Category Archives: travel

Galatoire’s 33

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Looking for a nearby place for lunch today, we wandered into this place after a couple of false starts. One of the ladies from the travel writing workshop was specifically looking for Galatoire’s and so we figured we would go ahead and try it out. It’s right around the corner from our hotel, at 209 Bourbon Street. Only took about 5 minutes to walk.

It’s definitely not my usual kind of place. I’m not one to enjoy spending big bucks on food and drinks. In fact, I much prefer the opposite end of the price scale. My favorite place to eat out at home is Chinatown where the all you can eat buffet is less than $15 including drink and tip!

I figured I might as well go ahead and try it since it really was a super deal. Looking at the normal prices where a ribeye goes for $44 and side of onion rings is $7, the fact that the entire lunch cost only $20 today was enough to convince me to give it a try.

The other ladies I was with both really enjoyed their meals. I’m not much for seafood (or creole/cajun either) so I was pretty much out of luck for the special. I sure wasn’t going to choose anything off the regular menu tho I definitely prefer steak over fish any day! I decided to try the ‘broiled drum casino’ in the spirit of exploration as a travel writer. 😉

The appetizer was ‘roasted beet risotto’. It was really very good. Not what I was expecting, but nice. It tasted more cheesy than anything else to me (might have been the truffle oil). I really couldn’t taste any beets at all.

The fish was very well done as well. I really liked the sauce. It was creamy and cheesy also. It tasted smokey and salty from the bacon. Very nice. The drum was cooked just right and tasted nice and fresh. I’m sure if I liked fish better, I would have just loved it. I did enjoy the broccoli. 🙂

I chose the Bananas Fosters Cobbler for dessert, it was excellent. Too bad by that time we were in a real rush to get back to the hotel before the next session started.

It’s not my kind of place, but I would recommend it if you’re out to impress. The service was excellent and so was the food. I thought the prices were sky high, but not out of line with similar restaurants.

 

Back In New Orleans

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Whew! It’s been a hectic couple of days. I actually got to work Monday-Tuesday this week. Was supposed to have Wednesday too, but the students finished up early and so no role players were needed. Sucks!! I really could’ve used that extra day of pay.

But, I put the extra time to good use. I’ve been trying hard to get my taxes to the accountant before leaving for this weeklong trip. I managed to get a few things sorted out and dropped off a package for her on the way to Houston this morning.

I made it just in time for the seminar the Nautical Institute was putting on at the WGMA facility (near the ship channel). They had a pretty good turnout. I was happy to see a few old friends there and had a chance to catch up a little bit. Might even turn into a bit more work for me.

They had 5 different presentations. Everything from how the new DP scheme worked to how the new regulations for low sulfur fuel affected ship handling, to a historical perspective re: shipping and refugees, a very interesting slideshow on the newly opened Panama Canal expansion, to testing life saving equipment in the Arctic (I certainly would NOT want to have to try using any of it up there)! It was really very interesting. Especially the part about polar bears and walrus. 😉

I left the seminar at 5:00 and of course got stuck in traffic. It wasn’t too bad yet and I made it to Hobby in plenty of time for my flight. Actually, I tried to get an earlier flight. I had plenty of time for it, but they would have charged me 3 times what I already paid to get the earlier flight. WOW!

I did not take the earlier flight. What the hell!? Why in the world do they do that sort of thing? It doesn’t cost them a single damn cent to put somebody on a different flight, but they all want to make like it’s some huge big deal and just gouge the hell out of you! All it does is ruin their customer satisfaction. Anybody out there work for the airlines have another reason for this other than that they do it because they can get away with it?

I just checked into my hotel. It was a pretty quick ride from the airport. It only took about a half hour. I took the shuttle ($36 round trip). Usually it takes much longer, it seems I’m always the last one they drop off.

I’m too tired to do much tonight. I arrived here after midnight so all I did was check out the room and go out for a cigarette (no smoking hotel). I was hoping for a room with a view, but no such luck. I’m right next to the elevators, convenient but noisy, and I’m looking at a wall about 20 ft away and down into a garage ($42 for parking- wow- gouging again). 🙁

Looks like I got real lucky to get a room at all. Even in the short time I was down in the lobby, I heard 2 people that had reservations but the hotel had no more rooms. They were pissed (and I don’t blame them one bit)!

I’m so excited to finally be here! Looking forward to starting the travel writing workshop in the morning. It’s going to be a very full weekend. We’ll be in the workshop from 8-5 every day and then (of course) going out to explore at night.

I’ve already missed tonights bourbon tasting set up by a few people on the group Facebook page. That’s probably not something I really needed to do anyway. I’ve got plenty of plans for later, once I get a little sleep. 🙂

Buzcador Goes to Sea

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We finally made it to sea!

It only took us about a day extra to meander our way out through the Louisiana bayous. Instead of heading straight out down the Atchafalaya River like we planned, we had to backtrack to find a way out where we wouldn’t keep running aground.

#AHTS #Buzcador underway in #Atchafalaya River

We headed back up the Atchafalaya, passed through Bayou Chene, took the ICW to the Houma Navigation Canal and made it to the sea buoy at Cat Island Pass around 2200 our second day of the voyage.

