El Pie de Mi Novia (The Foot of My Girlfriend)

Sandy's poor foot after its stitches are in!!

When you read Sandy’s blog about the foot injury you will immediately connect with the good deeds done by so many here in Mexico. The ride to the clinic in Cihuatlan (and afterwards to Manzanillo) was harrowing and the events after that a mixture of pains interspersed with relief and heart felt thanks to Mexico and its citizens. I will leave that part for Sandy to express, as only she can at this point. We are incredibly grateful and that just reinforces the sense I have had for a very long time that there is a lot to love about this place.

The injury was very certainly serious from a visual perspective. As bleeding goes it was spectacular and had Ana (our new friend and assistant in this) beside herself in the description to the medicos working on it. While my Spanish is improving I could never have given as graphic a view of seconds after the accident occurred as Ana did at the time. The medical staff had quickly gotten an intravenous set up to give fluids until I said it wasn’t needed just yet. There was indeed “sangre” but it was not, not, not everywhere!!! Certainly Ana deserves a medal in all of this though. She kept the ball rolling at the clinics and actually paid the bill at the end (for which she was both reimbursed and rewarded). The reactions and clarity of thought at each place was stellar. The concern and care; unbelievable!! Considering the negative side to this day this was a great day from the point of view of giving us a new respect for how well this place works.

It still amazes me (somewhat) that the effect of Newton’s 1^st law is so thoroughly complete that it would so forcefully be felt in this instance.

“A body in motion will continue in motion unless acted upon by an equal and opposite force.”

Or;

"An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”

When the water taxi turned 90 degrees and righted as it came out of its jet fighter turn the batteries just kept on going in the former direction. A very effective demonstration of this particular law of motion was given to us today. As an aside, too, the taxi driver was quick to react and had a t-shirt wrapped around the injured foot before we could believe it.

Pangas, fishing, safety

Varieties of things seem to happen when you are just hanging around on a boat for part of the day. The day starts with determining how get coffee into us while watching and listening to the pangas coming by the boat to cast their nets for bait fish to go out with their long lines later in the day. Sometimes the pangeros sing while they work and while their antics can be irritating to some it is a wonderful experience if you are open to it. These guys can handle their boats like they are extensions of themselves. Normally there are two or three of them per boat and when they are screaming through the anchorage going to or from the netting they are ready to cast a net or already cutting up the bait to put on the lines. They seem to work with a smile on their faces almost all the time. A panga is a well engineered craft with a thick fiberglass hull and typically has a 50 to 70 horse power Yamaha outboard motor on it. They are fast and, if the water taxi guys are any indication they can get up on a plane with a dozen people in them. They turn on a dime and the feeling of changing direction has got seem very much like a jet fighter banking under full “G” force. It is exhilarating!!

While Mexico does have a fleet of larger boats that fish further off shore I have concluded that Mexico is largely fed from the efforts of these more solitary fishermen. If you have a concern about the weather and you see a bunch of these guys heading for shore you are well advised to hunker down and prepare for a blow. A panga can move easily at 30 to 45 miles per hour (or so it seems to me) and can cross large bodies of water so long as they have enough fuel. We move at between 5 to 7 knots so we definitely watch for signs of panga flight!!



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Construction here in Barra de Navidad is still underway but at a snails pace compared to where they have the use of cranes and solid scaffolding. Recycling takes on a different meaning here as well. Combining the two is a sometimes colorful extension of the culture. I have no idea if there is a similar organization to the United States’ OSHA but I suspect it has a different slant on things if there is. The pictures are of things that you see pretty much everyday. A few innovations the U.S. insurance industry is extremely likely to be thankful have not made it into practice there. I do not say this to make fun of how things are done here, however. There is an underlying assumption of known risk that is just part of the system. Perhaps the legal system here is not as whiny as in the U.S. and if someone accepts that risk it is not second guessed as much as we do it. In any case, the bottom line of this is that things still get done and I have no statistical knowledge of the results of that.

Flying in the face of Reality

A number of years ago Gene Kira put the question out on his Fish Mexico site about Mexican buses and safety. Gene was curious about the safety record and any personal experiences that anyone might relate to him. I never saw a follow up story so it may be that there was nothing to report. At the time I had little to say about accidents and the like.

By the way, if you have an interest in fishing you might want to check out his book, “The Baja Catch” or if you are just interested in a good read you could look into, “The King of the Moon”. He has this Mexico thing down pretty well. A few years back I corresponded with Gene for a bit and sent in pictures and such for his fishing report. Anyway, once again I am going “tangential” and should get back to where I was headed.

