SolMate Santiago

Log #76, January/February 2009

Posted Monday, 23 February, 2009

Visitors Beware

Jane and Marina stuck on the road
to Guadalajara, waiting for the taxi that rushed them 2.5 hours
up the road and arrived a mere 25 minutes before flight time -- too late

Shoulda, woulda, coulda ...
... shoulda followed up on last month's radiator leak and "Stop Leak" treament;
... shoulda driven to the Guadalajara airport (3.5 hours) the day before with lots of time to spare;
... coulda snagged the first taxi we called, the first time the van overheated;
... woulda panicked sooner, if we'd known that airplanes close their doors an hour before take-off; and
... coulda prevented a fiasco.

On the positive side ...
... Ajijic friends, Lou and Dianne, answered the forlorn call from the airport and provided much better hospitality than the RanaQuemadas;
... towing the van and soldering the radiator back together only took three hours and $500 pesos;
... a four-gallon bottle of water, plus a spigot on the roadside, kept the ole '91 cool enough to limp home; and
... the repair is holding and the overheating now seems to have been cured by clearing an air lock.

Posted Saturday, 21 February, 2009

The Big Splurge - a Botanero

Cruisers from
Windward Bound, Merry Lee, Hooligan, and Destiny

Buy drinks and the munchies and music are free. Great music and silly games for tourists. We chose Mariachi Wednesday to meet a group of cruisers at La K'Melia.

Tourists and
locals celebrating birthdays danced to the mariachi beat

When the band went on break, the real silliness began. The birthday girl at the next table, plus other "volunteers" from the audience were made sport of. Amazing how quickly one's friends can turn on them. Our table's volunteers were really good sports. First the women....

Our table was quick to push Gilly, from Destiny, up front.
She received a lap dance (of sorts), reciprocated, and then
was spun twenty times around after a double shot of fizz

A shot of tequila and Fresca, slammed on the table, made a fizzy pre-spin drink. Then it was the men's turn.

Jim from Windward Bound following the leader in a sexy dance,
then he, too, was spun twenty times around

Posted Sunday, 25 January, 2009

Wheeler Dealer

Deal the cards, Stan (mid-rt)

Texas Hold'Em is a fun little poker game that can become addictive. Quirky rules make it exciting to play, and to deal.

Chantel (center), tournament director

Renee, PATA Chair, showing lots
of energy at 8.999 months pregnant

PATA (a favorite animal charity) added a Texas Hold'Em tournament to their 4th annual silent auction to help raise money for free spay/neuter clinics. Because the mobile clinics have taken off and lots more are being held, of course lots more money is needed (more about that on the NEWS page).

Thirty players signed up to play, and Stan volunteered to be one of the (non-playing) dealers. Three hours of poker!

Auction win, Diana's print

While Stan kept the cards flying, I kibutz with the crowd and bid on a block print, which I won!

Posted Thursday, 22 January, 2009

I'm the Baby, Gotta Love Me

... or not

Linda's contribution to the toybox,
a well-chewed, well-loved straw

Nine weeks

A month later

Posted Thursday, 15 January, 2009

The Trip Home from Zihuatanejo

View Larger Map

The 300-mile winding road back home from Zihuatanejo made for a long day, plus we ventured off the main road and lingered awhile in an enramada restaurant on the beach in Caleta de Campos, entertained by the armada patrolling the beach on quads and out in the bay in a fastboat.

Patrol in Caleta de Campos

Our road was so slow that we paced the same armada boat up the coast. They may have been running at 30 knots, and kept pace with us as we crawled the coastal road. Every time we popped out of an S-curve above the ocean, there they were, buzzing along; their ride straighter, and probably a lot more fun than ours.

Patrol in Caleta de Campos

In the interest of their security, we show no faces. In other areas, such patrols reportedly wear masks, but ours were maskless. Since they live at a little base right there in Caleta de Campos, a mask on duty wouldn't do much good in protecting identities. They'd have to wear them to bed.

The beach tourists seemed to take the patrols in stride, mostly ignoring the quad as it rambled back and forth at walking speed from one end of the cove to the other.

SolMate Santiago contact: mj(at)solmatesantiago(dot)com