Sundays at Lety's, Stone Island

Sometimes it is just too easy to get side tracked.

We seem to have developed rather busy lives and the beach days, for awhile, just were not happening. I volunteer at the Library every Monday, and Mike meets with the 'boys', searching out yet another great Cantina for lunch. Mike usually golfs on Tuesdays, my day to wander with the camera, shop the mercada for whatever looks appealing, or to get together with friends. Tuesday is often 'blog' day as well. Wednesday is Beans and Beer. Mike will tell you about Beans and Beer, soon. The men have been meeting for over 40 years (no, Mike has not been there for all 40!), they drink beer, they eat beans, they stop to visit the Shrimp Ladies and then go somewhere else to eat the shrimp. I don't plan anything at all on Wednesday evenings and also didn't feel badly at all that women are not included! Trust me on this one!!

Yes, we do have the other 4 days of the week. However, it is just like life at home - we do the grocery shopping, the laundry, we plan meals, sometimes we even wash floors! And, of course, there are the friends .... which means getting together for dinner, or drinks, or just to be there for each other when needed. Life seems to be filled to the brim these days but we realized that we were missing something.

Which brings us to the beach, the all important beach. We really lost track of this last year, and were starting to fall into the same bad habits again this year. We have come to realize that, as much as we do try to live normal lives in Mazatlan, live here is not normal. This means that it is perfectly acceptable behavious to take a day off and do just nothing except go to the beach and realize just how lucky you are.



We are now doing just that. Every Sunday we head over to Lety's, on Stone Island, where we spend an absolutely delightful day, doing as little as possible.




Stone Island is actually a peninsula, but it is virtually inaccessable by road, and the easiest access is by pangas. Cost? 20 pesos each, both ways - less than $2.00. There are plans in the works to build a development on the 'island' but care is being taken to perserve what makes this such a special place - nothing will replace the small village, the turtle sanctuary, or what has to be the most beautiful stretch of beach we have ever seen.

It can smell just a bit 'fishy' at times as we walk to the pangas, but I seem to have a thing for fishing boats, and have also learned to rather like the 'aromas', perhaps because I now realize just how delicious the fish is!





I rather like the birds as well.

Our favourite spot on Stone Island is Lety's. Lety's Restaurant has been a favourite among the expat community for years and we were all heartbroken when Lety, the matriarch, passed away suddenly last year. Her family have all worked to improve the restaurant and to develop it as Lety would have wished and it has remained a special retreat for all of us. This is not your average 'restaurant' however .... we arrive early in the morning, settle onto a lounge chair under one of the palapas on the beach ... and there we stay, all day!





We play dominos, splash in the ocean, have a truly wonderful lunch, and sometime eat oysters (that would be Mike, not me!).




Lety's is a restaurant, but the 'family' always make us feel welcome, and at home.



I'm going to be honest here .... sometimes we go twice a week! Like I said, we live in Mazatlan, and it's okay to goof off once in awhile.

Lunch at the Market

We needed to make a Mercado run the other day as we were running seriously short of fruit and veggies. I was also looking for a necklace to wear with a new dress to the Christmas party we were attending that evening, but, of course, I pretended that the food was really the reason we were there.

We stocked up on our produce in no time at all and realized that looking at all that food had made us hungry, so we headed upstairs for lunch. There are,I would guess, at least a dozen restaurants upstairs and the food is delicious, and cheap.



I had Milanese de Pollo (thin chicken cutlets, lightly breaded - yummy) and Mike decided to try the Bistek Rancheros (sliced beef in a delicious spicy sauce). Of course, both meals came with rice, and refried beans. I'm not wildly fond of the beans but Mike loves them, so he eats his and mine as well. My meal was 35 pesos, Mike's was 30. There are 12 pesos to the dollar. With a drink and a tip the meal cost us a little over $6.00 Cdn - for both of us!

The view from upstairs is fascinating.