In the past few years I have ridden many buses, usually from Tucson to Guaymas, and have done the crossing from La Paz to Topolobompo by ferry as well. In general the buses have always been a positive experience and so far no accidents have occurred. While this is still the case I had a thing happen on this trip from Barra de Navidad to Puerto Vallarta and back that was a first. We had just come over the top of a hill and there was a straight flat stretch in front of us. Ahead I saw a road kill of some sort surrounded by Turkey Vultures. Naturally they all spread their wings and started to take off as the bus approached. One of the birds, a particularly large one I thought, was slow gaining altitude and the direction he chose could have been better by a wide margin. We caught up to him and he ended up doing a spectacular vulture butt plant on the windshield and rolled into the mirror. At this point I have no idea if he survived this but the thud of his hits makes me think he didn’t fare too well!! That is one big bird with lots of feathers.

Yes, Happy New Year

About sunset this view of the south portion of the bay... the "Crown" church in view.

Fireworks from afar... the closer ones were too close to photograph!!

Yesterday we all got on a bus in Barra de Navidad and headed to Puerto Vallarta to put Mary (Sandy’s friend) on an airplane to go back to Portland. It was a 5 ½ hour ride and nip-and-tuck to be there by take-off time but we did it. Sandy had arranged for a room at La Siesta Hotel which is above the malecon in PV. This place is a classic old style hotel with all the oddities you might expect if you have ever traveled in Mexico. The great thing about it is that it turned out to be the best view for the night’s events we could have created. No kidding, it is a 7 story building (we were on the 6^th floor just under the restaurant) and it is up the steep hill from the beach… spectacular view of all of Banderas Bay!!

The police close the malecon to vehicular traffic and start towing cars a bit before sunset. Of course they don’t put up any signs or warnings so there were some irate people missing their cars when they came back to empty spaces, that’s Mexico too. Imagine arriving on a cruise ship, renting a car and finding out that you would have to stay around until next Monday to retrieve it? Perhaps the rental company would just have to go get it, I suppose.

Anyway, the view is what we had going on and trying to stay up until midnight, which almost never happens these days, while taking in the people parade and the boats gathering just off shore (including a huge cruise ship). A few margaritas later midnight did arrive and the fireworks took my breath away… completely. They were being fired from every corner of the bay with the largest and longest display right in front of us. The Cruise ship sounded its horn many, many times and there were flares and, yes, fireworks being shot from the boats at anchor and milling about in front of us. I tried to catch a few of the fireworks from the general area of the old Marina Vallarta but gave up on the ones right in front of us so I could just take in the show. It was, hands down, the best I have ever seen in total effect. Even the ones from the area of La Cruz were large and well planned. That’s a good 15 to 20 miles from our hotel.

So hoist your glass and toast the New Year!!! If this is how it start I can only hope for an incredible year.

Musica

It may be hard to see but there are three computers attached to three super-duper antennas while we are on the rare internet connection!!

I had a chance to slide around Barra de Navidad the other day and stumbled on a music shop. The proprietor was more than happy to guide me through lots of CD’s according to my tastes and I came away with lots of new music. A group I had discovered back in La Cruz became the cornerstone for the exploration as he tossed one CD after another at me… I said, “Otra vez,” and he would click to the next selection with his remote as he piled the CD’s on. Gads, I was lucky to get out alive!!

This was about as much fun as you can have on a warm Sunday afternoon on your way to the pool!

There is a slight story here too because, as those who know me well will attest, I will always stop to listen to new music. There are lost hours in my life where I was under the headphones somewhere discovering new music. Obviously these are not blank to me but, rather, the world around could easily have spun off its axis and gone wandering the universe and I might not have noticed.

So you may wonder what I found?

Maná (accent over the second “a”) in a two album set – “Falta Amor & Donde Jugaran Los Niños” (you know that niños has an “enyay”, right?). Not having a Spanish keyboard or a way to put these in properly sometimes drives me a bit crazy.

Reyli in an album called “FE” (Faith) a coincidence to be sure.

An all female pop group called Jeans – “Porque Soy Libre…”

These are the only three that I have had time to listen to all the way through and they are excellent. More to follow later as I get the others entered and listened to. There were also two from La Cruz excursions that will get a mention later as well.

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Another thing that has occurred to me today was that, “Worry is not an occupation; it’s a disease.” This comes from boat issues we are having (still) and realizing that some days there is absolutely nothing you can do about it that day. We, fortunately, have “work arounds” for most problems. We currently have to run the newly purchased generator a bit to have enough power until we get the new batteries installed. “Hmmm,” you say, “Didn’t you guys get new batteries back in La Cruz?” Well, yes we did but it turns out they delivered 12 volt batteries instead of the 6 volt ones I asked for. Even my suspicious concerns when they were handed over were brushed aside by the delivery guy. When I finally had time to check them (after laying awake much of the night, worrying) because they didn’t look right to me I confirmed my suspicions. By the same token, sometimes, others on the boat run around from time to time with worry being their primary issue unable to do anything to alleviate or fix the source of their excitement. This is fairly destructive because when there isn’t anything you can do this heightened worry just wears on everyone and makes us crabby. Crabby doesn’t have a place in paradise in my estimation. Anyway, it goes against my normally cheery disposition!!