After the craziness of Semana Santa, Mazatlán moved right into more craziness with Moto Week. We read that 17,000 motorcyles were coming to Mazatlán for the event, and we believe it! Also, anyone and everyone who owns a motorcycle has had them revving all over the city!

Yesterday was the parade, and we headed down to watch it. It was incredible. Lots of Harleys, plus every other kind of bike you could imagine. Riders dressed up. They drove with their babies. They drove with their dogs. They honked and honked. Some did wheelies. All the motorcycle cops joined in.

Here are a few pictures and a short video:

Airplane motorcycle!

Baby in front, child on the back!

The Noroeste (our local paper) flag carried by a pretty woman!

Viking bike!

Tricycle.
This baby is asleep in between his parents!

Having a minivan here in Mazatlán was difficult for a couple of reasons - first, most of the streets in Centro are narrow and you often have to fold the mirrors in and be really careful in order to drive anywhere. And forget about parking it! Second, it was too wide to fit into our garage!

So, sending the van home with our son and getting a smaller car became an excellent plan.

Paul did a lot of research online and we identified a few small cars that suited us with regard to style, safety, fuel economy, trunk space, and the all-important width!

The contestants were the VW Crossfox, the VW Sportvan, the Toyota Yaris and the Honda Fit.



It is still pretty tight, and you can see Paul folded the mirrors in to enter the garage. And the opening to the laundry room is adjacent to the passenger door so you have to be careful walking through with a laundry basket. But the good news is: Our Fit Fits!

(That means houseguests)

We are excited to have visitors coming! Son Adam and his wife Martha are coming tomorrow and staying through Tuesday. They are flying over from Mexico City, and were our first visitors back in November. The house was a mess then, with dust and dirt everywhere...so I think they will be amazed by the transformation. We'll have a couple of days with them before...

Son Phil and his wife and our two grandchildren come on Sunday morning! They are going to be staying until Friday. The kids are being taken out of school but they are great students so in exchange we will make sure they learn a lot about Mexico and Spanish to take back with them. Son Phil is going to be driving our trusty minivan North while the rest of his family flies so that they can join the throngs of young families with minivans! How did they resist the lure so long?

It will be great to have all of them here for a nice visit. We plan on spending a fair bit of time at the beach, and I bought a second boogie board in their honor. We also plan on taking them to the plazas here on Sunday night, a visit to the shrimp ladies to buy some shrimp for the barbeque, and of course the mercado. The kids will love dog walking on the malecon and we'll love showing them our favorite places.

When we were up North and son Adam moved to Mexico City somehow we were able to put together a family visit at our place at least once a year. I am so happy we're going to be able to keep this tradition up!

Son Phil will leave on Saturday - his father (my ex) is driving up from Colima to make the drive with him. He'll then fly back to Mazatlán from Phoenix and drive back home. I really appreciate him driving to the US with Phil since it is a long drive to make by yourself.

We are excited for Phil to have the van but also it gives us the opportunity to buy a smaller car that will actually fit in our garage! That's another blog post, though.

Then, Sunday, daughter Jessica arrives from New York City for a week! I can't even believe how excited I am! It's too bad she can't be here at the same time as the boys, but it will still be so wonderful to have her, and it will be nice to have a nice relaxed visit. Although her visit coincides with Semana Santa, where 130,000 people descend on Mazatlán for a week of craziness. From what we hear, though, most of the craziness is up in the "Golden Zone" and the only thing we should notice here in Centro is that the beaches will be more crowded.

Tomorrow I head to the grocery store for a huge shopping trip. I'll get out the dominoes and scrabble. The beds are made. Can you tell I am a happy mom right now?

We have had a lot to learn about our new home, Mazatlan.

• When carpenters install hinges here, they make the cut out area double deep and then install the other side of the hinge flat on the wood. Smart because it means they only have to make one cut for the hinge.
  
  
• I've only bought one pair of pants here, but the zipper and button are oriented the opposite way from the way I am accustomed to.
  