We scrambled back aboard the Buzcador at the buoy and thanked our trusty tugs Ms Edmay and Mr Nicolas. We finally got underway under our own power for the first time. It was a beautiful night as we made our way through the offshore oilfields, heading almost due South. The stars were bright, the seas were calm and we were making decent time. Nights like that are why I’m always ready to go sailing again. 🙂

The night sky is so awesome far out to sea! There’s really nothing to compare.

I don’t know why I was expecting to see more traffic. Shipping has been dead– at least in the Gulf of Mexico- where so much shipping is related to oil. Since the price of oil dropped like a rock- from over $100 to mid $20’s- a year ago. Hundreds of Gulf boats have been stacked. It happened too quickly for any reaction but huge layoffs. I’ve heard there’ve been more than a half million people laid off in the oil fields already (and still nothing but bad news).

Even passing through the Yucatan Channel and further South, we saw very few ships. With the opening of the new Panama Canal, I expected to see lots of big container ships passing by. I thought we’d see tons of local freighters and fishing boats once we got past Cuba and into the Caribbean Sea. But I never saw much of anything till the approach to Cartagena. Even then, traffic was very light compared to normal.

#chart showing progress of the #AHTS #Buzcador

We spent a full 10 days underway- more than twice as long as expected. We had some problems with the ship. Nothing really unexpected. The Buzcador had been cold stacked for years before we were brought aboard. Mechanics had been working frantically for weeks to get everything done so we could deliver her to her new owners.

Nothing was done that didn’t ‘need’ to be done. IMHO we were cutting it close, but after 9+ months without a real job, I was ready to take a few chances in order to earn a decent paycheck. Sure, I was happy as hell to get an AB job! A captains license doesn’t mean shit when you can’t find a boat!

Our engines worked fine for the first day or so. After that, we had to baby them a bit. The port shaft bearing was overheating and the starboard generator had problems with the oil pressure. We cut our RPMs down and made about 6 knots (close to half speed). The weather didn’t help much either.

It started kicking up before we reached Cuba and never let up. The mainmast shook so bad when we hit a heavy sea, we wondered when it was going to come crashing through the wheelhouse on us. Part of it had already fallen off when the other AB went up to change the masthead light before we left.

#mainmast of the #AHTS #Buzcador

mainmast with #backscratcher hanging off

We sprung a couple of leaks around the ship and occasionally more pieces would fall off. Most of the outside lights around the house were falling off and full of water. Good thing we didn’t need to turn them on. 😉

The AC system for the house leaked. It got so bad that I would scoop up the water with a dust pan every time I went by. A couple of days like that and it got worse all the sudden. The whole room was awash. We were dumping 4-5 5 gallon buckets every couple of hours! Marvin the OS (ordinary seaman) finally got a chance to take a look at it and sent the water somewhere other than inside the AC room.

The pictures don’t look so bad, but we had over 8′ seas for most of the trip, over 10′ for a day or 2. We were bouncing around like a cork (which didn’t help our speed either). The weather was squally most of the way and pretty much overcast after the first couple of days. I never really got to see the stars again once the moon grew full.

sun breaking out behind the clouds on a rough day at sea

It was getting to the point where we were starting to worry about our food, fuel, water supplies. This entire trip was only supposed to take about 6 days (I wound up spending 21 days aboard). We were also worried about catching our flights home.

‘Starvin’ Marvin’ and Noel the mate, had a fishing line out. Marvin cooked us up a couple of nice fish dinners. We had a dorado (dolphin/mahi-mahi) one night, a tuna the next, and a barracuda one day that no one would eat but him.

We actually did just fine. We didn’t run out of much of anything (just laundry soap and jelly -for the PBJ’s). We had plenty of beans and rice every day thanks to Marvin. I helped cook a couple of times and so did the Chief Engineer ‘Middle Aged Mutant Ninja Turtle’. (Captain Todd gave us all nicknames within a couple of days- I was ‘Jilligan’- like from Gilligans Island). 🙂

#ships crew, #engineers

Sing-Sing, Chief Middle Aged Mutant Ninja Turtle & Starvin’ Marvin

We were able to increase our speed after a couple of days. The engine crew was sure busy that trip! Chief Engineer (Ninja Turtle), client rep (Colombia) and oiler (Sing-Sing) spent most of their time down in the super hot and noisy engine room, trying to keep us going.

Kudos to them for working so hard! It seems there was always something going on down there. I’d make my rounds at night, go down there to check up on them and they were always in the engine room, checking the bilges, checking the bearings, checking the temperatures and pressures. Always having to fix something.

#night sky at #sea, #full moon

I spent most of my time up at night, as lookout. I was night AB (able body seaman). I worked from 1800-0600 every night once we got underway. Sid the Sloth was the day AB, he relieved me in the mornings (below right).

 

It was actually a nice change. Capt Todd (above left) was on from 1000-2200 and Noel the mate was on from 2200-1000 (tho it seemed he never slept and was always on the bridge). Between rounds I would talk to them about previous ships, ports and people we’d worked with. Telling sea stories is another favorite activity of mine. 😉

Since this was just a delivery job, we weren’t really concerned with all the usual things we’d be doing to take care of the ship. For instance, as AB, normally I’d be spending all day chipping and painting, cleaning and greasing, etc. This time, I spent almost all of my time as lookout on the bridge. I tried to help in the galley when I got a chance, cooked a couple of times, and cleaned up the house when it got too bad.

Still, we were glad to reach Colombia. I went to bed before we got the pilot, when I woke up, we were all fast in Cartagena.

More later.

 

Buzcador Barges Through the Bayous

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It took longer than expected, but we were finally ready to go. The plan was to be towed out from Berwick, down the Atchafalaya River and out through the bay. The Buzcador would depart Berwick as an “unmanned barge”.

Wondering why we had to get towed out? Why we couldn’t stay onboard? Because even though we were light ship, we had no cargo, little ballast and just enough fuel and water to make it- we were still really pushing our luck with our draft. We didn’t want to take any chances with our engines.

The Atchafalaya is not a very deep river. It has a lot of shallow spots. It’s also unique in that it’s actually replenishing the land in it’s delta. Most of the rest of Louisiana is loosing ground to the sea.

Our draft was over 12 ft and we knew we would be touching the bottom in at least a couple of places. Also, the intake for our engine cooling water was going to be sucking mud the entire time- not good!

So, we got underway about noon. The mighty Miss Edmay would be pulling and the Basin Endeavor would be pushing. The Buzcador would be ‘dead ship’ until we hit the sea buoy.  No engines, no power, no lights, etc. We all scrambled over to ride the Endeavor out.

We did alright until we got to ‘Crewboat Cut’. We ran hard aground! I didn’t expect to have any trouble until much further down the river. The Atchafalaya River is always changing tho. We used to avoid this area by taking a bend in the river called the “Horseshoe”, but that stretch has been discontinued for navigation and the navigation aids removed. No telling what it was like.

Our 2 tugs tried hard to get us off the bottom. They struggled for at least 2-3 hours. Pushing and pulling, twisting and turning. The decision was made to call for another tug. We broke free just as the new tug “Mr Nicolas” arrived on scene.

They made fast and we proceeded on down the Atchafalaya. We made it as far as the ‘Lighthouse” before we were hard aground again. Another couple of hours spent to break us free, while questioning our chances of making it all the way out the river. The Lighthouse was only the 1st of the shallow spots I knew about. We still had at least 3 more to pass for sure.

The decision was made to turn back and try a different route. We cut the Endeavor loose as we turned into Bayou Chene and made our way through the ICW to the Houma Navigation Canal. I had some doubts about whether we would have the same problems there. I’d been through that way before and run aground there too.

Turns out, it was a good decision. We made it all the way out with no problems at all. I slept through most of it since I was going to be up all night on lookout. Nice scenery. I was  up to see Cocodrie, and the last lowland parts of Louisiana as we made our way through Terrebonne Bay and out Cat Island Pass.

We turned the tugs loose at the sea buoy, stumbled around in the dark until the engineers cranked up the engines, and we were off!

More to come! 😉

I’m Back. Sorta.

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Hey! I made it!! The trip only took about 3 times longer than expected. I didn’t think I’d be out of touch for nearly so long. I’m so glad to see so many of you stuck around and didn’t jump ship on me.

We brought the ship into Cartagena (Columbia) this morning. It took us a couple of hours to get cleared by customs & immigration and to turn the ship over to it’s new owners.

Then it was off to find a hotel for the night (thanks to the personal generosity of the captain). Since we had no internet onboard, we had no way to look for anything beforehand. We had a recommendation for one from our Columbian client and we went there.

We wound up going to another place. It’s actually an apartment and close to the beach. We were all just happy to be off the ship. First order of duty was dinner and drinks! The captain treated us to a nice dinner at the place across the street. Everybody came back to the apt and crashed afterward. I went for a walk.

I’ll tell you more of the story over the next few days. It’s after midnight and I’ll be up at 0630 in the morning. We leave here at 0730 for the airport. My flight leaves around 1030 (I still don’t know the exact details).

I heard my flight(s) will arrive into New Orleans around 2300. Then I still have to get back to the dock where I left my truck. It’s about a 6 hour drive from there to get home. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make that drive after being up all day. I’m not so good at staying up past 24 hours anymore.

So I won’t actually be home for another day or two. Look for me to catch up after that. 🙂

 

Hanbada

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Here’s a post for Jennifer’s Color Your World challenge. Today’s color is: pacific blue. 

This was a really hard color for me to find. I was surprised I didn’t have more pacific blue pictures. It’s actually just about a perfect match for some of the old Detroit Diesel engines. Here’s a picture of one (from google).

I ought to have more photos of engines, but since I quit working in the engine room and decided to stay on deck, I just don’t get down there too much any more.

Here’s a photo I took onboard the Korea Maritime Academy training ship “Hanbada” in Busan. It shows part of the engine room and looks like a pretty good match for Pacific Blue. 🙂

I met a nice lady online in a Facebook group when I was headed to Korea for a travel writing workshop. She is a ships officer like me. She was nice enough to show me around her ship and introduce me to some of the cadets that were studying there.

I had a great time there and was really grateful that she was willing to spend so much time with me. It made my trip to Korea just that much better. 🙂

 

Neon Carrot

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I haven’t had time to get into this challenge much lately. It’s been going on for a while and still has a while to go yet. Check it out at Jennifer’s Color Your World Challenge.

Today’s post is for “Neon Carrot“.

