Social Butterfly

I know, I know ... I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been busy with guests: my friend Lauri from Ontario, my "brother" Mikey from Alberta, my best friend (ie. known her FOREVER and she knows where all the bodies are buried -- LOL) Jo-Anne from Ontario and my friends Linda and Denny from Kansas City. Plus I've been working six days a week. *sigh* I am tired already and it's ONLY NOVEMBER!!!

Last Friday night was Mikey's last night in town and he wanted to go to Oktoberfest at Cafe Frankfurt. This is an annual event where the owner, Mike Pohl, puts on a huge buffet, all you can eat and drink (think cold Corona beer on tap) for 180 pesos. The food is German and very, very good. This outdoor restaurant is beautifully decorated with palm trees wrapped in lights and very condusive to good digestion. The amount food was staggering and consisted of home baked bread, salads of all kinds, roasted potatoes, spaetzel (did I spell that right?), ribs, chicken, ribs, beef, pork, schnitzel, dessert, etc.

At the end of dinner, Mike invariably provides you with a shot of "black poison". My friend Vera (travelling with Jo-Anne) asked me again what "that drink was called" and I told her, "black poison". I don't think she really believed me until we literally bumped into Mike on the street last night and got the same answer from him! :) A word of caution: whatever you do, DON'T TRY THE LIME POISON!!!

On Saturday night, my boss gave me four free passes to the opening night of the Puerto Vallarta Film Festival. The presentation was a film entitled "Around The Bend" starring Michael Caine and Christopher Walken. Very good film. You know you live in a small town when you know half the people in the movie theatre. LOL

On Sunday, we decided on a day trip to Sayulita. My friend Gerry offered to escort Jo-Anne, Vera and me for the day and volunteered to drive us. What a sweetheart! We arrived at this small fishing community around 11Am and left 5 hours later. It was a glorious sunny day with a strong breeze. Not enough to make any big waves for the surfers but enough to keep us cool and comfortable for most of the afternoon. We had drinks, ordered lunch, the girls bought stuff from the vendors and frolicked in the ocean.

Gerry & I took a long walk down the beach and discovered a charming little boutique hotel called Casablanca (www.casablancasayulita.com.mx). We walked in and it was practically empty. We made our way to the front desk and asked to see a room. All the rooms are actually suites with fully equipped kitchens and air conditioned bedrooms. The hotel is immaculate and decorated in cool tones of white and blue. Very, very secluded and romantic. What a wonderful spot for a weekend getaway!

On Monday, back at work sporting my new sunburn, I stopped marking merchandise at 4PM so that I could transform myself, along with four of my fellow workmates, into VIVA Divas for a fashion show up at Casa Isabel. We donned brightly coloured pareos, Riviera hats and gobs of jewellery for our appearance at Isabel's annual "girls only" week. We were so happy to be invited up to parade all the new goodies we have for the coming season at VIVA. The show was a huge success and the ladies proved their fashion saavy by asking all the right questions about our attire. We were each treated to a pina colada for our "hard work" and posed for a photo with our charming hostess.

Back at the store, I quickly changed back into my uniform and headed home to get ready for Jo-Anne's 40th birthday party at Cafe de Olla. She said she wanted shrimp and Fermin had promised to serve up some huge prawns for her. I invited along my friends Linda and Denny, plus their travelling companions, Fred and Jayne. Jo-Anne's friend Vera and their new friend, Peter, rounded out our table at eight.

Dinner as always, was delicious. The margaritas were strictly off limits for me since I had to work the next day but everyone else was on vacation so ... we barely had room on the table for the food when it finally arrived. Jo and Vera had the shrimp, Linda and Fred had the ribs, Jayne the enchiladas, Denny had sopes, I had filet mignon and Peter had "shrimp and bananas". At least that is what he thought he was getting when, in fact, Fermin had said "shrimp empanadas" and Peter misunderstood. But he enjoyed it anyway, even without the bananas. LOL

After being serenaded by a couple of different strolling musicians, I gave Fermin the nod and they brought out the Birthday Girl's "surprise". It was an "anatomically correct" choco banana! They turned out the lights and blindfolded Jo-Anne before "feeding" it to her. She's a great sport and played along. We took a lot of photos so I hope some of them turn out. She had this crazy grin on her face and stuff was dripping off her chin ... you had to be there! Haha! It was a very "sexy" dessert -- nudge, nudge, wink, wink!

We agreed to meet Linda and Denny for a night cap at La Palapa so Jo-Anne and I walked back to her hotel to drop off her roses. At that precise moment, a burro came galloping down Calle Pulpito right in front of her hotel! This wasn't the tranquilized burro the drunken tourists ride at Andale's -- this was a real, live burro!!! I've never seen anything like it and probably never will again. In fact, the last time I saw him, he was turning left onto Olas Altas. I still don't know what happened to him but he was running like the devil was after him. Or maybe he was just very, very happy to be free ...