Ok short one: The Zumba class. Ha ha they got me! They arrived same time as me- 6:28 pm. The music was working less than 5 minutes later. And then...well they stood around the big speaker and talked until about 10 min to 7! It's kinda not worth the frustration. But I was smart and brought my headphones and ipod. I was about to grab it when 1 lady just started a dance routine with another lady- weird, not like let's go but just started it right there. I watched for a few minutes and then decided to join in, it was ot a warm up, but a pretty complicated dance step. Then a short warm up and the class started...ha ha and then the music started cutting out. I sighed to myself and got my ipod and started to walk over to the ovalo. The teacher yelled over to me- "manana!"........yeah right.

So we will go back to eating dinner between 5 & 6, then heading for the ovalo around 7pm. If they are doing the Zumba I can drop into it, otherwise I'll just go with walking. (anyway just wanted to finish the Zumba story)

My daughter's birthday was over the weekend, she turned 20. My god my baby is an adult. I didn't know what to get her, so I bought, in her name, a share in a donkey ambulance cart in Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso is a tiny country in Africa, the names of the countries seem to change alot don't they? When I was in elementary school I did a report on Rhodesia. I wonder how many times and how many names that country has had, in fact I wonder if I could google it. I am the google queen! This small country is not very kind to women. And in many areas the mode of transportation is camel, bicycle or donkey cart. These carts are to help women in trouble with having their babies. I know my young daughter has aspirations to help change the world for the better. She is interested in the environment, in green solutions, she is young enough to be outraged at the politics of the United States and I am so proud of her for that. Stay mad! Try to be part of the solution! Accept nothing less than change.

Well she is also about to move out for the first time. She has been living with her dad and his new wife, but they have sold the house and are moving to a nice condo complex. I have a feeling she could go with them, but why? She has a good job making pretty good money, enough to move out with a friend to an apartment or a house, or simply rent a room somewhere; Petaluma has a lot of cool old houses that have tiny in law units behind them, or caretaker cottages. It's an exciting time for her. I hope she makes a decision about it now while she's not in school so she doesn't let herself get overwhelmed. But she is a stubborn kid, a little spoiled (altho' she doesn't think so ha ha) and has to realize that her not wanting anything to change will not prevent the process ha ha. And now she's all grown up. My baby, I can remember like yesterday rocking her to sleep at nite. My other daughter carrying her around the house like a stuffed animal....taking a bath in the kitchen sink. The two of them looking for Easter eggs in the back yard in the grass.

Yep I'm missing them right now. I miss the smell of a redwood tree. I think I said that here before I went up there, and I never did get to go to Armstrong Woods. I did see some beautiful redwoods while I was there, but I like to rub my hands on them and carry the smell around with me all day. Next year at this time one will be turning 21 and the other will be getting married. Wow! We will of course go up for that...our anniversary is also in July...Drewy's wedding month- not sure if they chose a day yet..have to ask her. Drew has only been back on the day shift for a week and I already miss our nightly chats on facebook, but I'm really happy for her to be on days. But she is still trying to get a different job and I'm still trying to send good vibes up there to help her.

Oh they have Father's Day here in Mexico too. Everardo's daughter sent him a belated happy father's day msg yesterday...he acted like it was not a big deal but I know he was happy. So I am very happy that I asked Drewy to contact Elena and ask her if she sent him a msg. (He'll never read this so it's ok for me to spill the beans). His sister called Sunday and again today so he called her back and she had wanted to wish him a happy fathers day- but he said I'm no father, I was not there when they were growing up and that's what a father is. But she told him- you are still a father. You know, we all make mistakes, bad decisions, but its who we are right here, right now.

Ok I'll close with a Mexico fun fact:
Mexico is home to a very rare rabbit called the volcano rabbit which lives near Mexican volcanoes.