I took these photos a few years ago on a trip to Argentina. We went to Puerto Rawson to catch the zodiacs to take us out looking for the ‘toninos’. If you look closely at my gravatar, you’ll see one. 🙂

They call them the ‘pandas of the sea” (click on the link- his post shows a lot more of what we saw down there and he got much better pictures than I did!) . They’re really fast little black and white dolphins (Commerson’s dolphins) and a real blast to watch.

Heading Home

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That went quick! My month long TEFL course finished up on Friday and now I’m heading home.

I’m sure I could have had a job lined up teaching English if I hadn’t been so wishy-washy. I hope to have at least a short term job starting later this week, so I couldn’t really justify passing that up for any teaching position.

I’ll be home later this afternoon. That should give me time to sort through the mail before I go get my UK physical on Monday. I don’t know why the US physical isn’t good enough for them (and it kindof pisses me off that it isn’t= the whole point of it is that it is supposed to be accepted worldwide).

If all goes well on Monday and they’re OK with the paperwork, then I should be heading off to work sometime Thursday. Hooray!!!!

It’s only for 10 days, but even 10 days at this point will be a huge help. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed.

Graduation!

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It’s over. The time flew by so fast. My time in Puerto Vallarta is coming to an end.

I went to class this morning only to have any last minute questions answered and to receive my final documents. I got my TEFL certificate and letter of recommendation. I have an official TEFL website now and it doesn’t look too bad. Check it out! Let me know what you think. 🙂

We had our class photo taken with our newly minted diplomas, and that was it!

Sailing Banderas Bay

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Sunday the whole group of us from our school went out sailing Bay of Banderas on a friends boat (thanks again Memo!). We had a great time.

We left around 1030 and came back in around 1930. We cruised from the Puerto Vallarta marina down to Los Arcos. We set out a couple of fishing rods and trolled along as we made our way. We passed schools of fish and a few dolphins along the way. It was so nice.

We stopped for a swim at Los Arcos, a big bunch of rocks just offshore. The water was a clear blue-green. There were hundreds of fish swimming around. There were a few other boats there before us and people were busy feeding the fish, swimming, kayaking, and just generally having a good time.

It was so nice to dive in and luxuriate in the cool, clean, clear water. I swam around and took pictures of the fish. I wasn’t brave enough to try swimming through the arches and caves, but some people did.

We headed back out to sail some more after our nice swim, we were on our way to Las Animas Beach. Raul kept watch on the boat as the water taxi ferried us in to the beach. We had lunch over a couple of big margaritas at Los Conos.

The beach was actually pretty busy. Los Conos is right up on the beach. The view of the boats swaying on the bay and the kids making sandcastles on the beach was so relaxing. The few peddlers who wandered by were mostly entertaining, especially this one guy with his pet iguana. He was hilarious. 🙂

The restaurant was busy and the staff was a little overwhelmed, but they brought us our drinks quickly and the food was good. I had cheese quesadillas. I’m not big on seafood and that’s more their specialty. Everyone’s fish and shrimp looked very well prepared and no one complained about the food. 🙂

The water ferry took us back out to the boat and we clambered back aboard the Bella Maria. As we were getting underway, friends pulled up to say hi. They were in a little speedboat (the Calypso) and just out having a good time on the water.

We challenged each other with beer and raicilla, whistling and dancing to loud Mexican music. We rode together for about an hour before they got tired of poking around so slow with us and took off for home, leaving us in their wake. Who cared? We still had plenty of beer. They did make off with the last of the raicilla tho. 🙁

We sailed back towards the marina as the sun set to port and the full moon rose to starboard. It was a magical time. Everyone was in good spirits and happy to have spent the day together.

Class Cancelled

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I got up at 0530 this morning to get ready for my 0700 class. I was in the classroom, had my whiteboard ready and my CD cued up. Then I waited nervously for my students to show up.

They skipped class today.

OK with me, but that means I have to double up tomorrow. AND, it means I’ll have to wake up early again. I’m NOT a morning person. 🙁

I have my lesson plan ready for the 0700 class, I’ll just use the one I wrote for this morning’s class since we didn’t have class. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out which other class I’ll be teaching (tomorrow evening) and then spend time in the afternoon preparing the lesson plan for that one.

Final Week

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Class will finish up this week, so things will be busy around here for a couple of days. Actually, I’ve been fairly busy all along. I haven’t been posting much (and probably won’t be) because the internet has been really bad the last couple of days and I can’t stand sitting here trying to work (and not able to get anything done) while I should be out enjoying Puerto Vallarta.

Saturday I spent the morning taking it easy. I had breakfast at the little cantina downstairs, picked up my laundry, picked up a few things at the store. I took the bus down to the marina after it started cooling off a little bit.

I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t bigger. Other than that, it was about what I expected. Lots of expensive shops and plenty of tourists. A few big yachts but most looked like they were actually used and not just show boats like a lot of them you see in Miami or Houston.

As expected, the gates to the docks were locked. I couldn’t get down to the boats to talk to any crew members. I figured there wasn’t much hope, but still worth a try. I wouldn’t mind working on a private vessel again. It might even be fun for a change.

I wandered around for a while, hoping to find a good sailors bar where I could hang out for a while and get the scoop over a few drinks. Sorry to say, I didn’t find any place that looked likely for real sailors to hang out.

