Down by the riverside....

April 12, 2009

Hello Everyone,

Happy Easter , Feliz Pascua! I am still here in Bucerias and enjoying the mild weather. We attended Easter Mass at the Nuestra Senora la Paz Church which was well attended and I felt lucky to get a seat. Then we had a nice brunch at a Huichol Gallery with their organic freshly roasted coffee…hmmm and the live music of a local latin trio. The beach area is so crowded because of the long Easter weekend and the local tourists have all descended from the inland cities such as Mexico, Leon, Guadalajara. We decided to head towards the road to Mascota and stopped by a roadside seafood restaurant by Rio Mascota. The fresh shrimps and deep fried snapper was a treat! It was interesting to watch the people and children swimming and playing by the river.

We are still playing at Adriatico every Tuesdays through Fridays for an indefinite time so please drop by when you are in town.


Adriatico Ristorante-Galeana and Lazaro Cardenas Streets, Bucerias
Tel 329-298-3820
Armi Grano-Vocals
Julio Palacio-Keyboard
Javier Nunez/Doug Demeerleer-Bass
Danny Lopez-Drums

Thank you for your support!

Ciao!

Not a boring day.......

March 9, 2009

Hola Amigos y Amigas,

It’s John’s birthday today so I got him a cake for breakfast. He just realized that he is one year younger than what he thought he is. So he is extra happy. His cousin Lorena (the hairdresser) is coming in today from Melaque after a 5 hour bus ride. She promised me a really nice haircut and updo for one of my gigs. I can’t wait.

We had a very busy February and early March. Our friends Arlene (we got stuck in the elevator before, remember? ) and her husband Richard visited us. Their holiday went to a bad start because they missed their direct flight to Puerto Vallarta. So they spent the night on a plane going to Mexico City and finally to PV. It was a long day and night for both of them. But all of the stress and confusion disappeared when they arrived at Rancho Banderas on Distilladeras Beach.

The good thing about friends visiting is you get to show them around and I get reacquainted with places and discover new ones. You’ll remember Arlene from when we got stuck in an elevator. I used to work with her so we had a lot of things to talk about. Her biggest achievement this visit is learning how to boogie board. She was quite proficient after a few days.

I’ve met a lot of familiar faces while performing at Adriatico. They visited last year and came back again this year. Some snowbirds are getting ready to go back to their hometowns but hopefully the tourists are still scheduled to come this March and the Easter break in April. With the cold weather and a big dump of snow up north, you would think that people would just pack up and head to the sunny beaches of Mexico. Travel bargains and hotel discounts are everywhere because of the weak economy. I stopped watching television because of all the doom and gloom news. We have a starchoice satellite so we get all the American and Canadian channels. I believe that in due time, everything will find its equilibrium and the economy will start a big recovery. One thing with living in a small community like Bucerias, you are immune to all these news. Everyone is just busy getting their tan and walking on the beach. It’s business as usual. The prices in the grocery stores went up just because the Mexican peso is almost 15 to $1USD. It’s still cheap but I don’t know how the local people can afford to buy some of the groceries. All I know, is I’m going to be shocked with the prices when I do my grocery shopping back in Vancouver.

We are performing at Ritmos in PV on Saturday, March 15 at 7 to 10 pm. We are still performing at Adriatico on Tuesdays thru Fridays. See you at the gig.

Love,
Armi

Strollin' on the Malecon

February 1, 2009

Hola Amigos y Amigas,


It is a holiday weekend here in Mexico, Constitution Day. We were at the Malecon last night with Brian and Diane and it was full of local tourists mostly from Guadalajara and inland cities. There were fireworks display and shows along the boardwalk. Dinner was great at “La Distilleria” and the live Mariachi Band (which Brian had to be a part of, in any capacity). My good friend, Miles Black sent me a song called “Malecon” which I sing with my trio in Adriatico. It is a beautiful song and perfectly depicts the atmosphere of the Malecon.

We visited the Naval Museum in Puerto Vallarta located beside the Los Arcos Amphitheatre. It was very informative and quite a pleasant surprise. There are different artifacts, maps, pictures and miniature replicas of the ships that the Spaniards used to explore the route from east to west. What was surprising to me was a big part of the display and history was about the Philippines. The galleon used the Fort in San Blas as one of their stops. When I was in Acapulco, Philippines was also a big part of the museum of the Fort of San Pedro. They had maps and pictures of the explorers landing in the Philippines. The Philippine islands played a big part in the history of Mexico under the Spanish regime. It was the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade that brought riches to Spain by bringing in spices, tea, silk, from all parts of Asia. The names of explorers are all familiar to me from my high school history such as Legazpi, Villalobos, Magellan etc. It brought a lot of memories to me.

It is Superbowl Sunday today, so the TV is blaring with John and Doug watching the game. January is just a blur for me now. What happened to the time? Why am I so busy? I seriously need a holiday. I think I still don’t know what to do with my unregimented schedule. It’s different when you have a set time to wake up and a place of work to go every morning. I miss my fitness classes at the gym. Instead, I do my pilates (in my room), walk on the beach and around town in the morning or swim in the ocean. Not a bad trade but there is really no timetable to do those things, which really throws off my usual hurried lifestyle. I don’t even have to deal with traffic or bad weather anymore. Speaking of weather, nobody talks about weather here. Everyday is sunny. Some days are just sunnier than others. Sometimes I wish it would rain even just for an hour, just buckets of rain. I wake up early everyday although I don’t go to bed until midnight. It must be the pull of the sunlight outside. I find mornings are good for reading and checking emails. That is, if I decide not to go for my walk. This lifestyle is so new to me that I still don’t know how to slow down. I feel guilty if didn’t do any work during the day. I had to cut down the maid’s cleaning days because John and I clean the house in between her visits.

The tourists are down significantly this year. There are conflicting reports. Some say it is down 40% some say it’s 20%. My observation based on the restaurant crowd is, it is down by about 20%. The budget value restaurants are doing okay and so are the high end ones. The middle of the road eateries and bars are the ones really suffering. As they say, the rich will always have money even in recessionary times. They just have to cut down on their jet fuel consumption.

We are playing four nights at Adriatico (Tuesday to Friday) and on Valentine’s Day. It is getting busier with tourists and regular snowbirds. We will be performing at Cuates y Cuetes on the Playa los Muertos beach (Old Town) on Feb 15 in the evening. Don’t ask me about the time. I guess we will play when everyone is ready.

Hasta Luego!

Love,
Armi