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.

Another day in Guanajuato

This is part of the underground tunnel system. It just happens to be open in this section right near my hotel.

This is one of the museums that I visited today. It´s called Alhondiga de Granaditas. It´s all about the Mexican War of Independence.

This was a different museum that I visited. It didn´t have much in it but it was underground and very pretty. The roof above was at street level and you could see people walking on it.

This is my Oxxo. It is right near my hotel. It´s just like a 7-11 and that is where I get my coffee every morning.

This is one set of stairs that I need to climb before I get to my hotel. After that I have to go up a little hill.

I feel like I´m settling into everyday life here in Guanajuato. I like my hotel but it is a little quirky. They have a sign in the bedroom that says to notify the office when you want to take a shower. They will turn on the hot water and you will have hot water within 2 minutes. For some reason I don´t really like to get up and walk all the way down to the office to tell them that I´m going to take a shower. Sometimes they aren´t there and it just seems a little weird to me. I have gotten used to taking cold showers and it doesn´t bother me too much. I guess if I cared, I´d be running down the stairs. I did however luck out one night and got a warm shower without asking. I don´t know what happened there.

I really liked my spanish classes much better today. I had written over 30 sentences and the first teacher (the one that I didn´t love yesterday) had me read them, asked me questions about them and corrected my errors. It was fun and really helpful. I think it was good because I took a long time writing sentences that were meaningful to me. My second teacher was also good. I think the first teacher is my conversation teacher and my second one is my grammer teacher. I was sorry that I signed up yesterday but today I´m very happy. I feel like I am learning a lot in just 3 hours. Tonight I had to write a lot more sentences, maybe 40. I basically write one sentence for every verb that I learn for that day.

This is such a nice city. It is so clean and nice that sometimes I forget that I am not in the United States. But then something weird happens and I remember that things are different here. I was walking home from the coffee shop after doing my homework this evening and 4 burros walked by me loaded up with sacks of something, maybe maize flour. It´s pretty normal to see stuff like that in the country but not walking on the sidewalks in the city.

Tomorrow I may go to visit a town nearby called San Miguel after my spanish classes. I was going to spend a few days but I feel like I´m running out of time. I´ve heard mixed reviews about the town. Most people here don´t like it because it has been taken over by more than 12,000 American retirees that apparently aren´t that culturally aware. It takes a little over an hour to get there by bus so I will go and return in the same day.

Spanish School and Swimming

This is my laundramat. I got a picture of the guy weighing my laundry. He seemed confused when I asked if I could take his picture.

This is the view out of my new bedroom. The window is looking outside at the next building.

My hotel.

My old bedroom in the hotel. I miss it.

This morning I signed up for Spanish school. I´m going 3 hours per day. I have 2 different teachers. I loved my first teacher and my second teacher was really nice but I didn´t like the assignments that he gave me. He would ask me questions and expect me to talk a lot using specific words to answer the questions. One question was how do I begin my birthday. I told him that I get up, walk my dog and have coffee. He was happy with that answer but I was also supposed to use the verbs - to show, to fly, to eat lunch, to eat breakfast, to bite, to resolve, and to sound. I had no idea how to answer the question with all those verbs. I don´t think he is a very good teacher. The second question he asked was how I spend Christmas. There was another list of verbs that I was also supposed to use to answer the question. The guy seemed a little horrified when I told him that I hate Christmas and that I like to invite my Jewish friends over for dinner. I hope tomorrow is better.

After my first day of Spanish class, I tried to go swimming. It was a project to find the bus to take me further up the mountain to a beautiful swimming pool. No problems really. I got the bus and the driver told me where to get off. But then I was not able to swim. In order to swim, you need to fill out an application, have a copy of your passport, 2 photos and a medical clearance from a doctor. I got to see the swimming pool and I got the list of things I need and a list of the hours. I guess you could consider that a success.

Then I went to the coffee shop where I met my new friends and did my spanish homework. I had to write 33 sentences from a list of irregular verbs. It wasn´t too bad. I saw the owner of the coffee shop. He told me that he was going to take me for a ride on his motorcycle through the tunnels tomorrow. He said that it has a side car. I´m not sure if I will go but maybe.

At the end of the day I asked to switch hotel rooms. I now have a room with a window that goes outside. In a way I like my first room better but it is nice to have a window.

