Hot Water (Roca)

Yeah! We have hot water. Here's a picture of me enjoying a hot shower!

PICTURE HAS BEEN REMOVED BECAUSE IT WAS DISGUSTING

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Alright, I kid. But we do have hot water. Took some effort. The extractor I bought at Home Depot was too small. Amazing folks on RV.Net walked me through what to get. Alas, it ain't easy.

But, what a great experience. I have been in a dozen Mom and Pop hardware stores and even a welding shop looking for a #6  Extractor to get the broke off adapter off the tank. In each and every store, the staff all rallied and searched their shelves and looked for alternatives. It was a great social event and heart warming to me.

Ended up an hour away in an Autozone and they had one. Came back and, with a lot of ratchet pressure, it broke lose and came out clean. After that it was minutes to put in PEX and the brass Sharkbite fittings.

Another family weekend here at Roca Azul. Yesterday Boy and Girl Scouts and their families started showing up and we now have at least a thousand tents behind us. Ok, maybe its a hundred but they are everywhere. Again, the kids are amazingly well behaved and the parents are having a great tome too it seems. BTW, haven't seen a single person staring at their phones, and they DO have them. Nice ones.  And no, these folks are not disturbing us at all. We enjoy seeing families do things and they don't stay up all night. Even Bruno doesn't bark at them...much.

Hey Barry!   Check this out! 

Not at all unusual to see 3, even 4, folks on a scooter. With their stuff. Helmets? Pffffftttttttt

Another wonderful day in beautiful Mexico with the beautiful people of Mexico.

Cold Water (Roca)

That, my friends, is a water heater that leaks. The culprit is the cold water in plug. I held off touching it for a week but it got too bad and we had to do something. It's PEX so that is good. If we can find the fittings. Chris said Home Depot has them.

So we did the 1 hour trek into Guadalajara traffic to Home Depot. As usual, Chris was right. But, wow, Mexican HD's are bright, cheery, ultra modern with amazing displays. The kitchen, bath, and tile displays feature some beautiful fixtures.

It begins out front with several tents, complete with Booth Babes hawking new products.

Booth Babe

Forgot to take pictures inside because got busy finding stuff. At one time I had 3 HD employees taking me all over the store showing me what I needed. One lady spent at least 20 minutes with me.

We then hit Petco because Bruno has eaten almost all his food. Dang, it hurts. A big bag of his grain free stuff is around $40 in the States. $80 here! Next trip we'll load up.

And we ate. This is a beautiful restaurant on the highway!

Hey! That's the grouch from San Luis!

Delicious sirloin. Robin had salmon. Again, Around $22 incuding 1 Pina, 2 beers, and tip.

We keep getting the best waiters. They are pros, not a second job thing. For instance, in Mexico you give the waiter your card and you also tell him how much propina (tip) to add. Two times, including this gent, they misunderstood my "viente per cent" for "viente pesos". Both times they smiled, said gracias and repeated what they thought I said...I go NO....PER CENT not PESOS! Then there is a HUGE smile and BIG gracias because 20 pesos would only be $1.17, not 20% of the tab.

We picked up the pinatas for the Twins' 3rd birthday...2 of these and balls to put in them. Around $15 for 2 of them and the stuff that goes with it!

Then to fix the heater. Arrrgh. Can't get the old plug out. Extractor I bought is too small. Now to go to Plan B. Tomorrow.

Where the hell is Barry? He would have fixed this in minutes.

A haircut and Chapala

Not me, Tibby. Tibby got a fantastic bath and haircut this morning from a nice lady in town. She and the lady became good friends judging by how they interacted with each other when I picked her up.

Oh, the cost? $8.62!!!!!! Plus a generous tip. We normally pay around $40.

Tibby wasn't ready until 1 so we did a short afternoon trip to the Mecca of Gringolandia: Chapala.
But, we never saw or heard any. Nothing but Spanish.

Had a nice meal on the porch of a restaurant in the center.

These two gents dropped by and played us a couple of songs. They were great!

Robin's salmon

Partial view of the porch.

Then we walked around.

Something else happened. Forgot what it was.
........oh yes. Our fantastic Realtor showed the house and think we'll get an offer this weekend!!!! Fingers crossed........

Local Lunch

Stayed sort of local and had lunch. Only reason posting is the girl on the what ever they call it. The jetski has a huge hose on the exhaust and blows the rider up in the air. The rider has to maneuver by shifting her body.

Lunch was great. Restaurant was pretty including animal things.

Guadalajara (GDL)

Here's a report on what else we did in Guadalajara. Hope you read the other post on the Mariachi.

Guadalajara is the 2nd largest city in Mexico. WIKI. It is about 1'15" from the RV Park and an easy drive. To be such a big city, it is easy to navigate. As an aside, we noted that traffic is fairly disciplined in Mexico. People drive fast, pass on solid lines, etc., but it is kind of an organized chaos. They will yield if you persist and we have not seen road rage, horns blowing, etc., even in the cities. I'm sure it exists but we haven't seen it.

Anyway we found a public lot that only cost about $3 for about 5 hours. Then we scored. Robin's been looking for Tinker Bell stuff for the twin's birthday and there it was, in the store next to the lot.

We then walked to Centro

We don't understand this. It is a produce store and it is always packed. There is produce every where because it is grown here. We don't know why this store is mobbed like this all the time.

Of course we ate. This is right on the huge plaza and has to be an expensive tourist trap, right? Nope. We had superb meals for $30 total, including a hefty tip. Oh, and 2 for 1 Pinas! Hefty tip because Salvadore was awesome. He reminds us of friend Juan because he was happy and singing all the time - not just for us...we could hear him in the kitchen.

Salvadore - Waiter Supreme

Pouring the heated tequila over my shrimp

Poof! This is hard to do...we gave up on it in our restaurant

The results

View of the restaurant

Then we walked around town. Block after block of parks and pedestrian streets. We had thought we wouldn't like Guad but we do.

Chris/Juan: what are these? It is what Robin asked you about

We drove home via Chapala. Comments in the picture captions.

That is a trash truck. The bad thing is we have seen more guys collecting trash in neighborhoods. They have to throw the trash bags all the way up to a guy on top who catches it!

Why yes, that is a gent walking his dog and goat on a leash. 

Remember Tinkerbell? This shop is making us 2 piñatas for the twins incorporating the Tinkerbell things we found in Guad on to these huge 3's. Cost for 2 is $13! We get them Friday. Here's others: