jacks-tracks

[jacks-tracks]

Split Coconut

March 15 2025

Brads split coconut grill and bar has been around longer than I have. Many different locations over the last 20 years. My favorite was the one on Marinero beach,big open space with a stage for live music. Tall waving palms rocked in time to the rolling surf, and the star studded sky held the golden moon. 50 tables filled with happy eaters and drinkers, staff scurried about delivering drinks (on tabs). The tiny bar handed out a steady stream of beer, margaritas (bested only by the Margaritas at nearby "Lisas" where booze filled half the salted rimmed cocktail glasses, and ice cold beer foamed followed by mescal shooters. Happy hour at the Split Coconut saw a surge of business, and the crowd stayed for bands of all kinds. Two locals guys did bass and drum backups for every visitor ranging from David Rotundo, Jack de Kaiser, Jimmy Bocso and Alberto Columbo. Any big name act in town came to do a local gig and dancing in the sand was tiring but oh so much fun. Tipsy dancers stomped and stumbled among the palm trees, and the music was excellent.

Brads specialty was BBQ cooked on half oil drum charcoal fires. Big ass pork chops, steaks, burgers, and dinosaur ribs, all basted in his special sauce. Salad was an unknown word , as was cholesterol. Brad and his bartender partner lived it up a little too much, got pretty fat, and expired at the peak of their time.

After a sundown happy hour, feasting on burnt meat and dancing, the happy crowd(almost all gringos) straggled out to the road, some walking home, some unwisely weaving off on scooters, and many flagging down the stream of $2 taxis who anticipated the rush.

As usual in Mexico, the landlords holding the leases saw money being made and doubled the rent, or closed out the venue to install their own people. Never worked, customer loyalty saw the clientel follow Brad to any new location until the cycle repeated itself. Through it all, Brad and his crew kept cooking, serving , promoting music, and providing a safe fun place for visitors and expats like. After Brads death, the show moved to Kikas Circus, down Avenida Morro. No beach, but delicious Italian food along with the traditional BBQ. Upgraded to a cement floor, the dancers rocked with a local timbale band,hammering out driving rhythms. with very talented Mexican couples dipping and swirling about in perfect time. Visiting artists still dropped in to keep the interest of gringos Popular on both the Morro spot and later on Zicatela, these were the places to go eat, drink , and mingle.

Kika too was driven out by foolish landlords, and opened a new spot in ritzy baccocho , with a restaurant upstairs from a defunct bowling alley. Great cook, ever smiling hostess, and a loyal clientel, it too was packed. Bit too small to turn a reliable profit though. Kika got married and found her calling as a waitress at the jam packed No solo pizza restaurant.

The new incarnation of the Split got funky again with a sand floored, pallet walled , beach strip location. New owner Dale really likes music and brings in a great variety of locals. As before, visiting musicians drop in to guest spots and some terrific rock and roll pours out into the night. Like the original Brads, horseshoe games run all afternoon, throws getting wilder as the booze kicks in. Flimsy tables, newly planted palms, local dogs,smoky kitchen, happy crowd. Partly in cooperation with the next door Cactus disco, partly recognizing the average age of the crowd(60?) the music starts at 5 and ends at 8. Electricity seemed to come from pirate cables siphoning the streetlights, happy hour saw a roar of regular swillers packing the bar, and tipsy dancers almost mingling with the bands playing on the tiny stage. Much happiness...

Once again the competition looked askance at the successful operation and engineered the closure of the lease. 6 months to go, and with the northward flocking of the snowbirds, only the expats remain to party. Where will Dale set up next season? Wherever it is, the loyal fans will go. Eating, drinking and listening to good music. All going well, I,ll be there too!!

[jacks-tracks]

March 2025

Roca Blanca

Roca blanca, as detailed in previous posts. Upcoast from Puerto, it,s 1 hour on the 2 lane rocket road. I call it that because the vans that run from Puerto to Rio Grande seem to fly. 60 pesos, approx 1 hour. Bad music blares, whats worse than rap in Spanish, off key?The drivers believe that if you tailgate the lead vehicle will speed up. Not true , but it puts them in a better position to make flying passes on blind corners The highway is marked with painted distance indicators(ie. 120 to Puerto). Misread by van drivers to mean the speed limit is 120, they try. Perhaps the sooner they get to the destination, the sooner they can have drinks before returning. Driving with one hand is traditional, especially while gabbing on the radio phone to other distracted van drivers. Hands come right off the wheel to wave at drivers from the same company going in the opposite direction. I swear little wings slid out from the side panels for lift! Anyway, flag stops are sudden, accelerating to 100 fun, and chickens beware. Only topes save the day, and there,s lots of them, usually paved, sometimes homemade from dirt, or best of all, a row of cannonballs across traffic. These seem to work best, nearly a full stop. Then it,s time to accelerate full blast to the next tope(100 yards). Having survived all this, pay 60 pesos on alighting, limp into the shade.

it,s a stroll through Cacalote town, flat, divided street, paved to the city limits, where it becomes dirt. Lots of shops selling the same stuff, a tortilla shop, laundry, pool hall, plaza, school, and flowers on walls. The tiny carnival rides aare still rusting on the side street, apparently unused till weekends. At 9 am the heat has yet to rise, and there,s patches of shade from roadside trees. Flat land, cow pastures, goats, donkeys, calves, brahma cattle, nervous chickens, and occasional tropical birds in the larger trees.A brilliant red bird in the mango was perhaps a tanager. Kids cruise by on 1 speed bikes, moms on scooters pack on 2 kids, groceries, and the occasional dog. Everybody is curious(why are these gringos walking!/), but friendly. Calling out Buenos Dias inevitably gets a smile and wave. One half mile from the beach ,the thunder of the surf rolls through the air. A masssive lagoon is hidden by mangrove swamps, and while there is one patch of open water, dotted with tiny fish, and decorated by a Crocodillo sign, no crocs are in evidence. They probably lurk deeper in the swamp, and only eat dogs, right?

Finally come some rental shacks roadside, plank walls, flimsy doors and mosquitoes for free. Rental prices are stupid, 1000 pesos per night. Perhaps for the ambience? None!! There a re now a couple of upscale mini hotels, empty. Then comes the first of the beach front palalpa restarants(sp?) Lulu and Jose Galvan are the longest established, super friendly, very good cook, specializing in fish, fresh caught. Now there,s a big tin roofed palapa with plastic chairs and tables, a few hammocks, and a wide open view of the beach stretching east forever, and west to the rocky point and usually swimmable beach in front of the iguanarium. Yes they have an iguana rearing facility, with jumbo adults, and 100,s of babys in tall net cages. They get fed stale lettuce by the box full.. There are 10 other palapas, funky, unused except on weekends and crammed to overflowing at Christmas and Easter. The swamp backs onto these palapas.

Huge surf boomed in the last time I was there, making the main beach unusable, and the swim beach dangerous. Usually the swim beach can be used as it,s in a hook. Instead I walked into the interior on a small dirt road between the swamp mangroves and the tall sand banks that cut off the beaches. Barb wire fences isolate the cactus and scrub from the path and I kept one eye on the scrub for venemous critters, and the other eye on the swamp side for crocs, Saw none, but it was the heat of the day by 10 am. 1 mile along, a cactus boardered trail, up over the dunes to a collapsing palapa(shade!) with a nice view over another pocket beach. Waves of heat mixed with the sea breeze. Another mile and i saw a huge rock pile, sandstone all weathered into fantastic shapes. There was house down the road, but i ducked under the wire onto another beach. More miles of empty sand, big waves, and a gringo palace in the distance. Underground cables carry power all along this empty road. Another palapa, welcome shade and a breeze off the ocean made a good final stop. Cormorants ducked throught the surf, and a curlew(?) with a skinny curved beak as long as it,s legs probed the backwash.

Returning always seems shorter, and i made my way back. At the swim beach a full wetsuited diver had speared 5 big fish. I went to the restaurant to join my companions for lunch. Huge portion of fish with fries. Pricey at 380 pesos, but I,m paying for the ambience, and a hammock. Jose is building 4 cement palapas right beside the main building. Seems he pissed off the locals, and someone burned down his original shacks. Mysterious are the ways of local politics in Mexico. Matt drove Lorrine and I out to the road, saving us a very hot walk, and another rocket driver flew us back to Puerto.

So, Roca Blanca is the perfect place to feel the old Mexico of my youth, empty beaches, golden sand, palapa eaterys, and peaceful scenery. A long way to go, but well worth it.

[jacks-tracks]

Hows the weather?

