Third Kirin e-mail
Previous: Hiding out in Los Muertos
From: Barbara and Rick and Lyra.
SailKirin@aol.com SailKirin@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2000 10:33 AM
My visit home was much too short in many ways. There were many more people I wanted to visit with than time allowed, but I did get to spend a few days with my family which was the whole point and which was wonderful. Now, after more than an hour of sitting on the runway at SeaTac, waiting for the fog to lift enough so we could take off, the rest of my trip back to warm latitudes was a breeze. Clearing customs in P. V. with no checked luggage was a breeze and I was out of the airport and into the late afternoon sun so fast it made my head spin.
Rick met me at the gate and we walked across the street to one of the small restaurants there on "airport row." He had discovered a wonderful new dish in my absence and thought I might like it. Mmmm!!! It was a hearty tomato and beef based soup with chunks of beef, chicken, tomato, and melted cheese in it as well as three long rib bones with a little meat on them. The whole thing was served in a large bowl that looked to be made of some volcanic rock and which was shaped like a small pig (legs and tail sticking out of opposite sides and standing on four little legs). The bowl seemed to have just come out of an oven as the soup continued to boil for several minutes after being set in front of me. I can’t believe I ate the whole thing but I’d do it again, given the chance!
We awoke to a disconcerting sight the next morning...MORE FOG! I had seen fog in San Blas, and last year I remember a couple of days of overcast here in Nuevo Vallarta and in the area of La Cruz just north of here, but this heavy fog was unusual for here. Unlike the fog I had left behind in Washington, though, this was warm and also burned off and was gone by noon. After a morning swim we met up with our friends Bill and Laurel to plan our rip to Tepic.
The best way to get a good deal on a rental car seemed to be to sit through the sales pitch for the point system time share deal here at the Paradise Village Resort. We managed to get a rental car for two days for $50 and a $50 gift certificate for the restaurant of our choice here in the resort. In order to pull this off, both couples had to go to the presentation, at different times. We had to pretend that we did not know each other, and furthermore that we were not staying on boats in the marina, but that we were staying in another hotel downtown and that we had gotten the invitation to come to the presentation from someone downtown. What the heck ... Rick and I went first and had a nice tour of the different types of rooms, from studio to penthouse suite, had a decent lunch, managed not to buy in and got the rental car deal. Laurel and Bill got the gift certificate and we shared it over dinner at a beachside restaurant.
Then, today, Thursday, we drove up to Tepic, a small town inland and slightly north of Puerto Vallarta. Driving in Mexico is always interesting and I was glad Bill took the wheel and kept it the whole day. A new highway is under construction from Puerto Vallarta to a point about 10 kilometers north of Nuevo Vallarta, the area where our hotel/marina is located. This means the road is fairly wide in most areas, but has no lines on it at all, and has no identifiable shoulder. In fact, the edges of the road are very sharp, are marked with a four inch tall piece of rebar sticking up every eight to ten feet, and drop off about a foot should you manage to drive over the rebar.
To make things even more interesting, it is not easy to tell if the particular section you are on is one way or two way. The first clue is usually when a car comes at you in the left lane at about 70 kilometers/hour. For this reason it is generally a good idea to favor the right hand lane most of the time.
It is sometimes necessary to pass the slow truck in front of you however and this can be accomplished at almost any curve or hill of your choosing. Actually, the truck or bus in front of you often does the choosing for you and lets you know that it is "safe" to pass by turning on his left turn signal. Of course he also might be actually planning to turn left. It is hard to tell the difference.
We found a parking place near the plaza in town and dutifully returned to feed the meter every hour or two so you can imagine our surprise when we found the parking ticket on the windshield when we were ready to leave town. Oops, guess that note up there meant three-hour limit ... Oh well. The fee for this offense ... less than $3. $1.50 if you pay within five days!
Darkness adds a bit of spice to the trip, too. This evening we encountered the Mexican road flare as we approached a roadside truck inspection point. These clever devices consist of a coffee can partially filled with diesel fuel. Once lit and set in the middle of the road they do get your attention. We surmised that if you did miss seeing one once and hit it, that the ensuing flaming diesel bath and probable explosion of the gas tank would at least ensure that you wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Tepic, however was fun to explore, much less touristy than most of the towns we find along the coast. We found several shops that sell the beadwork crafts made by the Huichol Indians in this region and bought a few things to add to the collection we had started in San Blas.