I haven´t wanted to mention this because of the heat wave in Maryland but it is cold here at night. I use a wool blanket while I´m sleeping. It´s warm during the day, cool in the evening and cold at night. (Don´t ask me to say that in Spanish).

I tried to download pictures but this computer decided that it didn´t want me to do that. I will try again tomorrow.

More Sightseeing in Guanajuato

It´s hard to see in this photo but this is an ice cream stand. I heard the guy ask if they would like chili on their ice cream. The very last bucket is chili powder.



This is the outside of the theatre that I visited today. Teatro Juarez.

This is the view from my hotel room.





I´m not sure if I mentioned this but my hotel is very nice but my bedroom just has a bunkbed and a lamp in it. It doesn´t have a tv or windows to the outside. It does have windows but they open to the hallway. Because of this, I pretty much get up in the morning and go out and then don´t go back until about 10 at night when I am too tired to walk anymore.

This morning I left the hotel around 7:30 to go to get coffee and to the Museo de Las Momias. I´m not sure if you have heard about it but it is really strange and disgusting. It is a whole museum filled with mummies. I´m not sure if I know the whole store but they had a graveyard nearby that they decided to dig up unclaimed bodies in order to make room for new ones. When they dug them up, they found that they hadn´t decayed and had become mumified or whatever you call it. So naturally they stuck them all on display and made it into a museum. It was pretty creepy to see. Many of them still had clothes on and they also had little signs with stories about the dead person told in first person. They even had little babies. I wanted to go to the museum early because I heard they have very long lines. It was a good thing because I got to go through the whole thing rather quickly. I wasn´t the first person in the museum but I certainly was the first person out.

After that I went to the Museo del Pueblo de Guanajuato. This museum reminded me of Trish because they had 3 whole rooms dedicated to miniature art. It made me think of her miniature garden and I thought it would be nice if she could have some miniature art for her miniature garden. Unfortunately they didn´t have any lawn art (or maybe fortunately because it wasn´t for sale anyway). They also had a photo exhibit which was quite nice.

Then I went to the Teatre Juarez. Basically a fancy theatre that I walked through. Nothing too exciting there.

I found a nice little restauarant nearby which had the menu in Spanish and then translated into english. I love that because many times I have no idea what the food on the menu is even though I try to look it up in my little dictionary. The thing that made me laugh was the translation for an egg dish. I don´t remember what it was called in Spanish but it was called divorced eggs in english.

I met some people in a cafe that took me on a walking tour of the city. They showed me where to take Spanish classes and where to get my haircut by a transvestite named Juan. I think she is Juanita now.

I´m at my hotel for at least one more night but may go to a new place tomorrow. I saw a little place that an old mexican lady rents out usually by the month but she may rent it to me for just a week.

FYI - I added pictures to the past 2 posts.

Sightseeing in Guanajuato

This was our guide for the mine.

This was my picture from the grocery store today. They remind me of Jane.



Today I spent the entire day walking around sightseeing.

I went to the market, Diego Rivera´s house and art museum, a silver mine where I climbed down into the mine wearing a hard hat, on a funco (an elevator type tram thing that goes up the side of the hill). I also walked through the underground streets to try to find a movie theatre without children´s movies but no luck.

I can´t think of anything else except that I have been using Nel´s method of navigation since I have been on this trip. I write down where I want to go sort of large on paper. Then when I ask people for directions and they can´t understand me, I show them the paper. It´s been working quite well for me. Thanks for the tip Nel.

Also the restaurant that I went to my waiter had a shirt on that said, ¨Estar Guars¨. I don´t know if you can tell but it was Star Wars. I liked it but was too embarrassed to ask him if I could get a picture.

I also went to 2 grocery stores today. I have always liked sightseeing in grocery stores. I didn´t see anything good except the cereal boxes which I love and homemade hostess cupcakes with the white swirls on top.

Trip to Guanajuato

This is the underground road that I arrived on and later walked through.


Preparing to get on my bus. This was the lady passing out our lunch.


More of underground road system. It´s hard to catch in a picture.



I finally made it to Guanajuato and my trip was great.

