Mazatlan - Colorful Buildings

Since Huatabampito (I do like that word) we’ve kind of been traveling with a couple of other rigs. Both Class Cs both smaller then ours and both without a tow car. Any one – one of them Eric, from Wisconson, also has a datastorm system that has been giving him some problems. He said he tends to agree with Bill about it being an expensive piece of !@#$. He went to dinner with us New Years Eve and has come with us just driving around the town a couple of times. Yesterday he moved on south. He had planned on staying here for a couple more weeks – which would have made his stay here one month. But the owner, who everyone calls a jerk, proved everyone right and refused to give him the monthly rate – wanted to charge him by the day instead. About US$100 difference. As a result Eric is now gone, the space is empty and the owner will be getting nothing.
The other RV is a couple who are from Montana. They were in El Fuerte with us too. They also went to dinner New Years Eve with us. From here we will probably go different directions.
Plaza where we had dinner in the daytime. At night the streets are closed off and the tables set out in the street.

This must be the time of year – We’ve seen about six brides since we’ve been here. A couple were in the Plaza Machado getting pictures taken in the gazebo there. One was coming out of the big church in the district historico. We had to wait while she got into a LONG white limo. It was so long it could barely make it around the corners of the narrow streets.
Just wanted to share a few scenes with all. Some of the colorful buildings that have been taken care of in the District Historico I love the colors here. The purples

Notice the laundry at end of street

Green, purple and orange

And this one is waiting for some TLC
How about the wiring here?
Here is some repair work going on. The painter is painting a section of the building on the third floor. Note the bucket and brush
The helper holding the ladder with a rope
The ladder – note the rope on the top of it - goes to the roof. No wonder so many things need painting.

Just rambling

Anyone who got the notice with the slide show please ignore it. It was funny though and I guess it didn’t work. To see what it is really like click on this http://www.movingon1.com/revisitsinaloa.php it is a really nice presentation when you can see it.
To put an end to something I mentioned earlier – our awning is kaput. It will go out but has to be hand rolled back up. That means either a very tall person or a ladder. So with the help of our neighbor, a pretty tall man, and a ladder it is now back up and hopefully locked in place. The spring is broken and can’t be replaced here in Mazatlan or probably anywhere else here in Mexico. Oh well – joys of RVs. While on the subject of RVs – we had Jennie washed and waxed yesterday. She looks much better. Took a couple pounds of dust off her.
Yesterday it rained again – most of the day was overcast. Everyone is amazed “It NEVER rains in Mexico in January.” Well it did this year. Today there are bright blue skies. Bill has been feeling crappy – he has a monstrous cold – what is it with him and colds in January in Mexico. Makes me realize just how small this RV is! Hopefully today he is better. Tried to buy some Sudafed here – can only get it with prescription – So pharmacists recommended something else. It is kind of like a hot tea. Bill mixed it up and heated it up and said it tasted fine. But then he let it cool down – from the faces he was making I don’t think it tasted so fine then. But he seemed to get a good nights sleep.
He’s been looking for an electric razor as his is taking chunks out of him now. Can’t find any here. Take that back did find one but it was $80 in Wal*Mart yet. Says he’ll use a regular razor before paying that. Which reminds me of something else that happened a couple of days ago.
Sitting here with the door open when I heard – “Hello” “Hello” I went to the door.
An older man with a white straw hat, white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and navy blue pants on was standing there. He was carrying a bag kind of like an old doctor’s bag. He said something to me – thought I caught the word for hair but not sure. When I shook my head he made a scissoring motion with his fingers around his head. And repeated what he said. He was a barber. Neither Bill nor I have enough hair to cut so I told him no. He wished me a Feliz Año Nuevo smiled and left. I watched him slowly walk through the rest of the park. Got me to wondering if he makes a living doing that. And how many parks he walks through a day.
Sometimes all the vendors and begging get to me. The other night, New Years Eve, in the plaza there were little boys, about 6 or 7 years old selling chicklets, little girls around 10 or 11 selling roses and older Indian women with their babies strapped to their backs selling hand made dolls and purses. Of course the guys with guitars wanting to sing and play for us. One old guy – drunk as a skunk stopped and sang a whole song and then held out his hat. And I haven’t mentioned the young people who do acrobatics at the intersections then come by your car with their hand out. You feel like a real jerk just ignoring them but if you bought something or gave something to all of them you’d be broke in a month. And then there are the kids and old people who bag your groceries, the guys in the parking lots that direct you in and out of parking spaces, the gas station attendants – all of them get tipped. Could go through a lot of Pesos real fast.
Enough rambling for now. More later as I want to see if the blog will take two or three postings in one day. Hummmmm

New Years Eve at Plaza Machado

News Year’s Day 2010 – ALREADY!!!!! And our 45th anniversary. We had rain one whole night and part of the next day. Since then we’ve had blue skies and it has not been quite so muggy as before the rain. Heard some banging and thumping coming from the area next to the RV park yesterday. It is full of tall palm trees and a couple of guys were “harvesting” the coconuts. One would ram a tree with a bulldozer knocking the coconuts down into a dump truck. The ones that missed the truck would be picked up and thrown in. What ever works. Guess it is better then climbing them and knocking the coconut off with a machete. The cruise ships are here on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so we drove out the main road along the malecón (its 10 kilometers long!) to watch the cliff divers. It’s kind of funny how they do it. First a shill goes up on the platform and stands on the rail acting like he is going to dive. So everyone starts to gather around to watch. All this time the real diver is working the crowd collecting money. And they keep calling back and forth to one another. When the crowd gets big enough and enough money is collected the diver climbs the platform and then dives. The other guy walks back out into the crowd again collecting money. Took some pictures of him diving, using the click, click, click function on my camera, but didn’t move the camera enough to catch him hitting the water. There’s always next time. The town is really crowded this time of year. Both with Norte Americanos and Mexicans from the inland. Lots of Jalisco license plates on cars. Oodles of people on the beach and in the water. [oodles – now there’s a good word – thank you thesaurus] We did go back to take pictures of the Christmas tree made of bottles. Really ingenious. And while there we found an Optical place that had the frames I want for my glasses. Hooray! Left him my prescription I got in Indiana and will pick up not only regular glasses but also a new set of sun glasses next week. Both for less then the one pair would have cost at Lenscrafters in US. Now I have my fingers crossed that they are okay. We went out to New Years dinner at the Plaza Machado at the restaurant where we’ve eaten before. The tables were set out in the blocked off street. There were roving entertainers and a really good Cuban band playing. Lots of families there and lots of dancing going on. The evening didn’t even get cold. And the big full moon. Had a really nice time. First time in a long time we’ve been up at midnight. Bill has a terrible cold today. And today the guy is supposed to come and wash and wax Jennie. Finally took Willie to a car wash yesterday and had him cleaned inside and out. He even seems to run better now.
And now Jennie has been shined up too.
More about what we’ve been doing at a later time.
New Years Eve dancing and band playing