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December 2008
Karen’s tea
party
Karen O’Hara loves
to play cards and she was one of the first gals that Betsy met
when we first stopped in Paradise
 Village
in December of 06. Karen has a tea party where each attendee
brings a wrapped tea cup. The cups are exchanged in the usual
party open, steal gift, open another, gift method. Betsy first
opened a cup with a cobalt blue design, unfortunately someone
else wanted the same cup and it was whisked away from her by
another attendee. Fortunately someone again took Betsy’s cup and
she was able to get her original back before the exchange
ended. Next, we enjoyed some great finger
 sandwiches, fruit,
cookies or candy and of course tea, hot or cold.
When all the food was put away people divided up for Baja Rummy
or Mexican Train. Betsy played Rummy and shared the winning
prize with Vi of Fairy Tale. The prizes were hand made
bracelets that Karen had made, and the color of Betsy’s bracelet
is perfect for her. Since this was a tea party, Betsy decided
to pick some of the local bougainvillea flowers and attach them
to one of her sun hats. Yes, she was the only one in a flowered
hat, but she looked cute! 
Christmas Program at Estudio Café
 For the past two years we have attended the Christmas Program at
Estudio Café; this is a neighborhood performance followed by a
great dinner. This year the date was Tuesday the 16th
and we were a little concerned because we had not heard a word
about it.
Finally the week before there
 was an announcement on the morning
net concerning the program. We quickly purchased tickets and put
the date down as another thing to look forward too. The program
consisted of new talent this year and we enjoyed listening to a
flautist and a talented soprano, and the Quesa Divas. The
Baptist choir from a local church started the program. Dinner
was a spinach soup, a wonderful fish cooked with tomatoes,
peppers, and onions, potatoes, and ice cream with seasoned
apples.
Puerto Vallarta Concert
Something that we were not prepared for was the PV Symphony and
concert choir that was to
 perform at the American school the
Sunday before the Estudio show. Both shows were fantastic and
it was so great to catch the Christmas spirit here were the sun
always shines. The stores were loaded with shoppers and
Christmas decorations were everywhere. In downtown Puerto
Vallarta the nightly posadas reenacted the search for lodging
that Joseph and Maria made. The Flor de Noche Buena or the
poinsettia were everywhere, many Mexican families use the
flowers like we would use a tree.
Christmas Eve
and Christmas Day
This was the first Christmas that our daughter ran into a
problem getting here to Puerto Vallarta from her home. The day
before her flight, she was informed
that the flight would be canceled due to snow. Since she was
using frequent flier points, they could not get her here to
Mexico until the 29th. Their excuse was that they
had to arrange travel for paying customers first! Well, after a
lot of anguish and much web searching, she got a full fare
flight that would go to Dallas the first day and by leaving
early the next morning she would arrive in PV on the 23rd.
At that point we knew there wasn’t any other option so we say go
ahead and book the ticket. We picked up a
 tired lady, fed her
some lunch and took her to the boat for a short night. In the
evening we were cooking for friends at their villa. The
following day, Hank and Jen went out and did a little last
minute shopping while Betsy tackled their traditional Christmas
Eve menu of tamales and shrimp stuffed chili rellenos .They
arrived home just in time to help wrap tamales and start them
cooking. We had invited cruising friends, Peter and Marni to
share dinner with us for they too were inconvenienced by the
snow, but their family wouldn’t be arriving from Canada until
after Christmas. We had a fun evening which seemed to fly by,
soon it was time to finish up that last bit of wrapping, stuff
the stockings and get ready for bed.
Christmas morning broke cold and crisp with a real nip
in the air and snow on the ground. Yeah, wrong!! It was
another beautiful day in Paradise; we made our raspberry fizz
and toasted all the members of our family, then proceeded to
open our gifts. Jennifer was able to bring several of the
things we ordered on line, but you don’t need many things while
you are cruising so the gift part of Christmas is so much more
low key. Presents included golf lessons, surf lessons and
swimming with the dolphins
 
In
the early afternoon Jen and I went to the beach for a few hours,
not that many people on the beach at that time. Soon it was
time go back to the boat and start the preparations for
Christmas dinner. Joining us for dinner would be Sue and Scot
from Suebee. We combined talents and prepared a very nice
dinner. Again the evening went fast and all were starting to
nod. We said goodnight and soon all were sleeping soundly.
