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A bit worse for the wear!!!
One thing that comes up while going from place to place in the land of maximal sunlight is what to put over your head and eyes. In general head gear is some really important stuff. If you have ever had a sunburn where you part your hair you can immediately identify the issue. It’s like having a lightening strike along some portion of your head; Yuk!
One of our guests this season, yes, Anna you have been identified, stopped every few feet in port to try on hats. She may or may not have needed multiple hats during her stay but I could see that she had an underlying logic if a bit misplaced… since she was going back to Portland in a little while. The contribution to the Barra de Navidad economy was quite nice and I will leave it at that. Anyway, I buy hats from time to time too. The problem for me is that they often become stand-ins, more for a head band than for the sun protection. A few years back I bought a bunch of kerchiefs to use as sweat bands but I go from job to job to town exploring to nights out for fun and, at times, the hat or whatever I have got on will stay with me for the entire time. In the sun, out of the sun, it’s all the same, the hat stays put. Can you say, “Hat hair”? While I might not admit it right, away my hair is thinning quite a bit, so a hat IS important to me. The problem with the constant use is that each hat gets disgustingly abused over a fairly short period of time. Yes, you can wash the hat but that seems to be a terminal experience for many pate covers. Therefore I stick with the disgusting look until it becomes absolutely necessary to clean up my act!
One hat I purchased (about five years ago) was at the beach in Santispac when I had to borrow US$10 from Len (I think I paid it back in beer) is still with me. It has taken on a warped, edgy look that suits this, “Dang, it’s hot and I need a lot of shade!” life I lead. It has seen better days and I can’t really wash it. Every so often it flies off of my head into the drink and when it dries it takes on some new look. I suspect it may not last too much longer. For now though it is my “best” hat.
Another hat that caught my fancy was from San Carlos just last November. We had gone out to Catch 22 Beach to show some guests the great beach and visit the Soggy Peso Bar. They had hats and since it was the beginning of the season I went ahead and got one. Looking at it today I think it must have gotten hot somewhere along the line these last few months! When I bought this fedora a guest, JJ, got one too… now, I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that the twin hat is not looking nearly as abused as mine.
Otherwise, I have been contemplating a Whole-Boat-Shade-System of some sort to lessen the need for the all-over look we take on sometimes.
The other item that gets a lot of use here is eye protection. Sandy is much better about this than I am since she tends to wear her shades out of habit. Last year I had an eye exam in La Paz and got some new prescription shades made. These are great because they have a dual purpose. They are sun glasses but since the temple/ear piece is thicker they block the wind as well. If you have ever suffered the effect of full wind across your eyeballs combined with maxi-sun blaring all day you know that it is potentially painful. Taking a clue from my last pair of sun glasses I had them created in the multi-focus mode as well. That is, I can read and see distance without taking them off to trade for whatever sort of lens is not on my face at the time. My corrected vision is WAY better than Sandy’s Lasik-corrected sight. I see things far sooner than I can get her to see the same thing. She has a collection of great sunshades with reading correction and I learned from this that I needed to get both in my own glasses. Much of the time I still stick with the non-sunglasses because once I go below to deal with electronics or an engine issue I find I can’t see for quite awhile. Just sticking to the regular glasses is not as good when we have had a long passage and I am trying to sight the potential anchorage. Anyway, it is a trade off that I have decided I should be favoring the shades more than I am. Keeping the regular glasses on the nav station or some such to use below when needed might be the solution!!
Maybe in a few years I will have all the solutions to these problems and more… or not!
At this point I am fairly certain that Sandy will be adding some pictures of what we discovered when got back to La Cruz after living on the hook these last two months south of here. The boat was a bit cruddy and I will hit this subject for next post probably but it was remarkable what changes had occurred in La Cruz during our absence,
Before we left there had been a big meeting at the marina that included the Governor, the Mayor, a variety of Police and Fire representatives and various other dignitaries regarding the upcoming boat show and sailing races centered in La Cruz. The marina manager (Rafa) had plead his case for improvements to be made in town to make things sparkle... sort of a plea to the Chamber of Commerce moment. Well, I am not clear on who paid for what but the entire main street had been repainted and town, in general, had been spruced up considerably.
Don't get me wrong, I liked this sleepy little village the way it was but the way it is now is wonderful too! Buildings that had not seen paint for quite a few years now are sporting a newer, shinier look. The town square is very bright and the trash clean up seems to have taken root. The President of Mexico visited twice during all the excitement and there are still lots of the security folks here, which is not a bad thing. The main road in had new palm trees donated by the governor of Nayarit and painting is evident as far away as Bucerias, This could be contagious if everyone likes the results but it will take considerable effort. All things in good time, I suppose.
We won the poster signed by the cast!!
We went out to dinner last night with our friends Angus and Rolonde from the boat Periclees and then joined them for a cultural event… a high school play put on by the students of the Colegio Americana here in Puerto Vallarta. This brave little troupe had decided to enact West Side Story!! When I say “brave,” I mean really, truly brave. The talent pool for this small school has to be fairly small to begin with and for them to put on West Side Story, a musical, is astounding when you think about the full cast needing to sing a complex set of songs. In my senior year of high school I got involved with a minor part in the school play and realized how much went into a stage production. This was my frame of mind when we got to the theater and I was not disappointed in any way!
As the story began to unfold I noted the differences in production. The set was very well done and, although fairly simple, the lighting was well done. Each of the cast had on some sort of remote microphone many of which worked. The costuming was easy since the depiction was semi-modern day. The language was the spicily accented version of English with Spanish overtones that I enjoy in Latin America… and the kids were from all over the place (US, Mexico and some beyond). The energy of the presentation was superb in all ways. You just cannot beat the teenage exuberance exhibited last night.
Going back to the “brave” part of this; as mentioned the talent pool is small for such an ambition undertaking as this musical is. One would think that it would be an important characteristic, for the lead players at least, to have silken voices and sing on key. Well, as one who has a fairly good ear I can attest to the fact that the pool was small enough to set the voice requirement aside for many of the actors. There was singing talent there to be sure. The girl acting the part of Maria was very impressive in voice but her counterpart was sans an ear altogether. You might think that this made for a painful rendition of the play but you would be only partially correct. By the time we were about a quarter of the way through the production he had endeared himself to me as fantastically brave individual. Thankfully, I noted from the program, that this lad is going to enter the world of computer science after graduation (unlike many of his fellow actors taking the direction of the arts in one way or another) and the world will be spared his singing except perhaps in the adjoining pews in church. He cannot have been ignorant of his lack of singing ability but persisted through to a very satisfying end of the musical with his part. I can give him all the applaud (myself surely being the singular set of hands clapping for his resolve) that is surely his due for having even made the attempt at such a difficult task. And, kudos to the director for his selection as well, (knowing that his singing would not hold the riveting center of the effort that the rest of the cast gave their all for) it was a very wonderful evening!!
A bit worse for the wear!!!
