Watching Some Curling Today

WHERE ARE WE? La Penita, Nayarit, Mexico

Up and at it this morning with a smile on my face cause today is Sunday, and Sunday is Birria day!!  So I jumped on the bike and off I went whistling my favourite tune all the way down town where the ......oh no my birria guy was not there!!  What now?  There must be someone else doing birria, so I rode around a bit and sure enough, there was a lady with a taco stand.  Yup she had some so I got a couple. They were not as good as the Birria Guy, but they were ok.  Now I could get on with my day.

Today I had decided to watch some curling from home.  The Women of the Rings Manitoba Semi-Final and Final will be played today from Rivers, Manitoba which is our home town and it is being live broadcast on You Tube.  It makes me very proud to see the first class act the Rivers Curling Club is putting on. This is not our first rodeo and every event previous has been first class as well.  Our town and surrounding area is about 2000 people, and when it comes to curling, we putting on an event that rivals most cities around.  Today I watched the semi final, which was very high scoring for that caliber of Curling but a real good game none the less.  Then I watched the final which was very well played as well.  The ice looked excellent and my old friend Resby Coutts did a bang up job of the play by play along with Jill Officer who is a former World and Olympic champion.

I caught a shot of a group of our old curling days friends watching the game and lifting a red solo cup or two or three.  They were part of the volunteer base as well I would bet.  Good job gals!!

The Peterson rink won the championship after a tough fought battle.  I'm sure they will represent Manitoba well at the Canadian Women's Scotties in Toronto in a few days.  Right after the game they had the trophy presentation.  

Resby was the MC for the presentations and my friend Les Wedderburn was there as the Host Committee Chairperson.  Les has been the Chairperson for these kinds of events in Rivers almost 20 years now.  He and I along with Resby were responsible for dreaming up a plan for Rivers to host their first Target Juniors in Rivers back in 2007.  What a success that event was.  Now I am being nostalgic!! 

Resby giving out the trophies

Les Wedderburn speaking on behalf of the host committee

Another proud moment was watching one of the advertisements during the broadcast which highlights Riverdale Municipality.  Part of the advertisement was about Rivers Provincial Park and of course Cj's Snack Shack and Mini Golf.  

Our mini golf course

The old Cj's.  We now have a new one.

Oh and our funnel cakes with ice cream

We finished off the day with a nice visit at the palapa while we watched the sunset.  Yes we got some sunset today, but only for a couple minutes.  It was a fun day.  Good Nite!!

There it is!!

The Elusive Sunset

WHERE ARE WE? La Penita, Nayarit, Mexico

A quick boring day today.  A swim and a walk in the morning.  Then a little nap.  After that I finished up hooking up the new stove after installing a new gas line.  Ed gave me a hand and we had it up and running in no time.  

Out with the old

In with the new

We gathered again for sunset on the beach anticipating a good one.  The sun has been shining all day today so it looked good.

But before the sun could set, the clouds moved in and we missed another one.  Oh well, there are a lot more sunsets to watch.  Good Nite!!

A Variety of Things Today.

WHERE ARE WE? La Penita, Nayarit, Mexico

Well here we go diving into 2026.  With any luck this year will be a lot of fun.  Archie and I enjoyed a nice walk this morning.  The ocean is filling in the exit for the estuary with sand right now.  I guess that is because there is little to no water coming down from the mountains.  Just my opinion.

This morning I headed down to the Coppel to pick up some cash.  We get our money transferred here by Remitly and Bancoppel is one of the pickup spots.  The fees to use this service are significantly less than using an ATM and we can get bigger amounts at one time.  You have to show your passport and provide a Mexican address and phone number to pick up the money.  First of the month is rent time so that is what I was picking up today.  For $1000 Cnd we received 13530 pesos after all the fees and charges.  

Coppel is next door to the Bodega (well next door is the stripper bar, then Bodega) and Bodega makes the best homemade style buns every hour throughout the day.  We always pick up a half dozen whenever we can because they are the closest thing to Canadian buns we have found.  So I had to drop in and pick some up.

