Nov 15, 2011

Storm day….

It was in the forecast but came earlier than expected.

Colin serenaded in the wind and soon the rain followed.

One big huge puddle. We did have a few tiny breaks from the rain but not enough to venture out.

I felt sorry for the tourists from Mazatlan who came across on the panga ( what a ride that must have been ) and then boarded the Isla limousine service to a local hotel for their day in the sun and surf. None of these people ventured out onto the beach and after their meal they went back to Mazatlan. Prepaid and prebooked tours....no weather guarantee. We had no rain last year but did the year prior. Hopefully this was our token storm.

It was the perfect to stay inside and relax.  We just loved it.  Colin ventured out once to pee the girls and once to rescue our window screen as it flew off.  I caught up on some computer stuff, read and made a serious start on the wine situation.  It was a night for comfort food.

Pre packaged dough, add water, knead, let rest and prebake. Thanks Patti for the idea.

..add pizza sauce, onion, soya pepperoni, zucchini, carrot, broccoli, mushrooms and cheese! Voila, comfort food during a storm.

Today we awoke to blue sky and sun.  Right back on track to another perfect day on Stone Island.

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Nov 14, 2011

Here a week….

…in addition to setting up, unpacking ( not finished ), tending to my plants ( so much more to do, seeds to plant, plants to buy and plant ) I have tended to one bee sting, one dog mini problem and given 4 injections and of course getting the palapa started it was finally time for me.

Sunday was a day of rest.  I had a massage.  What a glorious way to pass 90 minutes.  I feel reborn.  Ninety minutes  of bliss for 400 pesos, about $30.15 Canadian.  I am booked in for every week I am here!  A walk on the beach, a relaxing cocktail and book, a great dinner, a prefect day.

Mi amore presented me with these treasures this morning, he and the girls had a great early morning walk.

Life is great, one of these kayaks is waiting for you, come visit.

Best wait till tomorrow, we have winds and rougher surf today, there just might be a storm brewing.

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Nov 13, 2011

Palapa construction ~ Day 2

Our workers showed up before 8AM and worked long and hard with no breaks.  It is amazing at how they are able to take something lying around and incorporate it into the construction process.  Nothing is wasted.  This morning I saw one of the fellows take the empty cement bags and wash them in the bucket of water then poured the water over the sand, gravel and cement mix.  Not even a speck of cement dust is wasted.

Lupe is an Isla pulmonia driver most days but now he is our main man. Our 'contractor' has put Lupe in charge as he, Felipe, is at his wife's side in a Mazatlan hospital where she is clinging to life. In this photo Lupe is using some old logs laying about to steady the cardboard tube. He uses his level over and over to get the tube straight, that is a bucket of gravel hanging from a rope on the tube to pull it into position.

The fellow in black seems to do more watching than work. He is suppose to be mixing the cement but is much too slow for Lupe.

Once all the cardboard tubes are in position over the rebar that was cemented in yesterday, the cement pour begins. Lupe is using an upended garbage can as his ladder.

Bucket after bucket of cement is poured and not one drop spilled over. A stick is used to tap the cement down into place.

The perfect way to pour the taller tubes. Now large rocks are being used to keep every straight. Colin later checked and commented that they very fairly straight.

I really hope that Lupe gets more pesos that this fellow.

So this is it for 2 days while the cement hardens. The plan is to use a palm log as the 3rd tall support, Colin thinks it should be cement. He will look into that today. We would hate for it to rot and cause the entire structure to sag in a few years. I wonder how much another cement post is going to cost us?

We were just finishing a very late lunch….we never eat at specified times.  Lunch at 3 and dinner at 8!!

...when Maria arrived. She flew in today and is happy to be here for the next several months. She is staying in a house on the Isla. Maria is the one on yellow, on the right, greeting the ocean.

Mary is not an RVer but has been coming to the Isla for many years.  Her blog is here.

Then Mel dropped by for a wee visit. He and Shelby are RVer's who recently moved into an apartment here on the Isla. This is now their full time home.

A very different sunset, you can see the low fog bank way out in the ocean.

