Puerto Vallerta

Mazatlan is still here, as hectic as ever. I got an email from Jay reminding me of the places we visited and the beaches and hotels we stayed at when we last visited this town almost fifty years ago. All our old haunts were still there. Not that we ever had ‘haunts’ exactly, but the cathedral and zocalo were still in the same place, and Maxine and I didn’t have any trouble getting a taxi driver to take us to the old Mercado. He told us it was 110 years old, so it obviously was the same one we visited in 1966. It is the greatest market place, a huge space full of the essentials for a Mexican family and then some. Lots of raw meat on display, which is always an eyebrow raiser no matter how many times I see it. The first time we were down here so long ago I saw what I thought must be dog, skinned and turning on a spit, but have since figured it must have been goat. No doubt, a miscommunication. Probably, JAY didn’t misunderstand. I just love this place. It’s so MEXICAN. We should have probably have spent more time down there around that old Mercado where there was so much crowding bustle and jammed traffic (no lights! What’s up with that!) but it kind of overwhelmed us, I think. Anyway, we went back to the ship.

I jumped in the pool then showered and was just in time for the afternoon tea. I had a cucumber sandwich and a fruit tart. Two days ago they served scones and clotted cream. I still don’t know what clotted cream is but it was really good, kind of like whipped cream, but heavier.

I’m going to the computer workshop at 5:30, as soon as we set sail, disconnect from the dock, throw off the ropes, push off; whatever it’s called. Set sail sounds most cool but, of course, we don’t HAVE sails. This young kid from South Africa teaches these computer workshops every day and they’ve been MOST helpful. He’s all about Windows 7, which, of course, is what I have on my laptop and I am not at all familiar with. At 5:30 it’s just for people with questions, but I want to know about the program he mentioned called Windows Live Writer. It’s supposed to be for doing all the work for your blog without being ACTUALLY ON your blog then down loading later, which would be really great for me right now since I don’t have an internet connection most of the time. Everything is all ready to go including pictures.

I was going to try to take a video of this string quartet that plays every evening, which we listen to every evening, but discovered my camera doesn’t have hardly any sound. Maxine took a video but I don’t know how it turned out. Last night they played several songs from, I believe operas, that were really familiar, and soooo good. I wish I could have gotten at least one of them on my camera, but it would have been a waste of time. I would have tried to remember what they were called but it was Italian or something, and there was no way I could have remembered the name. But anyway, too bad you can’t hear them.