  
• The rules of cell phone usage are very complicated. The person receiving the call on their cell phone is the one who pays for the call. And it is wise to be sensitive to people lower on the economic ladder. For example, if we were to call our painter we would text message him and then he could call back so that we would be charged for the call.
  
  
• The rules of land line phones are new, too. If you call a cell phone, you are charged for it. So we take special care to know what kind of phone we're calling and who it belongs to before we call. And we call land line from land line and cell to cell. Sheesh.
  
  
• Draperies are more popular here than blinds. There are a few dusty mini-blinds at Home Depot and a few roller shades but that's it.
  
  
• There are so many talented craftspeople here! We need a bracket to hold our heavy chandelier - the iron man. A mural on the end wall of the sala fresca - the mural painter. I am amazed every day at what they can do with concrete, too!
  
  
• Mazatlan is the shrimp capital of the world but there is a lot of other good food here, too. There's a bakery with no sign that we call "the cookie lady" with extraordinary cookies. Two great pizza places. Thai food. Potatoes. Tacos.
  
  
• Work pretty much stops from Christmas Eve until the Dia de los Magos (today.) Up north it is sketchy between Christmas and New Year's but here even the government offices shut down. Might as well!
  
  
• TV is a big disappointment here. Most of the Mexican programming is not our kind of show (like game shows) or are too hard to get into (like soap operas.) We do watch the Venados play baseball and catch the occasional football game. Some of the dubbing is done very strange - like Rachel Ray the other day was speaking English and they had dubbed it in Spanish but not blanked out the English so you couldn't understand anything. Any US TV series you see listed is certain to be last season. CNN is from England. Who needs TV anyway?
  
  
• Locals love it when you speak Spanish. Even my present-tense Spanish. Sometimes they are all nervous when they realize they have to speak to you but once you start talking they seem to relax.
  

It seems like a lot of the blogs I read have been sporadic in their postings for the last week or so. I took a bit of a break myself.

But that doesn't mean that nothing has been going on! So I thought this post could be a random one about odds and ends.

Friends - We are really loving Mazatlan for the new friends we have met. Over the last couple of weeks we have had several dinners out with nice people, we've been to a party, celebrated Christmas dinner with neighbors and friends, and have had many random and wonderful interactions that will probably lead to even more friendships.

Spanish - Paul has been taking Spanish classes for several weeks - two classes per week. He is learning a ton and people are commenting on how well he speaks. I really can't believe the frequency of compliments he receives. I start classes in January with the same teacher. It is true that just living here you can't help but have your Spanish improve but the discipline of classes will be just what I need to finally get out of the present tense.

New Year's traditions - Paul and I always like to spend New Years by ourselves...for me it is the best to start the new year with your spouse - to talk about goals and to toast the new year without a lot of craziness. I don't know if we'll do that tomorrow or not...there will without a doubt be a lot going on in Centro if we want to just walk out the door. But I plan on sweeping the dirt out the front door and wearing maybe both red AND yellow underwear just to go along with tradition. We'll probably skip walking the suitcase out and back in because we are happy to stay right here for now! (red underwear is for love and yellow is for money) I was going to buy grapes today so that we could make our twelve wishes but unfortunately they didn't look very good so I passed.

Weather - I would have never believed that I would comment that I was freezing when it was sixty degrees! But "frente frio No. 18" has been a cold one. It has warmed up most days into the low 70's, but once the sun is down the temperature drops into the 50's-60's. Our houses are concrete and brick, and our house doesn't even have windows in a couple of rooms so the breeze whips through. And no, our house doesn't have a heater! I tried to buy an extra blanket over the last couple of days as I went from store to store and there are just no "regular" blankets to be had. They are all puffy sort of bedspread things - why is that? Locals say it has never been this cold here.

Tourists - The beach is a popular place to spend Christmas/New Years holidays, and we have noticed that most of the tourists in town are Mexican. It gives a different feel to all the tourist spots. There are lots of out of state license plates.

