3-7
Looks like this will be our last entry for this year. We have started page 20 single spaced in the Word document we use to compose the blog. I guess we have said enough.
Today is our last full day in Zihuatanejo for this year. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 4 PM local time. Daylight savings time begins early Sunday morning in the US, and next weekend in Mexico, which makes a little confusion, but it is still Mexican time! We have been getting our things together and packing up the barrels for storage.
More friends are heading home today, and it will be our turn tomorrow.
Last night we went for a wonderful dinner with our friends Dan and Jeanne. They were our neighbors at the Villas Eclipse the last two years. They have become good friends for us. We went to Il Mare restaurant last night. We had never been there, and had heard good things about it. We had a fine pasta dinner with drinks, and a few more drinks! A good time was had by all.
Today, Eric is bringing the girls over while he goes to the beach to sell jewelry. We wanted one more day of spoiling and fun with them. I am sure we will be worn out by the end of the day. Then we will finish our packing this evening.
We went to town yesterday and finished up some last minute shopping. A kilo of cheese, and two kilos of coffee, a couple of t-shirts and we are done with the shopping.
It is very quiet here this morning. Not much traffic and not many people around. Another RV just headed out for home.
Today’s lesson on Mexico comes from our walks up the hill. Early on, I noticed what appeared to be a cucumber type plant hanging off of some tree branches and on a fence. It turns out that they are luffas. http://www.luffa.info/
I have brought a few back to the house to dry and shake the seeds out of them. I soaked them in some bleach water yesterday, and dried them again. They are now ready to come home with us.
- Warren

Yes, indeed, we had a very fine dinner last night at Il Mare. Going out for a fine Italian dinner has never interested us much while down here – we’d usually rather eat at home or small little Mexican places. However, it was truly a fine meal. This time we were too excited to take pictures of our food, as we have done before!!!!

And we are also very excited to see the girls shortly. Eric says they are excited too, as they love to come over. They now refer to us as their godparents. Today before they leave I will give them the first of many annual education talks. I really want them to know how important it is for them to finish school and to learn English. So now, when they are only 7 and 5, they will begin hearing it. Hopefully when they are 13 and 15 and tempted to drop out, as so many young girls do down here, they will have heard the many reasons why they should stay in school and hopefully heed the advice. We’ll try! They are little darlings.

We are all set for our stay here at Casa Ita next winter. Our hosts/landlords are very accommodating and welcoming. Next year there will also be two cute bungalows completed on the property, with a pool of their own, and ready for rental. She has quoted us a special price on them if any friends or family are interested in renting them next year. We will take pictures before we head home – they are almost completed at this point and Alfredo is doing some painting and landscaping. They are round bungalows with tiled roofs – a studio apartment with an outdoor kitchenette. Alfredo has been staying in one of them while we have been here. He looks after us very well!

Tomorrow morning before we head to the airport, we will go out to breakfast with Dan and Jeanne and have our final giggles and hugs for the year. Vera and Richie are heading home this morning; we said our good-byes yesterday afternoon. We have really missed our Montreal friends, Fanny and Joe, this year, and really hope they will be able to make it down next year. As Fanny says, “God willing, we will all be back next year!”

- Judy
And now, the news that many of you already know, but some of you might not. Sean and Ellie will be getting married down here next February 6th. We knew this prior to our arrival this year, but wanted to get a few things in place before we put it out there. We have put together the preliminary plans while we have been here. There will be more to follow in the coming weeks and months. I am sure that we won’t have trouble filling the blog with that happening next year!

Adios for this year!
Judy and Warren
Sean and Ellie from La Escollera restaurant. La Ropa beach in the background looking North. This will be the location of their wedding next year.

One of our neighbors. He is about 100 yds. from the house, and is on no particular schedule when it comes to braying. A lot of times at 2 AM!

Dinner at Il Mare last night with Dan and Jeanne. Judy loved the Cosmos.

Luffas that I found on my walk. The one on the right is out of the hull.

3-5
Perhaps I was a little premature in chastising “Jacque” for cutting off our wifi connection. We are connected again. It makes you upset when your routine is changed. We are on a tight schedule here.
The blog entries are reaching a close. I might get one more after this one.
Judy and I went to Paty’s yesterday for most of the morning to say adios to a couple friends. Two more friends went home yesterday, with two more tomorrow, and two more on Saturday, and then us on Sunday! It has been a wonderful escape for us. Every year we make more new friends and get to know the locals a little better. Tuesday I headed to town mid day with intentions of walking. It was getting hot so I decided I would catch the next bus. A Mexican gentleman stopped and gave me a ride. He is a local merchant with a couple of stores. One is a tienda and the other sells small furniture and decorating items. He didn’t know me from the next guy, but gave me a ride to Centro. In spite of the bad press you hear about Mexico, the majority of the people are just plain nice folks. We have not lost sight of that fact, and it is a big part of what brings us back year after year, and of course, maybe the 88 plus degrees everyday in January and February.
I was headed for my third haircut from Rigo. Haircut, beard and mustache trim and a shave. He only wanted 50 pesos, but I always give him more.
Last night we went into town for a little shopping and dinner. We had a great traditional Mexican meal and a very pleasant evening. This afternoon I believe we are going up to La Escollera for lunch and pool time. We have enjoyed our dinners up there and will try the afternoon time now.
Tomorrow we have told ourselves that we will get most of our things packed up. I purchased another plastic barrel downtown and that will make two now, plus a couple of beach chairs and umbrella. We have a lot of kitchen items, beach towels, some clothes and etc. We will store them here at the house until next year. We just tape them shut to keep the critters out! If they are not here when we return, oh well. They always are though.
Saturday, Eric’s daughters Erica and Perla are coming over for the afternoon. Judy wanted to spend a little more time with them. They are the kids we help with school funding. They will be here while Eric goes to the beach to sell silver jewelry. It will be another swim fest in the pool and probably to the beach for lunch.
Alfredo just popped his head in the door to let me know he was going to Centro. We always let him know where we are going. He keeps a close eye on us. We will miss him very much. I reminded him yesterday morning as I handed him his morning coffee, only cuatro mas coffees! It was in my very best “Spanglish”!
- Warren

Warren does such a good job of telling it all, that there is very little left for me to tell! But we are both leaving with mixed feelings. We love it here so very much, but it is hard to be gone so long from friends and family back home. This year a lot of you came down here to join us, and it was delightful. Hayden – I hope you haven’t forgotten auntie and uncle!!