Jennifer's Surfing Lesson
The next
morning we got ready to go surfing in a small town north of PV
called Sayalita. We had a recommendation to Durante
 Surfing
www.duendesurfsayulita.com
and
when we had emailed them they said just come out to the beach
and they could work with us. We arrived about 11 and Jen
was able to have a very long hour lesson. You start the lesson
by learning how to carry your board down the beach. Next they
take the lesson to the sand, teaching you balance and footwork.
Then they move to the water. The instructor watches the waves
and makes sure that the student knows when to paddle. Next, it
is getting up on the wave. It really looks so much easier that
it actually is. Jennifer did a great job! I am not sure that
they watch the clock, but they watch the student and make sure
that it is a successful experience. Hank and Betsy stood or sat
around and took a ton of pictures. After the lesson we headed
for a beach side lunch palapas for a beer and tacos.
Puerto Vallarta Botanical Gardens
 The
next day we travel south of PV to the Puerto Vallarta Botanical
 Gardens which are located in the mountains 1,300 feet above sea
level off highway 200 on the way to the town of El Tuito. This
is a 25 acre tropical wonder which features over 3,000 plant
species. We arrived about 10:30 in the morning and with trail
map in hand started to explore the many trail. It is truly
beautiful and the fact that so many of the plants are identified
in Spanish and English was very helpful.
We
walked the three main trails, the rain forest,
 the river and the
orchid house and dry land. We didn’t see any blooming orchids
this time of year on the rain forest trail but there were many anthuriums, ferns and bromeliads.
 The river walk wasn’t much
yet but maybe it will have many more plants.
The main building is a two story edifice that contains the
restaurant, store, office, kitchen, and possibly living space.
It overlooks the river and the gardens and it a beautiful
location for a restaurant. We enjoyed a wonderful meal of
tortilla soup, pizza and
a frosty drink to go with the soup.
Jennifer is a fan a good guacamole and we were not disappointed
 it theirs. We had been told that there were parrots that flew
around and landed on your hat, but the only parrots we saw were
small green ones for it was the wrong time of the year for most
of the larger birds. The orchid house had some great plants for
sale and it was a real shame that we couldn’t take any of them
with us.
After we had spent time in the gardens we decided to drive
further up the road to the town of El Tuito. The guide book said
that this town was know for their weavings and that they had
several factories that gave demonstrations. We did find the
town but unfortunately it was siesta time and all the stores
were closed up tightly, so we headed back to the boat.
Swimming with the dolphins
 Another gift
from Santa was an opportunity to swim with the dolphins at
Vallarta Adventures in Nuevo Vallarta. Hank and Jennifer were
going to be the swimmers and Betsy was going to stay in the
observation area and be the photographer. Little did we know
that each group and there were four groups in the large aquarium
had their own photographer. Betsy was able to get some snaps of
them
 getting
ready to go into the water, but it turns out that she was too
far away to have any great
 pictures. Now the group
that Hank and Jen were in had only one other couple so they got
lots of time with their dolphin. It seems that one
of the other couple was wearing water shoes and the dolphin
would not come any where near him as long as he had those shoes
on. They each got to touch, pat, play and ride the dolphin
during the hour. To ride a dolphin, the dolphin rolls over on
its back and you hold on to the two
 lower fins. At the
end of the hour, all the swimmers line up on one side of the
pool and the four dolphins put on a short leaping show. Was it
worth the hefty price for the chance to be up close to a
dolphin? A resounding yes says both Hank and
Jennifer. They get you another time when you go to purchase
photos for they are really expensive, you only do this once, so
you go ahead and purchase a few!
All too soon
it was New Year’s Eve and we knew that the year of 2008 would
soon be behind us. |