House Projects - The courtyard is still ALMOST done. We got caught in the Christmas/New Years slowdown but the only things left to do are little punch list things. We absolutely love the courtyard, and as soon as we feel ready to take pictures will post the last set. The interior painting is done, and wonderful. We were pretty nervous about some of our color choices, but we should have trusted ourselves because they turned out great. I'll post pictures of those soon, too.

House cleaning - Construction projects mean dust and dirt tracked throughout the house. Mainly by the dust drifting throughout our mostly open house but also by the dogs and us as we move through rooms that were a mess. So with the end of these projects came cleaning! I have vacuumed and mopped a couple of times but we really kicked ass today! I vacuumed the whole house and mopped top to bottom. Paul hosed down the courtyard and back yard, swept the garage and mopped the laundry room. Now we can actually walk around without leaving dusty footprints everywhere.

Small victories - We installed a wireless doorbell at the front gate. I know, it only took ten minutes so why did we wait so long? Now we can close our front doors if we want privacy or to cut down on dust coming off the street. We had to keep the doors open so we could hear people call out when the came over. Sheesh.

Happy surprise - I noticed my pants were a little loose and found I had lost 8 pounds in the three months we've been here. We walk a lot more, and I have basically quit snacking, but still I was surprised. And happy!

What's up next - We expect our dining room table and chairs and a bookcase/desk to arrive next week. We're going to get going (that's the royal WE) repairing some exterior concrete problems and repaint the outside. And we hope to get to the tile store to select some tile for a couple of places in the kitchen.

But the most important thing up next is that it will be a new year! Have a great holiday, everyone, and see you in 2008!

It is a beautiful sunny day here in Mazatlan. We are reveling in it, because the last 5-6 days have been chilly by Mazatlan standards, anyway! It has been breezy and hasn't been warm enough to sit outside unless you are in the direct sun - and when you're not - brrr. Everyone in town was wearing sweaters and jackets and - god forbid - shoes.

This morning we had a number of people due to come over for various things relating to the work we're having done here. Paul said he'd do the waiting, so I took the dogs on a walk by myself.

They are very familiar with our morning route to the malecon...and have their favorite "spots" so the official business was out of the way quickly and we could proceed with the fun part. (yes, we always pick it up)

We are regulars now, and I really enjoy feeling like we are accepted as residents.

First to greet us is Henry's biggest fan down by the park. She almost always runs out to greet him and pet him and has told us she has a Schnauzer, too - a grey one. When she's not there in the morning, Henry looks for her and whines.

Next is the security guard at a local college. He greets us every day but when I am alone with the dogs he always wants to know what Paul is doing and laughs that he is still in bed!

The street sweeper lady is always enthusiastically working away, and alway has a ready smile and a good morning.

Then when we get to the malecon, we have to wait for traffic in order to cross. No problem there, because the lead man in the big street car washing business in front of Shrimp Bucket always greets us and lets us know when it's ok to cross.

Everyone has such nice smiles...and not just vacant smiles but smiles that include the eyes so you feel like you really connected for the moment.

The malecon has all the usual walkers and joggers and dogs who are now familiar faces to greet each day. When people meet us for the first time we have to tell them "no muerden" since people here seem to be very worried that the dogs will bite.

Today I took a longer route and when I passed by the "cliff diver" area where all the vendors set up a couple of tour buses had just disgorged a lot of people and the sidewalk was jammed. After we waited for it to thin out the dogs and I passed by with nods from the vendors but no requests for me to buy. I think even if they don't know me the dogs signal to them that I'm a local.

By the time we got home both Paul and I were hungry for breakfast. With the painters occupying the kitchen, Paul took off to buy us some pan dulces at Panama and stopped at the fruit stand in front and bought a cup of mixed fruit, jicama and cucumber seasoned with lime and chile powder.

It's been an excellent start to another beautiful Mazatlan day.

Yes, Lucy has the good life, but so do we. There's nothing like sitting in the sunshine watching a hummingbird feed in the bouganvilla.

Paul and I have been doing a lot of sitting in the sun or in our office lately. It's a happy exile because of all the work that's being done at our house...these are the only places except the bedroom that aren't a mess from work in progress.