I have a lobster salad coming up in my very near future today at La Escollera – that’s all my agenda holds for the day! That and a little more sun and view with our lunch.

I just went for a morning visit with my friend Vera. We have only a couple more days to go before we won’t see each other for another year. So we are getting in as much yakking as we can. She is already packing – worrying about where all her treasures will go and how she will make it home. She always makes it!! Warren and I have that chore to do tomorrow so we can be free on Saturday to entertain Perla and Erica. What a great way to spend our last day! They are 5 and 7 and look forward to playing with us – even though communication is difficult! Nothing difficult about playing with them in the pool or at the beach, however. Spoiling is easy.

Hope to see all of you soon!
- Judy
These are some catching up photos from last weekend and Monday's trip to Los Gatos. We were just able to choke this lunch down. It's the same Hell, just a different day.

This is what we had to put up with after hiking over to Los Gatos.

Hiking over to Los Gatos along the shore. This was the first time we made this trek. It wasn't to bad, and the trail starts just down the street from us.

The girls enjoying pool time last Saturday.

2-28
It is a beautiful night in Zihuatanejo. It is quiet, and we are heading to bed soon. Camille will be heading home tomorrow afternoon leaving Judy and I alone for our last week. We are officially at 1 week left to go. We will accomplish a few things this coming week that we promised ourselves we would do. We got the Dentist out of the way, so it will only be fun stuff.
Our friend Eric, the jeweler from the beach, brought his wife and kids over today to the house. They are kind of an adopted family for us. We have helped them with school inscription fees, and other school supplies the last couple of years. Judy and I decided a couple of years ago to help them with school rather than try to find a school to donate to. We at least know who we are helping, and the real cost is nothing in the big picture. We don’t talk about it much, it is just something that we do for a young hard working family down here. The kids had a great time in the pool today, and we had lunch at the house while Eric made the rounds on the beach selling his silver. It sounds like it was a good day for him, partly due to the fact that there was a cruise ship in. He caught a few people off of the boat on La Ropa today.
I am heading for another Sunday hike with my friend Mike in the morning. There might be a couple of others joining us also. Judy is one, and our friend Katie. We are going to walk the new road heading toward the southeast.
While the kids were here, our friend Bernardo, came by to sell goat string cheese. It is one of my basic staples down here. He comes around to the beach on Saturday and hits a few locations that he knows his customers might be located. He came to the house one day while I was gone. He recognized my hat and asked where I was. Today he was half way back down the driveway, when he stopped and came back asking if he could get a picture of me and him. Alfredo and his son, Christian were standing there, so he asked if he could have a picture of the two of us. Before he would take the picture, he asked if he could get it with the two of us. He whipped out his camera, and asked if I could go get my panama hat first. I got a picture of the two of us together.
I’m not used to Mexicans asking to have a picture with me. I guess that I am still a little humbled by him asking. Usually it is the “Gringos” asking to take the pictures of the locals. He is a very nice man, and his teenage children help out at the Mercado on the weekends. I was honored.
Alfredo came up for a beer this evening after he arrived back for the evening. He told us that his youngest son, Christian, is heading to the Mexican Army to be a pilot. He is a very nice young man. He was here working for Alfredo moving some sand for landscaping work. We both agreed that it was a good thing for Christian, and working on the end of the shovel moving sand, was a good reminder that the Army would be a good thing.
3-2
The internet appears to be down in the La Ropa area. I am seeing some of the wireless routers, but no internet connections. The router that I have been using since we have been here is not even showing up. I can’t believe that “Jacque” could be so inconsiderate to shut off his router. Hopefully it is only off due to the server problems.
We are talking about heading to Los Gatos this morning to spend most of the day over there. It is one of the 4 main beaches on Zihuatanejo Bay. It is lined with beach restaurants where you can spend the day. I think it has been close to 8 years since I have been over there.
I went for my Sunday morning hike with Mike and some other friends yesterday. We explored another part of the roads they are pushing in to the south of us. We made a big loop because we found the roads connect. We have now seen almost all of the development roads going in. It will be interesting to see what they are like next year.
3-3
Our trip to Los Gatos was great. We walked over along the shoreline. There is sort of a trail along the rocks. You have to pick your way along, but it was fine. We hadn’t been over there for a few years, and we’re pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. The water is shallow and very warm and clean. We had a nice lunch and had our own lounge chairs and umbrella. We headed back about 3:30 and then to dinner at some friends place down the road. There were about 15 people there. Jim made chili.
Today I am getting ready to head down the street to get an internet connection. I really think that it was inconsiderate of Jacque to leave before us. He was one of the French Canadians in the trailer park across the road from us. He was putting out an unsecured wifi signal that we have used for the last 7 weeks. Now I have to walk down the street to get connected again. I will send out this blog entry and probably one or two more short ones before we leave.Warren
Judy and the kids in the pool last Saturday. It was a wild day for us.

Our friend Bernardo. He sells string cheese in the Mercado, and comes around to the beach on Saturday to sell. He wanted to have his picture taken with me.