So Fred is having breakfast when his wife tells him that he forgot her birthday yesterday and that when she gets up tomorrow there better be something in the drive way that goes from 0 - 200 in five seconds, there better be or else.......so the next morning Fred packs his lunch and leaves for work, his wife comes down stairs and checks the drive way and there is a box there tied with a big red bow, she picks it up brings it into the kitchen and opens it and there is a brand new bathroom scales!!!!!! Fred has not been seen since Friday.......have a great day....

Today i took off to Manzanillo the port and big city about 50 minutes drive away the photographs were all taken there....I first stopped at the bay with the small pieces sticking out of the water, that is a sunken ship, I swam out to it with fins and snorkel gear and spent about 30 mins out there it is quite a large ship, don't know the history, but will find out, and it is in about 30 feet of water very clear and floating over the top is only a few feet above the ship, you can see into the hallways and everything very interesting and lots of fish, really enjoyed that. Then drove into the old centre of town parked and walked around the small streets, the houses on the hill side, the indoor market all clean and friendly faces every where. On the way out of town stopped at a Wal mart type store and bought some groceries that cannot be found in Barra, a great came back and went for a swim, very warm and lovely day..forgot to mention the horse in the truck at the gas station gives a new meaning to Horse powered vehicles...

Well the weather was cloudy and overcast the last two days but back to 90 degree beach weather today, yesterday was my second and last trip to the dentist, I now have my new bridge and i am very impressed with his work. Had a beach day today and walking back through the barrio I saw this kid, I immediately recognized him, he is the kid in the wheel chair ,, today when I saw him I did not have my camera with me but I shall look for him some more and take a picture, then copy both pictures and give them to him. This picture I found after looking back through my photos from two years ago, he still looks the same and the big smile is still there..neat story I think, have a great day...

Went for a long bike ride today I think I rode down every street in town, just a few shots of different things to get a taste for the town, I love the hotel made from cutting the bushes in to letters, the church is in a thatched hut till the new church is built and just other I hope interesting pictures.....The sunset tonite was one i have never seen before it was a little cloudy most of the afternoon so thought the sun set would be poor, was I wrong!!!!!!I could not capture on camera the colours, honestly every color imaginable with wonderful cloud formations and dramatic skys...truly one of those "You had to be there" moments...have a great weekend everyone...

Just a gentle reminder....to enlarge any of these photos just double click on the photo, well worth it for this last picture!!!

This is my very favourite picture!!!!!!!!!!!These boys all live in a very small house about 100 yards from my apartment, they are often in the road playing soccer with a sad excuse for a ball, so today was the day for their new soccer ball, I went to the store bought a ball and handed it to them, their smiles were ear to ear, the very best part is the young guy holding the ball, is wheel chair bound and cannot walk so, he got ball for the picture, like that mastercard advert on tv"cost of ball 10 dollars smiles on faces PRICELESS" have a great day!!!

Still have not figured a way to post a picture and describe it, so these are pictures from today, first of I went to the local market to buy my 5 pounds of strawberries for 5.00 dollars, so a couple of market pictures, on the way saw this great house with the beautiful flowers up in front. then packed up a lunch and took a local panga(boat) out across the lagoon past the big swanky Hotel with the yatchs moored close by(so much money so close to so much poverty) then walked past chickens, beautiful golf course with no one playing (greens fee about 150.00 dollars) to this lovely deserted beach, climbed over some rocks and the small bay was all to myself, very nice and relaxing, panga back and a great day!!!!

The ice cream bike. You read my notes and think what is he talking about the script being underlined, I assure you when I was typing it in the blog the type was blue and underlined, but in the version you see it is normal, must be the sun!!!

Today we have a beautiful home(I have no idea why this type is being underlined) the veggie wagon and the ice cream bike. This evening went to a street party where the proceeds were going to a local special needs school. They had some children doing typical Mexican dances and the dresses were very beautiful. I need to work on my picture taking at night and clean my spotty lens, anyway hope you can capture some of the fun!!!

my readers you are so smart you probalby already know all about this but me I have just been introduced to SKYPE...amazing i have just been talking to my very bright nephew in England for 12 minutes over the computer it was just like he was next door, Andy simply gave me the skype web site, I downloaded myself, thats right , all by myself and I am set to go, in a few minutes I am going to talk to my brother, so anybody who wants to talk to me all you have to do is go to skype.com and down load the system takes a few minutes you pick yourself a password, e mail with your pass word and I can give you my skype name and we can talk...the modern age what happened to 45's and 8 track cassettes...