I was very proud of myself when I left my hotel this morning in a cab for the bus station at 7:45am for a 9:00 bus. I actually thought Ginger would have been happy with me too. I got there one hour early but when I tried to purchase my ticket they said that the bus was full and I had to wait until 11:15am. I was a little concerned about spending over 3 hours in a bus station but manage to use up the time having a nice breakfast, a cup of coffee from a nescafe machine and using the internet cafe at the station.

When I finally boarded the bus at 11:00 it was quite nice. They had a lady dressed like a flight attendant handing us each a bag with a lunch in it. We were able to choose our own beverage to put into the bag. The bus really was first class. The seats were huge and we had nice foot rests so we could lay down.

I sat next to a man that I thought didn´t look very friendly. I was wrong. He turned out to be quite interesting and quite helpful. He was an older mexican man. He moved to the United States when he turned 18 to San Jose California. He moved there because he wanted to learn english. He worked in the cannery and got a working visa. Because he had a working visa, he was drafted into the Korean War. Lucky for him by the time he finished his training for the army, the war was over. He was stationed in Washington state and 2 years in Alaska. He loved it. After that he moved to Mexico City and worked for the company 3M for 30 years and retired to Guadalajara which he believes is the most beautiful city in Mexico. He lives in Guadalajara and his wife lives in another city Leon, which he was traveling to. She is taking care of her mother who just had a stroke a year and a half ago. He visits his wife for 10 days every month. After I got his life story, he shared much travel advice with me that was very helpful. He also pointed out interesting things along the way and told me the history.

I decided on the bus that I was going to treat myself to a cab to my hotel. I always take city buses but thought I would splurge the $4.00 on a cab. When I left the bus station, there was no cab waiting for me but there was a city bus waiting for me. I took it and it was quite easy and left me 2 blocks from my hotel. I had to climb tons of stairs to get to my hotel. When I arrived the hotel owner said, ¨Hi, Anna, we´ve been waiting for you¨ even before I introduced myself. It´s a nice hotel but very strange architecture. I must take pictures and post them because I don´t think I can describe the stairways and the hallways. It´s a little like a friendly, weird, pretty maze.

I forgot to mention that the bus ride was a little like riding a ride in Disney Land. They have underground streets and we would go into these very old tunnels. It was really cool.

I stayed at my new hotel, Casa Bertha, just long enough to get a map and get walking around the city. The city reminds me a little of Momarte in Paris (is that what it is called? the area near Sacre Coer? it doesn´t look right). They have cobblestone streets, with outdoor cafes, street artists and musicians.

I ate dinner in a restaurant that had a fixed menu. I couldn´t understand what any of the food was so I stood outside with my spanish dictionary and tried to look up the food. The waiters were trying to help but couldn´t. It was funny and we were all laughing. I finally settled on a soup and a dinner. I just pointed to both and hoped for the best. The soup in my dictionary translated to gourd soup. It was really good and I thought I had had it before but couldn´t figure out what it was. After I finished my meal, the waiter tried to tell me my choices for dessert. We were laughing and I finally asked if I could just have a look. He said yes and took me into the kitchen. I think the chefs liked it and it seemed to be the first time they had someone previewing what they were going to eat. I selected a nice looking thing called carlotta which was a vanilla pudding layered with crackers or something. It was sweet but good. They served it over a little chocolate sauce. After my meal, I went out to the street and was copying down the name of the soup that I loved. The waiter saw me doing it. I told him that I loved the soup but I had no idea what it was. He told me to wait. He went into the kitchen and came back out to the street with a zuccini. So that solved that mystery.

Now I´m walking around the streets. It is quite pleasant here.

Rather than downloading pictures. I will send you the link that my friends sent me of their pictures. I will add some of my own later.

Take a look:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/mexico/523680-guanajuato-mex-place-frogs.html

Added Pictures

In case you are following this blog - I often add to the previous entries each day. So if you want to see updates, you may need to go back to entries that you thought you already read. Also, I often go back and add pictures to previous entries when I get a good computer that can handle photos.

I{ve been stuck at the bus station for 3 hours so I added pictures to Guadalajara and Tequila.

My bus will be coming soon so I can finally prepare to leave. I{m off to Guanajuato.

I´m happy because I think I finally found the apostrophe (on this computer anyway)

Tequila

These are the hearts of the agave plant. They steam them for 2 days and then use the juice to make tequila.

This is the blue agave plant used to make tequila.

This is one of the shops in the town of tequila where they offer free samples of tequila.

