Home

Our flight landed at 8:30 this morning. Our Mexican adventure has ended.

The approximate center of the photo below shows Ixtapa hugging the shore..

In the photo below the yellow X on the left shows where Jack and Linda stayed and the one on the right shows where we stayed.

... photographed as our airplane made a wide turn toward the mountains after taking off toward the sea. Tuesday's forecast is for snow here. I sure hope they got that wrong.

Last Evening

Since we leave for the airport tomorrow for an overnight flight back home, today was a day of packing followed by a restful afternoon by the pool. Weeks ago I found a free app for my iPhone consisting of all nine symphonies of Beethoven. Today I plugged in my ear buds and listened to the Third. We're a long way from his home town of Vienna but the music is magnificent and although the app does not identify the orchestra or conductor, the rendering is superb.

The pool's water was an exceptionally smooth mirror today as you can see in the photo ...

A nice advantage of our location in this complex is that we are at the far end of the pool and get to see its whole curvy length when sitting out.

Just before supper, which consisted of leftovers brought home from Emilio's last night because that food is too tasty to waste, the sun put on a colorful display that I captured from our rooftop. On the beach we caught many a cloudless sunset, beautiful in its own way, but finally we got one of the cloud-blazing persuasion, a fitting symbol of our delightful stay in Mexico drawing to an end.

Time to go home to see the family faces we have missed.

Rain

After 41 days without so much as a drop we had a couple of hours of rain late this afternoon accompanied by occasional thunder. This was a special enough event to capture on video ...

Our groceries are now depleted and rather than obtain more we plan to sustain ourselves for the last two days with restaurant food. This evening, after the rain ceased, we finally visited Emilio's Restaurant for a meal, which we had intended for weeks. We previously enjoyed their take-out offerings and our table meal did not disappoint either. The place lies a three minute walk from our condo and for most of our meal we were the only clients. A few more filtered in as we were readying to leave. Reportedly the tourist season comes to an abrupt end Mid-March and we have witnessed confirmation of that.

Emilio's provided Carol a handy item which is not uncommon to restaurants here - a bag rack. It is like a midget coat rack made for keeping the purse or bag handy and in view. Here is a photo ...

I finished the autobiography of John Newton. Every so often he expresses an interesting comment related to his readings in the Bible which made the book interesting for me. Because the doctrine of the Trinity was so widely taught in those days he accepted it, but also admitted to confusion in areas of Bible understanding. One statement by Christ he particularly liked, for example, certainly did not make the Trinity more believable: "No man can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him" (John 6:44). There the superior authority of the Father is so clear that trying to reconcile it to the notion that the Son and the Father are co-equal could not fail to cause confusion.

My three books for Mexico are now read, except for my ongoing re-reading of the Bible of course.
We are down to a day and a half to before departure.


BLOG CONTEST: Fill in the blank correctly and you may win a genuine piece of Mexican sea shell.

The purpose of the raised circle is _______________.

La Ropa

Before we leave here we wanted to visit the beach at La Ropa and today we did. One bus took us to the market in Zihuatenajo from where we caught another bus to La Ropa. (Transfers? Fuggedaboudit.) This bus driver was in no hurry. Each bus stop in Zihua was a place for a ten minute break so he could get off the bus and shop.

Next he drove us up steep hills from which driveways sprang up further at 45 degree angles or worse. This is vehicular-brake-condition-awareness territory. We intended to get off at the stop for La Perla Restaurant but we didn't communicate that well enough and the driver muddled on until my message finally penetrated. A passenger told us we could stay on board and get off at La Perla on the way back. The driver indicated no no, at the far end he was going to park a while. We could believe it. So we got off and walked back which turned to be not at all unpleasant.

At the La Perla, a restaurant on the beach, we obtained a lunch and enjoyed the view from under the shade of a thatched roof. I love the sunshine here as long as I'm not in it. A fellow approached us burdened with a big stack of newspapers and magazines on his shoulder for sale. I've seen him before boarding a bus we were on, loaded with his weighty merchandise. He certainly earns his money. I didn't really want a newspaper and his prices were no bargain but I lightened his load a bit anyway. All the articles were straight off Yahoo News. Newspapers are over, aren't they?

Beach view - La Ropa

Carol at our table in La Perla

For a few pesos one can rent a combo that consists of two or three beach chairs, a beach umbrella, and a table. Good until 6:00 pm according to the ticket although nearly all are abandoned shortly after five and then picked up and carted off by the entrepreneur. One gets the point and rather than enjoy the shade cast by the fellow who is standing and waiting for you to leave so he can stack your chairs and go home, we moved on like everybody else.

Something else that can be rented if the lounge chair isn't comfy enough.

Carol mentioned that my blog lacks photos of its author so here is one she took at the coffee shop yesterday, in Ixtapa.

The guard at the front gate where we're staying is named Jorge. Today someone told me now he's the pope.

