January 13 to 19, 2013

 

Sunday ; We’ve been sick for so long I think that what we have must be more than a simple cold. Must be a flu illness.

Today we had our noon beach doughnut fetch play session, but instead of a second beach doughnut fetch play session we decided to start having a daily long walk on the beach. We walked for about half an hour north, then back. I guess tomorrow we’ll walk south. We all enjoyed “beachcombing”. Joanne picked up a weird shaped piece of … some kind of driftwood.
I think it’s a piece of some kind of tree root that has spent a long time in the water, and underwater “stuff” has grown on it. She wants to take it home as a piece of yard decoration. I’m not sure whether she means to Yuma, Arizona, or Keremeos, BC.

I was walking on the sandbar just offshore and decided to wade back to the “mainland” beach where Joanne and Bo were. I started shuffling across the ankle deep water when all of a sudden … SPLOOSH ! In one step I went from ankle deep to waist deep. I certainly was surprised ! Especially since I wearing regular clothes, not swim trunks.

We visited with our next door neighbours today. They’re from Quesnel, BC. Like me, he’s a pilot. He owns a Cessna 172, and has a private airstrip on his farm. For the last four years he has been building a Piper Cub from a kit.

I cooked the Corvina fish that we bought on the fishermen’s beach a few days ago. It was quite good ! The Wi-Fi system here was down today. Joanne and I worked on planning for the Haystack Dinner for 60 people that we are making at the Escapees Roadrunners Chapter 7 Spring Rally in a couple of months. We also did a bit of trip planning for where we want go and what we want to do in Mexico in February. Joanne played with the new computer until she mastered the Windows 8 calendar application. I’m unable to export my old computer’s calendar data to the new computer so … it’s going to have to be manually input. Joanne will help.

Monday ; Another day that the Internet here is not working ! I’m getting quite a backlog of online work that I need to do !

Joanne spent much of today manually inputting calendar data from the old computer to the new one. Thank you, dear. < whispering > She’s very slow at it ! I spent far longer than I had expected

I would need to, changing the starter recoil cord on the generator. Bo and I had a fun play session on the beach around noon, and around 4 PM we all went on a long beach walk. Joanne and I collected some interesting shells. Bo just romped and ran. He is enjoying being off leash all the time.

Today I finally felt some improvement in my health ! Hopefully this cold / flu that we both have is almost finished !

Tuesday ; I think I may have figured out the Internet problem. It seems to work during day time working hours, but not in the evenings. And there was a recent change in the RV park’s office personnel. So … somebody new must be turning something off at the end of the work day.

Today was cloudy, cool and windy. We went to Escuinapa to run errands. On the way into the city

I stopped at the Uniroyal / Goodrich / Michelin tire dealer to shop for a replacement trailer tire. And … the shop manager spoke excellent English. Which made things a lot easier. He phoned the Goodyear dealer in Mazatlan and got information on price and availability of the tire I want. And

I decided to “take my chances”. I’m going to use the damaged tire as the trailer’s spare and hope that I won’t need to use it before we get back to Yuma. I’ll buy a new tire ( or four ) there.

We went to the mercado ( marketplace ) and browsed the pescaderias ( fish mongers ) looking for some good, fresh fish to buy. We didn’t buy any. At 2 PM there was hardly anything left, and what was left didn’t appeal to us. We’ll have to go to the mercado much earlier to get good fish, I guess. We had an excellent lunch at one the little food stands on the periphery of the mercado. And the factura ( bill ) was cinquenta ( 50 ) pesos. Really ? $4.25 for that much food ? Before leaving the mercado we went to a dulceria ( candy store ) and bought a few packages of little chocolate bars.

We did our grocery shopping at Ley’s. On the way back to Teacapan we were trying to figure out for sure whether Teacapan is on a peninsula or island. It’s an island ! We explored one of the tiny villages on the way home. There were nearby coconut plantations. Most of the yards were filled with coconuts. I stopped to take some photos and had a chat ( well … a few Dick & Jane sentences ) with a resident. Most of the town’s residents work at processing coconuts … in their yards. They split the coconuts, allow them to dry in the sun, then pry the coconut meat out of the shells.

As soon as we got home we took Bo to the beach for a beach doughnut play session. Joanne made Chicken Chile Verde for supper. WHEW … the local fresh tomatillos are so strong tasting they make my eyes water ! HA HA HA !

Wednesday ; Well … I guess this is winter ! The days have become cooler, it’s often partially overcast, there’s often a strong wind, the surf is always large.

We’re finally both feeling relatively healthy, our cold / flu illness is finally over ! Longer than two weeks for me, three weeks for Joanne !

This morning I worked online for about an hour, deciding that I would do more online work in the afternoon. When I tried to resume working online at 3 PM, the Internet wasn’t working ! HMPH … guess I’m going to have to dedicate tomorrow morning to getting caught up on my online work backlog.

We’ve just returned from a late afternoon long walk ( about an hour and a half ) on the beach. Strong wind, huge surf ! And some interesting discoveries. A huge Blue Bottle Jellyfish a.k.a. Portuguese Man O’War, about the size of a peach ! And a dying seagull. How odd ! BO, LEAVE IT ! Good dog, Bo. Godspeed, little seagull !