I finally made it on my trip to Tequila. I really liked the area. It was beautiful. The tour was good but slightly annoying at times. I thought I was going to be on a small van but ended up on a huge bus. The tour guide had a microphone and talked the entire time. She asked everyone on the bus to introduce themselves and say where they came from. Then she made everyone cheer when they said where they were from. Most of the people on the bus were from Mexico and there were only 3 people speaking english. She translated everything which made her speak twice as much.

We first visited Tres Hermanas and got to see how the agave is grown and processed into tequila. The blue agave plant is beautiful. They showed us the whole process and we got to taste everything from the raw plant, steamed plant to every step until they get to tequila. Then we started to do shots of Tequila. They served it with salt and lime and would make every repeat toasts which I didn{t understand. The final shot was a very expensive tequila (about $150. U.S. per bottle), They showed us how to drink it and we were not to use salt or lime with that one. I liked the cheaper ones with the salt and lime better. I guess that fits with me eating at restaurants with plastic bags covering the plates.

After the tequila distillery or whatever it is called, we made 3 more stops on our tour. One was downtown tequila. We had an hour and a half to walk around town. It was a nice little town with nothing to do but drink tequila and look at things to buy. I went to the Jose Cuervo place and had some tequila drink with one of the people that spoke english. He is a rancher from Wyoming (not a handsome cowboy Jane). Then I went to some other place and sampled some more tequila with the other english speaking person. Next we stopped at a restaurant. It was okay not great. Then we stopped at some place to sample eggnog. I didn{t understand the purpose of that. It was crowded and I didn{t like it so I sat outside and read until it was time to go.

The ride home was much quieter. I guess the tour guide didn{t feel like she had to talk so much into the microphone because everyone was full of tequila. When we got home the bus had to drive around town and drop everyone off. They would announce the name of the hotel that was coming next so the people could get ready to get off. I was embarrassed when they called out my hotel because it was hotel Tequila. I felt like everyone was looking around to see what kind of weirdo would stay at a Tequila hotel and go on a tequila tour. I had them drop me off close to the grocery store so I could buy some cup o soup. Then I went home, cooked my own dinner and walked around downtown Guadalajara. It{s a fun and beautiful city at night and I think they have a tradition of everyone riding bikes on Thursday night. The place was packed with people riding around. I wish I had a bike.

Today I got up early to get a 9am bus to Guanajuato. It was sad saying goodbye to my hotel staff. They were so nice and helpful. Almost every person that I have met in Mexico so far is really nice. I got a cab to the bus station and arrived at 8am only to find out that the 9am bus is already full. Now I am waiting until 11:15 to take the next bus. I had breakfast at the restaurant, talked to the tourist info person to find out what to do for 3 hours. They suggested sitting in the waiting room for my bus. Luckily they have a nice internet cafe here so I can bore everyone with my wordy blog. Maybe I will try to download some pictures because these computers are really fast.

I made reservations to stay in Casa Bertha Guanajuato. Trish, I think the website is www.paginasprodigy.com in case you want to look at it. I had to search on google and then select that one. It{s supposed to be nice. My friends stayed at it for 3 weeks and said they really like it.

Bebe, I forgot to tell you. I made this blog so that it couldn{t accept comments. They were confusing for me in the India blog and I thought it would be easier to just get email. Although I haven{t been able to check my email for a few days now.

Guadalajara

Taco stand the night after I ate there. No rain tonight.

Interest Interesting bench in Guadalajara Central.

Instituto Cultural de Canañas

My breakfast sandwich at the fancy restaurant with the lovely plates.

I,m fascinated with the brooms in Mexico.

I made it to Guadalajara today. It took 2 buses, 2 trains, another bus and a long walk but I made it to my new hotel. It is really nice. Hospedarte. Tomorrow I think I will tour the town and go to all the museums and things. The next day I'm going to take a tour of Tequila. It's the town where they make tequila.

Tonight I went down the block to a taco stand for dinner. I didn't love the tacos. I had 3 different kinds with meat and one with just cheese. I liked the cheese best. The meat kind of made me sick thinking about it. Everyone at the stand was happily ordering tongue. I tried to get plain meat but I'm not really sure what it was. The funny part was that it was outside and raining. The guys at the taco stand had a big huge tarp covering everything so people could sit and eat. It wasn't raining too hard but every once in a while the wind would blow pretty hard and everyone would get pelted with rain. Everyone just continued to eat. It was fun.

