February 4

February 4

Today was a slow and easy day which is why I am a day behind in my blog. As usual I was up by 7. I watched over the Bay of Banderas and followed this with a trip to OXXO for my americano café grande. I walked over to Ley’s and bought some breakfast materials…2 containers – one with scrambled eggs with fried onions and ham pieces and the other with some frijoles – some refried beans with a little bit of bite.

Then I sat on our balcony and tried to finish my second novel, a Jack Reacher novel by one of my favorite authors, Lee Child. I read until lunch time. Lunch was simple – some mango yogurt with a handful each of All-Bran and granola, mixed with a little whole milk. While I was reading, I had my morning visit from my blackbird friend whom I have named Black Bart!

I spent the afternoon at the pool with Patti and Sue finishing my novel and taking some refreshing dips in the pool every 30 minutes or so. I also spent some time people watching. There were some very serious sunbathers who in the week that they are here are determined to get a dark complexion so that they will be conspicuous when they get home.

In casual conversation with people I have found that we are quite a mixture of nationalities. We have Canadians from B.C. right to Quebec. There are Americans from Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin. There are Mexicans from many of the neighboring states and 2 young men from Mexico City who were here for just a few short days.

Occupying their usual spots were the long-timers who stand out because of their dark tans. Clustered around the kiddy part of the sectioned pool was the group of young people who I have nicknamed “The Dirty Dozen” after a movie in which there was a group of diverse and interesting soldiers who were thus named.

They had the waiters delivering steady streams of trays laden with beer and mixed drinks. They stood in the kiddie pool or sat on the edge of the pool with their legs dangling in the water. They had some music which was being played fairly quietly and they were singing and drinking and horsing around and just having a good time without being obnoxious. Some were smoking and what they were smoking was mostly cigarettes although occasionally I detected the essence of something not quite tobacco!

For supper Patti and picked out some frijoles, Spanish rice, and a delicious chicken mixture smothered in a most delicious sauce that had herbs in it that we couldnidentify. After supper I cleaned up while Patti left for the central part to go on her art walk.

I wrote my blog for the previous day while watching and listening to a beisbol game on TV from the Estadio Hiram Bithorn in San Juan Puerto Rico. It’s the Caribbean World Series and is the highest level baseball tournament at club level in Latin America, featuring the champions of the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela and this year includes Cuba. The game was between Cuba and home host Puerto Rico. It went into extra innings and I don’t know who won because just then Patti came home and we talked about her art gallery experiences and her visits with the various artists. I guess I’ll have to Google it!