January 6 is coming up and it is Kings Day here in Mexico.  Kings Day (Dia de Reyes) is probably more celebrated than Christmas because it signifies the day the 3 Kings brought gifts to baby Jesus.  So there is lots of gift exchanges here on that day.  The other tradition is the Rosca de Reyes or Kings bread.  Everyone buys one and there is a little tradition that goes with it.  I will tell more on January 6. 

Next stop was the Pemex to fill up the Jeep.  Holy is gas ever expensive here.  I got 73 liters and it cost me 1830 pesos ($140.00 Cnd)   That equates to $1.92 a liter Cnd or about $7.50 Cnd for a US gallon!!!  Good thing we don't drive much while we are here.  This is the first fill I have given it since arriving in Mexico.

Of course right by the Pemex was a Birria place so I stopped for a couple.  They were sooo good and the Jamaica pronounced hah-MY-kah. What is this agua de Jamiaca? It's hibiscus tea made from an infusion of hibiscus flowers and is it ever refreshing.  We drink lots of it down here.

Then back home.  We were sitting around looking for whales and we came up with a plan to make the fence between us and the ocean easier to see through.  It has been like a jail up to now with the metal rusting and each wire expanding with the rust making it hard to look through.  So I cleaned up a couple panels by hammering on the wire until a lot of the rust flakes fell off.  Then I borrowed Bernards hand grinder and cut out 3 out of every 4 wires to make it more transparent.  The general consensus seems to be to do the rest of the panels as well.  That's for another day I think.

From our chair we can see the horizon quite plain now.  That's where the whale are.

Ed and Jen have bought a new gas stove for the downstairs so I said I would hook it up for them.  I worked a bit on taking out the old stove and disconnected the gas line.  The line was a bit old and frayed so decided to put the project on hold until tomorrow when I could get a new gas line.  

    

After supper I went down to the Cafecito to hang out with Kenia and Suzanna.  Kenia was putting up new lights on the Cafecito.  By the time she was done a crowd had gathered and she had to go in and help serve.  I talked to Oscar for a while and then headed for home.  

That was my day.  Good Nite!!

Happy New Year!!

WHERE ARE WE? La Penita, Nayarit, Mexico

A nice day to do nothing.  It is the first day of an amazing year.  Happy New Year!!!  I hope everyone looks back in 365 days and say it was amazing!!!  

Today is the first day of the Manitoba Women of the Rings Curling Championship in our home town of Rivers.  Rivers has long been a leader in all things curling, and this event is no different.  I am so proud of everyone who makes something like this possible.  I was involved with the Rivers Curling Club for many years, but have not thrown a rock since 2012!!  

Back to our life, we played some cards with Ken and Rhonda and of course I lost.  

One of the rounds requires you to not take any tricks.  This was my hand!!  I didn't have a chance.

A little bit of TV and off to bed.  Good Nite!!!

Old Peoples New Years Eve

WHERE ARE WE? La Penita, Nayarit, Mexico

Well we are 365 days into 2025.  We were just commenting on how it seems like yesterday that we were all scared to death of New Years 2000!!!  We had been indoctrinated that the world would be forever changed on that night and guess what.....it didn't.  We have been told a lot of scary things since that time as well that never materialized, but for New Years 2026 there are no anomalies looming that I know of.  Our day was filled with just having fun.  We spent time in the pool and a little later a flyball game erupted.  We had 8 people playing so it was fun.

Everyone make fun of me because I just hate when my hands get all wrinkly and then I have to touch someone elses hands.  Because we like to high five after every game, I always turn my hands around backward for the high fives.  Now everyone is mimicking me!!

While we were playing flyball, Lilly was busy finishing her puzzle.  It was a tough one and she didn't get a lot of help!!

Good work Lilly!

We were told that there would be fireworks at 8pm and then again at midnight.  Not much of a decision which ones to watch. lol.  So we got out our chairs and sat on the beach for the 8 pm show.  There were about 10 fireworks over the course of a half hour.  Glad we didn't pay admission.  

Pretty smoky

There is one!!!

This is probably what will happen to me tonight.  I will certainly not see official midnight but rather 9 pm which is official La Penita Midnight!!  So I hope everyone has a great New Years Eve!!  Good Nite!!!