life in bucerias mexico

J and I have been in Mexico since the 5th of February.

This visit is supposed to be a test run. A ‘can we live here’ test run, so I am trying to live like a person would normally, not as a vacationer lives. That means I get up in the mornings and check email in case someone is looking for me. I am in fact working on this trip thanks to wireless internet access.

Actually I don’t really know what day of the week it is today. It is a rainy day and J left to go into Puerto Vallarta to work with old clients and friends she’s had from a hundred years ago.

On Saturday I relentlessly checked email for any potential work. “It’s Saturday…of a long weekend” J says, “I’ve told you three times already”. “Oh, yea. Forgot.” I say. “Oye” she says.

I have been cooking and reading and writing and painting every day. Not all at once mind you. I’m not that coordinated any more, although I do find I jump from one activity to another with seamless alacrity.

As a for- instance. I was just reheating left overs (shrimp (which literally just jumped out of the sea and cost $3.00 a pound) sautéed in olive oil with garlic, fresh tomatoes, capers, roasted red peppers, and white wine …all which cost less than ten dollars) over angel hair pasta)…just to digress a little more… Yesterday I made a fish and shrimp stew with rice, tomatoes, carrots, celery, mushrooms and wine. I needed a few things so I walked into town where I picked up a bag of mushrooms, two avocados, three tomatoes and fresh cilantro all for a total of $1.50!

Anyway, back to the left overs. I needed to nuke the bowl of pasta but we were using the microwave for storage. After clearing out the huge pineapple and assortment of other veggies, I noticed those itty bitty tiny pin head size ants marching around in there. Of course I felt badly, but there were too many to wipe up so I decided I would set the microwave on for a minute or two to …well you know….i set the timer for 1.5 minutes….i waited…ok that’s enough I though. I felt terrible. I open the microwave door to find all the little fuckers still marching around!! How is it possible that you can inadvertently implode your miniature poodle (I’ve heard of such tragic events) but these little things do not die after being nuked???

I was so, amazed, amused, intrigued, curious that I left the microwave to jot down my observations and began to write. This is where I am now…..and what I meant about seamlessly jumping from one activity to other.

…ok, so wrote all that and then went and heated the pasta and ate. It was just as good the second day although I added a little olive oil and some salt, because I salt everything, even if it doesn’t need it.



Just for some color, i thought i would throw in a photo of Saturdays dinner (two "n's" because you always want more...an old friend taught me that..that's how i know when to use double consonants...diner, dinner). it was also quite good.