A broad topic.. now February 28 the air is still(9am) am, hot(30 degrees) and the humidity is rising.

Sequentialy November when iIarrived was the end of the rainy season, so still muggy. Daytimes 28, nightime lows 24. With the night winds off the Sierra madre mountains it felt right chilly, and a blanket was needed at dawn. Dawn then being 6:30 am with sunset at 6pm. Not much seasonal variation , perhaps 1 hour of daylength. The winds cycling from the onshore(heat rising in the interior) day breeze at come on at 10 am. Fading at sunset, to be replaced by the reversal of the wind by 9 pm with the breeze dropping from the mountains to the cooler sea. Day winds peak at 15 mph, night winds surprisingly get up to;'' 20 mph, flapping the bananna plant leaves and bringing a welcome coolth. It rained twice in November, only at night, with brief showers that evaporate on the still hot cement. More rain falls in the hills, keeping the rivers and streams full, and plants green. This is when the birds nest in the lagoons after their arduous migrations. Trees and flowering plants burst in a shower of blossoms. Tree flowers run from pink popcorn clusters to creamy white showers of curious long stammened brown sheaths. There are trees with purple 5 petalled tiny flowers, trees with bright yellow crowns on leafless branches, and what I call Tulip trees with their deep red upthrusting deep throated blooms which are probably really called African flame trees. There,s a peculiar tree growing tall over the pool brick wall that starts out with clusters of white green frothy falls of sweet scented blooms very popular with bees, and frequented by yellow breasted fly catchers who feed on the insects attracted to the flowers pollen. Those flowers set a seed pod that starts out pale pink and turns redbrown while curling into a spiral. Black seeds like mung beans shower down, but must not be edible as no birds pick them. In the past flocks of tropical birds would swoop in to gobble the insects and pick at the flowers, while fly catchers dipped in flight to gobble bugs. This year, though there was a good blossom set, almost no birds fed there. In fact the usual squabbling flocks of grackles and dipping pigeons were missing as were most of the ubiqitous sparrows who once nested in the power pole holes. It was pointed out to me that there is a Perigrine (sp?) falcon who perches in the front yard Norfolk pine daily. It must have been a smorgasboard for him. Another blooming tree grows out of the pavement sidewalk near the market, which while it produces a pea like seed, throws out streamers of brilliant yellow deep throated orchid shaped blooms. just the right height to pick and that keep very well in a vase.

December and the Bouganvellia bursts into a tangle of deep green leaves and a wide variety of colours, ranging from deep red to pale cream, pink, and a nice variety with softly blended shades. The tough vine like stems form an impenetrable thorny wall, good for stopping burglars. Some are just knee high, others shoot up to 30 feet given some support like a wall or a tree. There,s no rain, and temps run steady at 25 in the day to 22 at night, quite comfortable.

January is the coolest month. Those night winds drop the pool temp to chilly, so much so that I wore my rash guard shirt as a sort of wet suit. A surprise shower at night, just enough to get me up pulling in the laundry, which stopped the rain. By dawn the cement was dry, so there really wasn,t much percipitation. Pelicans and cormorants start to fly from their lagoon nests out along the beach moving from one lagoon to the next. This coast is lined with big lagoons , entrances blocked by winter storm tidal sand, and filled by the ephemeral streams that trickle out of the hills. Rich in aquatic life, a perect feeding ground, shrimp, fish, and hordes of insects,providing a reliable source of food. Some lagoons bioluminesce(sp?) so boat operators switch from day time birding excursions to night time light viewing. The full moon dims the brightness of the bio, so some enterprising guides built floating shelters to block the rays and still give tourists the sight of light. Some ignorant or very daring tourists swim in the bioluminesence, which probably looks cool. There are lots of crocodiles in all the lagoons, feeding on abundant fish and the occasional unwary dog. Big crocodiles! At the breding pen ,I,ve sen a 5 meter bull rush the fenced enclosure(after a passing dog) and kawang off the steel mesh. I was standing right there and levitated 10 feet back. That,s when I noticed that the adjacent gate was tied with a flaky piece of string!

February and the heat returns in force. The winter low humidity pops up from 30% to 80%, and suddenly the pleasantly baking heat feels quite oppressive. Another rain shower, this time substantial, but still conveniently falling at night. More daytime clouds, muggy. Mangos are blooming everywhere, loaded with fruit that will ripen and fall in April. The price of mangoes(imported from Chiapas) drops from $1 each to 10 cents. Bees like the mango blossoms and zoom around each cluster.

March and the snowbirds start flocking north to shovel snow . The heat rises to 32 in the day and there,s little nightime relief from the humidity. I,ve taken to dipping my legs in the pool about 9pm, or sometimes doing a full on swim. It,s awkward sitting on the pool rim as there are always leaf cutter ants parading by with their harvest. One night I ran my flashlight along and saw an inexplicable line of pink. Closer examination revealed those leaf cutter ants harvesting the fallen bouganvillea petals and packing them off in a solid line away to a hole in the brick wall.

April sees the sesonal change come. Daily clouds pile up in the afternoon, showers fall nearly every day, and the heat stays way up. April is the hottest month. By then the birds are migrating back north, lagoons flood with the rain and the sandbar plugs burst so the swollen waters can flood out to sea. This weather pattern continues until the fall.

Given the abysmal(sp?) weather back home. Winter storms , torrential endless rain, followed by a 3 week deep freeze that only broke to let in the seasonal spring storms, alll against the backdrop of short dark days, I plan to come back to Puerto next November. Getting the best of the weather, longer spring days, spring sun, lovely summers, and temperate autumns. It,s only 3000 miles to paradise..6 hours on a plane!

[jacks-tracks]

Tierra blanca beach

Encouraged by David the surfers report of swimmable beach, I caught the highway bus to the entrance road, 20 minutes south of Puerto, 3 K south of Tomatal town. $40 pesosfor the bus, but I had to watch for the road sign, as the bus driver does not.

It,s a long dusty hot walk in, perhaps 2 miles, first up a steep hill, then down a long slope to the sea. No shade except the occasional pink blossom tree, but the sea was in sight . There a re lots of Gringo palaces being built in the old farm fields, and nobody around. I heard a peculiar chirp in the roadside scrub and spotted a long tailed Mexican Jay, with beautiful irridescent blue feathers, and a jaunty dingle ball like a quails on it,s head. I try not to imitate the bird calls I hear, as it upsets the birds patterns so they can come see who,s in their territory. I did call the Jay, and ever curious he came close in the trees to see me.

Finally at the beach(I did eye the low hanging coconuts alongside the road) I found a small restaurant with shaded palapa like tables, and a low bank beach with lots of surfers trying out the small waves. Beach bunnys, and surf mothers lounged in the scanty shade. There are 2 small hotels with nice grounds and private hammocks. Me? I hit the broad hard sand and hoofed east to a small lagoon. Beyond where I stood ,that wide empty beach streached for miles. Hot and with a nice onshore breeze. Next to the lagoon, ( no crocodiles in sight and pretty shallow) I saw a gentle sloping sand bank under the red mangroves. Perfect spot to loaf. Hint, do not roll over the toredo riddled log, it,s full of tiny ants who boil out indignantly. Out with the pareau/ sarong on a smooth spot, dappled shade. quiet except for the murmur of the surf. A pearly grey heron came to fish the shallows next door, and got some very small fish.

My book de jour was a turkey, but having nothing else I speed read throught the turgid phrasing. I left it there. My day bag had a bottle of welcome cold water, a mandarin orange,and a cheese tomatoe sprout sandwhich, all of which spread out over 3 hours tasted pretty good. I,ve rarely found a beach restuarant that makes tasty/ edible food., so a lunch in the bag is a good idea.

i did do the long(100 meter) walk across the flat beach to swim. One dead turtle, pretty well decomposed, but still stinky. The warm water felt good and I waded out 50 feet, knee deep. Naturally the tiny waves suddenly lumped up to 6 footers when I got waist deep. Bit of duck diving, and sand blasting, but quite safe as there was no undertow. It,s just fun to leap about in the refreshing splashes.

Back in the shade I applied a fresh coat of number 50 sun screen, and even so got a bit cooked. The shade was dappled, meaning 50 % exposure. The breeze keeps it deceptively cool. Only a bicycle rider rolled past going south, otherwise i saw nobody for 3 hours, and this just moments away from the roads end and the surf crowd. Flocks of sandpipers nervously skittered in the shallows, only to wheel away in a tight group at imagined danger. Larger gulls, similar to herring gulls were more settled and explored the saline shallows, before also flying south.