I asked my husband if this place feels like Mexico. I mean, we're an hour south of the Arizona border, and there's lots of Americans living here full time, part time, weekends, and vacations. The side of town by the beach is where almost all of them live/vacation, etc., and there's lots of English speaking hotels, restaurants, and curio shops down there, I mean that's how they make their living - off of the tourists. I just read that that there are a million Americans living in Mexico. I couldn't quickly find a statistic telling how many of them are in Sonora, but I know there are alot of other states with large populations of Americans...expats they're called here. But another statistic is closer to half a million with another half million here at least 3 months out of the year. But both sources say 100,000 in Mexico City, and 10,000 in Lake Chapala (with double that during the winter "snow birds"). Ok one more interesting fact then back to me. The US has over $350 BILLION dollars in trade with Mexico; Mexico is the US' 3rd most important trading partner.

Ok back to my original question. Does Puerto Penasco feel like Mexico. His answer: Definite YES! hmm ok good. I had thought maybe it didn't, even though for me it feels like Mexico. And I guess you could stay over on the resort side and never speak Spanish, never eat Mexican food, and sadly, I think there are some people who do just that. This is mostly retirees I think, people who want to live more cheaply, want warm weather most of the year, have the beautiful beach, and basically interact only with others in/with the same mindset..and certainly is not all the retirees- I know people who speak Spanish, who are learning it, who eat at the stands, etc. But this side of town is definitely Mexico. (Oh and a new hot dog stand just opened up the other nite out on our main street just a few blocks up towards the main drag-and I really liked their hot dogs! Could be our new hot dog stand- just don't tell our good friend Conrad who also has his own stand) Spanish in the stores and Abarotes (tiny corner stores), you can buy a baggie of dog food ha ha. People out at nite, whole families, eating outside in their yards, walking in the street, music all over the place. Between 8and 9am every morning the honking of the water truck coming by wakes you up...he has the big jugs of water- I'm not sure for how much cause we take our jugs and refill them, which you can do all over the place for 6 or 8 pesos. In the afternoon you hear the pan (bread) car coming by, his rooftop speakers play a song about "pan para comer" (bread to eat) and you can walk outside to choose rolls, breads, doughnuts, cookies, fruit filled pastries, for just a few pesos. During the rest of the day different speakers on assorted trucks or cars tell you about the ice cream they're selling, or an upcoming event. Yesterday when I took Sam for a drive after buying some blank cd's for songs for my English class, I saw some Mariachis playing in someone's yard. Last nite we ate dinner on the porch about 8pm- our first dinner outside- where it was much cooler than inside-and I thought about Playa Ventura where we ate outside every meal. The table was outside on a covered patio which had the kitchen at one end and the rest of the house so it was very convenient to eat right next to the kitchen, and again it was almost always cooler out there. After dinner last nite, we went for a drive around 9pm, and so many people were out. So yes, this is Mexico. I think it's what you make it.

When we eat out, we eat at the stands. We have (currently) 2 places we love for tacos, and now a favorite hot dog stand. We also have a favorite place for carnitas, which are only sold in the morning, but now we buy them and save them all day and reheat them in a pan for dinner. Many times when we buy it, it seems a little pink for me, for pork, so frying it up a little more is a good thing. They give you all the fixings with it, salsa and shredded cabbage, and tortillas. Sometimes we add avocado. mmmm so good. Too bad churros can wait for the next meal.  I love them- with coffee, but they only sell them at nite, so no coffee for me, and I tried saving them overnite- yuck doesn't work out so well. Then they also have these stands that sell chicken, they call it chicken Sinaloa. They grill whole chickens and when you say you want one, the use this huge knife and quickly chop that sucker up! They also give you all the fixings. All these places, you can eat right there or take it home- oh and everybody has Coke and bottles of water. I read that the coke here is sweeter; that in Mexico it's sweetened with cane sugar and in in the US- well corn sugar right? I am not a soda drinker, since we've lived here maybe I've had 3 cokes, probly a few more Fantas (orange), but generally I don't finish them so I just stick to water. And there are food stands and carts and little holes in the wall everywhere, literally. Oh and I left out the hamburger place for the times we just want a burger. Star burger, and you get a double cheeseburger and a very generous helping of fries for 45 pesos...about $4US. Oh the hot dogs we had tonite...mine with only avocado and cheese, but his- wrapped in bacon, and then the works...tomatoes, jalapenos, mushrooms, onions, avocado, 24 pesos for both so about $2US. Another good food thing is the ice cream places called Michocana. The truth is, today is the first time we stopped at one even though I'd heard they were good. They have ice cream, but they also have juices, freshly made juices, lemonade (which is called limon of course), jicima, different berrys, pineapple, mango and more. These places are also over over. Oh and the guys who sell stuff at the intersections- in the morning newspapers, and there's a nice man I always see coming and going from my meetings and we chat in Spanish at the light. At the same intersection later in the day they sell fresh orange and jicama juice. I've had the orange and it's a little puply- I mean they squeeze the oranges into the plastic bottles. At other intersections they have flowers, snacky stuff. And then theres the performers at the lights. Some guys juggle flaming sticks, some do tricks with hula hoops and have painted faces; people here are very creative on finding ways to make a few pesos. Yeah- I would say this IS Mexico.

