February 1

February 1

I don't know if it was the sound of the early morning activity of people going to work or the sound of the employees in the restaurant - bar across the street cleaning up after a busy night and preparing for Super Bowl Sunday that woke me up, but there I lay at 5:00 a.m. with no more sleep to come. I finally gave up getting back to sleep and went and showered and got dressed and tried to leave the room as quietly as possible. This is extremely difficult as our door creaks like the rustiest dungeon door ever. No matter how careful I am, I cannot get out quietly.

Out on the street our hotel is on - Calle de Paraguay - the air is fresh and scrubbed clean by last night's thunderstorm and the light rain which had stopped falling short minutes ago. I head south toward the Rosita, sister hotel of the Pescador Hotel. I cross Calle de Chile walking toward Calle de Venezuela where I turn left, or inland and walk a short distance to a merging Calle de Argentina and I walk uphill heading for Avenida de Mexico, a main drag which runs into the end of the Malecon before it diverts inland for one block and then parallels the Malecon.

When I reach Avenida de Mexico, I ended up in front of an OXXO store, the Mexican equivalent to a Canadian 7/11. I am facing Hidalgo Park which covers a city block and has an underground parking garage. This morning in the half-hour or so before sunrise there are 12 young men being marched around the park in precision drill by 2 tough-looking older what appear to be officers. I didn't see any kind of formal uniform to show me if they were police or soldiers. There were 4 rows of 3 abreast. They were high stepping and swinging their arms to shoulder height. As they made their turn, they made sharp snappy steps. I didn’t know if these were training laps or punishment lapsI watched them do 4 circuits and then I proceeded down Mexico to the Rosita Hotel. It extends from Calle Jesus Langarica to Calle de 31 de Octobre, the beginning of the Malecon. The front of the hotel has shops all along the avenue. On the other side, a block apart, are a Starbucks and a McDonald's, both of whom have drinkable coffee. Unfortunately both are still closed and there are no signs posting hours of operation.

I head back to the OXXO as a light misty rain starts to fall. The marchers are gone but the streets and sidewalks are starting to show increased traffic with many Mexicans going to church or to work. I get a large cafe americano and head back to the hotel where Patti has already risen after a sleepless night. I was quiet for naught earlier.

After we prepared a sort shopping list, I headed over to Lay's for some fresh fruits and veggies, and some more ice. Breakfast was some delicious yogurt with some of Patti's excellent home-made granola and a banana from Lay’s.

Patti then set off with her camera on a photo expedition while I started to write my daily blog. As I was busy typing I suddenly was startled to see something black that was nearing my left leg under the table. After my initial scare, I saw that it was one of the long-tailed blackbirds from the street, who unbeknownst to me, had flown onto our balcony and hopped through the open patio door and was proceeding to peck up some minute scraps of food that he had spotted.

I slowly reached for my ever-present camera so as not to startle him. But by the time I got it open and focused, he was out the door in search of food on the patio. Hearing me get up from the chair, he flew across the street and sat on a railing and scolded me from his now safe distance.

When I finished my writing and after doing some people watching from the balcony, I had a sandwich for lunch with a Tecate. Then I put on my swimming trunks, gathered up my towel and pool stuff, and I headed to my "beach" which was the pool area. Again there were some brave souls testing the Pacific even though the red flags were still up.

Patti came back from her "photo shoot”, had lunch, and a short nap. She was just getting ready join me at poolside when I returned to the room because it had just started raining and as I was done with my swimming, I thought reading my Kobo would be better inside.

Our friends and our in-laws went to a Super Bowl party being hosted by another Winnipegger. They were renting a condo at the extreme southern end of town on the side of one of the small mountains that surround PV. We chose not to go as Patti wanted to go to dancing in the park at 7 p.m. and I discovered we had good coverage of the game in the hotel. The rain continued to fall

We watched the game for the first half, me intently, Patti with one eye on the rain. She really wanted to go to the dancing which was done in one of the parks opposite the Malecon. At half-time the rain had eased up enough for us to walk over to one of the street stalls where we each had a quesadilla. Mine was tripa which is the most deliciously prepared tripe. Scots all over the world would be aghast at how good Mexicans can make tripe taste.

As we walked there we noticed family groups huddling under overhangs and canopies. Their eagerly awaited long weekend was turning into a complete washout. One could almost see the dejection in the their body postures and their attempts of finding something positive about the day.

By 7:00 it was only misting outside, so Patti headed for the park while I got comfortable for the second half. I must admit that I was cheering for the Seattle Seahawks only because of the 2 ex-Bombers playing for them. I wasn’t too devastated when they lost just as it looked like they were going in for the game-winning TD. You get so jaded when you get older!

To celebrate the good game that it had been, I went down to the street meat stalls where I had noticed that one of them had tacos de lengua for sale. Nathan and David and I used to treat ourselves to this kind of taco after a hard evening of homework when we lived in Guadalajara. I got my 2 tacos and while I admit to enjoying them, they were definitely not in the same league as you get in Guadalajara and nowhere as good as the ones I make at home.

Patti got back just as the rain started up again. Now on top of a very poor night’s sleep; 2 round trips on the Malecon, dancing in the park, and a photo shoot trek, Patti must have covered about 20 kms and was exhausted.

We were both tired and as it was still raining and looking like it would rain in all night, we turned in for the night.