Donna and John enjoying a Corona moment under the Tommy Bahama umbrella on Playa Bucerias.

Puffy Face 2022: Thursday, March 24

Well, I pushed it yesterday. I woke up with the right side of my face, the side of my bone graft surgery, noticeably swollen. I reluctantly decided to stay in and rest while Wanda took our guests out and about. I had another dentist appointment at 5 pm. This was mainly a checkup.

Wanda played tour guide and they found a few more hidden neighborhoods. She returned in time to hop on the bus with me to the dentist office. So far I have had three different dentists and one technician at Dentoamerica. One dentist specializes in surgery. Another one does crowns. The third one did my root canal. Lastly, the technician worked up my futuristic 3D 360° MRI-like mouth and jaw picture.

Today, I saw the crown lady. She is so tiny and young looking it is hard to visualize her as a dentist. I keep wanting to ask if she has graduated from high school yet. But she is all business and professional. She immediately saw my puffy face and told me to take it easy in the next few days. I was chastised.

All we did the rest of the evening was to take a short golf cart trip to Oxxo for water, bananas, and Modelo Negra. I was feeling good even with my puffy right side.

Rockin’ the Rocky Streets 2022: Friday, March 25

Touring Bucerias by golf cart turns even the most routine and mundane errands into an adventure. Our first adventure was breakfast. We went to Panino's. Donna and John were introduced to huevos rancheros. Panino's conjures up amazing rancheros. Wanda ordered an omelet which is mushy enough to share with me. We all enjoyed Panino’s skillet sorcery.

Next came shopping at Chedraui, way across town. Chedraui, Mega, Walmart, and La Comer are the big box stores in our area. Chedraui is the only one accessible with the cart, and getting there is half the fun. Returning home with our booty is the other half of the fun. This requires a fair amount of driving on sidewalks, on the dry riverbed, and up and down steep badly pot-holed streets (Bucerias has some of the worst street infrustructure in Mexico). If that doesn't sound like fun, I don't know what does.

Shopping at Chedraui.

The bottleneck route. Here we are driving along a sidewalk next to the riverbed.

Then we went down a street that goes through the riverbed. I assume that this street is closed during the rainy season.

Next we drive along the cemented riverbank.

Next, we drove up this rough cobblestone street to the hill in the distance. This picture doesn’t show it, but the cobblestone is exceedingly rugged and the hill is scary steep. The cart bravely struggled to get up the hill. It felt like it was going to tip backward, adding to the fun. We were all impressed by the spunkiness of the little cart. It handled everything we encountered.

Finally, we encountered this steep hill down. It was a great brake test and the cart passed with flying colors. Again, the photo doesn’t do it justice.

The other day, Letty, let us check out the little studio apartment next to our house. We found a Tommy Bahama beach umbrella in the apartment. Letty gave us permission to use it. So, once we stashed our groceries back home, we grabbed Tommy and carted off to the beach.

The Tommy Bahama is an ingeniously simple piece of engineering. The corkscrew end bites into the sand, powering the end deep into sand as you twist the shaft with its retractible handles. Even though it was very windy today, Tommy stayed firmly anchored and stable. The stiff breeze was glorious as we lazed away the afternoon.

Donna flashing her gang signs again (lol). Notice the Tommy Bahama umbrella. The lower grey plastic part is the retractable handles. When they are pulled out they make a nice handle to twist the center pole deep into the sand. The pole pulls apart in the middle, and the umbrella folds down for easy packing.

For supper, we carted off to La Famosa for the best burgers in North Americano. They are that good. Their sauces are one of many secrets that make their burgers so good. Donna, John, and Wanda all got a different version of their burger, each with a different sauce. Each sauce was incredible, with a light clean flavor that magically enhances the burger without overpowering it - jeez, I should write advertising copy for La Famosa. I got a stuffed potato - I still have to eat mushy, but this was delicious mushy.

The restaurant owners are in the back. Four years ago they used to live next door to our friends, Jeff and Teri. They remember us after all this time.

Donna’s Ghost Buster burger.

John’s Che Guevera burger.

Jax Bar is next door to La Famosa, so it was a short walk to Jax. The Availables were playing. We caught one set, and it was a good one. The rhythm section was cookin’, the lead guitars were duelin’, and the three-part harmony was smokin’. I really like those guys.

Jeff was at a table with Doc - lucky guy. I wonder what kind of doctor Doc was in his former pre-retirement life. Both Doc and his wife smoke a lot and pound the drinks which seems a bit ironic. Whatever it was, he put a ton of dinero away for retirement. At least enough to buy rounds of drinks for everyone fortunate enough to sit at his table every night - and Doc doesn’t sit at small tables.

When the Availables took their break at 6:50 pm, the sun was nearing its grand finale for the day. We headed for the ocean to say our goodbyes. We found a perfect spot overlooking the beach just in time. We all got outstanding photos of the glorious sunset. It was a wonderful day.

Jax Bar featuring the Availables.

Going to the ocean to wait for sunset.

The magnificent ocean sunset.

Dave and Wanda

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