I rode the elevator up to the top of the lighthouse (El Faro). I thought I might have a snack and watch the sunset. It was a gorgeous view. They only had chicken wings and I just wasn’t in the mood for those, so I took a few pictures and headed back down to wander some more.

I met a nice guy from Tennessee. He was a former USCG mariner so we had a pretty good conversation. It was nice talking to someone who ‘gets it’. I really miss being on the water. Most people just don’t understand. It gets in your blood.

I had a nice steak dinner at a place called the Rincon de Buenos Aires (Argentinian Steak House). They had a special offering of green salad, baked potato and skirt steak for 195 pesos. I paid about $15 for dinner and a drink.

The steak was great, cooked perfectly and plenty big. I could hardly finish it. The baked potato was big, but they didn’t put anything on it but butter. I asked for sour cream and they brought some, but it was not the same thing we get at home. The salad was big, but they only had Italian dressing and it wasn’t really very flavorful. They brought out a bread basket with chimichurra sauce, but I didn’t want to fill up on bread.

I did really enjoy my steak, but I wasn’t real impressed with the restaurant other than that. First of all, it was very hot. I was dripping. The hostess tried to help me by pulling my table (which was up against the wall in a dark corner) out so that it was under a ceiling fan. I appreciated the effort, but it didn’t help much.

The waiters were all polite and helpful, but it was very busy so they were slow to come by. A man at the next table flagged them down for me once after I had been waving at them for about 10 minutes.

It was definitely a very popular place. I would go back for the food, but only if I made sure beforehand it was a slow time.

Sunday morning we got to go out sailing with Erica and her friend Memo. He has a beautiful sailboat and kindly offered to take our whole class out sailing for the day. I’ll have more on that later.

Today was Monday. Back to school. I got my last 2 teaching assignments this morning, and so spent some time working on my lesson plans this afternoon. I’ve got early classes tomorrow and Wednesday, and we have another essay due Wednesday too, so I’ll be busy for the next couple of days with school work.

It’s already 2300. I need to get off here and get some sleep. I need to get up EARLY tomorrow! 🙁

Dancing in Mexico

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Here are some photos from the Fiesta Mexicana I took Friday night. I took tons of photos, but since I wasn’t very close to the stage, it was dark, and the dancers almost never slowed down, I couldn’t get many good shots.

I’ve always loved to watch people dance. All kinds of dancing holds my interest. I always wished I wasn’t so clumsy. My father was a great dancer and he tried to teach me a few times, but I never did really get the hang of it.

The dancers at this (free) show are all kids. I would guess the youngest is probably around 10, the oldest low 20s. They are very good!

I have to hand it to ’em. They’re all out there dancing up a storm and most of them don’t even break a sweat! I’m just standing there and I’m wilting.

 

Marina?

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Last night I went to watch the dancers again (will upload photos later). I got there 45 minutes early and STILL couldn’t get a seat where I could see to take good pictures. So I stood again for the whole show ( 2 hours +45 mins). My back was killing me by the time it was over, but I did at least manage to get some decent pictures this time.

I met my friends from the TEFL course there and we wandered down the Malecon afterwards. We stopped to have dinner and a couple of margaritas. I had plain and they had strawberry. Instead of salt on the rim, they had spicy pepper! I’m glad I stuck with the regular. They were strong! Dinner (for 1) and 6 margaritas for $15! Our waiter turned out to be from Houston.

Doesn’t it make you wonder about our supposed economic recovery (and “free country” status) when so many Mexicans are leaving the US and finding things much better in Mexico? I’ve certainly found things much better here than at home. I would love to live here permanently and I’m seriously considering it. That’s the whole reason I’m getting certified in TEFL. It will finally allow me a way to get out of the US.

I’ll just have to adjust to a serious pay cut (about 90%!) and so far I’m not really ready to accept that.

Today, I’m going to the marina. I’m hoping I can get in to wander around the docks and talk to people there. I’d like to find out about the possibilities of working on some of those yachts. If I can’t get down on the docks (which is more and more common today and a SERIOUS disadvantage to those of us who work aboard), then I’ll try to find a bar where the sailors hang out.

I’ll try to find  out through word of mouth if anyone is looking for crew, or if there is someplace with a bulletin board, or if there are any other hang outs. That has worked for me before. When I finished high school on the sailing ships and was supposed to have a job working my way home on a ship from London and it fell through, luckily I found a job helping out on a Thames sailing barge for the summer. I had the best time that summer!

I wouldn’t mind doing something like that again. 🙂

Sunset

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Today we had ourselves videotaped. We were all nervous in class and spent every minute practicing our grammar points and introductions. We went over to the other classroom (out of the glare) and we each got to present our grammar points in front of the camera. I’ll put up a link when they make it available.

Afterwards, I taught my one student again, we reviewed adverbs and adjectives and then had a few conversations to try and get the idea of how we show interest in English across. I think it went pretty well. Tomorrow we’ll start a new lesson and then it’s the weekend!

I went to watch the sunset on the beach right behind my apartment. There was a girl sitting out near the water with her little dachshund puppy. I enjoyed watching it running around and having so much fun.

It was a beautiful sunset, the tide was low today so I didn’t get soaked like last time. It was nice, with a little breeze and watching the sailboats, birds and the little puppy on the beach. Puerto Vallarta really is a great place to spend time. I could definitely see myself staying here for a while. 🙂

Color Your World- Indigo

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Today’s color for Jennifer’s Color Your World challenge is: indigo. Here’s my entry.

