Last Day

I decided to take the bus to Puerto Vallarta today. I spent the night there and went directly to the airport from there. I stayed in a nicer hotel on my last night in Mexico. It had a pool, a little kitchen and a small living room, a balcony off the bedroom, air conditioning and a tv. It was a treat but still only $50 per night.

I'm now back in the states at home. My flight home was fine and I'm in shock a little now. I need to go to the Oxxo for food and the fish taco stand for breakfast but they aren't here.

I guess I'll open mail and take the dog for a walk instead.

Sayulita

Today is my last full day in Mexico. I´m staying in the small town of Sayulita. It´s a nice little surfing town. It´s off season so there are not a lot of people here right now. It may be annoying during full season with many more people.

I´ve enjoyed laying around the beach, swimming, reading and eating every meal at the fish taco stand. I tried to eat breakfast somewhere else today but the first place was closed and the second place had too many americans so I ended up back on the street eating my shrimp and fish taco. Dad-they are similar to the ones that we had but better. They have these onions that are marinated in pure hot sauce that are really good. They are so hot I can only have a few slivers of onion on each taco.

My hotel is really nice. It´s called Hotelito Los Sueños. It has a-c and a little swimming pool. He gave me a deal because I´m sleeping in the massage room. It feels like a real bedroom (more like a nice prison cell - no windows, concrete walls and a brick ceiling)- I didn´t know it wasn´t a regular guest room until the maid told me it was the massage room.

I told the hotel clerk that I would probably be leaving today to go back to Puerto Vallarta. He said, ´´We will see¨. I guess he can tell that I haven´t really made up my mind yet. My flight from Puerto Vallarta is not until noonish tomorrow so I could leave from here early in the morning and go directly to the airport. It seems to be raining at the moment so I may just go to Puerto Vallarta today.

I better get going so I can decide what to do for today.

By the way, Happy Birthday Karen. I´m happy to hear that Mark won the gold star. That´s pretty amazing.

Muted Fabrics in Mexico?

I emailed my friend Jeanne that is taking care of Blue and asked her what she would like from Mexico. She said a couple of yards of fabric if it is inexpensive and no bright colors, something muted. Great - I think to myself. Something easy. The picture just above this with the $14 is the first view of the fabric store when I walked in. Could it be any brighter or more colorful? As I went through the store, it didn´t get any less bright.

Jeanne, If you spot anything you like in these wonderful pictures, let me know.

Cathy - The grocery store will be next.

I´m going to pack up and head to the little surfing village of Sayulita. I think it is about an hour north of here on buses. I hope I like it. The hotel that someone told me about is La Casana. Not sure if I will be staying there.

OMG - You´ll never guess what I found

I don´t know if you all know about my fascination with Woolworth´s. I know Trish does because when I lived with her in San Francisco, I would go all the time. I always thought that I would write a book about Woolworth´s. It was going to be a combination of photos, stories and interviews with customers and employees. It was really sad for me when it shut down and I never had the chance to do my book.

Imagine how exciting it was for me to turn the corner while walking in Puerto Vallarta and see this beautiful view. I had no idea they still existed. When I walked in, it smelled just like the store in San Francisco- popcorn. Naturally I didn´t have my camera so I had to back first thing this morning for the photo shoot. I wasn´t even embarrassed when all the employees were staring at me photographing the popcorn.

It just brings back all my Woolworth memories. Like the time that I interviewed for a job in San Francisco and was horrified when the manager asked if I could dance. He also asked me if I was a movie buff. I just kept picturing myself standing on a pedestal in Woolworth´s dancing trying to sell hula hoops or something. It wasn´t until years later that I realized that he was making a reference to the famous dancer - Ann Miller. At the time, I had never heard of her.

I also remember the crazy lady that used to eat lunch at Woolworth´s all the time in the downstairs cafe in San Francisco. She would bring her own silverware and talk to herself. I was intrigued by her.

I remember the time that Jane and I bought hotdogs from the Woolworth´s in Stonestown. They were so rubbery that we threw them to the pigeons. One pigeon got Jane´s whole hot dog and tried to fly away with it. It made it about 10 feet in the air before it dropped it. The hot dog bounced really high. Jane and I laughed so hard.

I also spent some quality time in a Woolworth´s in downtown Denver. I had met Bobbi there on a business trip and she and I went white water rafting. We stayed in some fancy hotel in downtown Denver. Bobbi wanted me to eat at the hotel because her company was paying but I had spotted a Woolworth´s with a cafeteria. Naturally I had to have breakfast there. It was fun because the waitress was really talkative. She had worked there for years and she gave me lots of information about her life and her job. I can´t remember it right now but certainly she would have been in my book.

When I worked at R. Torre bottling company in San Francisco, I would always stop at Woolworth´s on payday. I would buy gifts for Trish, Joel and the bird. I liked to buy toys for Trish´s bird.

This Woolworth`s didn´t have lunch counter but it was fun walking around. Now the question is: where else are there Woolworth stores?

