On our third day we finally got to the beach in Bucerias. Canadians flock to Bucerias. I guess that is why the Canadian flag is waving.

Monday, January 31, 2022

The morning was spent setting up housekeeping and waiting for the repairman to fix the hot water heater. Jeff picked me up to run over to the Chedraui grocery store for a couple of supplies while Wanda stayed back to wait. Around 1:30 pm, Mexican morning time, the repairman showed up. Apparently, the hot water heater sensor fried. He has to order a replacement. In the meantime, he bypassed the sensor by hot wiring the two leads that feed the sensor. That kind of works.

Once freed from the house, we went on a 5 1/2 mile walk through every nick and cranny of Bucerias on the coastal side of Hwy 200. About half of the town lays on the other side of the highway, but we didn’t get to that part.

We had heard from Jeff and from the Bucerias Facebook pages that a lot of building was taking place here. We weren’t prepared for how much. Nearly every block had a high rise going up. These buildings are in the 5 to 8 story size. Most have banners draped over fences inviting us to pre-buy our new condo. The lowest price we saw was starting at $174,999. The highest starting price was $3,354,000. These are dollars, not pesos.

During the hottest part of the day, around 3:30 pm, we treated ourselves to our favorite dessert - paletas. It is a delicious frozen fruit purée on a stick. Wanda picked out a strawberry and cream flavor. Mine was a creamy strawberry. Somehow they were totally different. Both were wonderful.

At 6:30, we stopped off at a street taco stand for a wonderful supper. Wanda got a steak quesadilla and I got a chicken something or other. The sauces were spectacular. We ordered a grande water and got a very pleasant tasting purple drink. The bill came to 150 pesos ($7.30 US).

In the two years since we were here last, much has changed and much has remained the same. Several bars and restaurants played musical chairs. For instance, the Rhythm and Blues Bar moved a few streets down and La Famosa restaurant moved one street over. This happens a lot. Surprisingly, all the street taco stands seem to be the same.

The best part of the day was soaking up the 82º sunshine. It was a pleasant low-key day.

The bottom floor of this modest hotel is one of our favorite restaurants, Los Pericos Restaurant-Bar-Cafe. It is good to see that it is still there.

Our first street food meal. I love the sanitary plastic wrappings over the plates - lol. The sauces were awesome. The purple drink was so good that we drank it before our food came.

This plant nursery at the corner of where we turn into our subdivision is new this year. This used to be a vacant lot.

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

One more free day before I have to strap myself into the dreaded dentist chair. I watched the movie Deadpool at the Quality Inn O’Hare hotel a couple of evenings ago. In the movie, the Deadpool character is tied to a bed and tortured for days on end. I should not have watched that movie before my dentist marathon.

So, it’s beach day. First, we took a quick bus run out to La Comer, the most modern grocery and department store in North America. The layout, the quality of its products, the clean modern displays immediately put you in a mood to spend money. What I couldn’t find at Chedraui, we easily found at La Comer. We bought a couple of shopping bags to lug our booty back home.

We are not keen on heavily perfumed laundry detergents. We go for the free and clear variety. our Google Translate app came to our rescue. We just pointed our iPhones at the containers and Translate translated. Free and clear detergents are usually in white containers. There were several detergents in white containers that deceptively contained fragrance, but we sleuthed out one that did not. It turned out to be in an orange container.

La Comer - Just the greatest grocery-department store in North America. I know it's only a store, but it has great products at a fair price in a modern atmosphere. In Mexico!!

The fresh produce department.

Although Mexican food is to die for, Mexico is not known for its bakery goods. La Comer is the exception. Their excellent breads, pastries, and confections are European-inspired.

You will not experience such European-inspired pastries in Mexico, except at La Comer.

La Comer features a well stocked licoreria (liquor) cave.

Fresh pescado (fish) display.

Fresh meats.

The dairy case.

After dropping off our purchases back home, we struck out for the beach. We met Jeff at 1 pm in front of the Ocean’s Bar. They have umbrellas and chairs on the beach that we can use if we get a couple of beers throughout the day. We ordered some chips and dip, some Pacificos, and Wanda got a margarita. The chairs were comfy and the umbrellas were a godsend.

