Ah, I feel more tranquil already.

NEW YEAR'S EVE

The alarm buzzed at 4 am. The shuttle dropped us off at O’Hare at 5 am. Even at this early hour, the regular security line was packed. After dropping off our luggage, we slipped through the TSA pre-check line in 30 seconds. We love our Global Entry status. For $100 and an FBI background check and interview, we received our Global Entry cards three years ago. Not only do we use the TSA pre-check lines, but we also get to skip customs when we return to the US. 

The flight took less than 4 hours. That just boggled my mind. We disembarked in Puerto Vallarta at 11:35 am. Usually, customs at Puerto Vallarta is a mad-house with a mess of planes landing at the same time. Apparently, we hit a lucky void and we were the only plane to hit customs. We were merely rubber-stamped through and within 5 minutes we got our baggage and headed toward the bus stop. 

The taxis at the airport are ridiculously expensive. The bus is a short walk on a pedestrian bridge over the highway. Wanda resisted the idea of taking the bus with all of our luggage and when an enterprising young Uber driver at the bus stop negotiated a decent price to take us to Bucerias, we jumped in.

This is the third year in a row that we have rented the house at the gated Terralta II subdivision. The entire neighborhood is experiencing a water shortage issue. To counter this, most houses have a big tank on their roofs as a reserve for when the city water runs low. An auxiliary pump is also installed to kick up the pressure during those downtimes. When we arrived, a plumber was just finishing up installing new equipment on our house. The most important improvement, as far as we were concerned, was a new instant hot water heater. Last year the finicky instant water heater worked intermittently. It would turn on right away giving us scalding heat only to turn off after 30 seconds. We tested this water heater and it worked flawlessly. 

Here I want to shout out to our wonderful landlady, Lettie. The house is always presented to us in pristine cleanliness. If we ever have a problem, she gets on top of it immediately. It would be impossible to find a nicer, more reliable landlady anywhere. Thanks, Lettie.

The house we are renting in the Terralta 2 gated subdivision. This is our third year here.

The gate at the subdivision entrance.

The Terralta 2 neighborhood.

Now that is an interesting palapa on top of this house. It may not have a fancy grass roof, nor is it big, but it is high.

Jeff, my friend and fellow musician, was playing at the Sunshine Bar in downtown Bucerias from 4 pm to 7 pm. Once settled in, we left for the Sunshine Bar. Jeff had a guitar player, Will, from Canada playing with him. Will tore it up pretty well. Will and his wife are good folks. We all got along famously. After the gig, Jeff and Teri invited Wanda and me, and Will and his wife, over to their house for tacos and a couple of New Year's Eve drinks. We ended up on their wonderful open-air third-floor party pad. At midnight, we watched some far-off fireworks. For some reason Bucerias didn’t shoot any fireworks this year.

It was a terrific first day, but a long day - from 4 am to midnight. We walked home and died in bed.

The sun setting over the Bay of Banderas.

Jeff and Will playing at the Sunshine Bar.

Jeff' and Teri's house (where the green leafy front swing-out doors are). They live in Terralta 1, which is just one subdivision down from our house in Terralta 2. Notice the fancy palapa, or grass-roofed open-air room, on the top floor.

NEW YEAR'S DAY

Last year, Bucerias was extra dusty from all the construction going on. Several new condos were being built. Construction in Mexico is slow and, for the investors, precarious. I estimate that 20% to 30% of construction is abandoned before completion leaving cement hulks behind. I was anxious to check out the projects in Bucerias. How many were completed? How many were still under construction? How many were stalled?

So, our first order of business was to take a comprehensive hike around town and take stock of, not just the state of construction, but to see what bars and restaurants have survived, check to see if there was any lingering damage from Hurricane Roslyn that hit Bucerias on October 22, and to just soak in the warm sun.

I was delighted to see that one of the biggest eyesores in Bucerias, a half-built naked cement skeleton that seemed to have been abandoned for a couple of years was revived. It had a brand new white stucco sheen applied to its facing. It still wasn’t completed, but what a nice improvement.

Two years into another big condo’s construction, we could see that it might be finished in another year. Just about all the projects have made significant progress, although none were actually completed. I could only see one major building that was abandoned, but it was a biggie. On the south side of town, the really wealthy side, one prominent condo had stalled creating an eyesore in the prettiest area of Bucerias. Yikes, that won’t do. I overheard a person saying that a fatal construction accident happened at this site. I’m not sure if that was true or whether it had any impact on the building’s fate.

I was glad to see that there was absolutely no left over scars from the hurricane. A couple of bars are gone - Buzzos and Rhythm and Blues were the two most notable. Jax Bar, the top club in town had expanded even more. This juggernaut was packed full of people. It remains the biggest bar with the best bands.

The street that parallels the beach was torn up and was being replaced with real cement. Most streets in Mexico are the worst sort of cobblestone imaginable. While the big stones are durable, they are insanely rough. This new smooth street will be a rarity in Mexico. 

Other than that, Bucerias is just about the same as last year.

Of course, the first place that we explored was the beachfront. Bucerias' beach stretchs for miles.

We love the Mexican colors.

This is the ubiquitous Oxxo convenience mart. There is one on every corner and probably two in the middle of the block. There aren’t any competitors in the convenience store business. It's Oxxo or nothing.

As you can see, these cobblestone, or should I say cobblerock, streets are not smooth. The pot holes don’t help.

Later in the afternoon, we took time out for a meal at the family-run Delicias Mexicanas. It was delicious and reasonably priced. The location is well hidden on a back street. It is basically an alley turned into a restaurant.

We split a large Nachos Supreme. Back home, supreme usually means with sour cream. Not so here. Supreme meant strips of fillet mignon, smoked bacon, sautéed mushrooms and onions, a boatload of melted high-quality cheese, and a wad of guacamole. Even the Topo-Chico sparkling water was delicious.

The family-restaurant's outdoor kitchen.

JANUARY 2

Jeff offered to let me play with him on Wednesday at the Sunshine Bar. I jumped at the chance, but we hadn’t played together for a year. Consequently, I spent the day at Jeff’s practicing a bunch of new tunes and going over a ton of old songs that Jeff hasn’t played for a long time. I have about 140 songs that I juggle in my head. Jeff must have 600 or 700 rattling around in his noggin so if he gets rusty after a year or two it is understandable. The practice was fun and we accomplished quite a bit.

Jeff also took us to Chedraui, a kind of Walmart, to pick up some groceries and supplies. Overall, it was a pretty lazy day.

Dave and Wanda

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