Well I have had a quiet couple of days I know the travelogue is supposed to be a fun and informative venue so I just had a day there feeling a little down, missing friends and family, thinking about how things turn out and what could have been done differently, so took some time to reflect on what i am doing and my plans and now on track......went to a very small town rodeo the other night in the next town, it was a different experience and featured Mexican cowboys and a small group of young kids performing typical Mexican ballet, these two pictures were the only ones I was able to take before my camera decided it needed it's batteries charged.....this guy with the goat was obviously the village jester.....I have never even seen a dog follow it's master around like this animal it was amazing....then the cowboys, they were very competent on the horses... the show was only small and the dresses on the girls in the ballet were incredible hopefully I shall see them again before I leave and get pictures....

WARNING

Today’s writings contain scenes and descriptions that may not be fit for all viewers, parental discretion is advised…

We are going back to April, 1972, I am in Bermuda playing soccer one sunny warm afternoon, we are playing Devonshire Rec, our arch enemies, lot of bad will between us and the game is tied 1 –1 with a few minutes remaining, I had through out the game taken and given some aggro to their No.9 Devon Burrows… we are awarded a corner and although I play sweeper I was noted to be a pretty good header of the ball, so I go up for the corner, looking to notch my usual one goal per year, hoping this might be the one. My full concentration is on the ball as it arcs it’s way into the penalty area, Burrows concentration however was on me, all eyes on the ball, including the referee, the ball swings in I watch it coming right to my head and the next thing I know I am flat on my back, victim of a sucker punch to the jaw from my buddy Burrows, my front tooth is about 10 feet away from me and I am bloodied and mad and dazed, not like today’s macho hockey players, they pick up their teeth and go back out, me, I stumble to the side lines and the game ends. Will not describe the return match three weeks later, but suffice it to say Burrows had a squeaky high voice for a few days……The next day I visit my dentist and I am not making this up, he must have been about 80 years of age and his name, Dr. Hooker!!!!!!!!!! He makes this upper plate with false tooth for me and I have worn this every day for the last 34 years, taking it out at night with denture cleaner…anyway decided it was time to rid my mouth of this device. Mexico is noted for great dentists and the prices are about one third of Canadian prices. I checked the town out and only one dentist stood out Dr.Woo…well this morning he rid me of the plate forever!!!!!!!I have a temporary bridge until a week on Saturday, when my new bridge comes in…so it looks pretty good day and he was flawless in his work, he did a great job!!!!! So the pictures are a little graphic, be warned………how many times have you been to the dentist and after the work is done cross the road and go for a swim?? Have a great day..

Thanks Jack for the great ariel shot of the town where I am, this modern day technology just floors me, anyway looking at the photo come into the lagoon and it looks like three fingers, they are canals on the right hand side, i am staying just by the last canal on the right. Go from there directly left to the ocean and that is where I swim everyday down to the bottom where the sea wall juts out......Jack it is great thanks.....

Want to know how I spent my day???? Of course you do!!!!!! Up at 8am and went for a short run around the side streets here, watching everyone start their day, home and had a shower, then nice bowl of cereal and a cup of tea and read a newspaper.....It was market day in Melaque, the next little town about 2 miles away, so jumped on the local bus paid my 4 pesos and off to the market. Bought these wonderful strawberries, I would think about 4 pounds weight, the heinze bean can is show how many strawberries I had, cost for the strawberries, 50 pesos, decided after walking through the market to walk back home on the beach. My friends who have been down here for many years have shown me a local butcher in the barrio and his reputation is good, so went to his store, just a small very clean open onto the road room and bought 2 about 1" thick frozen pork chops and the 2 fresh boneless chicken breasts pictured above, they are huge, cost for these items, can you believe, 30 pesos!!!!Then went to the local small grocery store and bought some new baby potatoes, carrots, milk all for 48 pesos and then home. My total shopping expense plus bus fare 132 pesos about 14 dollars!!!!!!!!!Today was very hot, the hottest day yet and I checked the forcast and it was 92 degrees, that is hot....went to the beach for the afternoon and slept, read and swam about a half mile, the ocean was lovely....back to the apartment showered, turned on the BBQ and cooked the chicken and boiled the pots and carrots, now I am by no stretch of the imaginatio a great cook, but the meal was really good and the chicken best as ever i have tasted.....dishes done and now about 8.30pm and I am going to watch a movie Aviator, that my nephew got for me on the lap top, can you beat that day???

Sorry missed this one, well the experiment didn't work about writing first oh well you are ll smart people and can figure what goes with what, sorry gotta go the beach is calling me!!!!!!!!!

What a pose!!!!!!!!

OK today I am trying something different so bear with me, I am writing first then insert photos so we will see how this works. Today you get a ROMA tomotoe lesson....went for a great bike ride in the back country and in amongst these dusty small paths came across this huge field of Roma's so the lesson in pictures goes from the field, to the plant, to the individual tom, to the tractor that takes them to the sorting boxes and then to your HOUSE!!!!!!!! The pig picture you are asking???????I have no idea but where the entrance to the roma fields were these small pens with pigs, this one, no his name is not Porky, posed for me for 5 pesos, go out today and buy a Roma tomatoe!!!!!!