The Pacific water was cool to begin with, and it took me a few minutes to work my way in, however, once acclimated the water felt exquisitely warm. The wave action was moderate with the occasional rogue that brought us some glee and delight. We were out of practice when it came to body surfing. I had, at most, two or three OK rides - nothing to brag about. Bucerias beaches, although not the best that Riviera Nayarit has to offer, still come in at an A- in our book.

Around 4 pm, Wanda and I ordered a plate of cheese and bean quesadillas for dinner. Loaded with sauces it was delicious. After one more after-dinner dip, we walked home. As we were packing up to leave, a whale gave us a show. It repeatedly jumped and swatted its tail sending ocean spray everywhere. Sadly, it was too far out to get photos.

We went over to Jeff and Teri’s so Jeff and I could practice playing tracks. He has a couple of gigs next week that he wants me to play with him. I was excited to practice, but for some reason, I couldn’t get my amp to sound right. Teri made Wanda and me a huge batch of homemade salsa and fed me a delicious bowl of Wisconsin chili. That soothed my disappointment. I am going to have to spend a couple of hours twiddling with my amp sometime soon.

The Bahiá (bay) of Banderas. Bucerias sits in Mexico’s largest bay on the Pacific Ocean. The surf at Bucerias is usually fairly mild. Farther north is where the surf gets interesting.

The beach at Bucerias stretches on for miles.

The bar and restaurants with their umbrella and chairs in front of the beach in Bucerias. As long as you order a few drinks, you can access the furniture. Most have very good food and snacks.

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Dentist Day. Yikes, my dreaded first day of many more to come. My first appointment was at 10:30 am. It was a tooth diagnostic with X-rays and a set of really cool macro photos. The doctor was the tiniest, cutest young Mexican woman that turned out to be very professional. She pointed out several expensive crowns that were installed poorly, several fillings ready to fall out, etc. It was all very depressing.

Then it was the gum and jaw bone doctor, a no-nonsense lady that probed and picked my receding gums. Using the X-rays, photos, and her examination, she showed me the 69 years of damage that she intended to repair. It is extensive. My remaining three wisdom teeth have to go plus another infected tooth. I need a bone and gum graph, although I will never be able to fully restore my gums. I have to go in on Friday for a complete 3D work-up of my mouth and jaw to see if an implant would work to replace the one regular tooth that must go. Wanda had the 3D work-up two years ago. It is an amazing piece of technology.

All this must take place next week so I can have time to heal before installing the implant if the 3D work-up shows I can. The best part of the exam was the teeth cleaning. This usually is excruciatingly painful for me with my exposed roots. Expecting the worse, this angel of mercy cleaned my stains with barely a twinge. When I commented on her magic, she smiled and told me that she just bought a new cleaning device that promised to be painless. “Money well spent,” I told her.

We didn’t get out of the dentist's office until 3 pm. Now I have a calculation to make. The bill came in three flavors: 1) Cash in US dollars. Ironically, this is the most expensive way to go. In US cash, the bill was $45 for X-rays and photos, $45 for the gum exam. $90 for the cleaning and a plan-of-action proposal. Total: $180 US. 2) Price in pesos. If I use a credit card, it is charged in pesos. The credit card company then converts it to dollars. Since my credit card gives me the full official exchange rate and no fees, it comes out to be about 8% cheaper than US cash, plus I get a wad of airline miles. Total price: 3,400 pesos. At the official exchange rate at 20.6 pesos per US dollar, that works out to $165. That is what my credit card would end up charging me. 3) Price if paid in “cash” pesos. This price includes a 10% discount. At the official exchange rate, that brings the cost down to $145 US. The problem with this is, that I have to withdraw money from our account and exhange it into pesos. Every step of the way, someone is taking a cut. I have to figure out what my net exchange rate finally comes out to be and then apply it to the bill. Gotta do the math.

The front door at Dentoamerica.

We finally got out of the clinic around 3:30 pm. We reached home at 4:00 pm and played around with the washing machine. The washer goes through the cycles but never puts water in the tub. Either the hoses are not connected or they are clogged. It is one of those stacked drier-on-top and washer-on-the bottom units. The whole unit is kind of built into the wall. I cannot slide it out. Time to call Letty.

Letty promised to get a repairman over as soon as possible and get back to us. Being close to 5 pm by then, we figured it would be tomorrow, so we walked down to the Sunshine Bar where Jeff was playing. They have great food there and we ordered fish tacos and a fat chicken burrito. Jeff’s sound system was thumping and the food and margaritas were delicious.

