Mexico 2018-Week Two

February 13, 2018.

Today was grocery shopping day. We went to Walmart, Sam’s Club and other stores.

I the morning it was windy, but in the afternoon the wind did slow down.

February 14, 2018.

Today was Valentine’s Day. It rained off and on all day.

The group had a Pot Luck Dinner. Some of us decided to skip the pot luck and have a steak and shrimp dinner at the American Legion for $ 10.00. Besides a steak and some shrimp, there was asparagus and potatoes on the plate.

I was surprised that there was an American Legion Post in Puerto Penasco.

The pot luck started at 1:00 PM, just at the time when it did not rain for a while.

We went to dinner at 4:00 PM. Another group left later and ate at 5:30 PM.

February 15, 2018.

I did two walks today. In the morning I walked along the beach and then entered the town.

This city of about fifty thousand people had big dreams.

The state was going to build a long pier so cruise ships could stop here. Because of the extremely high tide the pier has to go way out into the sea.

Building of the pier was started, but the money was running out very soon. There is still a lot of material sitting around.

Developers jumped on the bandwagon and build condominiums and apartments. The city also invested in infrastructure. A lot is rusting away like this walkway to the beach. The tiles on the ground are beautiful, but not used. The steel beams, and was supposed to be a cover for the sun, is rusting.

Now there is new hope. Money is available again, we were told.

In the afternoon I walked to Rodeo Drive. I took a shortcut, which turned out to be a long way out. I got lost.

I asked several people and finally found the right person to direct me back to the stores. People in the poor neighborhood did not know about Rodeo Drive. I had ended up in a really distressed area. Garbage was on the sidewalk and on the street. I believe there were more dogs than people.

I am not worried for my safety from people; it is the dogs which scare me.

One of the WINs was chased by dogs while he was riding his bicycle.

Some of the group went today to Shell Beach. I did not feel to drive twenty miles on a dark day to walk on a beach. It did not rain but could have started any minute.

February 16, 2018.

Today was another dark day. One of Edgard’s helper was emptying holding tanks. I could not resist to take a picture. People who do not want to move their rigs, and drive to the dump station, can pay ten dollars and they do it.

About 35 of us went to La Choya to the Xochtitl’s restaurant. I left my four passengers at the restaurant and walked through this expensive neighborhood. The license plates of the cars were mostly from Arizona, California and a few other states.

I do not like to go to a restaurant with 34 other people. The kitchen staff has to work too hard and the quality of the food suffers.

The houses are very colorful.

The streets are not asphalt or concrete, just sand.

This house is called:” La Casa de Gringo loco”. Some crazy American started it and did not finish it. It is for sale.

This house is very tasteful. The driveway took a lot of work.

Some houses have paintings on them.

After my 45 minute walk I went back to the restaurant; nobody had been served yet. I bought a soft drink and joined the hungry WINs. I had eaten lunch before we left for La Choya.

After the group was finished eating we went to JJ’s restaurant. It is a local institution. Some people ordered drinks and some just looked around.

Vendors were selling their wares at the waterfront.

The restaurant has a lot of outdoor seating.

February 17, 2018.

The sun came out this morning and it was warm. In the afternoon the clouds appeared again.

My no-WIN neighbor has three dogs. She teaches them tricks. This cute, little dog sneezes when she tells him. He rolls around on command and does other things.

Today we had the WIN Olympics. Linda D. organized it. Members of the teams lined up for instructions.

The first competition was moving a ball on the ground, with a ball in a panty hose.  Using hands was not allowed, only moving the whole body to move the ball in the panty hose. It was funny. Sometimes the ball on the ground was hit from the wrong side and the ball went backwards.

The next game was beach golf. A ping pong ball had to be directed into a hole in the ground or into an elbow from a sewer hose.   

Musical chairs was next. This is always funny.

After lunch was rope pulling.

The last event was water balloon throwing.

Since it was Saturday there were some Mexican people on the beach. Some had bar-be-ques.

At the 5:00 PM Circle Meeting we had a little parade of the WINs who participated in the WIN Olympics.

The winning teams were honored.

We had another terrific sunset.

I stayed up late and at 10:00 PM went to the boulevard with the wonderful sidewalks and the rusted steel structures.

Last week Friday and Saturday I heard extremely loud music from that direction. The same happened yesterday and today.

Bands line up on the boulevard and use strong sound systems to keep people awake until 2:00 AM in the morning. While they make all that noise, young people are cruising up and down the street in their cars.

The bands use generators to power their equipment. We can hear the music several blocks away. The musicians use no ear protection.

This was quite an experience. I remember in San Diego young Mexicans had giant speakers in the trunk of their cars. When they drove by my car was shaking.