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Friday, December 10, 2010

Motorcycle travelers arrive in the park.

Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010

On Monday evening we had a couple of motorcycle travelers from Great Britain arrive in Las Jaibas.   They had ridden down from Durango along the devil”s spine and said it was just amazing.    Mark and Claire have been travelling for three months now and started out from Bristol  England. They  had the motorcycles shipped from Heathrow airport to Calgary Alberta  and then rode north as far as Prudhoe Bay in Alaska before heading south.   

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    At  this point in their journey it was now September and  they had to hurry as winter was fast approaching.     They continued their ride south through British Columbia and then on  through Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona on  into Mexico and are now in Mazatlan.   Mark is busy doing some maintenance on the two 20 year old 600cc single cylinder Yamaha Enduros  before they continue on their journey.   They plan to continue riding for another 12 months through central and South America and will end up in Tiera del Fuego Argentina  before they ship the bikes home to Great Britain.  Pretty gutsy.  Mark and Claire  are tenting where ever they can so they are enjoying the warmth of Mexico after the cold of fall in Alaska and northern B.C.   They are very pleasant, interesting  people  and many of us  in the park are enjoying talking  to them. 

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Eric, Mark and Claire with the bikes.

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I asked Claire if she had a blog that I could read but she said she didn’t as she didn’t want to be bogged down with day to day writing after a long day of riding.  Very understandable and she also mentioned that she was a writer and thought that people would expect more than she had time to deliver.   We had a short discussion about blogs  and I mentioned that it was an easier option than returning emails.  Our friend  Croft encouraged me to start a blog (thanks for that!) and it has worked out well.   The Live Writer  option in Windows also allows you to make notes as you travel, include  pictures  and then post them when you have time to complete your entry and also have access to the internet and as well you can post the entry with any date you wish.    Mark and Claire’s journey is huge and it would be impossible to remember it in any detail without documentation.  However, documentation is a burden as well.  Again, each to their own!  Good luck on your journey!     

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Tonight Sam, Rita, Mark and Claire are going downtown to hear bands pay a  live tribute  to John Lennon.   Sounds like it will be a good time.   

Yesterday Connie, Manny and Ramona had a new little dog at their rig.  Turns out there was a little male Chihuahua loose in the park the night before and he was lost.  It was eventually determined that  he belonged to the lady at the Scorpio corner store up the way and he had wandered off in the dark.  Connie and Manny let him sleep in bed with them and Ramona so he wouldn’t be lonely!  How nice is that.   

Connie and I went down town on the bus today to get tickets for the Nutcracker Ballet which will be performed at  the Angela Peralta theatre this weekend.  We missed the Centro bus so we took another bus and we were really on the milk run!  Okay for me because it helps me get an idea of where things are and  I am starting to remember where I actually am.  When we finally got downtown we had a ways to walk and that gave me an opportunity to take some pictures.  Now that I have my new camera I can carry it in my pouch and snap at will!  I find the people and streets of downtown Mazatlan so picturesque.  When we got to the theatre to get tickets there was a couple ahead of us and we got to chatting.  He told us he belonged to a writer’s group so Connie told him I was a writer too.  He was impressed until he heard it was a blog and he acted like he’d never heard of one.  Too snooty, because to me anyone who writes is a writer.  We got our tickets (100 pesos - $8.50) and then went to see if we could have a look at the theatre.  It was possible for a fee of 12 pesos so in we went.    What a beautiful old building.  I managed a couple of pictures without flash and I think we found out where we will sit on Saturday night.

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Connie heading in to buy tickets for the ballet.

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A look inside the Angela Peralta theatre without flash.

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We continued back toward the Centro market to catch the bus and stopped for a cuerveza on the way at  Topolo’s restaurant.  It is very beautiful with a garden setting in the interior.

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  Connie and I sat in the bar and it was quite lovely.

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The maitre’d was very gracious and said that they were not suffering too badly from the lack of tourists.  The Mexicans come on the weekend as well as any tourists and they are doing okay.  I told him we would come back for a meal. 

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A shot of downtown Mazatlan.

When we returned to the park Hal came over to say that he and Helene were going for dinner before the ballet on Saturday night and said that Connie, Pat and I were welcome to join them.  Okay!  We’ll leave at 5:30, take the bus and have a great evening! 

I have returned to my walking in the morning and it feels great.  However, it makes me really tired.  Another week or so and it will get easier. 

Tomorrow is Thursday and I will play the card game  Hand & Foot with the ladies.     Although I may not want to play every week I at least want to play enough that I have some idea what is going on!  Should be fun. 

Weather wise we have had a lot of fog over the last few days.  It rolls in fast and totally obscures the ocean.  Strange.  People in the park say it is not something they remember seeing.

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This is a shot toward the ocean and usually you can see the building across the street, not today!

 

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