I took the photo a few years ago when we were working out of Singapore a lot. We spent a lot of time in the shipyard there and so we had a few chances to go ashore and see a little bit of the island city. This picture was taken down by the river at Clarke Quay.

Mega Groceries

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Today was a fairly slow day. Class this morning from 10-1300. Then I worked on my lesson plan for my teaching practice this afternoon. I had the same class as yesterday so it was much easier to prepare the plan today. I practiced my grammar point for the video they’re going to do tomorrow.

I’m going to do the simple past tense. At least I do understand that one. I have the rules down. I just hope I can remember to say them all when I’m in front of the camera. 😉

I taught my class this afternoon from 16-1700. It went well. I only had one student show up and she’s a pretty smart girl. She did all her homework and so we were able to cover most of the material. I think I still need to reinforce the difference between adjectives and adverbs. I have to try to make it very simple since I don’t speak much Spanish at all and she doesn’t have a very large English vocabulary. It’s really very challenging.

After class was over I went home (it’s almost right next door) and tried to catch up on my email. I actually saw a couple of job postings so I immediately sent them emails. It would be nice, but I doubt I’ll get any replies. I’m pretty sure one of them was in Ukraine and they almost never crew up with Americans.

I took a walk down to the Mega to find a few things I’d been craving. It’s a big superstore, almost like a super Walmart. It has everything. Groceries, to sporting goods, to electronics. I loaded up 3 bags of groceries (mostly junk food which is even more expensive here than it is at home).

I got peanut butter and jelly, bread, ruffles potato chips, ham, sliced cheese, block cheese, 6 cans of chicken (to make salad), sweet relish, butter, apples, onions, cranberries, TP, fresh baked orange muffins, and about a half dozen packs of M&Ms. I paid only $24.66!

Halfway There!

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Today I had my 5th teaching practice. I have 5 more to go, so I’m halfway there! We passed the halfway mark for the class already. It will be finished on Feb 26th. It seems like it has been going by so fast.

The pace of the class has been picking up this week. We’re all very busy with our lesson plans and teaching assignments, we have another essay due Wednesday, and Thursday we have to make our presentations to be video taped.

Sarah gives us a grammar lesson

Sarah gives us a grammar lesson

I’m still confused over a lot of the verb tenses. I don’t remember ever hearing about most of them before. No, never in my life! I remember the past, present and future, but now all of the sudden there are 12 of them! WTF?! What are they and when do we use them all? I still don’t know but I am learning.

Maybe by the time the course is over I will actually know what I’m doing. 😉

Farmer’s Greens

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Here’s another entry for Jennifer’s Color Your World challenge for the color green.

I took these photos at the farmers market, downtown Puerto Vallarta last Saturday. There were plenty of ‘greens’ to be seen. 😉

Sunday Surfday

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We’ve all been looking forward to our excursion to Sayulita and Nahui. We took off at around 1030 this morning, it took around an hour to get to Sayulita.

It’s a funky looking little town, with narrow winding cobblestone streets. Brightly colored 2-3 story houses line the roads. Shops selling clothes, jewelry, crafts, tourist and surfing stuff seemed to be the majority of things to see. There were plenty of bars, restaurants and coffee shops around too.

In the square, they had set up a market with local artists selling their wares. This was the most interesting to me. They were teaching a bunch of little girls how to weave, and they even had a yoga session for the kids. That was fun to watch. 🙂

The beach was very crowded and full of surfers. It looked like a good place to learn to surf and I guess it must be, since I saw at least 3 different surf schools in the 10 minutes I spent on the beach!

Sayulita seems like a cool little town, but I think a little too crowded for me, and for sure too touristy! I had enough of that in Florida.

So, we piled back into the car and headed to Nahui. It was a nice drive through forested mountains, catching glimpses of the blue-green ocean every few minutes. We arrived to a full parking lot and I was wondering what happened to the nice, quiet isolated beach we were hoping for?

The view from the edge of the cliff behind the parking lot was stunning. The ocean was clear all the way to Tahiti! You could see the mountains lining the bay far off in the distance and a couple of islands way offshore. A few sailboats were out enjoying the beautiful weather offshore.

We found the stairs (thank god) and wandered down the beach til we found a good spot up near the rocky cliffs to camp out.

The water was cold at first but after a minute it was perfect. The waves were a lot bigger than I was used to. We just don’t get large waves in the Gulf of Mexico (except when there’s a hurricane coming close). The waves stirred up a lot of sand and there really wasn’t any calm water til you got out past where the waves started breaking.

I never did manage that. I got washed around pretty good for a while. Gave it up and took a break. The sun started getting to me so I went back in the water for a while. It was OK if I stayed close to shore.

As the afternoon was ending, we were all pretty beat and ready to head back home. I was nodding asleep in the car til we would hit a sleeping policeman going a little too fast. Whoa! That’ll wake you up!

 

Sayulita- Nahui

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What a day! Just got back from a day out exploring the beach town of Sayulita and the beautiful beach of Nahui.

We left at 1015, just got home. It’s 1930. I’m a little burned and beat. There was no shade (and I forgot my suntan lotion) and the waves were awesome.