The courtyard is proceeding beautifully. The tile is about half done, the seat is gorgeous, and we expect the fountain to be installed tomorrow. The rest of the painting and the landscaping will probably be next week...and then they'll be done! I'll post the final pictures of the project then.

We are in the midst of our interior painting. Up north I did most of the painting in our house - and I really do like to paint - but the 12' ceilings made me reconsider. I'm glad I did, too. The team that is working here is very neat - masking baseboards carefully and cleaning up as they go.

The two front bedrooms are done - yellow in one and blue in the other. The hall and main living spaces of the house are something I'd call a pale salmon color. The accent wall behind the stairs is a lively brick color. The beams are being painted a chocolate brown.



We're going quite dark in the dining room - a real deep brick color called Posole. I think we're most excited to see that color go on, which will be tomorrow I think. The kitchen will be the same yellow as the courtyard and we are going to have some kind of mural at the far end of the sala fresca. We asked the artist for his ideas and are excited to see what he comes up with.

So during the day one of us stays here and manages the dogs and tries to keep them from stepping in paint as we go out for our mid-day walk. It's a good thing we are here, too, since they were given the wrong color for the accent wall behind the stairs - and I neither of us would have been too happy with bright orange instead of our chosen color.

In the evenings we move furniture from place to place to be ready for the painters the next day. Both the courtyard and the painters have said they'll have their work complete by the 20th.

It is good for me to experience this - I have really had to learn to "go with the flow." I trust these competent workers and artists, and are excited to see how it all turns out. The house will seem pretty quiet once everyone is gone - I can't believe I am actually getting used to having 8-9 people here all day long!

For those of you not interested in yet MORE construction photos, I'm sorry. But the courtyard project is really fascinating me and I just have to share.

If you'd like to see my previous posts on the project here they are: first post and second post

Since the three upper shed roofs are complete, the crew started in on the cover for the walkway. Everything is to be made out of concrete, but from underneath it will look like wood beams (vigas) but they will be made out of colored concrete.

The support beams had already been poured to look like timbers out of colored concrete.

They then started assembling the wood to pour the vigas. They do this first, pour the colored concrete, and then have a separate pour for the roof surface that will support the tiles.

In the picture below he is pouring the vigas. They have to be able to disassemble everything from below since when it is all done there will be a concrete roof layer above this.



The picture below is them pouring the concrete roof above the vigas.



The picture below isn't totally complete - they are still working at cleaning everything up, but it looks pretty good to me! You can see some cardboard that they used on the edges of the vigas but they are removing it today.



Next is a picture of the foundation and reservoir for the fountain. It will have a drain that goes directly in to our drain system so we can clean it without siphoning. You'll also see that we had the schefflera tree removed and they have patched the concrete wall, too. They also poured the new slab for the tile.



Now the schefflera tree that had been in the planting bed next to the wall - we had intended to just clean it up a bit and remove some of the limbs that hung over too much. But while they were cleaning it up we realized it was getting uglier and uglier. Since it is a "junk" tree here and was crowding the palm, we are happy with our decision. BUT the planting bed is a mass of roots and it is unlikely that they could all be removed successfully - and we had really wanted it to be a planting bed not a root bed.

So, the idea was floated to raise the curb on the bed by about 10 inches and make a little seat edge there. That way more soil can be added and we can plant away!

Here's a picture of the curb yesterday afternoon.



Then this morning the architect came by and drew this on the wall:



Can you imagine what a change to plans like this would entail in the US? Probably days of discussion and delay.

But after yet another delivery of sand and gravel the maestro is getting setup to make the bench. Here's the start of it:



And just because I am SO EXCITED to see everything coming together, I'll show you that the painter is working on the high stuff while work progresses below. Once he's done up high they will tile the walkway roof.



We are really excited about the tile going in, and the fountain, and the painting....and then having such a wonderful courtyard.

