5C's Que Pasa

Successful festival with many guitar students attending from all over the world. Canada, Ukraine, Mexico, Hungry, Bolivia, Alemania. Maestros who give master classes and concerts come from Spain, New York, Paraguay,Russia, Mexico and Cuba. The week starts with the student competition, 3 days of playing by various people. On the 3rd day the winner is chosen. Prize $5000.00 U.S. Dollars. This winner is from Ukraine. The winner will play with the Culiacan Orchestra next year at the festival. It is a week of intense learning, socializing, eating with little time to sleep. Good thing it only happens once a year. Culiacan is a beautiful and very safe city. It is known for it’s education with many universities. This is the plan of the government to tackle the drug problem. Many say that Culiacan is much safer than Mazatlan. I find both very safe but prefer Mazatlan because it is smaller, less modern and I know the city better. Comments and Pictures below.

Below, Ricardo Gallen and myself. Ricardo is from Spain. Fabulous guitarist who Contessa and myself got to know very well last year. Yes he said, come to visit me in spain or in New York.

And for the record I must ad a photo from last year of Contessa the queen blogger with her new great friends Ricardo and Diego

Below, Heriberto, Isela, David Russell and his beautiful wife Maria. David and Maria are from Spain. One of the top guitarists in the world who travels world wide and has established foundations in needy countries. Contessa and myself had good discussions with them over diner last year. Wonderful people. It is a small world – my guitar teacher in Kelowna British Columbia knows David very well and actually spent time in England  with David when he was studying the guitar. Alan Rinehart says to say Hi to you, David

Autograph by Maestro

David Russell in concert

I have to ad an image from last year that includes my lovely wife Contessa who I miss so much. Unfortunately she was unable to come to the festival this year and had to stay home to rest ,Below Contessa with David and Maria

Below,David, Maria, Heriberto, Isela and Berta Rojas and of course , me. Berta is from Paraguay. Her music so lovely. She has a sincere passion for the guitar and plays it like it is a piece of her. What a lovely lady and how compassionate she is. Between pieces she stopped to talk to the audience about her experiences and life as if the audience was in her living room.  Following are some photos of her in concert.

Below, Our diner after the concert by Berta. What a fabulous get together. We ate at a high class chinese restaurant. Food was best I have ever had at a chinese restaurant. (I am starting to type like words are spoken in Spanish, leaving the “thes” etc). After diner Berta played, Isela sang and then Heriberto played. A night in my life to remember. Photos below

And the winner of the student competition, Marko Topchii from the Ukraine , he didn’t know at this moment – he was practising on stage and the cleaning ladies came on right infront of him and damp mopped all around him. Congratulations on the win in a very competitive group. All guitarist here are capable of being top musicians according to the judges. Now I must get ready to go to tonight’s concert by julio Cesar Olivia from Mexico.

Well Colin is alright and having a fabulous time in Culiacan other than the fact that he can’t get the laptop beyond the password needed stage to send out an email.  So other than the comment section of my blog we are unable to communicate.

It is Carmeh, who really is her Daddy’s little girl, that is not doing well.  She seemed fine yesterday.  Last night she would not come to bed with Caeli and I but slept on the sofa facing the RV door waiting.

This morning she did not want to eat her breakfast and when taken on her morning walk she threw up, the usual yellow froth, often a sign that a dog needs food.  Back home she still would not eat and from time to time during the morning ate grass and vomited.  I got down on the floor to play with her in order to get her to eat which is something Colin does with her.  She just turned away from me.  Finally I gave in and gave her 2 tiny pieces of her favorite treat.  She refused them and even laid down to sleep without eating them.

Just a few minutes ago she once again vomited but on the sofa and there was a tiny bit of bright red blood in it.  Not a good sign.  Even worse I could hear her stomach gurgling loudly and constantly.  She is looking at me with such sad eyes asking me to fix her but I don’t know what is wrong.  I don’t know what to do.  I just hope she is not too much pain.

Fortunately this is Wednesday and our Vet back home in Kelowna is open until  8PM PST ( 7PM my time ) so I will wait a few hours and see how she is before making the call.  She could just be very hungry or she could be having a recurrence of her chronic GI problems which is not good.

I also know that if I have to take her into Mazatlan to see the vet someone here will take me in so all I can is wait and see.  It is a cool and breezy afternoon so I will just sit and cuddle with her.

Tags: Culiacan, health, Mazatlan, medical, pets, The girls

Alas not for all of us, just Colin.  He left yesterday for his annual week at the International Guitar Festival in Culiacan.  I was suppose to go, well at least for part of the week but some things are just not meant to be.

Adios from all your girls....

We always miss him so much when he is away.  The time passes much too slowly.

Unfortunately he is having problems with the laptop and can’t send me any messages.  Hope to hear form him later today via an internet cafe.

This was our Sunday night sunset.

Tags: Culiacan, Mexico, sunsets

Many of the locals are trying to learn English.  Part of their assignments are to interview Americans and Canadians here on vacation.  Afterwards we fill out a form rating the student.

A week again Sunday this 16 year old girl timidly approached a group of us RVers asking if she could interview us. I thought it was sweet that her 29 year old brother ( who did not speak English but seemed to understand some of it ) accompanied her, like an escort. He also had his 3 month old Jack Russell with them.

Yesterday we just hung out together before preparing for a road trip.

Mary came by a day early yesterday, to give us our massages but I think the girls get more attention then we do 🙂

Photo for Kevin and Ruth..

Our new Sunday hats!!

Tags: Isla de la Piedra, massage, Mazatlan, Mexico, Stone Island, The girls

One here, two there, bit by bit the Isla RVers are heading north.  Some want to golf for a month in California, others want to shop and yet others are meeting friends before heading home.

Sadly Colin and I only have 35 to 37 sleeps left here before we start moving these wheels.  We haven’t quite decided what our travel plans and various stops are as we head towards Canada.  That is on the to do list. The only thing we know is that we get home to Kelowna on April 20th, so I will work it backwards…..eventually.  No rush.

The weather here is lovely with high surf.  Lots of local surfers out there and the beach has taken on a sculpted effect.  Shrimp boat season ends March 8th this year and the boats are out trying to catch every last shrimp.

So yesterday I hosted a farewell evening for RV1 to say adios to friends leaving Wednesday.

Everyone brought something and we had a feast. So much to sample, delicious stir fry veggies, homemade old fashioned beans, meat balls, a rice/quinoa mix, a Japanese cabbage salad and a yummy caesar salad...and lots of vino!

Bob had to work up an appetite.

The honored guests were Marjorie and Bob on the left.

It was so nice to have proper sit down dinner. Unfortunately Barrie was unable to join us last night.

Perhaps we all should have joined Bob on the rebounder, the flan was delicious.

...as were the fruit tarts with handpicked blueberries from Ontario.

Even more sweets, homemade butter pecan tarts. Considering we seldom have desserts we really overdid it last night.

Good thing we only say adios once per year!!!

Tags: food, friends, Isla de la Piedra, Stone Island, vino