Thursday ; Happy 14^th Birthday to Joanne’s niece Madeleine

Nice weather today. Felt healthy … at last !

I spent a lot of time online, still working on old computer to new computer “migration problems”. Maybe I should give up and wait until we’re back in Yuma ? I did finally get last week’s blog entry posted. Internet stopped working precisely at 4:30 PM ! We had a long beach play session followed by a long walk. Twice ! Did some trailer maintenance and repairs. Mounted another Sand Dollar. Didn’t break this one mounting it. It broke when it fell off the wall ! ! ! Guess I shouldn’t have used that cheap double sided tape ! Joanne is complaining that every time she finds a nice Sand Dollar on the beach, I manage to break it ! Sorry !

Friday ; Today was mostly sunny, warm, not much wind. We had a morning beach play session then headed into Teacapan to refill a water jug. < sigh > We discovered that Friday is the day that many businesses in Teacapan are closed, including the aqua purificadora. So … since we were already in town, we went exploring. We drove up and down many of the streets in town, along the malecon / waterfront, and found some of the upscale gringo enclaves on the outskirts of town.

 We found an interesting restaurant in town and had lunch. The restaurant was also the family’s living room. The restaurant’s kitchen was also the family’s kitchen. There was an old man … grandfather, no doubt … watching TV and making little scorpions out of thin wire. There was a young girl … granddaughter, no doubt … watching TV and weaving a scarf. Her father, the old man’s son, was the restaurant owner and chef … and dishwasher and everything else. Joanne had a torta de pollo ( sort of a chicken sandwich ). I had fillete de pescado, the daily special of three fried Corvina fish fillets. MMMMM ! ! ! I think it was one thick Corvina fillet, sliced into three thin pieces, then breaded and fried. I’m going to try that with the Corvina fillet in our freezer.

After returning home I spent much of the afternoon working online at the pool patio. Finally … my online work is caught up ! We ended the afternoon with another long beach walk and play session.

 Saturday ; Well … who knew ? ! ? Sully loooooves smoked marlin. HA HA HA HA HA ! ! !

The last time we were in Escuinapa, shopping at the mercado, late in the afternoon of a weekday, the pescaderias / fish mongers had very little product left. We decided then that we should return to the mercado on Saturday morning. Saturday is traditionally “market day” in Mexico, so the vendors are likely to have lots of selection early in the day. This morning we headed to Escuinapa.

First stop in the mercado was the pescaderias. There were about half a dozen of them. We noticed that one of them had a great selection of fresh, fairly small fillets of Corvina. While we contemplated buying some, the vendor offered us medium size whole Corvina, filleted and deboned in front of our eyes. How could we resist ? Each fish produced two fillets the right size for a meal for us. We bought four fish, eight fillets, four meals, for ochenta ( 80 ) pesos, about $6.50. And the fillets are much nicer than the ones I do ! Another vendor had great looking medium sized shrimp. I bought a kilogram for setenta cinco ( 75 ) pesos, about $6.10. I just finished ( at 11:30 PM ) cleaning them. Whew … sixty-eight shrimp ! Beheaded, peeled, deveined, and … well … I don’t know what you call the last part. De-poo’d ? ! ? HA HA HA !

The vendor with the shrimp also had a thick, dark piece of fish that, as we looked it over, he told us was marlin. WOW … we’ve never had marlin before ! It was wrapped in clear plastic wrap, so we didn’t realize until we got home that it was … < sputter > … smoked marlin ! WOW … it’s NICE ! Smoked marlin … now there’s an item I can cross off my bucket list that I didn’t even know was on there ! HA HA HA !

 After the mercado we shopped at the new Bodega Aurrera. One of the items we have been looking for, and found there today, was cat litter. Not a common product here in Mexico ! And the bags of it that we found at the Bodega were so small … we bought five bags ! Good thing ! We were on the verge of filling Sully’s litter box with beach sand. And Sully is very resistant to change !

We refilled a water jug at an aqua purificadora on the way out of Escuinapa. Ocho ( 8 ) pesos / 65 cents for five gallons of purified water ! We wanted to have lunch on the way home. We turned into the little village of Isla del Bosque ( Wood Island ) about halfway back to Teacapan. We explored a bit until we found a little restaurant that looked like it was worth a try. MMMMMM ! Not only was it worth a try, it’s worth a return visit ! Rico’s Pollos Asados. We are accustomed to pollo asado / “roast chicken” in Mexico being marinated in an achiotte powder and fruit juice marinade before being grilled. In this area, pollo asado is seasoned with a “dry rub”. Rico’s was very good !
A quarter chicken for each of us, a side dish of freshly made macaroni salad, a small green salad, tortillas, and a soft drink for each of us. And two thick slices of fresh watermelon for dessert. Ochenta pesos ! When the very nice female owner placed two dishes of salsa on our table, she identified the red salsa as “pocito picante” and the green salsa as “grandé picante”. YIKES ! Yes, yes … the green one was not suitable for a gringo palate !

As soon as we arrived home we took Bo to the beach for a play session and long walk, followed by this RV park’s traditional late Saturday afternoon Happy Hour at the pool patio. I did some online work. We had supper. I composed a lengthy letter in response to an inquiry I received today regarding our lot for sale at Riverside RV Park Resort in Keremeos, BC. I cleaned shrimp !

DSK