Time is Winding Down!      November 19, 2023

After a leisurely morning, which translates to not doing much of anything, we met Lynne’s cousin Carson and his girlfriend Ama for lunch-

Carson works online as a personal trainer helping others lose weight and develop exercise regimes while Ama is a clinical nutritionist.  They’re soon moving to Mexico City where she will do her masters and he will carry on working online.  From the restaurant it’s easy to see a pole where crazies climb to the top and then spin/swing down, upside down yet-

We ate at Paradise Burger which is just steps away from the Rosita on the Malecon.  Speaking of steps-

Mexicans love color!  After, I went for a walk and saw this memorial painted on the wall of a restaurant-

I carried on to Pinocho’s for a beer and visited with a woman from New Brunswick who has lived here for 7 years.  She’s on pensions; probably CPP and OAS and says she can’t afford to live in Canada.  She pays 5000 pesos ($400) for a studio in Gringo Gulch.  There are 200 steps up which she doesn’t mind.  Looking around Pinocho’s, I had a realizations.   I used to see myself sitting at a counter at a bar like that, drinking the day away, day after day, but today, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.  Something about it just made me sad and feel hopeless.  So many of the people are Canadians who come here for the winter or have moved here and they spend a lot of their time sitting there drinking and smoking.  Now I’m not above drinking, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want that to be the focus of my life .  I kept wondering why this trip I kept feeling a pull to go there and that is the lesson I was to learn.  It was a good realization to have!

I went back to the Rosita half melted, had a shower and lay naked on the bed in the AC trying not to pass out.  I don’t think I was close but it sure felt like it.

Later Lynne came home and we went to the pool then spent the evening enjoying our patio.

Tomorrow is a souvenir shopping day and our last here in sunny and hot Puerto Vallarta!  Time has flown!