PV - Tues, 29 Jan 2013

The Mexican navy going by. I think I'm soon going to have to get out of the lounge chair!

We have Muffin Man in the morning and Cookie Man in the afternoon.

We just returned from 'Canada Night' at the restaurant here. There are so many people who have been coming here for years and they try to have one dinner together during their winter stay. We saw people we recognized from previous trips and had some time to catch up on their news as well as meet lots of new people. There were about 60 people and we had a great time. These kinds of gatherings are an opportunity to find out where the best restaurants are, what new tours are available, and find out some local news.

My friend Joyce spent the afternoon here yesterday. We had gotten together for lunch the week before we left and didn't expect to see one another until some time after we got home. They are getting ready for a 10-day Panama cruise but decided on a last minute trip and ended up in Puerto Vallarta. The world seems to get smaller and smaller. We went downtown and ended up at (one of) my favourite shoe stores. Man, it never fails to amaze me how many different styles of shoes one store can carry and it's tough to find a pair of women's shoes over $20. They are all made in Mexico...I refuse to think about working conditions or the average age of the factory worker...but I came home with 4 pairs of sandals, under $40. I force myself to buy one pair of 'bedazzler' shoes as I remember being in Sears looking at a crap shoes for Xmas, paying $50+ for them and kicking myself for not buying them the previous winter here. Joyce and I had a nice lunch at the restaurant and then sat by the pool drinking fancy/slushy drinks. It was a great day.

Wayne is down with another cold...or a heavy duty dose of allergies...and hasn't moved too far from the bed for the past couple of days. We're doing the 'Clorox wipe' and mega-hand washing routine yet again and hoping it passes quickly...and I don't get it. I can remember years passing at a time and he wouldn't even have a stiffle. This year it's been one cold after another.

I went down to the beach to watch the sunset last night and the dolphins went by just as it went down. This is just an idealic spot. We've had so many conversations with people about the violence in Mexico and how safe we feel in this location.  It's more than just the location for me...I think we respect our limitations here and it just happens to fit our normal lifestyle. Certainly the border areas of Mexico is just crazy violent but most of us old folks who don't stay up late partying downtown and don't wander in places where our guts tell us we shouldn't be, we are as safe here as anywhere. Most of the local Mexicans are kind and generous and I know that if we spent 3 months here every year, I would know a lot more Spanish than I do...they all want to help us learn new words and phrases.

Gail and Graham arrive Friday and I'm certain in the next few weeks we'll be downtown a bit more and seeing things. We have been quite happy to sit and soak up the sun the past two weeks and wanted to wait until they arrived to do any tours or trips. There is a new tour to an old Mexican town called San Sabastian that we go to with lots of photo ops and history.

That's what we (haven't been) doing and loving every second of it. Hope all is well at home. Until next time, love and hugs to all. xx