’t want to upset them anymore than necessary.  Yup, I do spoil my girls 😉

What made this play reading so very special was that it was written by a Mexican playwright  ( Daniel Serrono ) from Guadalajara and that it was an award winning play.  However what caught my attention was that this was to be the premier production in English having only been performed in Spanish until this last weekend.

I had explained in my January 18th, 2016 post what a play reading was……

This particular production was a one act play titled ‘Rome al Final de la Via’ or ‘Rome at the End of the Track’.  There were only two cast members.

The guitar was used to change the mood during a particular segment and also to mark the passage of time between scenes. Evangelina ( center ) played by Eva Audelo  was also the director of the play and on the right is Estella Alanis playing the part of Amelia.  I had seen her last year in the dinner theatre production of  Murder in Mazatlan.  I have to say that Eva was outstanding in her performance.

The playing was captivating right from the start and I forgot to take photos until will into the play.  If it weren’t for the lady next to me loudly eating two bags of popcorn I would have been totally immersed in that Mexican village sitting by the railway tracks waiting for the train to come.  The bag rattling and crunching ruined some of the magic but reminded me to take photos.  Here is an excerpt from the El Recro program….

It was amazing how just by using their shawls in a different manner with each scene we could sense the passing of time.  These two can act.  At the end they received many bravos!

…another excerpt from the El Recreo site.

Each scene was a passage of time and included laughter, seriousness and wisdom.  The play showed the passage of time from about 7 years of age to 80.

Sadly it was not a full house but I sincerely hope that this particular production will be repeated next season so that more can enjoy this work of art.  It was outstanding.  I heard audience members exclaim that it was the best they had see in any play reading.  My companion and I just had to get somewhere so we could sit over a glass of wine and talk about the performance.  I was still glowing when I got back home here on the Isla.

We have been dealing with a very high tide and a lot of wave action, not to mention wind.

I haven’t wanted to take too many photos as I don’t want the ocean spray on my camera lens. Picture row after row of waves like this.

High tide was at 8AM this morning and as you can see the waves were breaching our fence.

It has made for some very interesting ocean watching.  There are slower waves for a bit and then the large ones return and keep on surging.  It has been very windy also.  Of course this has affected the temperatures and we have cooled down.  The high today has been 75F.  With the tide coming up so high the beach is totally cleared of any debris.  We went for a walk about 10:30 this morning and the sand was smooth with no ripples.  Because of the wet sand we were able to walk with no flying sand.

We were told to expect rain and thundershowers today.  Well so far we have had perhaps a total of 8 minutes of the wet stuff.  The thundershowers keep getting delayed.  So funny how the weather site announces that we can expect thundershowers to begin at 2:45PM and then at 3PM they change that to 5:30PM.  Regardless, it is always fascinating to be able to observe Mother Nature up close.

Colin left at noon today for the Culiacan International Guitar Festival.  He took the bus but with his camera bag, guitar case, briefcase and carry on suitcase he was rather loaded.  I thought he should have taken the car but after the breakdown he had last year he wanted to relax and enjoy the comfort of bus travel.  Besides it is likely cheaper than the fuel the car would consume.  Of course I did forget to take my camera to the embarcadero.  I took the girls with me so they could see Colin being dropped off and walking away.  Carmeh  just about went loco moving from window to window in the car to see if she could see him.  She and  Colin are very close and have become even more attached this winter.  I have begun to wonder how she will be when he goes to work once we get home.  My big concern today was witnessing how Colin was going to manage to get all his stuff into the lancha with the wave action.  However a boat had just left so we left him standing on the dock.

That is Carmeh right at the gate. Of course Caeli in on watch also but in a more comfortable laid back position.

Carmeh finally did come inside but remained ever vigilant just in case Colin was coming back.

It will be interesting to see what kind of evening we will have.  Storm or not, dogs pouting or not……

Lots of waves today and that means lots of energy in the air.  Carmeh ran like the wind today on our beach walk.  The last few days she has had low energy and we were getting concerned but today she was so very vital.  The tide is odd and we could only walk about noonish.  The water was warm like a bath and with a low tide we had lots of beach to play in.

I didn’t carry the camera with us today, we just enjoyed the day and each moment as it happened.  Colin and I both expressed how happy we were that Carmeh was having such a great winter.

The waves were non stop today and at times very high and frequent.  This was just a quick shot at sunset but suffice to say that the surf was visually engaging all day. We loved it.

Ahh sunset, that magical hour for bridal photos.

As I mentioned last post we have many French Canadians here at the moment and somehow I have been involved in a lot of conversation.  I have to say how amazed I am at how easily my French has come back and the ease of which the words pour out of my mouth.  I am not at a loss for words in either French nor Spanish.  I constantly amaze myself.

Mexican photographers like to create drama. Both the bride and groom are already wet from the high surf. Here the photographer in the white top has the groom laying on the beach with the bride pulling  his leg…..she is rescuing her husband!!

He is wet and her gown is damp and full of sand….romantic???

As instructed by the photographer they are walking into the sunset.  That is all their stuff in the foreground.  Colin told me that he saw a photography bag swamped by a wave.

I do hope that they enjoyed their beach wedding photography.

Regardless today was a great day for the C’s.