Steve
05/28/2012, Mexico

For the past year I have been working on learning to speak spanish. OK, so I didn't really work very hard at it until the past 3-4 months, but in the past few months I've really been busting my ass to learn spanish, with so so results. I've been doing the Rosetta Stone program, listening to C/D's from Living Language, and of course practicing with the locals (pic). When I think of how much more spanish I know now then I did a year ago, it brings a smile to my face....then I'll be standing next to two Mexicans talking to each other and not be able to understand one freaking thing they say....and my smile disappears.
There comes a time when it is necesito to do more. Today I'm up early and off to "Spanish School Vallarta" for my first spanish class. I will be going three days per week for three hours per day for the next three weeks. Along with my classes there will be homework, flash cards and game cards to keep me busy. If the first level works out then I'll be enrolling in level 2 within a couple of weeks. Gotta run....first day of school is always exciting!

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Steve
05/26/2012, Paradise Village, Nuevo Vallarta mexico

The first hurricane of the 2012 Eastern Pacific hurricane season has come and gone. I had been tracking a tropical depression which formed off of the Southern Mexico coast for about a week. I had watched the forecasters change the soon to be hurricanes path every day never thinking that it would actually become a hurricane. When I woke this morning I planned to show Passageweather.com's model with Bud pretty much over Banderas Bay....big surprise, Bud was no longer there.
So another boring blog, all we got out of Bud here in Paradise Village Marina was some much needed rain and overcast sky with very little wind or even breeze. As the picture shows I couldn't even fly my new Barbie parasail Doll which Sharon had recently bought for me.....bummer!
Some good news is that we did get just enough rain to wash out the bird turd that was clogging our wind monitor atop the mast....and it is now slowly spinning in the breeze.
Hopefully we'll get this lucky for the rest of the 2012 hurricane season.

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Steve
05/24/2012, paradise Village, Nuevo Vallarta mexico

Si Bon has had lots of work done in the past week, her wood now looks almost brand new. Juan also talked me into having him shine up all of the stainless steel...which over the years had become very stained. It's nice to be settled in without all the workers trampling around just above our heads. The bad news is that our dinghy has been in the water for about a month now...and yesterday afternoon when I lifted it out of the water the bottom looked like a marine biology experiment. I quickly dropped it back in and said to myself "manana", while kicking the small crabs that are now living on the dinks bottom back into the water.
Sunday morning we met one of the local waiters, David, and his family for a drive out to a "real" Mexican restaurant in the "real" Mexican town of Las Palmas (pic). Las Palmas is about 20 miles east of Puerto Vallarta, and the restaurant is actually part of a farm where they pretty much raise/grow everything they serve. The day was another example of Mexican hospitality, as afterward we were welcomed into David's home and soon felt like one of the family.
Well, it's time to go take care of the marine biology experiment on the dinks bottom....could be a blog in itself.

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Steve
05/16/2012, Mexico

Soon after arriving in Mexico over a year ago I found myself falling in love with the Mexican people and their culture. It's hard not to fall in love with the friendly, hardworking, family oriented Mexicans. Most of the Mexicans that we deal with on a daily bases live a very simple life, they don't make very much money, and they don't need very much money.
Many of our visitors quickly become intimidated by the constant barrage of beach venders, store venders, taxi drivers and yes...even the time share salespeople. Since there is no welfare system here in Mexico, the Mexicans MUST work....or go hungry. The Mexican families pretty much work from the get go, it's not unusual for the store owners daughter, a 10 or 12 year girl, to ring up your groceries or fix your street tacos. It's also not unusual to see a young boy helping his father with the family fishing or boat cleaning business. The one thing you don't see here is people standing on street corners holding signs that say "hungry, please help".
For the most part the Mexicans are an honest bunch, you can leave your $100.00 sunglasses laying on a table and some Mexican without a penny to their name will chase you down to return them. If you're not sure how much something costs, you can hand the cashier some money and be assured that they will take the correct amount....it's just the way they are.
The Mexicans here are proud to be Mexicans. I'm not sure why in the US we have to call them Hispanic's....but I can tell you that here they are Mexicans....and VERY proud of it.
One of the first adjustments I had to make last year when I returned to the US, was the lack of any kind of connection between my fellow Americans. There was no eye contact, no "hello" or "good afternoon", just eyes straight ahead and try to ignore all other mankind. Well here I must say "hola amigo/amiga" or "buenos Dias" to just about everyone I come in contact with.
Yes, it is definitely hard not to fall in love with the Mexicans and Mexico, and if a beach vender walks up to you and holds out his or her tray of goods...a simple "no gracias" will send them on their way to the next possible customer. The time share guys are a different matter....maybe some bug spray?

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Steve
05/15/2012, Paradise Village, Nuevo Vallarta mexico

Before Si Bon was hauled Sharon and I had started the long process of re-varnishing Si Bon's brite work, brite work is the woodwork on a boat. Don't ask me why they call it brite work, it's like so many other nautical terms that seem to make no sense. Usually when we do the brite work, by the second coat of varnish we're thinking "WOW this sure looks a lot better than it did". This time after the second (of three) coats we both were looking at each other and saying "this looks like s*&t". There comes a time when simply sanding down the existing varnish and re-varnishing just isn't enough, it becomes necessary to remove ALL of the varnish down to bare wood, and begin the process all over. I've watched a few "experts" strip varnish...and it looked to be a little more work than I wanted to tackle....so I hired one of the "experts" to make our brite work bright again.
Now I know that many of you are thinking "what a lazy ass", but hey I have a blog to write and happy hours to attend....so I brought in Juan and his three sons. So while we sit in the air-conditioned mall, eating $1.50 Subway sandwiches and writing our blogs, Juan is busy on Si Bon stripping away.
The above picture shows how much discoloration there is on the toe rail on the left, the toe rail on the right was stripped yesterday and virtually all of the discoloration has been eliminated.

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Steve
05/12/2012, Paradise Village, Nuevo Vallarta mexico

After leaving Si Bon at the boatyard on Tuesday Sharon and I checked into the Casa Dona Susana in "The Romantic Zone" of downtown Puerto Vallarta. The Romantic Zone is a really cool area filled with trendy shops, restaurants, coffee houses and of course bars. We were kept busy (but not out of trouble) exploring the neat little seaside area while waiting for Si Bon to be fixed.
When it comes to boat repairs, you never really know how long or how much it's going to be. Originally the repair people said it would probably be 2-3 days, and they refused to even try to cough up a cost estimate. Needless to say I spent most of the time we were in the Romantic Zone wondering how much this was going to cut off of my cruising days. I must be living right because Si Bon was finished in 2 days and the cost was well below what even my most optimistic hope was. There were MAJOR repairs completed including not only pulling the shaft and replacing the shaft seal (stuffing box), but also removing the rudder and completely rebuilding the rudder housing and bearings, and dismounting the Max prop AND completely servicing it.
Last night my longtime friend Amanda and her husband Mike stopped by for happy hour on Si Bon. We had a great time catching up and getting to know each other better before we headed out for a lagoon side dinner of Surf and Turf. Next time you guys come out we WILL go sailing and we WILL ride the public busses....chickens and all.

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