Keep all those cards and letters coming, folks.

Last Meeting in Zihua (Por Ahora)

We had another tremendously warm, sunny day in Ixtapa relieved at intervals by a cold coffee in a place that nailed the art, and a session in the pool which cooled us off beautifully. Yesterday I got a light sun burn on my chest which is peculiar since whenever I'm out I sit in the shade. Seems like the rays are strong even there. Below is a photo of Carol on the first landing of the stairs to our condo.

We attended the mid-week meeting tonight which was as lively as ever and also received a round of applause at the conclusion. Below is a photo of the Coordinator interviewing a young sister about her initiatives to serve where the need is greater, namely in this congregation's territory.

In a previous posting I said I wouldn't talk anymore about the ever-present level changes here (such as the ones below) ...

 One the other hand we encountered this unannounced step in a sidewalk today. During my days in architectural design I recall seven inches was considered the maximum safe height for a step. This one was double that. It will be something if we get home without broken toes or a sprained ankle. Sometimes Carol has pointed out that I passed a stranger who said, "Hola" but I failed to respond. I'm sorry but I'm a little hard of hearing and I have to keep my eyes riveted on the ground to see what my foot must deal with next.

Observations (Part 3)

A peculiar phenomenon we have encountered several times is the challenge to purchase something with a bill worth 500 pesos. Now 500 pesos may sound like a lot of money but it is equal to forty Canadian dollars. I have been trying to break one for quite a number of days, so when I wished to pay for something I'd tender it.

Curiously for many stores and restaurants this presents a challenge up to which they aren't. Either we must pay in smaller denominations or the merchant goes on a journey to find a fellow merchant who can change the bill, not always successfully.

I wonder if this is a measure of how slow the tourist season is for them this year. A taxi driver once told us that the Americans are staying home this year and all they're getting are Canadians. This seems to be substantiated by the number of tourists we've met who are from Canada.

In other news, I've read a little more of John Newton's story (see an earlier posting) which he wrote 250 years ago on the installment plan. The story is conveyed in a series of letters he wrote. Buy his own admission he lived the life of a very stupid person for many years which makes for an unpleasant narrative, but the fellow had more lives than a cat. I thought he had one dramatic incident from which he escaped in a practically miraculous way, but he had legion.

When his thinking turned serious about God the first question on his mind was, How can I know that the Bible is really the inspired word of God? It was my question too when I started to investigate these things and in my case led to a good deal of research and study.

For Mr. Newton the approach was different. He concluded that since Jesus taught that exercising obedience and faith would meet with specified results, now in this life, he would follow Jesus' instructions and look for the promised benefits. If things happened as Jesus taught then it had to be true. One can't find fault with that approach.

He freely admits his Bible reading gave him merely a start in 'experimental Christianity' but he knew he was now going in the direction of truth. Nevertheless his earlier years in Africa, working in the slave trade, did by his own admission expose him to a culture of superstition which he had to some degree absorbed. Although he repudiated superstition, the reader can see that not all traces were eradicated. He admits this too.

Still, he made a serious and humble effort to learn which is certainly commendable.

Four days left.

Interesting Sunday

A mighty warmth descended on us today and there were Web reports of 95 degrees F.

We roe a bus to Zihua to attend the meeting today. The only bus seats were in the back which gave us the bounciest bone-breaker ride we had here so far. At one point I put my head close to Carol's to say something and a hefty bump in the road knocked our skulls together. Good thing our heads weren't close a few seconds after. The bus suffered a jolt magnitudes worse which would have left us unconscious in the back seat until back at the Marina bus terminal.

At the hall we were treated to a talk by a visitor from Australia on the subject How Real Is God To You? On a white board beside him were written the following numbers which for a while passed without mention ...

He spoke of the instinctive wisdom of ants storing food in summer for the winter, the order in the universe, and other examples of wisdom manifest in nature. He mentioned it's possible to consider all these things like the numbers above, just a series of observable facts with no particular meaning. But if we reason on the matter we can discern that in fact there is a clear meaning, such as the example below.

Similarly when observing the abundance of wisdom in creation, it points to a meaning, namely that there is an all-wise Creator. At the end of the talk he erased one number ...

He explained that for some people the issue of God's existence is not so clear because in their view there may be a gap or questions about it. He said when that is the case the important thing is not resign oneself to living with the gap or questions, but pursue the answers because they can indeed be found.

The following is a view of the hall after the meeting. You can see Carol's head at the right side of the center window. She was having a chat ...

Our bus back to Ixtapa was piloted by a disciple of Evel Kneival. The ride is over a modest mountain pass which we covered in the fastest time yet. Some of these buses chitty-bang-bang slowly and then you climb aboard one that takes a curve on two wheels.

The five minute walk from the bus stop to our place involved a sobering encounter with the sunshine. Not only was it very sunny and hot today but of course we were dressed up, me with wool dress pants, socks and shoes. sigh.