If you go back to other pages, I tried to add pictures. It's a little bit of a pain and they don't go where I want but you can have a look if you are interested.

Day 2/ Today I just floated around the city. I went to a sandwich shop for breakfast and had the best sandwich. It was also served on a plastic plate covered in plastic wrap. I think it has to do with the quality of restaurants that I am choosing. I'm sure somewhere in Mexico they use real plates that they wash.

I went to some old cathedrals and tried to go to an art museum but there wasn't any art in it. They said they will have art next Thursday. I also went to the post office and to a book store on the other side of town. I had to negotiate buses which is a challenge but getting easier. On the way into the bookstore I saw a bird get hit by a car. I thought it was dead but noticed that it was just sitting in the middle of the road not moving. I ran into the street and got it out before the other cars came and ran it over. Some other lady tried to do the same thing but I beat her to it. She was very happy with me and had about a half hour conversation with me in Spanish. I didn't know most of what she was saying but she didn't care.

I booked my tour for Tequila tomorrow. A van is going to come and pick me up. I've never gone on many tours but this sounds cheap and easy and a lot of people say that it is really good.

Day 3-
I postponed my trip to tequila for one day. I wasn´t feeling well today and spent most of the day in bed. I got up at 3pm and switched hotels. They rented my room out and told me that they didn´t have any more space. My new hotel is fine it´s called Hostel Tequila and is less than a mile from my last hotel. I will be here two nights. I got some Aspirina, chicken soup and gatorade and feel a lot better. Hopefully I will be well enough for my trip to Tequila tomorrow. I´m going to bed now.

San Blas

This was my hotel in San Blas.


This was the pelican at the hotel that had the broken wing.



This is my friend Angel. He helped me by walking me to my hotel, showing me around town and making phone calls for me. I paid him a little tip for helping me. I also shared my dinner with him. Every time I got something to eat in a restaurant, he would show up and eat half my food. He's from Mexico.



These were little kids watching me eat my dinner. I asked them if I could take their picture. They said yes. I invited them into the restaurant to show them their pictures. They were happy about that. They looked hungry so I shared my tortilla chips with them. After a few minutes the waiter came with food to go. He gave it to them and chased them out of the restaurant. I though the waiter was mad at me. But he said that he noticed them and thought they looked hungry and was preparing food for them before I invited them into the restaurant.



This was a bird from the jungle cruise. I forget the name of it.


This was my favorite fish taco stand in Puerto Vallarta. I don't know why it is in the San Blas post. What I liked about this place was that they put their plastic dishes inside a plastic baggie before putting the food on it. Then they just took the baggie off and didn't have to clean the plate.




I made it to San Blas. What a crazy, windy, bus ride. I went swimming and tomorrow morning early I will go on the jungle cruise. I´m looking forward to it. I´m staying at the hotel Moreles. It´s really nice. It´s the place where they nursed the pelican back to health. I haven´t seen the pelican yet and I´m afraid to ask about it in case it is no longer with us.

I will write more tomorrow.

Next day - I´m at the internet cafe now and it is raining so hard the the power went out already one time. I will save this frequently so I won´t lose info in case it goes out again.

I loved the jungle cruise. We saw lots of birds, bird nests and alligators or crocodiles. My guide kept insisting that they were crocodiles. I had to take a boat by myself because there weren´t any people to share with. It was just as well. The cruise lasted a total of about 4 hours and that included stopping at a little restaurant. We basically went through mangroves. I liked it so much that I would like to do it again. I saw a few birds that I have never seen before and got good pictures. Then I also saw lots of egrets and herrings.




My hotel is interesting. I really like it. I´m in the front of hotel so my room is on the street. I don´t think I have any glass in the windows, just metal gates with screens on one side. I don´t think the other window has any screens. It was a little loud last night because cars seem to drive by blasting music. I managed to fall asleep anyway and was startled in the middle of the night by thunder and lightning. It was so close, I thought it hit the building.

After the jungle cruise I went to the beach and stayed under the tiki hut for the rest of the day. I had a great swim and amazing fish tostados or something like that. When I complimented the guy on the fish tostados and asked what kind of fish it was, he introduced me to his mother who cooked it and pulled a whole fish out of the freezer to show me what it was.

