More From Vallarta

Well no more possum sightings since Wednesday night. Hopefully it was an "eclipse-related" event and will not occur again until 2007! LOL Thanks to all of you for your concerned emails. My latest visitor is a black cat that has been lying in wait on the stairs only on the nights when we forget to turn on the outdoor lights. The last two nights, he/she streaked by me as I came up the stairs. I told Colleen and she said to be thankful it is only one cat. Last year they had about 50 cats hanging around until someone decided to poison them. Then there were just a lot of dead cats ... :(

On Friday night, I had dinner with my friend Karin. We work together at VIVA and she is a fellow Canadian. She has a cute little one bedroom apartment with a rooftop terrace, ideal for nude sunbathing and/or a nightcap after a delicious homecooked meal. I am so lucky to have friends that love to cook! :) As we were enjoying the last of our wine upstairs, I noticed a light glowing behind the mountains to the east. It was the moon rising! What a fabulous sight ... we watched it for an hour along with the fireworks over the Bay. It was a beautiful, clear night.

So the weather has changed somewhat. I am finding it less humid and cooler in the mornings. I am sleeping under my sheet and comforter almost every night now. I can't even imagine what it is going to be like in January! Brrr ... The good news is the mosquitos are dying down and hopefully dying off with the cooler weather. With the time change this weekend, it will be lighter in the mornings (no more carrying my flashlight to the gym!) and turning dark when I leave work. Speaking of which, I worked six days last week and it didn't kill me. Haha ...

Today I went to Bucerias with some friends who go every Sunday. We hang out on the beach, play dominos, settle grudge matches from the week before, consume numerous "libations" and just generally relax. On the way back today, we stopped at Mauricio's just outside Ixtapa for a bite to eat. I don't know the term for this type of restaurant. We don't have anything similar in Canada but there are several like it here in Vallarta. I've been to El Coleguita outside of Pitillal last year but Mauricio's is much, MUCH better ...

It is a huge outdoor restaurant under a palapa roof. Seating is plastic tables and chairs and the menu is simple -- seafood. Shrimp with fish, shrimp with octopus, shrimp in soup or shrimp with shrimp. Price is 99 pesos. Your dinner comes on a huge platter with rice, salad and a piece of garlic bread. Drinks are extra but free while you wait. ;) Let me explain ... this weekend is a four day long weekend for the Mexicans, with Monday being All Saints Day and Tuesday being "El Dia de Los Muertos" (Day of the Dead). Vallarta is currently overrun with Nationals on vacation, enjoying the beaches, shopping for treasures, eating and drinking everything in sight!

Mauricio's was packed to the rafters. It was probably the worst Sunday to go there but, once committed with our names on the list, we decided to stay, hoping the estimated 45 minute wait was a slight exaggeration. It was. I think we sat in the "holding area" for about 20 minutes. While there, we were provided with free beer and free food. There was cooler full of ice cold Sol and Indio beer plus barbequed ribs and fresh ceviche. And this was before we even had a table! We considered hanging out in the holding area instead of going to dinner!!! But I'm glad we went inside.

Once seated, they convinced me to try a Tecate beer. I wasn't really in the mood for more beer but everyone else was having one so I went along ... am I ever glad I did! A cold can of beer arrived for each of us with FOUR HUGE FRESHLY PEELED JUMBO SHRIMP piled on top! I considered simply having beer for dinner ... LOL. To give you an idea of how succulent these shrimp were, a guy at the next table accidentally dropped one on the floor. He pushed back his chair, got down on his hands and knees to retrieve it, rinsed it off (in beer?) and ate it! We all cheered!!!

The table was crowded with serviettes, four different kinds of salsa, salt and salad dressing. I looked around and when I saw the size of the dinner platters being served at the other tables, I quickly agreed to share my dinner of fish and shrimp. It was delicious. Dessert was included (some kind of sweet thing made with bananas which I didn't want) and a small glass of kaluha with milk on ice. Dinner for four, with one shrimpy beer each, was $278MXP.