High noon, or so I supposed, being without a watch. Time to make my way out to the highway. Surprise! All the surfers were gone, leaving no possible rides. Only a few builders banged and cemented on new buildings. Nothing for it but to walk uphill, pausing in sparse shade. Happily a kid on a motorcycle picked me up. (Maybe he saw my pony tail from behind and thought he,d pick up a chick). Easy ride out, saving a long hot walk, he drove me in to Tomatal. I slipped him 50 pesos for gasoline. A short hot sunny wait, watching the small town( really a roadside slow down with enough topes to calm the racing trucks), then the Tomatal route taxi stopped and flagged me in That cab goes right to puerto, 20 minutes, all the way to the mercado. Stuffed in the back beteen a large woman and a young mother holding a solemn 1 year old girl. Everybodys friendly. Home in a jiffy ,back by 2pm,, quick shower, cool drink and a deep pool swim, relaxo,

I,m happy to find a remote very quiet beach, away from the Puerto tourist trail.

[jacks-tracks]

Blog fog January 28(?) Lunar New year!

What was my last entry? Oh well I,ll just babble on...

Local trips: Several trips to Agua Blanca by bus, a quick flight on an old clanker , with a relaxing walk in to the beach,perhaps 40 minutes, some shade, dirt road, lots of would be subdivisions(10 meter by 15 meter lots!), and a lazy dog who waited till we,d passed before barking. It,s a lovely spot, with a white sand beach stretching for miles south undeveloped past the crocodile lagoon, and a more varied shoreline north past some new development houses right on the beach. If there,s ever a tsunami it will be a clean sweep since all these palapas and bungalows are built right on the sand.

Regretably the Dona Marce restaurant still can,t cook. My scrambled egg order came as 3 deep fried eggs(cold) swimming in grease. The fish filets would patch tires. Even the coconut was mouldy. Having clean bathrooms(bring your own tp) doesn,t quite compensate. Does have the best view beachfront tables.

The tidal pools are filled with sand from the spring hurricane so swimming is difficult. I tried the main beach west but after wading out to the breakers I fell in a trough and got dumped in the washing machine for a sand blast. There are some little pools up on the rocks that fill repeatedly from surf busting ashore, sort of a combo shower/jacuzzi.

What keeps me coming back is the tranquility. There,s no music, just waves. Hanging in a hammock with a good book. No vendors except little kids who should be in school half heartedly pedling baked bananas. Not even an ice cream cart struggling across the boiling sands. It,s the perfect spot for along beach walk south, picking shells, and seeing the net casting fisherman shaking tiny silver minnows out of their nets, birdwatching at the lagoon mouth for exotic waders, and seeing no crocodiles ever.

Playa Roca Blanca, 40 miles north is a bit more difficult to access. A low flying van which passes everything at the last minute on blind corners( the faster they get to the terminal the more beer they can drink before the next trip?), and practising tailgating(it makes the front vehicle go faster?). Only 55 pesos per person, and it,s the main means for locals to go shopping or move from town to town. No livestock, hay , bulk cargo. The windows are tinted so black so passengers can,t estimate speeds.

Dropped off at the tiny town of Cacalote, there are sometimes local taxis but it,s an easy hour walk in, flat land, friendly dogs, locals who wave and call Buenas dias, a bit of shade and curious cows in barb wire fenced fields. Dirt road of course, but with so little traffic that dut is not a problem.Long before you get there the surf sends a rumble roar through the trees, Finally arriving at Jose and Lulus restaurant, it,s great to flop at a shaded table overlooking the lovely beach. Fresh coconuts, and food that is professionally cooked to perfection. Tender fish, pink shrimp, or huevos rancheros, all served by "Gordo" an affable if oversized waiter.

Lately the surf has been low enough for swimming right in front, but it,s always safe over in the cove next door where the rocky point redirects the waves. Coco lined public beach backed by an iguanerium.(I won,t even try to spell that!) Hundreds of tiny green iguanas in tall net fenced cages, with the really big parents climbing free in the trees or atop the cages, My spanish is not up to asking what they do with them all, but a similar facility south of Puerto live releases them into communitys that agree not to hunt them.

So, the water is warm, swimming is fun and the food is good. This reminds me of the old Mexico of 20 years ago. Low key, not everything works but hey! Tranquillo, safe, cheap and very pleasant. The late afternoon walk out can be a bit steamy, but the scenery is interesting, and there,s always the rocket ride home to look forward to.

Politics. Jose is ambitious and bought several small parcels for resale. He,s built up a restaurant and is finishing a tin roofed papala(can tin roofs qualify as palapas?) Next will be some more cabinas to rent.While it would be cool to spend a night in this spot, the proximity of the huge swampy lagoon guarantees mosquitoes . And it,s wildly overpriced at $1000 pesos for small wooden box, I,d try it if they threw in 3 meals. Local politics are incomprehensible to us tourists, but Jose pissed somebody off and they burnt his truck and first cabina. I don,t ask.

In Puerto the local cops took to shaking down the beach tourists for spurious crimes, like drinking beer on the beach(6 cops, handcuffs, frog marched away,) or littering (guns out, freeze sucker). The town council got enough complaints that they disarmed them with warnings and brought in the Marines for beach patrol. I passed a public meeting a t the Agencia(town hall and plaza) where to my incomplete spanish it seemed an official was reassuring the audience(100) that all was well and the cops were controlled and the marines were on the job. They,ve been glad handing the beach walkers and trying to take happy publicity shots. Still 16 year olds with machine guns that they,d love to shoot!

So surfs up finally 3 to 5 meter waves, but as the disgruntled surfers explain the break still flops right onto the beach and it,s impossible to ride .The serious surfers go south to Tierra Blanca beach where the curl is good. Puerto was built on being a surf destination. What next? Well there are enough digital nomads, and now zillions of Mexican tourists using the new highway to fill the hotels. Everywhere, locals are adding second story rooms, and new hotels are under construction at La Punta.

Finally, when the bank machines were closed for refill at Chedruai, I went back to Banorte where I used to deal, to get $ for the rent. All went well, got cash, got a receipt, but my card was eaten by the evil machine. Appeals to the bankers inside were useless(no English) and what I interpreted was that my card was "destroyed". I spent 4 hours trying to reach my credit union and finally got the card cancelled. I can still pay with my credit card, and have enough cash to live on till I depart. Which by the way is March 20, 50 days from now! Time has flown in a most pleasant way...

[jacks-tracks]

January 21 2025

Blog log/or how to save these musings to a memory stick/flash drive.

Is it Drive or Google/ and what the heck do I do to save ?

Already have a flash drive with 143 blogs on it.Now i want to add subsequent 10 or so.

Bueno Suerte!

[jacks-tracks]

A bit of a blog...January 19 2025

Some people make New years resolutions. Here are my always resolutions.

1,.Eat a healthy balanced diet , only eating at appropriate times, aiming for a light breakfast, a substantial lunch, and a small meal before 6pm. The concept is to provide regular fuel over time but giving the body a chance to process what's taken in and having an overnight rest. By choice I don.t eat beef or pork, limit dairy to yogurt and occasional cheese. It,s healthy to eat a very big salad daily. I find that eating very little wheat also seems beneficial for weight control. So.. lots of fish, vegies, fruit, and greens.

2. Exercise daily. this is usually in the form of a 2 k walk first thing and some stretch exercises in the evenings( without which I am seized up in the morning.

3. No jogging. Save your knees, walk. Swim if possible.

4. Keep a concious positive attitude and practise mindfulness.

5. Connect with and support friends.

6. Be grateful for life and it's wonders.

7. Give something daily, support others, and have no expectation of a return.

8.No stress. (let it go)

9. Feel peace. It,s all around us.

10. See the beauty, feel it. Every day there are moments of special beauty.

[jacks-tracks]

01 12 2025

Finally occured to me to date these blogs. Opened 123 blog entrys and short of scrolling slowly through each one....

Casa Dan . Things are OK here,with the usual suspects. What is concerning is Don Dans mental state. Dementia , with anxiety. As his memory slip,he feels anxious , losing control. Since he is the owner/ supreme leader, his indecisiveness and inability are hindering the operational aspects of the day to day hotel. An example would be , the manager decides to fix something, but Dan does not recall and feels that he is being sidelined. He reams out the staff, who respond by doing nothing as an avoidance tactic. Maintenance slips, broken stuff goes unrepaired. The choice to hire a second maintenance man who does electrics sets up a conflict with the long time Mr.fixit. Now there,s 3 women in the office and 2 on th desk. Way too many people on salary, especially since things are not getting done. The manager is quitting, tired of the abuse and interference by Dan. Her husband is handy man #1, her daughter is book keeper #2, bookkeeper #1 wants to retire. Will people quit?how can a new manager step in/?