There are tons of things I love about Mazatlan. Some of them are probably unique to Mazatlan and some are similar throughout Mexico. Here are a few:

• Bike Cops - Mazatlan has a ton of them. They wear t-shirts and shorts with a gun clipped to their belt. They ride all over, not just on the malecon, and they are friendly to everyone. I don't know why, but they just make the city feel more approachable and friendly.
  
  
• Mosquitoes - I have only been aware of a couple of mosquitoes in Mazatlan, ever! That's a really surprising thing, really, given the heat and humidity here. But there is a good reason for the lack of mosquitoes, and that is the city's program to reduce mosquito populations. They have trucks that go around the city spraying at night. They also go door to door pretty frequently and come inside and to your patios to check for standing water. If you have a fountain they will test it and put a treatment in it if necessary. A chalk mark goes next to your front door when they've checked your house. This is obviously a very successful program.
  
  
• Tortillas - they are just so good! Need I say more? Those plastic bags full of tortillas in supermarkets in the US are a pale imitation of the real thing. Talk about flavor, and texture - and versatility. Yum.
  
  
• The Malecon - We are just in love with the malecon, or the sidewalk beside the ocean that in Mazatlan is 6 1/2 miles long. Every day when we walk the dogs we marvel at how great it is to have this nearby. People walk, jog, do sit-ups, chat, rollerblade, bike, and a lot more every day there. It has been extra busy the last few days because the marathon is here this Sunday and people are already starting to arrive. Part of the marathon route is along the malecon (but in the street) and we will crowd in with the rest of the city to cheer them along.
  
  
• Food - The baked potato guy on Zaragosa. The yummy handmade gumdrops. Tortillas. Salsa. Aguachile. Roasted zuchinni. Raspados. Bread from the health food store.
  
  
• English Library - It isn't large, but it is good. Real fiction, not just paperback vacation reads. It's a wonderful resource - one I have already enjoyed and where I hope to volunteer soon.
  
  
• The beach - This should be obvious, but needs to be included. It is so wonderful to live in a place where when you have a couple hours free you can spend it in the ocean. Put your swimsuit under your shorts, throw a book, a towel and some sunscreen in a bag - grab your boogie board and off you go. Drive down the malecon until around the Pacifico Brewery monument....park, and walk down the beach until you see a beach restaurant you like. Sit down, buy a beer, swim. Repeat as many times as you desire.
  

I promise to write a post soon that isn't an update on a construction project. But we are pretty excited about the transformation of our kitchen that just was completed yesterday...

Below is a picture of our kitchen from the marketing website before we bought the place. As you can see there are appliances and granite countertops, all of which is a part of the concrete structure. The concrete part is typical of Mexican kitchen construction, although most Mexican kitchens are probably tiled.



We asked our carpenter to construct cabinets out of cedar and to match the stain to the existing woodwork. We discussed the layout of drawers and cabinets and he told us he'd have them ready in 10 days. Well, three weeks later here they were on day one of the installation:





The installation crew was very talented and one of them, James, is pictured above from the rear. (sorry, James) James has a bit of English and was quite a comic. He is convinced that I am an artist that he saw on television. Anyway, they use many electric tools but the huge curls of wood on the floor are from all the hand planing they did in order to make everything fit just right.

The next three pictures are the cabinets complete, and we have put everything away! What a great feeling! The only remaining thing is to paint the kitchen, replace the fan, and paint the concrete base that still shows under the cabinets. Oh, and install the tile mural above the stove, too.







We think it is so beautiful! And the doors are probably an inch thick! It even smells more Mexican - something about the finish they use, I think.

Sundays are wonderful here because no one is working on the courtyard. It is quiet, we can clean up a bit, play music, and be more relaxed. Now that we have our new cabinets though I will be even more anxious for the courtyard work to be done....because of the amount of dust that it generates. And with the kitchen open to the sala fresca, there's nothing we can do about it.

Below is a picture shot from the kitchen into the sala fresca with the courtyard on the right. So I can predict our kitchen will be all dusty and need cleaning next week and on and on until the courtyard is finished, sometime before Christmas.