We also toured a couple of museums in town which were very interesting, but the best of all was the church. I love to see Old Mexican churches. Built in the old European style of high, domed ceilings decorated with gold leaf, intricate carvings, and beautiful paintings, with bell towers reaching to the sky, they always take my breath away. This one was in especially good repair, the colors of the paintings on the walls and ceiling especially vibrant and warm. I slipped just inside to get a peek and meant to go right back out to tell Rick, Bill & Laurel to come take a look, but I was riveted to the spot. I couldn’t leave so quickly, even if it was to return. The others found me on their own, and one by one slipped in beside me to stand in silent awe. I’m sure it was nothing compared to the great churches of Europe but it seemed something to me. Perhaps it is the contrast between the harsh living conditions of so much of this country that makes these so beautiful.
January 1, 2000
Wow. It feels odd to write that, knowing it is current. It is only the wee hours of the morning, though, in fact it is probably not quite yet midnight in Olympia. We spent the evening with Bill and Laurel on their boat here in the marina. We had thought to buy some prawns and fix a nice meal but the big grocery store we went to was so crowded there weren’t any carts left. We decided to try some of the rotisserie chicken we had noticed at a shop near the grocery store. Somewhat like the old Boston Market system, they skewer whole chickens, about 10 to a skewer, and roast them on a revolving rack. On the bottom of the open oven in which the chickens are cooking, they layer small potatoes and jalapeno peppers. We ordered 1 1/2 chickens, two orders of "papas" or potatoes and a few peppers and were back at the boat in no time.
There were many "millennium" activities to chose from around here but most consisted of more hoopla and money than we cared to get close to, so we took our chicken over to Bill & Laurel’s boat and had a great dinner. Rick finally met his match with one of the roasted jalapenos, but I have to say that the bite he took that sent him gasping for his coke and a piece of bread would probably have sent the rest of us to the hospital! Those were hot peppers! After dinner Laurel walked up to the hotel store and bought us a quart of Cajeta ice cream. Cajeta is a common sweet in Latin countries but only just beginning to show up in the US. It consists of milk that has been reduced to a thick, sweet, caramel-like consistency. Swirled through vanilla ice cream, it is very good stuff!
So we ate our ice cream, played dominoes until eleven and then headed out to the beach. It was a beautiful night, as usual, and we grabbed beach chairs from those stacked up in front of the hotel and set them down in the sand under the stars. A hundred yards down the beach there were some Mexican guys setting up a wall of fireworks. I have never been this close to the source of one of these great shows before so it was something to see. Bill was familiar with the process and explained how they probably would just light one fuse and each charge would be separated from the next by a slow burning fuse, the length of which would orchestrate the timing between blasts. Not so in Mexico. Those poor guys lit off each one by running up to them with their torch, lighting the fuse and diving for cover. If two or three at once were the desired effect, two or three guys did the light and dive routine at once.
It was a spectacular show, with the charges going off so close overhead that we almost had to cover our ears. The showers of gold and red and green and blue and white seemed to burst straight at us and indeed many sparks were still burning when they settled into the surf in front of us. Several hotels along the shore put on the same kind of show and the band played Auld Lang Sine.
We sat in our beach chairs and watched them all and waited for the world to end, or the lights to go out, or the ocean to rise up and swallow us whole. The world continued much as it has, however, and as the show wound down I looked out at the great ocean and up at the vast sky full of stars and decided that was a pretty good thing.
I hope you all had New Year’s celebrations to remember as well. We thought about you all and sent our good wishes. We especially thought of our friends John and Staci who were somewhere in the air between Tahitii and L.A. as Puerto Vallarta rolled into the year 2000, and Linda, Jim, Jason, and April, who were going to walk downtown just to see what was happening in Olympia.
More later as we hopefully get out of the big city and back to the little bits of Mexico we love.