Lovely Day in Mazatlan

It was a lovely day…the usual bus ride and shopping expeditions. I am wearing a new sombrero. We were entertained by Native Americans-said to be the oldest remaining indigenous people in Mexico. Very sad that they are selling stuff and performing their spiritual practices for us, but we did enjoy the costumes and head gear and acrobatics. I’ll include photos when the mbps allow.

We had lunch at a hotel by the ocean-very pleasant breezes though the temps were in the high 80’s. Lunch was good enough, and we were able to find nice lounge chairs by a small shady pool for our post lunch siesta. An iguana sauntered by and entertained us by munching on the hibiscus blossoms.

The entertainment aboard ship was pretty fantastic last night. If Lisa Koch is playing in your neighborhood, go see here. She is multi-talented, and as Suede says, “twisted”. They brought the house down. We will be looking for Julie Wolf’s gigs as well. She is a pianist and singer from Seattle-very versatile and talented.

Though I went to bed early in anticipation of a 7:45am excursion, Montezuma had other plans. I only drank bottled water-except for the margarita. Marcia thinks it was the unrefrigerated hot sauce I used to “improve” the gringo Mexican food. We have ruled out flu as I am fine this morning except for being tired and desirous of only coke, tea and toast. The excursion just had to leave without me. I am currently rehydrating in the internet lounge. As a matter of fact, Marcia and I are the only inhabitants of the lounge.

It is 95F outside. Our lovely stateroom balcony overlooks the city of Puerto Vallarta, and we have a particularly fine view of Sam’s Club and WallMart Supercenter. Who knew??? We try to focus on the mountains. We have counted 4 cruise ships in port, so it should be a fine day for the tour guides and perhaps crowded in town.

We are hearing about the fires in Southern California. We heard they closed down the harbor in San Diego yesterday, and considering the airport and train station are right there, we assume they are closed down too. Amtrak has suspended service between San Juan Capistrano and San Diego. We note on the map of the fires that our bus route from Bakersfield to LA on I-5 seems to be ablaze. Of course, for us these are just potential delays. There are women on the boat who are worried about their homes and businesses and family and friends. We do worry about my cousin, Sylvia who lives in San Diego.

We ate dinner last night with a firefighter from Monterey. Had she been home, she would probably have been called to duty.

Though it is too early to know what effect this will have on our arrival plans for Saturday, we will be keeping an eye on developments.

On a lighter note, we hear we have World Series access in the onboard sports bar. That might be a better choice for me than the Sombrero Sangria BBQ planned for tonight. Wonder if it is possible to get clear broth and ginger ale in the sports bar????

KG