I’ve got to go get some dinner. I’ll post a few photos when I get back. 🙂

Fresh Bread

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Today was the farmers market in the old town. The park was crowded with snowbirds and locals, all out shopping for the weekly needs. I saw people selling home made healthy pet food, potted plants, flowers, home-made clothing, art objects and food. Food from Mexico, India, Thailand, Malaysia, China and the US (gourmet hot dogs).

I was especially impressed with the bread. Check it out…

This is what got me to post the earlier one I did (for the recipe on how to make some great bread at home). Another issue with the new blog is that I can’t ‘press this’ on here. I still can on my old blog.

Saturday Morning Market

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We just got back from the market. Getting ready to go hang out by the pool for a BBQ. Tomorrow we’re going to Sayulita and Nahui. I could get used to this. 🙂

The market was cool (HOT, but cool). There were probably about 60-75 little stands set up with umbrellas to stay out of the sun. They had everything from healthy dog and cat food to artisanal chocolates.

I met some interesting people there while I was waiting for my friends from school. One lady noticed my Merchant Marine T-shirt. She told me her daughter had just graduated from the Great Lakes Maritime Academy. We got to talking about how we both loved the sea so much.

I’ll have to post pictures later, I don’t have the time to upload them right now. Check in tonight. 🙂

Mardi Gras

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Yesterday I finished early and went down to the Malecon in time for the Mardi Gras parade. I walked around the pier and watched the sun set, watched the pirate ship come in and talked to some of the artists.

When the sirens started going off, I followed the crowds up the street to watch the parade go by.

It was pretty good. Much smaller than what I imagine New Orleans or Rio to be. I liked the fact that anyone was welcome to join in. I loved that there were hardly any crowds. It was great to be able to see everything clearly. I was able to get some decent photos. The only problem I had was that they were moving by so quickly and a lot of them were dancing. It was hard to get good, clear, sharp pictures.

Everyone was having a great time. The costumes were ‘fabulous’. I loved watching the dancers. Those guys were really hot! Too bad they were mostly all gay. I kept thinking to myself, “what a waste!” The crowd seemed pretty subdued for a Mardi Gras parade. Maybe it was still too early? I do notice the crowd here in Puerto Vallarta is much older than in New Orleans.

After the parade, I went back to the Malecon to watch the pirates shoot off their fireworks. I’ve noticed they usually start right after 2100, they waited til after the parade. I’m not sure why since the fireworks only last about 5 minutes.

The clowns were putting on a show at the arches again and there was a pretty big audience. I wish I understood Spanish better so I could really get what they’re saying. Clowns are funny anyway, but these particular ones seem to talk alot. 😉

I got home in plenty of time to get a good nights sleep (but stayed up late on the computer again).

Teaching Practice #1

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I’m nervous. I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. I have zero confidence. I don’t feel at home or comfortable up in front of a group of strangers, especially when I don’t really know what I’m talking about.

I’d feel a lot better with a few margaritas in me. I do pretty good karaoke that way, but I don’t think that’s allowed. 🙁

Tomorrow is my first teaching practice session. I’ve had a few chances to observe already. I’ve been trying to concentrate on learning the techniques the teachers are using to get the information across and manage their classrooms. But they seem very comfortable with it and it’s obvious they know their material very well. I don’t.

Sure, I can speak English. I can read, write and spell it too. But I don’t know how to explain grammar. I don’t know all the rules and details. I struggle to use proper punctuation!

I spent about 4 hours this afternoon working on my lesson plan (for a 1 hour class). I’m still lost. Thank god there is a pretty good book to follow!

I’ll go over my notes again in the morning and try and get through this. After all, it’s not like they’re going to shoot me or anything. I should be happy to have the opportunity to work through my stage fright, right? 🙂

PS- this was supposed to have been posted earlier, I was having so much trouble with the internet I just gave up on it and didn’t get to it again til now. I taught my 1st class this morning. I survived. 🙂

Colomitos

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We loaded up the van and headed out of town to Colomitos Beach. Driving along narrow, twisting mountain roads, we caught glimpses of the ocean between beautifully built houses and ritzy resorts. We passed by Los Arcos, and not too much further came to the turn-off for Bocas de Tomatlan.

It’s a funky little fishing town, most well known for the beach side restaurants and as the place to catch the water taxi for more remote beaches up the coast. Laura found her own shoe store!

From Bocas, we hiked up and over (and around and down) the path to Colomitos Beach. I had to stop and rest a few times, my legs were getting shaky. It’s not the way to go if you’re knees are weak. I should have just taken the water taxi.

only about 1/4 there!

only about 1/4 there!

I was SO ready to dive in the water, it looked so inviting. And I was so tired, hot and sweaty from the hike. I wished I could’ve just jumped in from the hills, but figured I might really hurt myself. The beach was clean and surprisingly crowded. After that hike, I thought it would be empty.

As soon as we hit the sand, we dumped our stuff and ran into the surf. It was COLD. But only for a minute, then it was just perfect!

I was disappointed not to see more interesting sea life. I only saw a couple of fish flit by on the sandy bottom. There weren’t even any fish around the rocks.

Colomitos was getting more crowded, so we decided to move on. To the waterfalls? Or the next beach? Since the little stream that cut through the beach wasn’t even able to reach the sea, we figured the waterfalls wouldn’t be too impressive at this point. We decided to head to the next beach.