I thought that you might want to see pictures of the salitre repair project in one of our bedrooms. We've learned a lot about salitre over the last couple of months.

Salitre is a kind of cancer on the cement skin of the house. It's caused by water leaching out the salt in the cement mix. It could be happening because of a water pipe leak, a drain problem, or ground water coming up from under the house.

So usually the first thing to do is to figure out what has made the problem in the first place.

Sometimes though it just appears on a wall and hasn't caused the cement to become weak. In those cases you can scrape off any loose concrete, clean with muriatic acid, and then seal it.

In worse cases, once the underlying problem is repaired you may want to remove the bad concrete, clean the bricks underneath with muriatic acid and seal them before you put new concrete over the bricks. That's what we had to have done in the bedroom pictures you see here.

Here's a picture of the salitre before.



They spent a couple of days chipping off the old concrete and washing and sealing the wall. (This is from the other room they did - I forgot to take a picture in this bedroom)



Then they put on several layers of concrete and the final layer is nice and smooth and feathered in with the existing wall surface.



Now all we need to do is paint.

We are very excited to have our first guests coming tomorrow! Son Adam and daughter-in-law Martha are visiting from Mexico City for the holiday weekend.

Our house is in quite a jumble with all the construction but we have managed to make the guest room pretty nice, I think. Considering it still needs paint!

There is a lot going on in town and we should have a lot of fun going-and-doing as well as sitting-and-talking. We always have fun with the two of them.

I thought I'd keep going with the courtyard remodel pictures. They should be finishing all three roofs this week, and next week the painters will paint the top part of the wall so they can use the scaffolding while it is still here.

Once the wood was removed from the slab the maestro kind of splashed on and smoothed out a very thin layer of mortar to make the slab really pretty.



Then he started installing the roof tiles.



And this is the completed roof!

One of the reasons that we chose Mazatlan as our home is because it has a historic colonial Centro - and is on the beach. Usually these two don't go together.

But there's another thing that makes Mazatlan interesting - it's varied people.

Germans settled in Mazatlán in the 1820's. Their presence is noticed in the music, food, and beverages. There is strudel in most bakeries and Pacifico beer is the most popular in town. Oompah music is heard everywhere.

The city also attracted Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Greek imigrants. For example, our insurance agent is Juan Chong. A couple of doctors from the yellow pages are Dr. Gerardo Orozco Kawashima and Dr. L. Wonjoy Figueroa Wong. We bought some furniture from people who said people are often surprised when they meet because their name is German but they are Mexican.

This diversity is something that makes Mazatlecos very tolerant of newcomers, I think. People also say it is what makes Mazatlán women so beautiful!

Last night Mazatlan, like the rest of Mexico, celebrated the Day of the Dead.

The festivities kicked off at 6 pm with an excellent blues concert by the Malverde Blues Experience. Here's a video:




After the concert, the excitement built for the Walk to the Day of the Dead Altars. This is a crazy experience. Oompah bands play and carts pulled by donkeys dispense free beer to the crowd. (The German influence is throughout Mazatlan - from the Pacifico brewery founders to the music and strudel in the bakeries.) Pretty much everyone walks along a circuitous route taking in the various altars - with crazy music playing - and everyone trying to get close enough to the beer wagons to get a bit of foam in a cup. It was a blast. Here's a video to give the effect. My little camera was no match for the craziness.




Afterwards, the whirl of humanity hangs around the Plazuela, eating dinner or looking at the various altars set up around the square.

Today is the First Friday art walk and then a guitar concert in the Plazuela Republica. But first, back to the dentist!

That will be the name of the game here for the next month!

The courtyard renovation project has begun, at the same time as the mason is here repairing the salitre on our walls. The salitre project should only take a week or so but the courtyard will take a month.

I went to the Department of Agriculture with a man we were referred to for help with intricate Spanish conversations. We haven't talked to the last person we need to talk to yet but it sounds like it really won't be a big deal to bring our parrot Tiko down on the plane from San Francisco. He needs a current health certificate, and then at the plane the Dept. of Agriculture gives you the import permit. Hopefully the fellow we still want to talk to won't have anything different to say. We really miss our bird, and I am looking forward to a little shopping in San Francisco for a few things we need and can't find here.

