The food too was good, many of the selections based on Swiss and German style meals, in fact all four at our table selected the same thing, bratwurst. We all pronounced it excellent, though comments such as “does size matter” were heard being bandied about.
Our camera batteries died, someone was going to send us the Meal pic by e-mail. Was it you ?
That evening we
also agreed with Peter to change out the solenoid in our motorhome in the morning, and to get an early start to beat the heat of the day. 8 or 830? Peter says 8:30. This part was to allow both sets of batteries to be charged from the alternator while driving--it had failed the day we arrived in Zihuatanejo. Peter brought the replacement from Arizona on his way down.Sunday morning, 7:45 a light tap on front door, Trekker rushes noisily to investigate. By the time Art gets up and out Peter has the front off the rig and has started to remove the panel cover.
The battery grounds removed at the batteries, we (he!) began disassembling the battery cables. As the work progressed we realise that the early start is a good thing. As the sun rises so does the heat. Forecast for today, 33o —a creative umbrella stand soon had us in the shade.
Soon everything was reassembled--only one screw left over!
Truthfully, the screw had fallen out when the cover was removed--obviously left from a previous repair--not ours. Art just couldn't resist teasing Peter.
Inside the rig Art prevailed upon him and his more mobile shoulder to remove the solar controller from its location under the stove so that Art could move an internal jumper to disable the audible alarm. Now now more “beep” every time the voltage drops a tenth of a volt! It had taken us months to figure out where that beep-beep beep beep was coming from!
While further perusing the manual on the computer later that afternoon ( there was no manual received when the controller was installed) Art noticed that another jumper appears to have been set for the wrong type of battery—Gel in stead of Flooded—which may have been contributing to our minor ongoing battery problems. Of course by this time the controller had been reinstalled—under the drawer under the stove—not the most accessible of locations. To add to the frustration, the designers for some reason has the cover secured from below—it's necessary to remove the complete unit and turn it over in order to remove the cover screw! This is something that Art will tackle soon. Eventually. Maybe.
Peter and Celine joined us at the El Manglar Restaurant for dinner the same evening which as always was very enjoyable after which we returned to the rig to watch a bit more of the Olympic action.
Sunday wasn't a great day for Canada though in the Ice Dance competition Canada is in first place so far. Canada's Men's Hockey team lost to the US (not the end of the world, but it means that Canada has to play an extra game while the US automatically advances to ¼ finals) while in Women's Curling, Team Canada lost their first game of the Olympics to China in the extra end after trailing most of the match. They are now tied in first place with a 5-1 game tally. The mens Curling team is in an assured place, having had a 7-0 run of matches. It is great having the Starchoice (Shaw) Satellite system to help keep us in touch with Canada and the rest of the world.
Monday 21 st
For some reason Art woke up early this morning, at the early pre-dawn and didn't get back to sleep so eventually got up just in time for the BC News to start (7:30 AM here, so not really that early). He sat back with a cup of tea and caught up on what was happening at home.
It's getting to be time to start the lists of things that have to be done to the rig before we leave, on the way home and when we get home. We will be out of here in a week or two—tentatively scheduled to leave near the 1st of March but if the cold weather in the interior doesn't improve we may delay our departure a while. We plan to attend the FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) convention in Albuquerque New Mexico which starts March 22nd.
That evening we dined at the Restaurant at El Manglar—fabulous as usual. Time was running out—there were still restaurants to try before we leave!
Daniel's again for the wonderful food and the music of Jimi Manou, El Manglar again with our old friends from last year, Bill and Margaret, and more that have slipped my mind.
On Friday Gillian went off with Peter and Celine to visit a local archeological site known as La Chole. We first visited this site 6 years ago before official excavation had started. Many artifacts had been found over the years during construction of building, drains etc and a local resident had taken it upon him self to start an unofficial museum in his own home. Now Federal Government archeological department has taken an interest and an official excavation has started.
Gillian was able to see the excavation of the pyramid that had been below the hill she had been standing on 6 years ago! Cool!
Pics – old and new (still looking for the old!)
Saturday night we visited the RV Park across the street (Costa Bella) where our friend Colin was performing a free Rock Concert. Great friends, great music.
Sunday. February 28th. The end of our planned 3 month sojourn in Zihuatanejo. Can't remember how we spent this day--except to decide to stay a few more days as we weren't even close to being ready to leave!
Our last three nights were going to be spent by checking out a few restaurants that we had missed so far! Monday was to the Catalina Beach Resort for a dinner we had won during a fund raising there some weeks previously. This is an old resort—one of if not the first luxury hotels overlooking Playa La Ropa. The food, view and service were very good and we returned home happy and ready for bed.
Tuesday we hosted a happy hour for many of our “winter” friends, then accompanied by Peter and Celine, took a taxi to centro to La Serina Gorda for dinner. We will be sorry to go but happy to be on our way home. We have made so many good friends here over the years, the end of February is always a bitter-sweet time.
Wednesday, our last day in Z. Most of today spent cleaning and packing things up and putting away. Before going our for dinner we disconnected all hoses and power and repositioned the rig, hooked up the tracker ready to go. The idea was that this would prevent all the morning fussing about and would allow us to leave rested and calm as all the hook up was done. Yeah well. We got it done but Art wasn't happy with the safety cable hook up, but decided to leave it.
For our last night we decided to go to Coconuts Restaurant for dinner. Coconuts is a well known high end restaurant with a good reputation and Wednesday was one of the nights that “Juanito Zihua” plays. We heard Juanito for the first time at the Sailfest Benefit concert last month and made a resolution to hear him again. The food and music lived up to our expectations and eventually, somewhat reluctantly, found a taxi to take us home for the last time.
Thursday morning around 7:30, Art looked out the window to see Julia sitting alongside the rig with Paco Taco (the restaurant kitten) in her lap. She announced “you are not leaving without my hug!”-she had come home last night to see the rig all hooked up and apparently ready to go. She had obviously forgotten from previous years how long it actually takes us to get rolling.
After breakfast Art went out to re-do the safety cables and brake light wires. After some mumbling, muttering and a few choice words he had it arranged to his satisfaction and we were ready to go. Then of course a round of handshakes, hugs, kisses, photos and farewells we drove out the gates at five minutes to ten.
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