Now I want to get money but I think the only cash machine is broken. People look confused when I ask for ATM machine. I´m not sure how to ask for it in Spanish. When I show them the card to try to ask, they just say "no".

I saw the pellican at the hotel. They have a little corner for him with water and such. They named him Pinnochio. He eats 3 to 4 fish about 3 days per week. They tried to feed him more, but he doesn´t want to eat more. He´s very cute. I will try to get some photos of him. He can´t live in the wild because his wing was broken.

I was going to leave for Guadalajara tomorrow but this place is growing on me. Not much to do but very peaceful. I may stay one extra day. I will decide tomorrow.

I know this is probably very choppy but I´m a little stressed by all the thunder and lightning. I´m going to go try to find some guacamole before heading back to my hotel. I feel like I may have to swim back to the hotel. The water in the streets is already up to my ankles.

I wish this computer had spell check.

Days 2 and 3

I forgot to mention that I went to mass on my first day here. I got myself an unofficial tour guide that walked around with me. His name was Jose´ and he took me to a cathedral and we sat through mass. His fee was 2 beers that he got from a store like a 7-11 but it was called XOXO (I´m not sure how to pronounce that).



Yesterday I took a bus south to a fishing village called Boca de Tomatlan. I basically sat at a restaurant at the beach and read and swam all day. It was really nice. The restaurant had umbrellas and chairs right next to the water. I got coconut juice. It was served in a huge coconut a little smaller than a basketball. I think there was more than one half gallon of juice in it. I also had a couple of beers and some guacamole.

Last night I went out to a bar with a girl that I met who is also traveling alone. It was a bar with a loud band that played all american music and didn´t seem to have any mexican people in it. I stayed for about a half hour and then got out of there.

Today I´m going to take a 3 hour bus ride to a fishing village called San Blas. They have boat tours that specialize in bird watching. I just had breakfast at a taco stand that had the best fish tacos ever. Now I have to run and get my bus. I´m not sure if there is internet in San Blas. I´m going to probably stay for 2 nights and then get a bus to Guadalajara from there. I will probably be staying at the hotel there that I read about in the Lonely Planet. I forget the name but they nursed a pelican back to health and it apparently runs the place.

Day 1

I was hoping to get bumped from my flight to Puerto Vallarta because the flight was really full and I wanted to get a free airline ticket. I got bumped but not off the flight. I got bumped to first class. I asked the ticket agent if she could change my seat so that I wouldn´t have to sit in a center seat. She said sure. I didn´t realize it was first class until I was boarding the plane and saw that my seat number was 1A. I had a nice lunch on the plane with a margarita (Trish´s recommendation). It was very pleasant but not as luxurious as business class to India.

The flight was fine and I managed to get a bus to the area with hotels. I looked at 3 hotels before I found one that was okay. The first was scary looking even for me. The 2nd had jackhammers going all the time and the third was fine. I´m staying at Hotel Lina. It´s adequate but I don´t have a light or a hot shower. I need to ask them to change the bulb in my room but somehow it seems like an ordeal. Luckily the light in the bathroom is working so I can see a little.

I went swimming yesterday and then hung out in a bar until the afternoon rain stopped. It was funny to watch the people in the rain because they don´t seem to care. They just get completely soaked. Many people continued to swim in the lightning storm. My waitress ran out into the waves with all her clothes and her waitressing apron on after she was completely soaked from the rain.

Today I will take a bus to the next beach down from here. It´s about 12 km south and it is where they filmed ¨The night of the Iguana¨

Tomorrow I will probably head out to Guadalajara.

I just did spell check but just about every word is highlighted in yellow for being spelled wrong. I guess the spell check is checking for spanish. According to spell check I spelled - a bus, 12 km, and Iguana - correctly

Dulles

I'm at the Wingate by Windham hotel waiting for my flight tomorrow. I came to the hotel the day before the trip because my flight is out of Dulles very early and I didn't want to get stuck in rush hour traffic and miss my flight.

I've already been swimming and to the complementary cocktail party in the lobby. Thanks Jeanne for driving me to the airport in the horrific heat with no A/C.

I should probably find a hotel to stay at when I arrive in Puerto Vallarta. That will be my next project.