Hot, Hot, Hot

They say summers in PV are like living in a steam bath and today I think what they say is true. I shut myself in my bedroom and turned on the zone AC tonight and I am finally cooling down. I'm told the electric bills in the summer are really high. Since they only come every other month I am expecting a shock....hope not since I do have the zone type AC and I have fans in every room...at night I set the AC to turn off after an hour and turn the fan on...I am asleep by the time the AC turns off and the fan is nice...more on that later....

Went to the orphanage to volunteer (something I had done several years ago). Had a great tour of the place (thank you Bill) but their were no babies to play with and feed this time around. I still plan to volunteer but this may take place later in the year. Will look for something to volunteer for in the meantime (maybe the American library--will check that out next week). Volunteering is good for your health (and soul) according to a book I recently read. (oh, and you're supposed to eat lots of fruits and vegetables along with doing physical activity...check on all counts)

During the summer lots of folks are gone so those who stay here year round are really special. I was lucky enough to have Colin and Bill accompany me today and after our orphanage visit Bill took us out to a lunch at Coco's (finally met Coco too--nice lady who has discovered some kind of patch that you put on your body and it keeps mosquitos off--only problem is that you have to go to Guadalajara to get them...she's going to bring some back). Coco's is a lovely outdoor cafe with trees all around. Since Bill lives on my side of town he took me home and we had a great chat about life, books and more (thank you Bill for the great conversation).

There is an expat group that gets together every other Tuesday for conversation and drinks. We've been going to the Cheeky Monkey right across from the Malacon but they are closing for a month so next get together will be at Harry's Bar (don't they seem to have a Harry's Bar everywhere--Venice, Hong Kong, etc?). Margaritas at Cheeky Monkeys are $1.00 USD and last night they gave everyone a beautiful fruit gift basket...all wrapped up with a ribbon and cellophane and a nice note thanking us for coming. Last night the crowd was smaller and it wasn't as hot (maybe 60 folks--the time before the count was about 120!). Met some nice new folks and some people I'd already met. Nice stroll along the bay afterward--something I haven't done since I got here and that is a shame because it is so colorful and charming (folks selling candy apples, cotton candy, balloons, corn on a stick, purses made out of gum wrappers...artists creating...performers doing their thing...great way to spend the hour before sunset)

Back to the expat group: One lady I met was originally from Sacramento (yay! Northern California!). She gave me lots of into about good dentists, doctors, services and more...I've been lucky to meet really nice people who have been great about sharing their 'finds' in PV.

Now back to: Today I learned that in the fall I can expect some expats and/or the International Friendship Club to charter a bus to Guadalajara for an overnight shopping trip. Although I still need some furniture I am waiting until the fall when I can do the shopping trip--the prices are lower there for furniture, art work, miscellaneous things and their are folks that can create things from photographs (so I'll be cutting up some of my design magazines)... PV has most things one would want and it's not worth schleping some things from the states which was the case when I first started thinking about moving here(dehumidifiers used to be impossible to get here and now they are easy to find--same with some other items). Will write more about this after I've had a chance to do more research.