A couple more students from our school made the trek with us with their cute little girl and their puppy. I felt a little embarrassed that she could make the hike with no problems and I was huffing and puffing all the way. But I did eventually make it. 🙂

Again, it was worth it. Another gorgeous little sandy beach, divided by rock piles at each end. The views back towards Colomitos and Puerto Vallarta were beautiful. The beach was much quieter. Our group was pretty much the only one there.

We had a few snacks, walked up the beach, swam some more, relaxed into the sun and sand, and when we were ready to leave, we just waved at a passing water taxi. They drove right up onto the beach and picked us up for the ride back to Bocas.

We had a late lunch at one of the little beach bars; fajitas, fish tacos, tostadas, seafood cocktails, coconut shrimp. All very fresh and they served big plates, so much food I could only eat about half. Very reasonably priced too.

We finished up and headed home. I’m staying in tonight, I have to get up early for class tomorrow. My last observation before I start teaching. (oh nooooooo…)

Fiesta Mexicana!

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Friday night was the Fiesta Mexicana! Lot’s of good food and drink to sample from all the local restaurants. Different spices and flavors from all over Mexico were on offer. Tacos, fajitas, moles, pibil, burritos, tortas, corn, flan, ceviche, shrimp, fruit drinks, beer and margaritas.

Tables were set out in the park and decorated with candles and colorful linens. Lights were hung and live mariachi music kept things lively. They have this party every Friday night, starts at 1930. I’ll be back next week and hope to get a seat.

There was a pretty good crowd, especially to watch the dancers in their colorful costumes. They were all students at the dance school, but they did as well as any professional troupe.

More on that later, for now, the food!

More Malecon

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Another beautiful day and a sunset on the Malecon.

Saturday was a busy day on the beach, there were a lot of entertainers out today. I saw people dressed up and playing statues, aliens, clowns. There were lots of local families out along with the tourists. All the restaurants and food stands were busy. It’s a great place to chill out and watch the sunset.

Texas Tornados: Hey Baby Que Paso

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Hey, I’m in Mexico! How about let’s enjoy some Tex-Mex music?

A bunch of old guys really get it on! Don’t let the ads at the start scare you off. There’s some interesting background in the video before they get to the performance. The video is straight from the Texas Music Scene (great show).

I always loved this band! I’m glad to see they’re back. 🙂

Lyrics to Que Paso (Hey Baby)

Hey, baby, que paso?
Thought I was your only vato
Hey, baby, que paso?

Please don’t leave me de ese modo

Come on, baby, turn around
Let me see your pretty blue eyes
Don’t you know that I love you
Please don’t leave me (disun poco)

Hey, baby, que paso?
Thought I was your only vato
Hey, baby, que paso?
Won’t you give uno beso?

Hey, baby, que paso?
Thought I was your only vato
Hey, baby, que paso?
Please don’t leave me de ese modo

Come on, baby, turn around
Let me show you how I feel
Don’t you that I love you
And my corizone is real

Hey, baby, que paso?
Thought I was your only vato
Hey, baby, que paso?
Won’t you give uno beso?

Hey, baby, que paso?
Thought I was your only vato
Hey, baby, que paso?
Please don’t leave me de ese modo
Hey, baby, que paso?
Thought I was your only vato
Hey, baby, que paso?
Won’t you give uno beso?

Hey, baby, que paso?
Thought I was your only vato
Hey, baby, que paso?

Malecon

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After class yesterday, we went to the beach for a bit. Then shopping for ‘appropriate clothing’ for the classroom. Then we met our teacher back at the school to take the bus to the Malecon and Old Vallarta. (I don’t know how to put the accent marks).

S takes a dip in the ocean

S takes a dip in the ocean

The Malecon was nice. It wasn’t very crowded last night, but there was a good mix of local families and tourists from all over. We walked down the cobble-stoned ‘boardwalk’ and checked out the interesting artwork along the way.

They had sculptures (real and fake- people made up and pretending to be statues). They had sand sculptures along the waterline, some breaking up from the weather over time and some newly made.

sand artist finishing his creation

sand artist finishing his creation

There were plenty of bars, restaurants, shops and food carts (which looked delicious!). I noticed shrimp BBQ, corn on the cob and in cups, tacos, burritos, fresh fruit juices, flans, even what looked like cheesecake. YUM!

I will be back!

We walked by a park where our teacher told us they held a farmers market on the weekend and a coffee-shop/bookstore (English and Spanish). We walked up into town a couple of blocks and saw a very interesting shop with fantastic art by local indigenous people.

Some of the art was made with yarn, some with beads. Some were sculptures, some were flat and hung like paintings. The colors were brilliant, vibrant and imaginative. Inspired by the hallucinogenic visions given by the peyote cactus.

We were on our way to dinner at Derby Burgers. I think we were all starving by then. 🙂

They had a large selection of burgers, even a vegetarian option or two. They all came with a choice of sweet potato fries, regular fries or salad. I had a steak burger (without the steak sauce). The sauteed onions and mushrooms were a perfect complement to the juicy, perfectly cooked (med-rare) burger.

We all cleaned our plates. No complaints, but the Aloha Burger (with pineapple) was unexpectedly spicy.

We were all stuffed and since we had class in the morning we were ready to head home. I got in about 2300. Too bad I stayed up til 0300 on the computer!