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| Cliff Divers |
I don't think this is an area that I would want to spend more than a day in. It is known for shrimping, produce,the largest poinsettia farms supplying many countries and of interest, it is where all cars are shipped to have every thing changed to Spanish and then sent all over Mexico and South America. Who would have known?
We had to shop, it was one of the stops. I saw this ring that I just fell in love with and the shop owner was anxious to sell it to me. I kept telling him I was broke as I had just bought diamond earrings for myself. He, of course, thought I needed to spoil myself. I was quick to point out, I had just done that and now I was broke! He kept dropping the price and although it was tempting, I didn't have any money to spend on more jewelry. I had to buy my spoons from each port that I started to collect years ago when I began this adventure of traveling. He went so far as to find me in another store to tell me he'd drop the price more. Sorry buddy, look at the ears! He followed me on the bus and dropped the price more. I just couldn't. Tanya was so surprised that I didn't buy it, I had the cash, but we were three days in to this trip and I needed to buy spoons!
There was a woman who had a baby strapped on her back with three little children waiting for the tour bus to stop. She was selling dolls that appeared to be voo-doo like. Every time the bus stopped in the down town area, she was waiting out side of the door. We couldn't figure out how she got from spot A to B before the bus. It wasn't like we were taking the long route to get there. But she was desperate to sell her dolls. I wanted to take her aside and explain that if the people on the bus didn't buy her dolls at point A, B and C, chances were they were not going to buy them at points D, E and F. But you can't fault her, she had all these kids in tow to feed!
Thanksgiving was finally here. We were in Puerto Vallarta. Now there is some where I could spend a week. It is a small village as the mountain range borders most of the city. Again, we took the city history tour to discover that Liz Taylor and Richard Burton were the biggest scandal this city had to offer in their history. The man who narrated the tour, Alberto, was very informative but every sentence started out with, "Let me tell you some thing." We have collected catch phrases from all our vacations.
In Hawaii, we had met this little girl who was maybe five, dressed cute as a button with a big flower on her hat and sunglasses. She sat in the back of the van with Tanya and I and her parents were in the front. Tanya was sitting next to her and started a conversation, she was quite the conversationalist. I started to join the conversation and she was quick to put me in my place.
"I can only have a conversation with one of you and I am talking to her."
"Excuse me, but I thought you'd like to talk to the Queen." Tanya started to tell her that I was the Queen. Her response was priceless, delivered like a pro.
"Why does that not surprise me?" We could not stop laughing and it became our catch phrase from Hawaii.
That evening, we decided we would go down to the formal seating for dinner and have our Thanksgiving feast. Tanya had been down the night before, but I chose to eat in the cafeteria. The table sat eight and the night before there was another couple who sat with her. But that night, they had reservations at one of the premium restaurants. We sat with another couple who had been assigned this table. There names were Joan and Richard from Sacramento. I did not want to have to be social, it is why I had avoided the formal dining area all week, but, they sat right down next to me. I was sandwiched between them and Tanya.
It was Joan's birthday and they had been on the horse expedition all day. They had met on E-Harmony and they shared their whole dating history with us. Do you understand now why I didn't want to go? I can't just sit there once they start their stories, I have to act interested which leads to more conversation. Tanya? Didn't say a word, she wasn't sitting next to them, I was. There were only four of us at the table so it wasn't like I could divert my attention to my napkin on the floor to avoid all conversations.
All during dinner I kept staring at Richard. If he was facing you head on, his nose was pointing west. I couldn't figure it out. Had it been broken? Had it always been that way? I mean really, it is the first thing you noticed. It wasn't slightly bent, it was oddly bent to the side!
When we got back to the room, I asked Tanya what she thought had happened to his nose. Can you believe she didn't notice? Didn't notice! I asked her how she could sit there for two hours and not notice his nose was sideways? Again, I notice details like this.
The next evening she wanted to go back to the formal dining room. I had about all the socializing I could stand, so I went to the cafeteria. She met up with me later and couldn't stop laughing. They were at the dinner table again that night and she said she could not take her eyes off his nose and couldn't believe she didn't notice it the night before.
I was sitting in a secluded area of the cafeteria when she came looking for me. Every evening during the dinner hour, a little man wheeled a cart around the room chanting, "Green Tea." It sounded more like Gring Tee. Tanya enjoyed her green tea and he enjoyed serving her. Every once in a while in the office now, I'll take a make shift cart I have there, micro wave a cup of water and wheel it over to her desk doing my best imitation of the oriental man chanting, "Gring Tee." We laugh at our memories we have shared on our adventures.
The final day we were on board, as the ship made its way back to LA, we had the best weather of the whole trip. Eighty degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Wouldn't you just know it, the vacation was over and we were headed back home.
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