Waldo's, our local dollar store, is always packed:



There are buses, lots and lots of buses:



More fruit vendors, for those who are in a hurry and don't want to go into the market:




Love what they have done on this building to deter the pigeons



however, the grafitti on the building next door is not quite so impressive



This little one was abolutely priceless. She appeared with her broom and dustpan and very studiously tied up around us while we were enjoying our lunch.



Oh, and I did find a necklace, which matched the dress perfectly!

"Growing" Things

It amazes me how quickly plants grow in Mexico.

Our terrace is so large that we have lots of space for plant life and I've been busy raiding the neighbours' gardens. There are many nurseries in town and plants stands are set up everywhere, but sometimes it just more fun to see what happens when you stick something in a glass of water for a few weeks.



I have no idea what the green plant is called, but these cuttings have been in water for less than 2 weeks and already have a substantial root system. I'll let them swim a bit longer before finding a pot for them, but so far, they look quite healthy.

The Coleus was acquired yesterday. It's not drooping yet - there might be hope for this bunch as well. Of course, if all else fails, they do look rather nice in the vase.

Our favourite plant of all is the 'stick tree'. There is another name, of course, very Latin, but I can neither spell nor pronounce it, so we just call it 'stick tree'. This one is very easy to transplant - cut it from the 'mother' tree and "stick" it into the dirt. No water, no nothing. However, the sap drips furiously and apparently can be poisonous (!!!?????) so I was very careful. I doubt very much that a drop of sap would affect a human adult, but then again ....



So, all is growing well in my garden, except for what is supposed to turn into our Avacado Tree. Children in school can make these things grow, but I, apparently, can not.




We'll give it another month and see what happens, but I'm not counting on harvesting any time soon.

Water, and the lack thereof

This is one of the tinacas on our neighbours' roof, one of three.



Tinacas are the containers which are used in many homes in Mazatlan to store the water provided by the city water company, Jumapan, a plan which is often not as simple, nor as successful, as it would seem. We have had no water problems this year at the Casita and have had a regular supply. Our tinaca often does not fill during the day, but usually fills each evening. We also have a cistern which holds many thousands of litres more, so we're fairly confident that we'll always have water. We do check every the morning, just to make sure we have water and if the tinaca has not filled, the laundry just waits for another day.

Our neighbours however have not been as lucky, perhaps because their house is on a different line and is at the end. They also do not have a cistern, hence the three tinacas as their house. Their tinacas have not filled for close to 2 weeks, and they were getting just bit tired of rationing their water.

In a case like this, the only recourse is to call a private water company, and make arrangements to have a Pipa (water truck) come to your home. The Pipas are huge, and carry much more water than a tinaca can hold, and when you order one, you are expected to pay for the whole load, 10,000 litres, an expense of 500 pesos (approximately $42.00).





Being a good neighbour, however, is partly about sharing. Not all homes have tinacas or cisterns and if the water is shut off there is no back up supply at all. The arrival of the Pipa can be a time of joy for many in the 'hood. After the three tinacas were filled, as is the custom, our neighbours were prepared to share the balance of the load, at least half, with other people in the area. However the laneway is so very narrow, and the planter so large, that no matter how he tried, the driver could not move Pipa further down the land and the hose just would not reach the balance of the homes needing water. Mexicans are very resourceful, however, the buckets came out and they saved as much as they possible could.



Unfortunately for all, the balance of the water in the Pipa went back to the water company, to be paid for, once again, by someone else with an empty tinaca.

Company

Last night while I was brushing my teeth before bed I realized we had company in the bathroom.




I haven't seen him today, but he was so tiny he could be anywhere!

Uncorked in Mazatlan

When we first arrived in Mazatlan last year, we were invited to attend Uncorked in Mazatlan, a monthly wine tasting event. Many of the people we met that evening we now count as good friends and we had such a great time that I volunteered to help co-ordinate the tastings this year.