We went down to the ovalo tonite; actually in different cars cause I have Zumba at 6:30 and Everardo doesn't want to run much before 7pm. Ha ha the timing...yeah Zumba is free, and it's nice to be in the park...but man they just don't come at 6:30. Tonite I waited until 6:45 and decided to go home and get my music and come back and just walk. From now on I'll bring my music so I can do that- anyway as I was leaving- of course they showed up. So I still wait in my car to see if the big speaker is actually going to spit out music since last time I was there (last Thurs), it didn't work, so we warmed up with nothing, and then I left... But the music started to play so I hopped out of the car...and waited....and waited.....and yep..waited. They finally started the warm up about 7:10...why you might ask? I have no freakin' idea. I was sooo irritated! Then after about 5 minutes another lady shows up- and she was the instructer- I guess the other one is just the warm up and cool down person- I saw that last week as well. So this lady walks over to the music, the warm up stops and they chat, then she flips thru about 10 (YES TEN!) songs, and picks one for us to work out to. The problem (ha ha) there was she did that after every song! And truthfully- Zumba? Please! It was merely an aerobics class to Mexican music..and not even a good class. I could have totally ad libbed a better class than that. She shook her fat ass a couple of times (yeah very sexy...barf) but the rest of the routine was hardly anything. Then another one song cool down..also pathetic. Oh and at the end, when I was picking up my keys and water, the teacher asked if I was coming back tomorrow. I asked what time (privately sarcastic) and they said 6:30 and I started laughing and asked "de veras?" Is that true? They all laughed and said yes of course...and I said ah ok..and another one said 6:30 en punto (actually this entire exchange was in Spanish)..but when she said that (which is like EXACTLY at 6:30) I think I snorted. Then said ok I'll see you then. So I'll be there tomorrow at 6:30 but I'll bring my headphones and music so I can walk while I wait for them. The whole routine was about half an hour instead of the hour it's supposed to be, so even if they're on time tomorrow I'll probly walk a few laps. You know while I was steaming about it I was thinking- just because it was free doesn't mean it can be crappy, but my lovely husband pointed out I could have gone to one of the gyms or soley Zumba places and paid for it and they would still have been late! ha ha how true. On time just is not a priority in Mexico...

Of course I'm the only American in the class, which since I've only been 3 times is not for sure ha ha, and only 8-10 people are in class, less today maybe 6. The class is close to the ovalo (track) and there of course were tons of people walking, lots jogging, old and young, and a soccer game in the middle. Peewee practices along the back side of the park, so as always maybe 300 people scattered about..all Mexicans, yes this is Mexico. And little by little people are starting to know me. And by hook or crook I'm getting better in Spanish all the time. Right now I'm loving Rosetta Stone and have been putting in time every day (at least 1 hour usually more) since I downloaded it last Wed or Thur. 

As we head towards July, I hear the "season" will go thru July and Aug. This is a different season, the vacationers will be Mexicans. From Juarez, Chihuahua and other points inland, coming to the beach. They said this place fills up. They don't care about the heat, which I am hearing will be suffocating...like Playa Ventura? Yes this is Mexico.
As always....Viva!