The Ballet and then a ride to Concordia and Copala

Sunday December 12, 2010

Saturday morning I got busy and ran a load of wash through that I will try to dry on the drying rack.  I’m not sure that will work as it has been very humid and even our towels aren’t drying after a shower.   

Saturday night was the Nutcracker  ballet so Connie, Pat and I joined Hal and Helene to head downtown on the bus.

Hal,Helene,Connie, Kathy & Pat….all color coordinated and ready to have a great time!

  We finally caught a Sablo Centro which is the big green air conditioned bus that goes straight downtown.  We left at 5:30 and thought we’d have lots of time to go for dinner before the ballet at 8pm.  Not so much.  It turns out it was Guadeloupe day and there was a procession of Mexicans in our way.  They were walking and carrying statues of Jesus.  Very nice, but it really slowed us down.  We finally got to the square where the restaurant was at 6:50pm. 

As we turned into the restaurant across from the theatre there was a wedding happening! 

I think these little girls must have been in the wedding.

A rush to eat but the food came out quick and was good, cheap basic Mexican fare.  I had two marlin tacos with veggies for 28 pesos and shared a bowl of soup with Pat who had too much.  Off to the ballet which was just out the door across the square. 

We got settled in our seats on the third balcony and we really had nosebleed seats!  We had to peer through the railing or rest our chins on top to see.

See the black framework, that’s the railing.

Plus we were too far forward to see both sides of the stage.  Too funny!  What did we expect for 100 pesos ($8.50.)  Next year we’ll try to get better seats.

The younger students were rats,  aren’t they just so cute!  Remember,  a double click on the picture and you can really see them.

This picture is the finale, ….can you guess whether I enjoyed the production or not!

In the end the production was very well done.  It was put on by the Mazatlan performing arts students and the production was very good.  Great costumes and the students did a wonderful job.  I’d go again next year.  When the ballet was done we decided to take a taxi truck home.  The Mexicans put bench seats  in the box of a small Datsun size truck, add a framework and a tarp and that’s the taxi.  A bit cool coming home and cost us 13 pesos each.  We got to  see Mazatlan on a Saturday night as we travelled home.  Not many tourists but lots of Mexicans partying it up!  A lot of fun. 

Today was Sunday and we left at 9am to go on a bike ride.  Claire and Mark (the motorcycle travelers) are still here and have been joining in on some of the park activities.  Friday night they went out for happy hour with people from the park  and today they joined Sam and Rita and us for a ride up to Concordia and Copala.  Mark has been doing maintenance on the bikes and is still waiting for new tires to come in tomorrow and Tuesday so that is why they are still here.   We set off at nine this morning as we had to get back to the park early enough for Sam and Rita, Mark and Claire as well as Hal and Helene to go to a Venado’s baseball game.  We are to go over to Connie and Manny’s for spaghetti night with a large crowd of people from the park. 

Does this all seem ridiculously busy for us?  You bet!

In the end the ride to Concordia was good and it really is a lovely little town to visit.

In front of the square in Concordia.

Look close and you’ll see a rare picture of the blogger!!!!

That’s Claire and if you expand the picture you’ll see a little baby in the back with a mustache…. he was pretty cute.

The Christmas tree in the square in front of the church.

Mark and Claire in the big chair that they have in the square.

Sam and Rita having an ice cream in the chair.

This is the seat where Sam got his shoe shine but….my battery died and I didn’t get a picture.   My fault as I didn’t read the display right.   Next time an extra battery in the bag.

We spent some time in their square taking pictures, having an ice cream cone and the big thing was “Sam got a shoeshine for his boots!”  He wanted one last spring but it didn’t happen and this time he was determined.  There were lots of guys ahead of him but the shoeshine guy took pity on him and let him jump the line.  He was a happy guy! 

Onward to Copala for lunch and wouldn’t you know it…… another procession holding us up.  It looked  like this one was high school students doing a relay run carrying a torch.  Who knows what this one was for.  When we arrived in Copala we  had a good lunch in a nice restaurant where we have eaten before .  The only downside was we had to have Pacifico light because they were out of Pacifico Clara and the light just tastes like water.  Poor us, we are so hard done by!  Not!

We were home by 3:30 and that gave me time to get garlic bread ready for tonight’s spaghetti dinner.  We are both tired and will just eat and go home to bed.  I’d like to have gone to the baseball game but maybe we’ll go in another week or two.  Too, too tired.

I had a quick chat with Claire today and she said that she and Mark had done another big journey back in 2000 when they travelled for two years all over India, New Zealand, Australia and who knows where else.  This is all huge to us.  Fred and Marion from Saskatchewan who are in the park  have also travelled all over the world so they had a good chat with Claire as well.

Amazing the places people go and the things they do.  Makes us feel pretty tame.  Oh well, at least we made it this far. 

Tomorrow I’m off for a haircut and a pedicure with Sandi.  There is supposed to be an appetizer party at Betty and Boomers late tomorrow.  We really must get some rest!