Uncorked in Mazatlan is not a truly serious wine tasting, rather just an ever increasing group of people who enjoy getting together and sharing a glass, or two, of wine. The group has grown by leaps and bounds and we now have 50 to 60 people on our list. Of course, not everyone is able to attend each tasting. The group is growing and it can often be a bit of a challenge for the host and/or hostess to accomodate such a large group. We have been lucky so far this year, as each host has indicated they will be able to handle the whole crowd.

We did split the group this year, as there were several members who wanted to pursue a more traditional style of wine tasting. We are still part of the original group, but plan to attend the 'traditional' tastings as well.

Everyone who attends contributes a bottle of wine, and also provides an appetizer. The appetizers, according to my husband, are often the best part of the evening! We do discuss the wine, a bit, as in "Do you like it?" This season we have also requested that each bottle of wine comes with a label, indicating where it was purchased and what it cost. It is a bit frustrating when you answer "Yes" to the question and are then unable to locate the wine you enjoyed. We are also making everyone wear a name tag, at least for the first few gatherings. We all admit it, we're getting older and sometimes we just forget things, like names, and other things we won't mention here!

Mike and I hosted the tasting this month and made several interesting discoveries. One was the fact that we had approximately 30 guests, which was the perfect number - not too crowded, or too loud! It was just the right number as we were able to spend time with and to enjoy each person who attended.

Each month we try to feature the wines of a different country. November we focused on Mexican wines and Mike and I picked Italian for December. Big mistake there - you can find the odd bottle of Italian wine in Mazatlan, but it is expensive, and invariably red. Which of course doesn't work at all if you prefer white wine. This was a somewhat frustrating discovery as the invitations had been sent out before we realized the problem, but, this is Mexico, not big deal, we just reissued the invitations and told everyone to just bring along a 'favourite' wine to share!

Then we started the hunt for wine glasses! We have been to some tastings where the hosts actually had enough glasses for all of us, but that is definitely not the case here at the Casita. Actually, I don't have that many glasses in Canada either. Once again, we figured, no problem. We would provide plastic wine glasses and those who didn't wish to use plastic could bring their own "glass" glasses. We've done this at previous tastings. Another suprise - there is not a plastic wine glass to be had in this city, at least that we could find. We checked Mega, Soriana and Leys (the biggest grocery chains in town). We also wandered the aisles of Walmart as we were told they always have plastic glasses. Not this time, not a plastic wine glass in sight. We also scoured the streets in Centro checking out every party/kitchen supply store we could find. No luck there either.

But everything always seems to work out in Mazatlan. Mike and I were walking home from the market a few days ago and stumbled across a little party rental store and, eureka, they had wine glasses for rent. So, for 3 pesos a glass we rented 50 wine glasses (that's around $12.00 for the lot) and now everyone had a real glass to use.



We borrowed a table for the appetizers, collected a few extra chairs and set everything up on the terrace. The evenings have been a bit chilly lately, but we lucked in as the weather on the evening of our "Tasting" was lovely. It was a wonderful evening and everything went perfectly.



We were tired as it was a lot of work getting set up, but it was worth it! We pretty much finished the tidy up after everyone left and moved the furniture back into place the next morning. After washing 30 wine glasses Sunday evening, it was just time to make a cup of tea and settle down with a book!

Fireworks

This year is 12th year of the Mazatlan Marathon, and in true Mexican fashion, the event was marked by a huge fireworks display along the Malecon. There were approximately 12 stations set up along the beach and the display was truly stellar.

We joined a group of friends for dinner at Loco Lupes, one of our favourite beach Palapas and then moved down to the sand to watch the show. It was spectacular, perhaps even more so because they were straight above us!






I would love to say that I took these photographs, but I'll be honest, I didn't! I did try, but photographing fireworks is just way too difficult. I did get some lovely shots of the smoke and actually managed to capture the odd shot where you could see colour way down in the corner, but generally speaking, my pictures were not wildly successful this time.



See what I mean? However, the internet is a wonderful thing. These were not our fireworks, but they looked just like this.