Under The Mexican Sun

In earlier posts I've uploaded video of the birds that flock west every evening at sundown, but not their early morning flight east. I caught them on camera this morning, so here's a combined video of them going both ways. The first segment is evening and the second early morning.  They do this back and forth every single day. A restaurant called Bistro Soleiado (how often do you see three vowels in a row?) is about a fifteen minute walk away and has a reputation for exquisite eggs benedict. We finally went this morning to see what all the fuss was about. As we were leaving the building we met a brother and sister also staying here. A man who has been studying with JWs for a while had driven them home from their own breakfast out, and since he was going that way he offered to drive us to the Soleiado. We learned originally he had been approached by JWs offering to show him a 3-minute video on a tablet, "Why Study The Bible?" It moved him to begin studying a...

This afternoon we paid what we expect to be our last trip to Zihua prior to leaving, and we have the following photos to show for it. We paused to cool down with a lemonade. Yes, lemonade. You just can't get better refreshment and quenching of thirst than with these local lemonades. You can keep the Coronas. First, some scenes from where we sat ... This area is now experiencing a dwindling tourist population as snowbird season ends. A sand castle builder, our table cloth, a caged cat in a hammock, and a silhouetted bike. Yours truly. I told you we had lemonade! After schlepping around we caught a bus home. Taking a bus here is always an adventure. Some are fine, a few deliver an unmercifully percussive ride. We unfortunately boarded one of the latter. It advanced along the road rattling, banging, and grinding like a hardware store in an earthquake. It felt like, and sounded like, the bus was losing important pieces along the way, but it not only clattered u...

It's been a busy few days as our stay here winds down into it's final phase. Last night we had supper with Jack and Linda in the Bayview restaurant which is in the same complex as their rental unit. The scene from my seat at the dining table ...  For this occasion I did remember to get a photo taken by the waiter ... It was daylight when we sat down, dark when we left.  And today was my turn to serve as guest speaker at the Sunday meeting. The talk's title was "Does God Count You Personally Important?" The scriptures, illustrations and delivery seemed to go over well. Since the scriptures clearly and emphatically answer yes to this question, it is a pleasure to convey the details. Carol intended to take my photo delivering the talk but told me she forgot to do so. Afterwards Dave and Shelley, with whom we had supper once before (see Feb. 28 post) took us to a different restaurant for lunch. We enjoyed a good lunch and stimulating conversation, s...

We were invited to the movies this afternoon. We were four couples and we went to see "The Post," starting at 5:00 pm. It was in English with Spanish subtitles giving us a handy language course as a bonus. Here is a photo of the Ixtapa movie theater ... I was told the ticket price was 40 pesos which is $2.75 in Canadian dollars, pretty cheap for a movie. But at the wicket I was told Wednesday is two-for-one day, so Carol and I both got in for the grand sum of $2.75. Our Cokes cost more than our admittance ticket. Carol outside the theater ...  No line ups today. Once inside, the size of the theater surprised us. It must have had around 800 seats although there were probably no more than fifty people in it at the time. And the seats rock a little if you're inclined to that sort of thing. The screen was plenty big too. One hour into the movie one of the characters asked, "What's going on?" The movie then froze, faded from the screen, and the house...

I left our building, striding swiftly through the parking lot toward the street, when I simultaneously turned a corner and heard a loud slap. An iguana, with which I had almost collided, made the noise by spinning himself up and into a 180 degree turn. He belly-flopped onto the ground, quickly rising again to flee from me. These creatures, I discovered, run on their toes - make that claws - and this one, four legs going like propellers, darted for cover under the nearest car. It would have made a delightful video to see him scritch-scratching over pavement at top speed but it all happened too quickly. I found this photo illustrating its appearance when running ... Better to have him running away than toward me. I continued on my way, destination Oxxo, a convenience store a few minutes away. I passed this tree and considered it photo worthy ... Or is it a family of trees? A photo collage of scenes from around here: In late afternoon we went down to the beach to see the sun...

Not much to report but here are a few artified (sort of) photos from places around here. The Wave Tricycle Pot-Holder Patterns Marina Tower Mini Forest Blossoms Sunset Clouds Sky on Fire Jorge

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Yesterday afternoon Carol, Linda, and I were in our condo and the plan was to spend time down at the pool. I was tired, expected the ladies to take a little while to get ready, so I lay down in a spare room where I fell asleep. The ladies, believing I must have already gone to the pool, went down themselves. Carol saw I was not there and phoned me to ask where I was. I picked up my cell phone, told her what happened, and said I'd be down soon. At this point a detail about our door enters the story. Only with the key can we lock or unlock our door. The above photo shows the key on the inside of the door where we keep it. When I approached the door, as you probably guessed by now, this is not what I saw. But, hey, no problem. I just have to call Carol back on her cell phone and ask her to come up and let me out, right? I did this but got no answer. It became clear Carol and Linda had entered the pool and her cell phone was not clo...

Before I describe our time in Zihua today, here are a couple of photos from yesterday. First, a little more komorebi through our patio doors. Next, a rather nice portrait of Linda ... Carol was with Linda and they enjoyed a cold coconut milk drink together. Carol took the above portrait of her sister Linda enjoying hers. We had errands in Zihua today and I submit the following collage to convey random street scenes. (You realize of course that you get a bigger view when you click on the photo.) Among other things, I needed to renew my cell phone service, a better bargain in Zihua than in Ixtapa. Most things are a better bargain in Zihua. Three weeks of cell phone service providing unlimited phone calls and unlimited text messages, to anywhere in Mexico, USA, and Canada, is a pretty good deal at $6.70 Canadian. 300 MB of data included. We wanted to have supper in a restaurant recommended as serving the most authentic Mexican cuisine you can get anywhere and, of c...

We have an island near the beach that may possibly be a home to birds. It's difficult to get a sharp telephoto image with a cell phone camera but here is my attempt ... ... or maybe not. But those sure aren't patches of ice. Speaking of birds, we often see hawks in the sky. In our neighborhood they seem to have chosen a favorite building to circle, which is the one next to ours. When the sun is in the right position they cast interesting shadows on the wall which I have been trying to capture. The video below is the best I've been able to do so far. Maybe they get hopeful about the odd tourist lying on the beach in the broiling sun. No, those would be vultures, right? Speaking of the strong sun that pours down here, when we get groceries we have to take a taxi back to our digs. The taxi drivers are very good at helping us put our bags in the trunk. One fellow kept a white terry face cloth that he put on his head while outside the car helping us. Yea...

Yesterday the Bullocks paid us a visit giving them a chance to see our digs. Justin, Becky, and Paige left today for home. Here's a parting shot before they walked the beach to their place. All of us in the one photo thanks to Photoshop. The two on the left are Linda and Paige. Justin, Becky, and Jack are to the right. A few minutes later a couple of fishermen appeared on the beach. Their efforts met with no visible success but they persisted. On the way back to our condo I photographed this rather colorful hedge, of which there are many on the property. They are trimmed with hand clippers every second day. No complaints about maintenance at this place. The lawn looks as smooth as artificial turf ... but it's not. The bird shown above is common here. This morning I watched as two of them approached one another on the lawn. Then, while facing one another at close range, they both looked straight up as though something compelling was going ...