Starting week 2 in paradise

Except for the biters this is a wonderful spot. In spite of the biters it is still a pretty great spot but they sure do bite. They've got a local bug repellant "Autan" that seemed to work the last time we were here but it doesn't seem to work this time. Maybe our old stuff has expired.

We're going to spend another week here and then move up to Teacapan for a while. Earlier this week we went down to Puerto Vallarta to visit Ken MacQuarrie, his girls and his mother who were staying at an all inclusive resort in Nuevo Vallarta. For a wonder we were able to drive right into the resort - usually those all inclusives are actually all exclusive if you aren't staying at them. We took the MacQuarries downtown in PV and found a restaurant that would make us camarones rellenos - shrimp wrapped in bacon. They were wonderful as usual.

There were several parties in the hotel in front of the park over New Year's week, including a quinciniera. That is a coming out party for a 15 year old from the middle class. It started about 4 in the afternoon and went late into the evening. They had about an 8 piece band - could have used a better lead singer but the band was pretty good. The festivities included a very choroegraphed routine that the girl and several of her friends performed. Through the whole affair papa sat at the head table looking dour. I'm sure the prospect of picking up a significant tab had something to do with his look.

The seafood here is amazing. We go to the market in San Blas early in the morning and they have fresh fish of all varieties. So far we have had fresh tuna, sierra (mackerel) and dorado (mahi-mahi) as well as some huge shrimps and fresh oysters. We're talking shrimp so big that 5 of them is too much to eat at one sitting. I've figured out how to barbeque them, sometimes with a little marinade. Marilyn thinks she will live forever if she eats less of them so I have been forced to soldier on eating them alone.

Tomorrow we are going to Tepic. I think we can get a Mexican cell phone for very little money and use prepaid cards to operate it. We talked to a couple from Ontario who got one last winter. I've thought about getting a Mexican phone before but didn't know how to maintain a phone number. However, according to the couple from Ontario, their number stayed active while they were back in Canada. They had a credit balance on their phone while they were out of the country - that may have helped maintain the number - whatever the reason we're going to give it a try because the phone system is the greatest frustration to traveling down here.