Mexico-2020

We are scheduled to board the plane for our trip home in approximately 48 hours. Yesterday, needing a carton of milk and a smidgen of local cell phone time we made the 15 minute walk into downtown Ixtapa. "Downtown Ixtapa" is a term I use loosely since it consists of an area only marginally larger than a shopping center. The grocery store sells eggs packaged in an interesting way ... Are they for eating or is some kind of rally coming to town? We paused for a caf é frapp é served in a mason jar on a tin saucer. Carol snapped my photo cooling down with one. While seated at this table in a commercial lane way our treat was enlivened by the mystery of an older man in a white shirt and red shorts who walked back and forth by our table four or five times while we were there. Carol suggested he was strolling for exercise but the last time by he carried a full paper bag. This made me wonder if he was sent to buy stuff but kept forgetting what at the store. I've pos...

What a slow moving blog this has become as our days here dwindle down to a few! It has become sunny days and palling around with our brothers and sisters who also winter here. In fact every Friday morning at 9:00 a.m., at Deborah's Restaurant, those who are available commandeer a long table and have breakfast together. Here is last Friday's group minus me, the photographer ... Many choose a house specialty with breakfast, green juice. It looks like swamp scum but is a blend of green vegetable juices that supposedly are good for the physical organism. For me it was drinkable but lit no internal chandeliers. One of the couples here, Gilles and Joyce, invited us to their condo for a supper, and an enjoyable evening it was. I'm afraid I failed as a photographer on that occasion but here is one photo from their balcony ... This place is quiet and picturesque with attractive condos. It is also a 15 minute walk from the ocean. Speaking of the ocean it has b...

It's been quiet so this entry will feature a gallery of photos from the neighborhood in Ixtapa and in Zihuatanejo. First: Ixtapa ... The Luna Lounge, topped by una luna diurna. Magenta Bush Second: Zihuatanejo ...  Entrepreneurs Slim-Jim Building New Road and Curbs The Good Life Muchas VWs

We're down to our last two weeks here but we still needed some provisions so it was off to the supermarket this morning. The trip by van-bus always unsettles since drivers speed along the ten-minute winding highway between Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo. However I believe this morning's driver actually qualified for a psychiatric evaluation. So that was the end of bus travel for us. Transport, for the remainder of our time here, will be by taxi. The vans all seem to be fairly new which I think only encourages them. The photo below shows how comfortable the supermarket entrance is ... Upon leaving, I had to wheel my shopping cart close to this creature but he didn't so much as twitch an ear. I just had to turn and take a photo of this royally supreme canine confidence. Arriving home we found painters painting doors, including ours. This building is painted entirely beige, beige outer walls, beige passageways, beige doors. I don't know about other condos he...

Last night we dined at Bistro Soleiado, we being Jack and Linda, Carol and myself. It is convenient to where we are all staying and the food is tasty. We arrived after dark but this is what it looks like in daylight. As implied by the miniature Eiffel Tower, this is a Mexican restaurant with Parisian pretensions. It features an American menu, and an entertainer who sings Italian songs.      The above are portraits we took of each other. The group shots taken by the waiter were ... let's just say photography is not his fort é.  It was a quiet evening of refreshing association disturbed only occasionally by fireworks when the staff members made a fuss over someone because it was his birthday. This happened only once ... no wait, it was twice. No that's not right. Three times. No, no, it was four times. Jack suspected people were inventing birthdays to get a free dessert. We sat near the Eiffel Tower enabling me to capture the tail end of the ...

This morning Carol, her sister Linda, and I went in the public ministry together. Other attendees at the service group had arrangements so the three of us flagged a taxi to our territory. We knew it was on the side of a mountain so the strategy was to have the taxi take us to an upper area so we could work our way down without excessive hill climbing. No, that didn't work. According to our territory map the streets we encountered were inaccurate. Consulting Google Maps on my handy iphone confirmed that while our territory map did contain an occasional street name indicating we were in the right area, its configuration was clearly of a different persuasion. When a local taxi driver cannot figure out what is on your territory map you know you're in trouble. Locating one key street, we disembarked with what we thought was a plan. We'd work a cross street then continue working the first downhill street we found. Except every corner led to an uphill street. Oh, the downhill...