I and several other long timers a re shopping for an alternative hotel for next year or whenever the shit hits the fan. Casa Dan is the best, and still runs, but the unpredictability is wearing.

On the health front, I had a predisone shoulder shot to ease the arthritic pain and mobility issue. Got to where I could not swim, sleepwell, or carry loads. Dr Omar is great and slipped the needle in just the right spot(OWW). Felt like crap for 2 days and suddenly my arm moves pain free! Medical treatment is cheap here. $50 can for the visit , shot and antihistimines. However, it took 2 hours to f ill out the insurance claim forms. Not designed to be easy.

I continue to take flower photos and send them to 4 friends back home, as it cheers people up to get flowers. 2 months of pics without repeats. That,s how abundant flowers are here.

My computer was clogged with pics and files, and as it has a very limited memory i needed to transfer a lot to a hard drive. Anabe, the beautiful receptionist is very computer savvy, and downloaded all the info onto my 1 tb drive ($40 Amazon), and now I,m back to snapping shots. Of course my computer skills are zero, so this was great service. I,ll try to download these blogs to a stick for portability and storage.

My problem with being online is impulse shopping, like on Temu. Lots of stuff I want(need?) and cheap like me. Since i have to carry all this stuff home it,s an issue,. Now I have 3 mosquitoe zappers, 3 led lights, a laproscope, 3 pairs of gloves for the cold trip home(overbought!), shoe goo, loctite, a motorcycle seat cover, and 2 magnetic door screens.I,ll use it all, but must stop buying! Temu has lots of baits, click here to get 3 free gifts(just buy 500 pesos of other stuff).and prices sometimes jump from page to checkout. Stoppp!

Weather back home has been abysmal, and I,m so glad not to be there in the dark and endless rain. Yes it,s been warm(5 degrees), but who cares when it does not get light till 8 am and it,s dark at 4! Here it,s a steady 30 in the day with a chilly 23 at night. Surprised to get a rain shower last night that pumped the humidity way up. Only enough rain to get the laundry wet.

Having tamed the hotel cat, I seem to have aquired some other friends. From the night sneakers who pack off the chicken bones , now there,s a black c at with white boots who decided to camp on my doormat. Once I hushed the yowling with food, he proved to be quite affectionate, likes being petted, and just hanging out. Clearly someones former pet.

That,s enough chatting. More when something of note occurs.

[jacks-tracks]

Christmas blog 2024

The decorations have been up since Halloween(or Dia de Muertos here). Flashing lights, inflated santas, crepe paper streamers, phew, what a commercial show!

The nursery are crammed with thousands of poinsettias, gorgeous colour display. Pilgrims go way back into the hill towns to venerate a black virgin represented by a tiny doll in a glass case, and I recall in the remote hills of Guatemala a church filled with worshipers walking on their knees up the aisle to kiss the glass case containing a full sized body of a black Christ. Really black. After all, how likely is it that Christ was white with blond hair and a scruffy beard? Was,nt he Jewish? Enough religion...

In Puerto the booming economy sees the 4 lane through highway crammed with vehicles. No donkeys here, replaced by a zillion motorcycles, usually driven by helmetless drivers in flipflops and shorts. they zoomup the inside of the stalled traffic just like in the orient. It,s common to see gringos with bandaged knees and casts. There,s a rush hour! Traffic stalls at the traffic lights , backed up for 1 kilometer and crawling down the hill. Nobody honks or drives too wildly, except the collectivo drivers who attempt to reach escape velocity and fly over the crowd. Taxis take the backroads, sometimes going so far inland as to nesecitate crossing dry streambeds. The infrastructure has not been upgraded in years, so the sewers are burping(phew!), pavements crumbling(pouring cement on sand seems to be a failure),The power supply seems to be holding up, but the telecom service is sketchy, with a total town wide failure for 8 hours of all systems. No internet, no cash machines, no phones, no ecash registers. Cash only, chaos, as all Puerto depends on e -telecoms. Supplys of propane are shorted, Some issue with production and a local delivery company failed. The remaining supplier-Gas de Oaxaca- runs delivery trucks which broadcast their arrival with a recorded catchy tune and a cow moo-loud! In short, Puerto has overrun it,s infrastructure as the population outstrips the supply of water, power and transportation.

Back at casa Dan, my next door neighbour had a stroke. There is a well staffed and equipped hospital, but a massive stroke is final. After 3 days in care he was brought home to Dans to die. I helped the Ambulance men carry the stretcher in,all I could do as he weighed 250 pounds. A retired nurse from USA gave him care, he was medicated and slipped away in his wife's arms the same night. It took 6 of us to carry him out to the hearse. Cremation, with the usual Mexican screwups, like wrong name on forms and no extra forms to replace them. There was a well attended memorial gathering at his favorite bar, which he had held up for 30 years. 80 people(I knew only 8, from Casa dans) and food provided. there were 3 desserts and I tried all three. Sugar rush! no sleep all night!

Back on Lasqueti, the winter weather has been horrible. Storm after storm, record rainfall and gales between storms(peak wind 100 mph!) Days are 8 hours long and soggy. Here I,m whining because we had 3 days of clouds and an overnight rain/thunder storm and temps dropped to 22 at night. Back to 30 in the day, 23 at night with a refreshing cool wind at night off the Sierra Madre mountains, and a stiff sea breeze onshore by 10 am.

I connected with my old buddy Jimmy Tortuga the lucky fisherman, and he arranged a boat for deep sea fishing. 4 men , a good captain and a spiffy boat, with excellent gear. 10 miles out, fast trolling with 6 lines out , baited lures with hootchies. It was an hour before the first fish hit and it was a 15 kilo sailfish,leaping wildly and struggling to escape. A second smaller sailfish we released. It was my turn and a stripped Marlin hit hard. Stripped 100 meters of line out and oddly enough a second Marlin started leaping 100 meters off to port. I"ve caught lots of big fish but this one took all I had. 20 minutes of reeling, gaining a bit then another run and no gain. Finally I just held the rod up and let him fight the fiberglass. My left arm was aching, and reeling was pretty well impossible against the steady pull. I almost passed the rod to a younger guy, but pride kept me at it. Finally after one half hour the fish eased up and I reeled it to the boat. No nets or gaffs, the captain puts on gloves, grabs the beak, and hauls the fish inboard. 30 kilos! The biggest salmon I ever caught was 25 kilos so this was a personal record. After cleaning ,my share was 15 pounds of meat, and the freezer is stuffed. I shared fish with my neighbours, and the hotel cats helped. Marlin steaks lightly poached are delicious, the texture of pork, red meat that cooks to white, and no fishy flavour.

Not sure what all that has to do with Christmas!? I guess this is just a catch up blog. I,m still sending flower pictures daily to the folks back home, and after 6 weeks there a re no duplicates. My daily morning 1 hour walk usually produces a new bloom. Most of the flowers are domestic, with some escapees. Poinsettias seem to be the flower of choice , but the mercado flower stalls are banked with every kind you can imagine. All imported, some wildly fragrant. A walk through the 20 stall corridor is aroma therapy.

New Years Eve tonight. As usual I will set an alarm and get up to see the fireworks from the terraza. At home it looks to be a super party at the hall, with a 12 person Marimba orchestra, a local very hot rock band and all night DJ,s. I,d go if I were there.

[jacks-tracks]

30 kilo striped marlin

My 6 am taxi was a no show, but got a flag stop up at the highway down to Playa principal to catch the boat. Just light at 6:30, stiff Easterly breeze, warm and pleasant. The very nice panga is driven by Leo and he brings a deckhand to do the work. With Brian from Pender harbour, Andre from Montreal and of course my buddy Tortuga(aka jimmy) we zoomed out 10 miles to fish. Choppy but only a small groundswell and full sun by 7 am. Nothing usually happens right away and indeed we waited an hour for the first fish. Jimmy hooked a nice sailfish(10 kilos,6 meters long) and handed off to Andre when winded. The sailfish jump a lot so it,s exciting to see. Boating the fish is done by the crew who put on gloves, grasp the fish beak alongside , let them thrash a bit ,then hoist the whole fish inboard and let it expire on the side deck.

Taking turns we had time for bag lunches(brian drank beer instead) and banter. Makes fishing more fun, and I got caught up on Jimmys adventures over the winter. Sold all his boats! After 27 years staying at the YuriMar hotel he and Tracy will upgrade into a Calle Morro palace for January. The Yuri Mar(dump right by the 4 lane highway) has started bringing in bus loads of Mexicans with screaming kids thrashing in the tiny pool till all hours.