Last night I even managed to stay awake long enough to watch a movie with dinner.  It was a thriller so it I was easily kept on the edge of my seat.  Today is another beautiful day in paradise.

The tide is high which makes it more difficult for me to walk right now so Colin has been taking the girls out in the morning and we all walk later in the afternoon.  Small medical emergency already today, Colin stepped on a bee in the sand and hopped back home to me.  I am happy to report that the entire stinger was extracted and he was back off to complete his walk.  The girls were waiting.

I snapped this shot of Caeli while resting yesterday. She is laying/hanging on an afghan between 2 chairs. Guess I better put that coke box somewhere else. We are still unpacking. The coke is for the various soldiers we see enroute and the local workers.


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Nov 12, 2011

So very busy!!

It was impossible to do a post yesterday….still reeling from the activity.

After the beach walk and breakfast Caeli found a nice place to curl up for a nap!

Our site from the beach....we go to the white post on the left. The green building in behind is the library, storage and shower, washroom area..

After the walk it was time to watch a local give a fishing lesson to an RVer from France.

Suddenly after 3 days of no contact our palapa workers showed up.  Time to move out.  No time for our breakfast today.

We moved to our old site from last season. The guys started digging as we drove out. They worked so hard all day in the 30C heat. We put the A/C on today and I was still warm. It seemed like a good time to do a deep dust and vacuum. The RV's you see over our dust fence belong to a couple who also lease a site here at Tres Amigos. They are setting up their own private site on a friend's beach property.

There was  a great deal of consultation between us and the workers to be sure of the exact measurements.  In fact I caught the fact that the RV mirror was likely to be in the middle of the front support pole so we had that moved over 4 inches.   We had to go out and pick up our laundry, drop in to see a friend for a moment and then a quick stop at the local store.  Home again.

These two seem to be worn out by all of the day's activity. I so wanted to join them. I did join a few friends for a glass of wine.

Once the 5 holes were dug, rebar was inserted and big rocks broken down to fill some of the space before the hand mixed cement was poured.

Just before sunset our palms were delivered.  Hope they bring more.

We were treated to another spectacular sunset last evening. The lights on the hill on the right are along the path up to the lighthouse.

By now we were mucho hambre and I needed to prepare a quick but filling dinner.

Nachos, chichuahua cheese, frijoles, avocado, salsa and sour creme. YUM!!

I was in bed by 8:30PM!  What will today bring?

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Nov 10, 2011

Que pasa on the Isla?

It is so good to be here…..true paradise!  It snowed for 5 hours last Monday  back in Kelowna so we are glad to have arrived.

I forgot to mention a few things, the final leg from Culiacan to Tres Amigos here on Stone Island was 140 miles.  From our home in Kelowna to our home here on the Isla we drove 2837.6 miles.  Thanks for your thoughts re my Mom, the tests have shown that she will need open heart surgery soon.  In Canada, who knows how long ‘soon’ means?  Meanwhile she is fine but of course I have a decision to make.

We have been busy making our site into our home for the next five months.

We moved our beach access stairs over from the old site.

The next step was to organize the construction of a palapa. There was one on this site which was the reason we chose to move here when it became vacant. However the palapa was old and fell apart when the RV that had been here for several years was moved. King David, the owner of Tres Amigos brought a fellow in and we negotiated a price and so the plan was put into effect on Monday. We are in a bit of a set up mess as you can see.

Next we went to pick up our potted plants that we had paid to have cared for while back in Canada. They have grown, in fact we had to use the car for some of them. The driver was worried his tires could not bear the weight. What ever would we do without Pablo, the Tres Amigos worker? We always hire him after hours for some extras like this.

Because we are next to a dirt/sand road used by horses, tractors ,and cars we put up a special dust screen panel that I had purchased to help keep the dust down. It was a two day job to get it up but it has made a huge difference plus we have some privacy now. The other side of the fence was full of burrs so I did this side of the tying to the fence.

We arrived last Saturday about 1:00PM and have made some progress in the past four days.  Still lots to do but at a much slower pace now.

Time to smell the flowers and enjoy some vino!

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