The picture above was taken from our roof early in the morning. The foreground is a bit dark but I love the sillouette of the Cathedral with the sunrise.

Last night we went to the baseball game here in Mazatlan. The Mazatlan Venados (Deer) vs. the Guasave Algodons (Cottons).

It was our first baseball game in Mazatlan, and as lifelong baseball fans, a city with a team was an important criteria for us when we were selecting our new home. We went to the game with a couple we just met - taking a pulmonia both ways so we didn't have to battle the stadium traffic.

The game was a lot of fun - although we made a couple of newbie mistakes. First was that we now know that row three is a terrible row - the railing is right in the way so that you have to duck to see anything. Second was that many people come late - even very late - to the games so seeing an empty seat doesn't mean people aren't going to come that evening.

The play was good - no AAA errors and dumb plays like we've seen at AAA games in the states. But the play was a bit slow, and we'd have liked to see a bit more spark in the players.

I love the craziness of Mexican outdoor events. The Venados mascot, Vinny the deer, was manic most of the time, and sometimes performing risque little skits. 2008 car models were driven out on the field between innings. T-shirts, balls, pens, and candy were thrown into the stands courtesy of local businesses. Kids wore baseball caps with antlers on top.

The food is always interesting. Fresh peanuts. Fresh potato chips drizzled with salsa. Fresh fruit. Cookies. Some sort of rice thing. Ceviche. Flan. Candied apples. And to go with the food, Pacific beer. And I like how they serve it. Instead of flat beer poured an hour ago like you get in the stands in the US the beer vendor has bottles in 5 gallon buckets of ice. When you order one he opens it and pours it into a paper cup for you.

Pacifico is based in Mazatlan and is a sponsor of the Venados. The Pacifico logo is even above the players' names on their jerseys! And Guasave is sponsored by Tecate, so I guess in the beer war last night Pacifico won. The Venados beat the Algodons 4-1.

Next time I'll remember my camera.

Yesterday I took a little video while we were near the Pedro Infante monument at the south end of the malecon. It starts out with a view of the newest boutique hotel here - Casa Lucila, then shows Paul and the dogs, Pedro Infante on his motorcycle, and then I just scan around in a circle. The tide was very high.

Olas Altas is the stretch of beach nearest us, and it means High Waves.

Kind of a nice way to start the day, don't you think?

Mazatlan has a wonderful colonial city center - Centro. It is a mish mash of houses, retail, parks, home businesses, and the various entrepreneurs that gather in any Mexican city. (Car washers, carts selling food, street sweepers, etc) It can be messy and loud and incredibly joyful.

Last night we sat on our patio and listened to people passing by with a background of live jazz being played somewhere not far away.

Across the street from us and also kitty corner are what the real estate community refers to as "ruins." Some of them are being held by local families because their owner died and the rest of the family can't agree on what to do with them. Over time the roof will cave in, trees emerge from the roof, and feral cats take over the interior. They can be saved by passionate people with a lot of vision and probably money.

The picture below is the house across the street from us with the morning sun hitting it:



The next picture is of the same house but without the sun. It looks just awful, doesn't it? But here's the thing....this house is being restored, little by little, piece by piece. If you enlarge the picture you will see the window sills to the lower center windows have all been redone. Some of the cement decorative scroll work has been redone, too. And a lot of the horizontal panel at the top.



If you enlarge the picture you'll be able to see what I mean. The other night a dump truck came up and dumped a load of sand (for concrete) behind the garage doors. A light is on back there most nights.

Someday I hope to meet whoever is doing the work and give them my encouragement and thanks. It's a big job, but I appreciate those who are willing to take it on.

Below is the ruin that's kitty corner from us. We haven't seen any work going on here and no one seems to know the story.



Here's another one from our walk this morning. This one's for sale. If you're interested, let me know and I'll get the number off the sign for you!