Fishing here is very different from home. The panga runs 6 rods on outriggers, and the baited hootchies a re splashing on the surface just 60 feet behind the boat which is zooming along at 5knots(6mph). The skipper looks for current lines where bait gather, or trash floating which gives cover for the bait fish and a feeding zone for the predators. Fish hit hard, hooking themselves and running off a lot of line.This gives the crew time to pull in the other lines and the guest a chance to jump into the fighting chair. The big Penn deep sea reels are loaded with lots of high test line and everything was top shape.

My turn to fish, and a striped Marlin(there are 6 kinds) ripped off 110 meters fast. Plunked into the chair, grabbed the stiff rod and held on! Oddly enough another marlin started jumping 100 feet away from the boat while mine went west. I,ve reeled in a lot of fish but this was one of the hardest, giving no ground just pulling strong. Salmon come up after a while, and Halibut go down but rise easily once their heads are turned upwards. Not Marlin. No jumping just a powerful pulling resistance. It took me 20 minutes of supreme effort, giving it my all to gain line enough to boat the fish and even then he ran from the boat at the last minute. I seriously contemplated handing off the rod to a younger guy, but pride kept me at it. Once the skipper grasped the beak he let the fish thrash against the hull to tire it ,then in one smooth lift hauled it inboard. I was beat and happy. 30 kilos, 7 feet long , a powerhouse of pure muscle. My muscles were done and my left arm which held the weight still feels weak a day later. Back muscles, butt bones, neck stiff, and generally aching all over! Fishing is fun! That,s the biggest fish I,ve ever caught.

We caught another small sailfish, and released it,then after a few good bait stripping hits we trolled towards town. Jimmy was hoping for Dorado, best eating, but the long liners have got them, and Russian trawlers and factory ships have stripped the coast of tuna. All illegal, zero enforcement. Saw federal truck with a bumper sticker : report illegal fishing 1 800...) Ha! They probably transport he catch for the pirates. We were back at the beach by 11:30 from a 6 :30 start, which was enough pitching and rolling exercise for a day.

So... Everybody got to play a fish, we all had a good time, and the price was right given Jimmys bargaining skills. 1000 pesos each plus tip and fish cleaning, my cost was $100 canadian. Probably cheaper to buy it, but the experience is well worth the cost, and it,s fresh. After sharing out the meat I took home 15 pounds, 10 of Marlin ,5 of sailfish. The fish cleaning lady, (there a re several) with shady cleaning table right at the boat landing tried to charge us 300 pesos per fish, but our captain dealt her down to 150. Very expert, fast and no waste, with roll bags provided. By the time the skin, guts and fins, head and tail are chopped off the yield is perhaps 50% flesh. They'll cut the meat down to paper thin filets , the local choice, but we wanted chunks. With a fish as big as me and just as thick, there,s some chunks. My freezer filled with portions ,using every bag i had,, and I gave fish away to the neighbours,(it,s good luck and good neighbourly policy). The meat is red, firm and not fishy, more like meat. I prefer to poach fish as that drives off the fat and leaves a tasty slab. Put fish in pot , cover with cold water, lid on and full flame till it boils. Done! I ate my fill, and the stray cat ate scraps till she fell over, still meowling . I,ve enough fish for a month when I'll look up Jimmy and go again. No guarantee of catching, but jimmy is lucky and we,ve done well in the past.

[jacks-tracks]

Blah Blog

Had to be one. Just a list of typical days, with side notes on extra events/

Life here really is a routine, with little variation. All systems at Casa dan work, or are fixed promptly, so there,s no need to rearrange life to fix whatever is broken next as at home.

Awake at 6:30(full light), roll out ,hot water on, brush up,make coffee,gulp hot and get out for a walk before the heat.Usually it,s beach walk with a return along Calle Morro, the front street. Wave watch, pick beach trash plastic, and home up a side alley and steep stairs to the lookout benches. Not much of a view since the acacia tree has grown up in the center of the viewscape. Amusingly the same young squirrel is always eating the acacia seeds, hanging up side down to avoid the falling crumbs .It,s hot by 9 am, especially as i do climb the stairs/road non stop for a bit of cardio.

Breakfast, grapefruit, granola, yogurt, and fruit juice, same every day. Listen to BBCnews, read the mail, and choose a book. The extensive library has lots of new books but i often see some interesting title, only to discover that I read it last year. Hammocks make good reading spots , allowing impromptue naps.

At least once a week it,s shopping, either super Che department store or my favorito tienda, best quality, best prices. Access by a bus up Oaxaca Avenue, of walk up through the main market. 30 pounds of fruit! Tangerines, bananas, watermelon, papaya, vegies like potatoes(crispy, water filled, tasteless), onions ,peppers, tomatoes(uniform size/shape/lack of flavour),grapefruit, and odd bits like grapes(Chile), lichee, and whatever looks good. With Christmas coming and the ensuing run on cash machines I,m stocking up on Pesos for Januarys rent and running expense. There,s a cash machine(Santander bank) which dispenses 11000 pesos at a wack, but all machines give an exchange rate at least 5% below published rates, raking in a tidy profit. Credit cards cost 5% to use and still give the low rate, so it pays to pull out cash.The books were looking good until the travel insurance company finally posted their bill and the annual credit card fee came due. Walking down to the combi stop I saw a hole in the wall (lit) stand run by an ancient campesino and his ever eating wife. Crumbling camper for storage, from whence he produced a lump of Copal, fresh off the tree, and some local very dark honey. Once I ask in Spanish I get a detailed answer half of which is incomprehensible slang and accent. Some thing about organic watermelon..But my bags were already overloaded. Home by combi, an increasing number of which are city vans going to uphill neighbourhoods, much more comfortable and safely driven. There,s always the last shlep down the backstreet to Casa dan, and a grateful sigh upon dropping the overloaded bags. Fridge is full, freezer overflowing, who knew I ate so much?!

Lately lunch is an overflowing plate of salad, typically chopped romaine lettuce, skinned diced tomatoes, red pepper chopped fine, sprouts, avocado and a slobber of mayonaise. Filling, non fattening, healthy in as much as all this inorganic produce can be.

Work over it,s time for a swim in the ever cooling pool. Temp drops 1 degree a week. Down to 25, which feels cold enough for a rash guard shirt and some pretty fast laps. Hot shower, laundry, back to the hammock, book and siesta. Neighbours drop by with news(gossip) and books. Hot tip this week was that the Split Coconut bar (50 happy gringo drinkers all glad handing old pals.) had Ned Flanders live. Solo guitar, think Jimmy buffet doing covers with enthusiasm. I went down and into the pallet fenced area open to the beach with lots of shade. Here were Jimmy and Tracy , my buddys from the Yurimar dump hotel. They are moving next month to a much nicer and quieter place. Tracy is as bubbly as ever,(fueled by booze) and Jimmy is still slaying the fish,having just returned from a morning where they caught 2 sailfish, a big marlin, some dorado and a bunch of barellitos. They released the game fish. Rumours have Russian trawlers netting all the tuna and delivering to a factory freezer ship. We exchanged brief summarys of the past 8 months and agreed to go fishing next Friday. It,s my $100 Christmas gift to myself, with a chance of a load of fresh fish to eat.

Sunset up on the terraza with the local inmates, more gossip, news, and usually a spectacular sunset, Green flash or salmon bright ripples across the high clouds. The growing moon is a sliver in the west, flanked by Venus. and only the evening mosquitoe rise drives us down stairs to screened safety. There is dengue in Puerto, with some locals getting it twice. My bed net, bug zapper, and repellant spray are essential. I never want dengue again!

So that,s the intown stuff. I,ve been to Playa manzanillo weekly for snorkeling in warm water, and twice to Agua blanca way outof town for the authentic empty beach walk/palalpa shade /beach food experience. It,s a half hour on the bus and another half hour walk in. The tidal dipping pool has filled with sand during the last hurricane so I did swim on the west beach before the surf came up. Bit of body surfing, mostly just wave thrashing in the foam., I forgot my super water bottle first trip out but the ever helpful Casa dan receptionist tried the phone number and had the same lack of success I,d had(wasting my carefully rehearsed Spanish speech) but got them on facebook and they had the bottle. Back out , retrieved bottle and had a bonus beach day. Only odd note was I ordered Hueuvos rancheros (scrambled eggs with onions tomatoes and garlic) and got a slop of beans,and 3 deep fried eggs swimming in grease. Urp! It,s a hotter walk back out to the highway in the afternoon, but there is some tree shade and the sea breeze for cooling pauses. Always enjoyable to ride the clanking, rattling old busses, picking up and dropping off shoppers, school kids and old country women. True the driver does try to achieve escape velocity and somewhere finds a few extra top gears, but don't look ahead.

