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Mexico 2023
February 1 - 2
Sunshine & The Washing Machine Blues
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Will came up to belt out a bunch of tunes at Wednesday's Sunshine Bar gig. He has a good voice and added to the overall fun. | |
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FEBRUARY 1
This latest Sunshine Bar gig was a Dr. Jeckle - Mr. Hyde affair. My amp does not behave properly on this Mexican electricity. At home, my amp produces smooth sweet sustain even without an overdrive pedal. Here, it honks out harsh sustain-less crap. I had the same problem with my previous amp, my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. At home the natural overdrive sounded great. Down here, it was the same lousy tone that my current amp spews out. My electricity theory doesn't make sense, but what other explanation could there be?
This lousy tone throws me. My mood turns dark. My playing is adversely affected as I enter into a downward spiral - my tone sucks, my mood goes black, my playing sounds harsh and choppy, I get embarrassed, and I quite trying. This is how my first set went.
My amp has a bunch of presets, each one supposedly mimics a different kind of amp. Halfway through the gig, I tried a different preset. It wasn’t my favorite tone, but it gave me more control over the sustain. My dark cloud immediately dissipated. The fun returned. Wanda chastises me when I let such adversity affect me so much. "A professional would just fake it and smile on,” she advises. Of course, she is right, but……
Anyway, when the good times returned, Will came up and sang a bunch of tunes. He has a good voice and that just added to the fun. Whew, all’s well that ends well.
|  | After some epic struggles with my amp's tone, I finally came across a fix. Now, I am all smiles. | |
FEBRUARY 2
Wanda had one last dental appointment today, which, of course, broke up another day. That all-day trip to San Sebastián has to be postponed again. Anyway, Wanda was told that her dental work was a complete success. Her periodontist showed her the first 3D pictures of her mouth some 4 years ago and compared it to her latest snapshot. Wanda should have her teeth for another 69 years. I hope my investment in pain and suffering has the same results.
| The best part of today's trip to the dentist was this street musician coming aboard the bus and crooning some Mexican ballads. | |
We spent the rest of the afternoon, you guessed it, roaming Bucerias. There is an art walk on Thursday evenings. It starts at a courtyard, appropriately named Bucerias Art Walk, that is home to several art studios. The walk then goes to a dozen more studios located in the southwestern corner of town. This is the wealthy artsy-fartsy zone of Bucerias. I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense. It is a very pleasant part of town, especially along Calle Làzaro Càrdenas, the main commercial street through the area.
The gate at Bucerias Art Walk was open so we went in to check it out. Art pieces were everywhere. Most pieces featured the bold colors that Mexican art is known for, but we met one artist, Janine Kelleher, from New York, that specialized in more subtle abstract colors. Janine’s multi-medium pieces were in stark contrast with the rest of the works in the courtyard. Her studio, JaLu Gallery, is on the second story of the building in the back of the courtyard. She was very friendly and showed us around. She has been in Bucerias for 20 years indicating that she has found success here.
|  | Looking out from the courtyard through the Bucerias Art Walk gate. | The Bucerias Art Walk courtyard from the second story studios. | There are a half-dozen art studios ringing around the courtyard. Each one was full of nice paintings. | Janine Kelleher posing in front of her latest creation. |  |  | |
The washing machine repairman was scheduled to take another crack at the obstinate machine between 4 pm and 5 pm. It was our intension to pick up our laundry at the laundry service, go home, wait for the repairman, go out to eat, and complete the evening by going on the Thursday night art walk.
By 7 pm, our landlady, Letty, called us to apologize for the repairman not showing up. This is funny because we got at least two calls telling us the guy was on his way. From where? Timbuktu? I felt so bad for Letty. She has bent over backwards to resolve this issue. She offered to pay for our laundry service. I assured her that it was no big deal and I sincerely hope that she believes me. The laundry service is so good that we almost prefer it. Bottomline, we will just use the service for the rest of the month. No more phantom repairmen from Timbuktu. And we certainly won’t let Letty pay for the service. At $3 US per load, washed, pressed, and folded, we can’t go wrong.
However, we did miss the art walk. Instead we tried out the Snack Bar restaurant for a late evening snack. This is another second-story open-air restaurant overlooking the main plaza. We ordered a plate of nachos to split. This was Wanda’s first time eating something crunchy since her surgery. It seemed to go well. At home, nachos are pretty much the same everywhere. Down here, each establishment puts their own unique spin on their nachos. The Snack Bar’s spin was cheese. It was swimming in the liquid gold. I’m from Wisconsin - I love cheese!
|  | The Snack Bar on top of the Kiosko convenience store. These second-story open-air bar and restaurants are fun places to hang out. By-the-way, Kiosko stores are the direct competition to Oxxo stores. As far as shear volume goes, there must be 20 Oxxos for each Kiosko. | A thick layer of gooey cheese is the foundation under all the other ingredients of this plate of nachos. | Looking down onto to the night street taco stands from the Snack Bar. | Churros is deep-fried dough. We first had churros in Spain where they originated. They were rolled in sugar and dipped into a thick rich chocolate sauce. They are delicious. Mexican churros add cinnamon to the sugar. This Mexican vendor offered other sauces. Along with chocolate, there was Nutella, pineapple jam, strawberry jam, and caramel (No, that's not ketchup and mustard in the squeeze bottles.) | |
The machine with the hand-pump makes the long star-shaped churro. It is then deep-fried. | |
Finally, the next few days are all to ourselves. We plan to go to San Pancho, the Botanical Gardens, and San Sebastián. Can't wait! | | | | |
