Sunday and Monday December 6th and 7th

The pictures: Turret in bar, Band, Me dancing in hat, Philo, Oscar, Yolanda, Renee, Rainy entry, church, square, our hotel, 2 of square in the hotel where the band played, Our room door on left, hotel where band played, band, Ross playing with hat, Nick Annette heart girl and Costa Rica girl (can't remember their names), our cobblestone Road


We just got back from a fun time in San Sebastian; it's about 1 1/2 hours inland from here in the mountains. An owner of a bar in La Cruz (12 minutes from us) goes up there 2 to 3 times a year with his band and puts on show with a catered dinner and a continental breakfast in the morning. We stayed in a little hotel that the band stays in (Ross plays the drums there) and had a great time, met so many neat people and some old friends.

We got up at 7:30 on Sunday morning to be at Philo’s Bar by 9 – 9:30. It was really cloudy and cool so I brought a lot of warm coats and sweaters including hats and gloves in case anyone needed anything while we were up there, there is nothing worse than freezing. Before we drove to Philo’s we stopped at a bank machine so we would have money in case we needed some and both our ATM cards and my credit card were turned down, asking us to contact our banking institution. (When we got home I checked out bank and stuff and I can’t see anything wrong, it must have been the bank machines, thank god). We got to Philo’s and it was a buzzing place! His staff was getting everything ready to take up there, and then in started to rain. It started to drizzle first then it started coming down in buckets, Yuck.

We got the directions to the town and drove home and got some rain gear, so figure! We followed the instructions Philo gave us and ended up on a dead end street in a little town behind Home Depot in Vallarta! We called Philo and caught up with him behind the home depot and started off on a wonderfully rainy drive into the mountains. I need to download some pictures from my camera! We drove up and up and up, going through some very small towns with a lot of topes, (speed bumps that Mexicans love, they have them everywhere and they are so big that if you go over them fast your car will bottom out and you may end up with your head going through the roof) it was such a beautiful drive. We were looking forward to coming home the next day (if the weather was better) to see the scenery we were missing because of the low clouds. San Sebastian is a mining town that is super old, very very very old! We drove on a cobblestone road a good couple of kms before we even got to the town and once there the cobblestones continued up through some very narrow streets to a lovely town square.

We saw where everyone was so that’s where we started at. Most the hotels we were staying in were around the square; we found ours and got our stuff in then went to the little outside restaurant and sat with Peggy and had some great coffee and lunch. The two hotels I saw there have an entrance way to a square in the centre and the rooms are around the square. We got room number 9, right beside Peggy and Leon. There were 2 double beds and a very, very tiny bathroom, the lady that cleans the rooms opened ours with a key then took the key, it’s a good thing we know all the people that were staying the hotel, we couldn’t lock the door.

We decided to have a snooze before the festivities started (4pm) and guess what? We actually woke up at 3:45, wow; we couldn’t have timed that any better. We walked to the other hotel on very slippery cobblestone road/sidewalk, it’s a good thing I had my runners on, and walked through the front we found ourselves in an open area square, the band was on the right side of the entrance way under a roof and there were tables under the overhang of the hotel (thank goodness for that, as it rained most of the night!). I sat with Renee, a friend I met here that lives here 6 months of the year then goes back to Chicago for the other 6 months, and a lady by the name of Yolanda (I found out later that I just might be working with her, she is trying to start a carnival in Vallarta, the same as New Orleans, her brother created the one they have in Mazatlan). I also saw Maury, a guy that we met that frequented Riveria Restaurant were our friend works, with his wife, that was a pleasant surprise! We have 4 groups of friends and they very seldom intertwine musicians, AA, Amigos of Bucerias and our real estate friends. Actually Ross’s band Juan-Ted and the Rhythm Roosters are playing a benefit for Amigos next Saturday night! Ok, back to San Sebastian, We had a great time listening to Philo’s band, Ross got up twice during the night. We had lasagna for supper with fruit and salad (great salad dressing) catered by a small restaurant that Philo always uses that has a small restaurant in the town.

After the band stopped we all went upstairs to a small bar for an acoustic session. There were no chairs available but we noticed a turret in the corner with a small table with 3 young girls sitting there and we asked them if we could join them. Wow, what a great time. The one girl sitting beside me (maybe 23, very tiny) is travelling and meeting up with, get this girls, twins in Costa Rica and working on a ship (I have no idea which one) and going I have no idea where, she told Ross she wants to go to the Caribbean! Beside her was another girl, (maybe 23 too) the 3 girls were friends, at least that night, that was visiting that really wanted to move here, I think she is from Vancouver, but is scared because of a heart condition and is on 5 medications a day. A guy by the name of Nick Rau sat with us that has been here for over 10 years and has some connections in the medical insurance field and has given her some info. The third girl, Annette, works, listen to this, on the World ship! This is the ship that you buy your home on the ship and it sails the world once a year. We saw it on a documentary (it started in 2002) on the discovery channel about this ship. We also met Jay, he is a photographer that has been down here for 8 years and spends his time photographing anything you want a picture of. He works mostly with sailboats and birds and things like this. His website is www.strangebirdphotos.com/. Wow what a great night.

I have no idea what time we left, but we walked Renee back to her hotel, way to hell and gone, (well a couple of blocks anyway) then got back to the hotel they played at, picked up Yolanda (she was in heeled boots that she wasn’t comfortable with walking on the wet cobblestones) and Ross being the gentleman his mama raised him to be took her arm and we walked to the hotel. I, on the other hand, had to fend for myself on the wet cobblestones with my owie ankle, now, what is wrong with this picture! As we got to the room I saw Peggy, Leon and Oscar going to the closed restaurant to have a couple of beers and they didn’t want to bother us. Ross opted to lie down and I went with they other 3 and had a very nice late night chat. It’s surprising how much you can connect with people at 1am just shooting the breeze. Since this is now our home I like to spend time with the people I have met to become friends with them, they are very nice people. Peggy is married to Leon, Peggy is 58 and Leon is 75. Peggy plays bass and Leon plays washboard, banjo, and they both sing. Oscar is a sax player, guitar player and singer that we now have 2 of his cd’s. He is moving with his wife and young daughter to Tucson AZ and he will be missed. He is such a warm and loving individual! We finally made our way to bed around 2.

We woke up at 11 (we thought it was about 10) and hurriedly got dressed and brushed our teeth. We missed continental breakfast and everyone had left except for Nick and his wife (I can’t remember her name) so we had coffee with Nick and then walked to the famous church, we took some pictures and then left San Sebastian, I was a bit sad, as it is such a neat place, we will definitely go back! The weather was a bit better going home, we got some pictures this time and I will download (I have already done Ross’s) my pictures and will post as many as I can. It takes so long to download pictures to the blog, we’ll see how many I get before I give up!

We now are doing laundry, Ross is watching TV and I, of course, am typing the blog. Ross will leave around 5:30 to go to his meeting, I’m gonna stay at home and veg. We are both very tired, and we have to get up early tomorrow for work!

Ross, Kim and Critters in Paradise!