Only other note is that I,m sending pictures of local flowers to 4 women back home to cheer them up as winter descends Even I,m impressed with how many varied types and colours there are. A month of daily pics and still more to see. So that,s the report and I hope to have some more exciting news or at least some events to note. Surf competition was a bust with 6 meter waves one day and 1 meter the next, hardly fair. Next week is body boards and the stands are being built down at the beach crest, Will they have another big music blowout? Ranchero? Yippee!!

[jacks-tracks]

Surfs Up!

Puerto international surf competition, and for once there,s surf, perhaps too much! Waves are varied as usual, no 2 alike and coming from far away storms, they are irregular in size and shape. The beach just in front of Casa Dans has the biggest waves but they just lump up and crash front on with no side shape to surf. The contest is held on Zicatela in front of the main hotels and the surf there while still irregular at least casts some rollers across the beach front creating acceptable shapes for the down wave plunges and zip through the tunnel made by the overhanging crests just before they fall. The best surfers catch that shape and do indeed free fall down the wave face at tremendous speed before turning with a rooster tail of spray to flash across the cascading water and ride through the tunnel made by the overhanging/collapsing wave front. There are surely surfer names for all these features, but I,m not hip.

Imagine a sheer faced 6 meter(20 foot) wave rushing towards shore suddenly rearing up as it hits the bottom and starts to tumble over itself. A 100 foot long wall of green water, with the top ripped off to shreds by the strong offshore wind, abruptly tips towards shore in a cascade of foam and wild water. If the shape is right,the boldest surfers paddle frantically to gain speed as the wave approaches, leap up onto their boards, somehow balancing on water, and drop straight down the wave face to the bottom where, having gained immense velocity they turn across the wave and rip along often with one hand touching the waves face leaving a rooster tail of spray,and lean into the curve so as to ride the wave diagonally. Perfection is to slip into the tunnel created by the crashing crest and ride inside the wave! As the wave subsides, the surfer bolts out of the tunnel before it collapses and rides back over the shoulder of the wave back to sea. All this take place in a brief moment, and sometimes the pros wait for one half hour for the perfect wave. As every wave is different, and some break right, some left, there is a skill in reading the incoming roll to predict whether to go or pull back as the mountainous wave peaks. The ocean is so clear, that the outline of the surfer can be seen through the wave as it falls away. So,each wave is different, each beach sets up it,s own patterns , and no two days waves are alike.

Yesterday at La Punta(east end of Zicatela beach) the waves were enormous, some topping 20 feet, and as it,s a flatter beach the waves take a long time to crest and fall, with some even reforming and cresting again half way to shore. Serious surfers paddle out to the very end of the rocky point and wait for the best roller, giving them a long run on a left breaking wave that can sometimes carry them all the way to shore over 200 meters. La Punta is where the surf schools take their clients for intermediate lessons. but not yesterday, just too rough. Paddling out through the breakers, ducking through the tumbling froth, and avoiding the really big boomers by ducking under water, it,s hard work to get outside the breakers, so no one is eager to ride a poor wave and have to expend all that time and energy again. The ambulance came to the shore along with police on quads, and lifeguards on a sea-doo. Someone in trouble, missing? No one was recovered while i was there.

The Surf competition is serious business, with prizes and glory. There,s a grandstand for announcers and judges, massage tables for contestants, and photographers with ultra long lenses catching the action. More than 500 people lined the beach to watch, sitting on the place where the beach sand crests at high tide, and often with shade umbrellas. Dogs frolic, vendors flog hammocks, and there,s a carnival like atmosphere, with people cheering on their favorites. It,s also a fashion show .latest beach clothes, name brands, and lots of deep tans, sun bleached hair and trim figures. Surfing is a community,and there,s lots of handshaking, fist bumping, and hugs. Average age 25! Colotepec staff pass with garbage bags for trash, people pause to pop up to Oxo for coffee and buns, and really it s a scene. Not sure why there were armed uniformed local police patrolling in pairs, why the Federal marines were carrying submachine guns, or why a team of helmeted army armed soldiers were there. Nothing like a poorly trained 18 year old with a submachine gun he,s just itching to use.

Surfing? only 2 contestants out at a time for 20 minutes, who had difficulty finding a good shaped wave to perform on, sometimes taking runs on smaller waves just to get points. It,s rare for some one to catch the barrel of the wave and emerge still upright in the spum blowing out of the tunnel.Top marks! This contest runs all weekend so perhaps the waves will cooperate better .

Saturday evening there will be another stage show on the beach below here. Likely a ranchero hero,with lots of brass oompah and wailing songs of love and life. I,ll go up to the terraza from where i can see the stage without mingling in the huge crowd. Volume no problem, I,ll need earplugs in bed!

[jacks-tracks]

Lost blog found

Here,s the summary of April to September. Starting with my return to Vancouver where I had to sleep in the Airport, on seat pads, wrapped in every piece of clothing i had, and still froze. 30 degrees to 3 degrees!

Home at last I made a good decision: start no new tasks: finish all the undone or half completed jobs. That made a list of actually 100 items, from trivial to major, from putting a lazy susan in the living room to moving the garden 2 miles to a friends field.

That lazy susan , 3 tiers, 2 feet wide , 3 feet tall was for the living room area, a place to store all those pesky stereo cords, battery chargers,cd,s , tape players(walkman, still works!),cameras, plugs and bits and bobs.All this involved making a 2 inch thick 18 inch wide fir plank top, smoothed and finished. Natuarally the carousel was 2 inches too tall to match the existing shelving so I had to cut off the stem and find a screw down floor fitting the right diameter from my boat parts. The bottom was easy. The top meant lying on the floor with a long bit driver and screwing up through the rotating wire shelves. Fun! Sound simple. Took a whole day. This created a spot for the rotating tower of CDs, both CD players,and got all the junk off the big speakers. Looks much better and I can find the DVD player without having to undo tangled wires. Still have to hook upthe record player(400 albums), 6 surround speakers and the giant Akais for that big bass sound. I have music on all the time so having all the bits available and findable is much better. Even got classic headphones (Seinnheiser/ and Fisher) from the free store for full brain blasting volume.

On the 100 list was maintenance, like keeping the old truck running, and installing 4 more fire sprinklers linked to my pond pump for forest fire control. Now every part of the outside of the house gets covered, and the inside sprinklers are live. No fires, good!

Gardening: Last years infestation of wireworms devastated my garden, eating all the plant roots, so I moved my whole show to a friends field 2 miles away. Lots of communting on my vintage motorcycle. Flat dirt so I planted 50 foot row crops like squash, broccoli, spuds, carrotts ,beets, peas and 4 kinds of heritage beans. Kale volunteered and the starter squash plants proved to be zuccini, so lots to share.

The infested potatoe patch became a berry bush area, interplanted with broccoli, winter cauliflower, and zucchini. I made the fence larger using fish net hung on barb wire(quick) and beach wood to tack down the net edges to keep out the persistant sheep. Berrys need bird netting so I wrestled with a couple of bent Costco shade shelter frames and drapped them with fine fishnet. Sounds simple Eh? Except it needed new irrigation lines, a run of wire for the thornless blackberrys,and more beach planks for the extended area nets. Maybe a 2 weeks of work.

Beachcombing the planks is fun, sort of a treasure hunt. Cedar to split for posts, with an occasional chunk to split with wedges and a froe into planks and pickets. All packed up to the truck. No wonder everything takes twice as long as I plan.

Spring storms tear up seaweed off the rocks and wash it up in windrows on the rocky beach. I gather it in 20 litre buckets and pack them up 3 at a time to the truck(200 meters.). I gathered 120 buckets and both dug the seaeed in and used it as mulch. Seaweed is an ideal fertilizer, it,s free, and it releases nitrogen into the soil and trace minerals to replace the stuff washed out in the rains.