Just then Letty called. The repairmen were at the house. We quickly hustled home and let them in. They had to tear apart the system that mounted the unit to the wall. I didn’t watch, but they diddled around in the back of the unit for a couple of minutes, slid the unit back against the wall, and voila, pronounced it fixed. We turned it on and sure enough, water poured into the machine. That’s fixed. We stayed home the rest of the evening.

Jeff playing at the Sunshine Bar.

Food and drinks at the Sunshine Bar.

Thursday, February 3, 2022

Beach Day? The plan was to meet at Jeff and Teri’s house at 10:30 am. After helping Jeff unload his van to make room for us, a cooler of drinks, umbrellas, beach chairs, etc., we would drive up to a secluded beach just north of Punta Mita. A group of Jeff and Teri’s buddies were going to meet us. This would be a new beach for us, so we were psyched.

When we reached Jeff and Teri’s at 10:20 am, Jeff already had the van unloaded. The sky was uncharacteristically overcast. Jeff and Teri’s friends started calling and bailing out. In the end, the excursion was called off. Dratz!

Instead, we all went to the Mega Store, another giant grocery and department store. We wanted to stock up on some more water since we had a ride.

On the way to the Mega Store, Teri took us to an ATM that charges only 23 pesos to use. I used our checking account debit card to take out 7,000 pesos for the dentist. I got an exchange rate of 19.25 pesos to the dollar. This is quite a bit less than the official 20.54 today. I also have to fiqure in the 2.3% fee that my debit card takes. I have one more trick up my sleeve to get a better rate. I’ll explore that later.

While not as nice as La Comer, but larger than Chedraui, Mega had some different brands of items that are worth checking out. We found some mouth wash and some sparkling water plus some good salsa.

On the way back to drop us off at our house, we stopped at El Coyul Licoreria (liquor) store, which is just a garage full of beer, wine, and booze. It is the cheapest place in town. I picked up a case of Pacificos. Then we stopped off at a tiny store that sells fresh homemade tortillas.

When we were dropped off, Teri invited us over for a Mexican supper. A neighbor gave her the recipe for chicken tinga over tortillas and Teri had made a batch of it. We accepted - can’t turn down a new Mexican dish sensation.

I could also play with my amp and see if I could get it to sound better. Mexico is notorious for having “dirty” electricity. This is known to affect sensitive electronic equipment. I brought down a Furman power conditioner that cleans up dirty electricity. I wanted to take the Furman over to Jeff’s and try the amp using that.

We spent a lazy couple of hours at home waiting for supper. We tried out the homemade tortillas. The stove has a built-in tortilla platform to toast tortillas. After toasting, we slathered on some butter, refried beans, and about 20 different sauces and salsas. What a great snack.

The evening was a total success. The chicken tinga was to die for, as I knew it would be. The amp, plugged into the Furman, sound infinitely smoother, the drinks were delicious, and the company was fun.

It was a lazy day, but a good one.

Friday, February 4, 2022

DENTAL DAY. The day was pretty much devoted to the dentist, and mostly for Wanda. Two years ago, she had several implants and crowns put in, however, we had to leave before the permanents could be installed. For two years she had temporaries. Amazingly, these temps were of such high quality that they weathered the two years in excellent shape.

Today, she had the temps removed and molds made for the permanent teeth. The temps were remade and on February 14 she will finally be united with her new permanent bionic teeth.

One interesting thing happened today. I remembered reading a travel blog that revealed a little-known secret about using an ATM in Mexico (or any foreign country). I had forgotten about that tip when I previously used the ATM the other day to convert dollars to pesos. Using our checking account debit card, I took dollars out of our checking account, converted them to pesos, and the ATM spit out a wad of pesos.

During the process, I was asked if I’d accept the exchange rate of 19.25 pesos to the dollar. The official rate was 20.54 that day. Like almost everyone, I accepted. After my debit card took another 2.3% fee, my effective rate sunk to well below 19.

Here is the trick that the travel blog was promoting - if you decline the rate offered, you get the full official rate. YES! Can you believe it? It is all a scam and few people are aware of it. Tomorrow, I will test it out.

And tomorrow, we go to Sayulita. It is time to strike out and do a little Dave and Wanda exploring.

Dave and Wanda

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