Back in Puerto Vallarta

Wow. I rode the bus all night and now I´m back in my original hotel in Puerto Vallarta. The bus ride wasn´t too bad. They had 3 movies in Spanish. They were kind of like teenage type movies and they spoke very clear spanish so I could understand a lot. The plots were pretty predictable so that helped. I´m a little sore because even though it was first class, I think the seats were meant for people about a foot shorter than me. I couldn´t quite stretch my legs out on the foot stool and my neck was a little scrunched at times. The lady next to me looked extremely comfortable though so that is good.

I wasn´t quite sure what I was going to do when I arrived in Puerto Vallarta this morning. I heard about a very nice beach about a half hour north from here called Sayulita. It´s supposed to be a pretty surfing village that is off season so it is empty. Apparently there is a very nice hotel there that is kind of fancy for $50 per night. I think I may go there tomorrow for 2-3 days. I´m going to splurge since I have only been paying $12-14 per night for the past week.

When I arrived in Puerto Vallarta this morning, I rememebered that I bought a new pair of pants that need to be turned into shorts. So I decided to come to Puerto Vallarta for a couple of days to get my sewing done. My hotel here, Hotel Lina, is not the fanciest but I decided to come back just because I know the people. They were happy to see me and remembered my name. Within minutes, the lady that works at the front desk was helping me figure out how long to make my new shorts, was walking me to the seamstress and taking me to get coffee at the local OXXO. I tried to get coffee somewhere else but she told me it is more "rico" at the OXXO. I got vanilla cappucino out of a machine where you decide what you want and push the button. She even stayed long enough to help me push the button and to show me where to get extra sugar. I like the action and the service.

Okay, today is Ginger´s birthday and I´m wondering what time it is in Maryland right now. I´m not quite sure what time zone I am in. I wonder who will get the gold star today. Ginger, I hope you have a good birthday. I´ve been looking around for something to get all the birthday people but you know I´m terrible at shopping. If anyone wants anything (even if it is not your birthday) please email me. I probably am not going to be buying sombreros, ponchos and tequilla for people unless it is specifically requested.

I got my old room back at my hotel she asked me if I wanted it and seemed pleased that I said yes. I think this is also a good hotel for me because no one speaks any english at all. After I get my shorts, which they said should be any moment, I´m going to head straight to the fish taco place and then to the beach. I need to soak my feet in the salt water. They are filthy and cracked and need some special attention.

I´ve only been here two weeks and I already lost my only pair of shorts, my shampoo, my pedicure foot scrubber thing and I lost one of my sandals. My sandal was washed away from a big wave but luckily it went into some kind of stream and I found it floating around. This is my first vacation that I ever only took one pair of sandals. It worked out very well but would have been horrible if I lost one of them. I kept picturing myself walking around town with only one sandal trying to buy a new pair. Luckily it didn´t come to that.

Okay, I´m going back to my hotel now so I can get on with my day.

Last Day in Guanajuato

It´s a little sad today because I had to say goodbye to my new friends in Guanajuato. My teachers at the school gave me a certificate for completing the week.

Yesterday I went to San Miguel and I bought an overnight bus ticket to Puerto Vallarta for tonight. I spent one hour of my class yesterday walking around with my teacher getting a student id printed and laminated for myself so that I could get half price on my bus fare. They were very nice to do that for me. They insisted. Then my teacher went to the bus terminal with me to help me purchase all my tickets. A girl that is also studying at the school decided that she was going to take one of her spanish classes at the supermarket. Her and the teacher walked there and reviewed all the food in the store. I think that is a great idea. Next time I take spanish classes, I´m going to do that too. The food is very confusing here.

San Miguel was a very pretty little town. I just walked around for 4 hours and then came back to Guanajuato. I got back at around 10 and went to the film in the tunnel at 11. It wasn´t very good and I only stayed for about 5 minutes. Then I was so tired I was happy to go back to the hotel and sleep.

I´m going to get some dinner now and then I´m going to get my stuff from my hotel and make my way to the bus terminal.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Ginger if I don´t talk to you before.

Another day in Paradise (Guanajuato)

.This statue scared me half to death when it came to life. I thought it really was a statue but it is a guy dressed up as a statue. He stands still until you come near. My spanish teacher hates him for some reason. I guess it is only funny the first time you see him.



The two guys on the right are my spanish teachers. The one on the left is also a spanish teacher and a Kevin Spacey look-alike.



This is the main square in Guanajuato. I love it because the trees are perfect for shade.



sSome cars like this one drive around with really loud - loud speakers. They blast loud music and advertise different things. This one was driving around at 8 in the morning before most people even wake up.


I didn´t go to San Miguel today because my spanish teachers told me that today is happy hour for our spanish school. I didn´t want to miss one of my only invitations. It was fun. We went to a bar near the school and had plenty of cervezas. Many people from different schools came as well. I´m glad I stayed back. I will probably go to San Miguel tomorrow unless something more fun comes up.

Not much else is happening now. The film festival started today. They have free films all over the city. I went to one today but didn´t stay. Tomorrow I´m going to go to a film at 11 pm. They close off one of the tunnels to cars and play films in there.

Okay. Time for bed.