Gardening can be very time consuming so I use my old Honda tiller to weed the rows, thrash sod, and dig trenches for plants. I cut back my area from 2000 square feet to 1000, not including the 3 greenhouses.. My back porch was a riot of colour with flowers. Geraniums, strawflowers, zinnias,calendula, nasturtiums, cosmos and a volunteer squash that happily ran 12 feet along the porch rail. Those greenhouse are bulging with everything from tomatoes to sweet potatoes, beets for greens,chard, walking onions,peppers,strawberrys, letuce, cucumbers,and more flowers. They all need watering so the greenhouses get a bucket soak every other day and the main garden gets blasted from a 3 inch firehose(it,s fast and effective, lots of water in a hurry) Both my place and the garden site have pretty much unlimited water, so evey thing got soaked well. The orchard(now up to 30 trees) also needed water ( no water, no fruit) so I laid a grid of garden hoses attached to an octopus of valves. Regretably the weather was awful, cold when hot was needed, too hot other times, blazing sun or cold rain, all at the wrong times. Poor yields for all the work, but enough to eat well. Big(1000 pounds) apple crop to can, dry and give away. Poor plums, and scant berrys. Ah well, good exercise.

I bought a rototiller to augment my old Honda and it promptly spun it,s tires and ate the inner tubes. Dealer fixed, but I think it,s gonna be a problem.

Oh, and the 100 list? All done and I only added 50 more!

[jacks-tracks]

Fiesta!

Fiestas de Noviembre... Every year in Puerto there are a series of events lumped together to form this fiesta. Parades of church congregations in costume with honking brass bands ' Fishing tournaments, horse shows with prancing ponys, local bands, and topping it all of a big Dance show at the local Plaza. Over 1000 people pack the iron chairs to see the show, coming from all over by bus, truck and combi. The same church groups come in tipico costumes as peasant men in spotless white and women in flambouyant dresses, with their long black braids tied with fat colourful ribbons. All this is held at the Muncipal Agencia, a square block plaza mostly filled with a carnivals worth of rides, food booth and artesans selling everything from home sewn clothes to artensenal mescal(firewater). Lots of jewelry, some clever carved animals, and Tepache, a type of cold drink that,s made of raw cocoa beans , corn and spices. Actually looked very good, though I trust the girl mixing the blend with her hand had washed, as had the old crone dipping plastic cups under the froth to fill with the drink Tempting, but where did the water come from?

Scheduled for 6 pm, the show started at 7:30, giving me lots of time to circulate and people watch. There were 20 carnival rides, from tiny trains to a massive gadget that rocked back and forth in an arc, rising with each swing till the passengers are almost tipped out . Now all these rides are ancient rejects from a circus defunct somewhere, and the gadget swung up to it,s limit and gave a hearty crack before swinging back. Not reassuring. There was a little roller coaster, various teacup swirlers, bumper cars and a sad plastic bull that barely bucked. Might have been 20 food booths ranging from dry pizza to hot slop on a tortilla. Fun games too like shoot the gas powered rifle at targets 10 feet away, misses 9 out of 10. Did not matter since the price always included a plastic prize of some video cartoon character. or pop the balloon with the off weight darts, same odds, same tacky prizes. Vendors move through the crowd selling cold drinks, cotton candy, dubious sandwiches, and jello fruit cups set to glue. Most of the crowd are parents looking for entertainment for their large brood of offspring, and those kids are surprisingly well behaved. Never hear a kid crying. Old people get special chairs up front, handicapped too, so it,s all very democratic

The church groups came parading in,preceeded by a small brass band, roaring off tempo drums, squealing saxophones and , Sousaphones come to Mexico to expire. Men dress in campesino white, spotless, and the women in embroidered dresses, long black hair braided with fat colourful ribbons. Odd characters represented devils but looked amusingly like ZZ Top with long beards. Why did some women wear hats with veils? Who was the guy in the donkey costume or the giant paper mache man and women? 6 groups danced in and took their seats in the grandstand.

Onstage the MC droned on introducing various dignatories who mumbled set pieces. Gotta learn to keep it short! Applause was sparse...

Finally the big act and 24 men and women filed into position for.. The Rooster dance! Much stomping, waving of scarves, swirling of gorgeous embroidered dresses, sort of a interminable square dance. After 20 minutes of fandango, enter a character in a donkey costume capped with a bamboo frame covered in fireworks. Now this is more like it. Was he scheduled? Who cares after all the rooster dancing. It got truly interesting when he lit the fireworks. Great swirls of golden sparks, interspersed with fire crackers. Amazing he did not light up the Rooster dancers who did some fancy footwork to avoid the shower of flames and banging crackers. The announcer jumped his cue and started to yap while the dancers hopped about, but to top it all off the fireworks crew shot off an impressive series of rockets and boomers, lighting up the sky and drowning out all announcements. The wind shifted and hot fragments floated down into the crowd. Very satisfactory!

[jacks-tracks]

Puerto week 1

Yes 1 Week here and I,m in the groove. Lots of old friends, same nice cabina, more flowers than ever, big surf. and good swimming, both in the warm lap pool and at Playa Manzanillo. It,s been sunny most days, except when there was evening thunder and lightning that rolled out to sea and back again for hours. US election night, some kind of omen?

While prices have risen (10%) rent increase and food is up sharply, the increase in the canadian dollar against the peso has evened the costs out, such that I,m paying $50 a night same as last year. since i do all my own cooking, it,s easy to economize while eating very good food and tons of fruit. Smoothies everyday with some for the staff as a treat. It,s not the tips that people remember, it,s the friendliness, attempts to speak Spanish, and thoughtfullness like sharing smoothies. The locals don,t extend their purchases to smoothies, so it,s a treat. Mind you my Spanish is patchy, but I,m surprised how much has come back. Trying to find pancake mix in the supermarket, 3 staff helpers directing me to everything from the bakery to jam, I finally remembered to word "polvo" powdered and pancakees and was shown 5 different choices. The elderly(like me) Mexican customer at the shelf pointed out his favorite. In the coffee store I realized the clerk was asking me did I want my medium roast and dark roast mixed? And "effectivo" means cash.Always use local knowledge!

Uptown markets are easy now that I know the stops. First the good fruit stand where local prices are charged and big bags of fruit and veg are cheapest(and better quality). A sudden stop at a shack where an ancient guy was roasting corn in husks over a brazier but had a tiny sign for Copal , tree sap incense. He dove into a corroding camper for a couple of minutes and emerged with a little plastic bag of the incense that looked home foraged. 20 pesos! I did not need anything from the main roofed market, but went for an aroma therapy stroll all the way down the flower aisle. Countered the stinky dried fish and dripping beef legs. A small ball of oaxaca cheese, and some fresh tortillas and out the other side. Caballeros wholesale market was the usual zoo of women shopping for their tiendas, porters hustling through overloaded with giant bags of carrots,cabbage and potatoes, all the while calling for passage. I bought peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and avocadoes. Along with the oranges, limes,and onions from stand #1, i was overloaded by a backpack and 2 full bags . The Mayor Domo chocolate shop was just finished grinding raw chocolate beans and the smell was terrific! I got a half kilo for domestic consumption. Topped off my load with a kilo of shrimp.flash frozen and quick cooking. What with some chicken legs and a dozen eggs I,m good for a week or two.

All this shopping is done via "combis," the frequent pickup trucks that do a set route for 12 pesos. Uptown and back 24 pesos, about $1.75 canadian, and i,ve never had to wait more than 10 minutes. Passenger vans are becoming more common. Same procedure, flag, hop on, yell for a stop, and pay 12 pesos. More comfortable and less inclined to reach escape velocity on the main drag. It,s always interesting to see who,s on board, mostly locals, shopping ladies, and Mexican tourists. It,s very polite to say Buenas Dias on boarding and a surprising number of passengers reply. It,s proper to be polite here.

Hammock snap. After 6 days in my cabina hammock, the rope over the tree limb broke quite unexpectedly. Only a 1 foot drop, and I did the Judo breakfall to slow the blow. ooof! Sore elbows, but no broken butt. I got new rope from the office and re-rigged the line with excess knots. Sisal rope. might last 1 year.

Butterflys: 5 new ones(to me) ranging from sulpher yellow fast flitters, to mottled brown with red "eyes"on the wing top . Up by the pool I thought I saw a bird fly into the banana leaves but no it was the biggest butterfly I,ve ever seen, perhaps 10 inches across!! Dark brown with filagree black markings swirling in dizzying patterns, and a large red circle eye on top. Of course by the time I ran for the camera it was gone. Life can be a running series of short flashes of beauty that we have to look for and appreciate.

[jacks-tracks]

Puerto November 2024

Wait! What happened to the last 7 months!? Lots, but that is all carefully writtten as a draft on a piece of paper, which is hiding.

So,taking up from my happy return in April. home seemed very quiet. That,s what i forget about Lasqueti, it,s just the sound of nature, with the occasional vehicle clanking down the rotten road. Like mine!

Having spent a month banging pipes into the rotten frame of the Willy truck(it was free!) , which ran last fall, I tried to start it this Spring, but the fuel pump had died. So i cut out the truck deck, only to discover that the pump had no power. Guided by my buddy Sam, testing proved that it was indeed non functional. Then sam revealed that the trucks brakes were bad and the clutch failing. 3 strikes/out! Now it,s a parts truck, and needed as the fuel injectors on the original Mazda were clogged. N,o amount of injector cleaner helped, but by acclerating wildly in 1st, i got the fourth cylinder to cu t in.

Hmmm, parts truck! I,d never seen a fuel injector, much less changed them, but with Sams patient help and by removing an exceptional number of bolts, the injectors were revealed. Cleaned with solvent, blown out with flaky turkey baster invention, reinstalled... no change. Was it the plugs? the wires? Me? Sam said ..lets transplant the Willy injectors into the reluctant mazda. More hidden bolts, another unsuccesful try and finally with the suspect injectors discarded, triumph! Still rough, surely no resale value, but it goes! And ran all summer. Mostly I rode my old motorcycle, saving on gas, which ran out on the island when the barge got diverted. I had squirreld a few cans away, so kept rolling.

After last years wireworm plague I moved my garden to Waynes field.Real dirt! 3 inch firepump watering, fast! 60 foot rows of potatoes, beets, carrots, beans, broccoli, squash and a selection of winter vegetables. Wish I could say it was great, but the coast had very mixed weather, alternating hot cold spells, drought and rain, and none of them in the correct order to encourage the growth. 100 buckets of seaweed for fertilizer and mulch. tilled with the dying Honda to remove weeds, and had a bumper crop of volunteer kale. I ate kale as a survival food back when I was broke, not so tasty now. Zuchini was slow, so you know its bad. Deer and sheep pushed the fish net fences at home, sucking the leaves off the thornless blackberrys, and even weaseled under a corner to top the kale, twice! I did a lot of fence fixing! A BB pistol kept the deer moving( no harm , but it startles them!). What was very productive was apples. My 12 trees yielded 1000 pounds! Canned as sauce, dried , and juiced Got up to drinking a litre of fresh juice daily. I gave away 500 pounds and the sheep and deer shared the rest with me.

Old friends came to visit, Arn for Arts fest, Kevin Eleven for a birthday party, and the kids for the Firemans picnic.It,s fun having guests! I had a house guest for 5 weeks too.

My tenant in the old dome home had a baby with his bi polar wife. His friend sent her Mom from Singapore to help with the baby and housework. Gina, recently retired from a career as an accountant was living in their tiny home and all was well till the bi polar wife hit tilt and had a screaming meltdown Gina fled to my house where i welcomed her in to stay in my guest room. Must say I enjoyed the Chinese cooking, intelligent company, and explaining the island life with it,s attendant processes. Big jump from Singapore to the woods! Gina left to travel on but will return in April for another visit.

Having a boat shaped hole in my head, I bought a catalina 27 from my friend Rosalind, who bought it on impulse and realized it needed much work while she already had a 30 foot life boat restoration on the go. Together we fixed the essentials, like running motor, bilge pumps, etc. The season timed out before we even took a test sail so I paid for the boat and left it moored out on her shore line in long Bay No leaks, good spot, might be there in the Spring! I,ve missed sailing a lot, and the Lasqueti ferry was over crowded all summer, so having transport and a freight boat (Gas ,food, people) will be great.

The rainy season came early, monsoon downpours, 3 inches in a day, 7 inches over a week, cold and soggy. I harvested my puny plants, transferred the overflowing catchment tanks to the uphill storage, and winterized the house Already the grey, short, cold days were affecting my mood. I hate winter on the coast, 7 months of blah! Burned a lot of firewood, which dries the house, makes hot water, and also dries apples and laundry. LED lights are easy on electricity, so my old second hand batteries, managed. New ones in the spring along with more panels and a freezer at home. As inflation eats away the buying power of my savings, I,m putting the capital into hard goods, like batterys, sailboats and maybe a newer truck.

Enough off the cuff blab... More from Puerto soon...

[jacks-tracks]

April 15 on Lasqueti Island.

Home after some adventures. i left Puerto by plane to Mexico city, and on my flight to Chetumal for Belize I got Covid. I was the only person on the plane wearing a mask! 1 week sick, blah!

Belize was all about the dentist who made me new dentures, excellent work at 20% of the Canadian price, and still 30% less than the Mexicans. $1000 can dollars all in. Those savings paid for my travel, air b&b, and food. After much online searching I finally chose the first one air b&b I,d seen and it was pretty good. A small house in the yard of a dog rescue center, run by an expat American lady $1500 for the month, and a small pool, AC for the hot afternoons, and a hot plate kitchen. Even a hot shower bathroom. I had 6 devoted dog pals who rushed me whenever I went onto my porch. A few chicken scraps go a long way!

Corozol in Belize was boring, hot, flat, no good food, and no cultural stuff. I met a few people, and was surprised by how many refugees there were from Honduras, Guatemala etc. The bay, and it is extensive, was cloudy with the limestone silt that paves the bottom. I never swam there. So, skip Corozol...

Leaving Belize after my permitted 30 day stay was easy.Eddy the fat taxi driver insisted on leaving at 5 30 am to avoid the Easter Sunday border rush. Actually he just wanted to be at the border to pick up the returning Belizean fares. What the heck, it was time to go and he did whisk me through both border stops. Could have had a trunk full of dope! A second taxi(included in the $40 US $ price got me to the ADO bus station in Chetumal, where the online ticket worked except that the seat I,d saved had been sold. Got another further back and except for the disgruntled Mexican woman who had taken my seat it worked. A 3 hour wait for a 6 hour bus ride. But.. the seats were supremely comfortable, ride a bit bouncy, and I had 5 hours of MP3 music to dull the roar. Went through Tulum, unrecognizable. 5 miles by 3, where in 1980 we had 2 restaurants(chickens chopped to order), one grocery store and a pharmacy. 4 lane highway, and a continous string of luxury hotels from there to Playa Del Carmen, where they were more discretely hidden by high walls and gates. Into Cancun by 3 and as suggested by other travellers online I walked out to the street and got a cab for 79 pesos to the Ferry. Ultramar, fast catamarans shuffling thousands of tourists to Isla Mujeres daily $400 pesos one way! But on arrival I navigated the flat streets in intense heat to the Selina hostel. Packed with people for the Easter weekend, but i chose the pricier 4 bed dorm and had it to myself for 2 nights. Typical hostel, euro youth glued to phones, tecno blaring at the bar and dirty pool, and strobe lights slicing the night . Had a big kitchen and i cooked food I bought at Chedraui(by bus). Food was 25%c cheaper than in Puerto. 3 blocks to North beach, a lovely white sand stretch with a zillion pay to sit loungers. I found shade by a fence and swam repeatedly in warm blue water. Very nice! I did walk the promenade, saw the places I,d been to before, and would still recomend the island as a stop for swimming. Wildly overpacked with souvenir stalls and restaurants and the streets are dangerous with hundreds of golf carts rented by oblivious gringos. The uproar dies down somewhat when the last ferry goes a t 9 pm. It wa a 3 day stop for me to make my Westjet flight back to Vancouver.

The usual route to the airport, way out of town was to taxi to the ADO station and take their shuttle. I,d met Amber (Vancouver) at the hostel and she suggested Uber. Well, that was easy, cheaper, and way faster. Westjet was efficient, my papers were in order, and I finally had a cold drink at inflated airport prices. 4 hour wait, and I got anxious when the flight was not posted, so I went looking, found a mass of canadians ready to board. Boeing(bolts?)dreamliner fully packed, 6 hours to Yvr, arriving just as the last skytrain left, I went to the mezzanine and unpacked my sport seats, chained my bags after checking with security, and flopped in the cold for 4 hours. Sleep? More like unconciuosness, but better than a $200 hotel for 4 hours.

6 am Canada line to downtown, bus to Horseshoe bay, taxi to Shannon and Spensers house for 4 hours of sleep, a hot shower, and relax. Kids came home, life ramped up, and i stayed 2 days. Costco , helped Spenser with maintenance in Parksville and on the 2 30 ferry for pickup by buddy Wayne. True the pipes leak, and it,s bloody cold(6degrees) but the sun came out, the sheep have lambs and It,s Spring! First geese went north ,a taliman sign for me, and I,m happy to be home.

Next blog.. life on the rock....See ya!