When we cycle the six miles up Calle del Mar to Hotel La Playa, we push through or zig around drifts of sand that have blown up from the beach. On the way back, the drifts are more like dunes, having crossed the road and fetched up against the opposite curb, so we must ride artfully around them while careening down the hill from the hotel, all the time avoiding the traffic driving along the road - especially the bus from Hermosillo, which comes through once an hour.

One day we hitched a ride with our new friend Ted, so that we could do our banking in Calle Doce and pick up some groceries from the larger supermarket there. It was a dusty trip, but fun. Ted is an ex-pilot. I think that when he drives he gets nostalgic for his 737, which made our navigation of the construction zones more exciting than it was when we drove it in the Turtle. (Are you reading this, Ted? :>)) Another day, it was very windy here, so there was neither canoeing nor cycling to be done without more effort than we were willing to expend - so we hopped the bus to Hermosillo and hit the malls - two of them, anyway, the ones that were near this end of the big, dusty, busy city. Robin had his hair cut, and we bought an exprimidor, which turns out to be a necessity here. It´s a metal device for juicing limes. I can now juice half a dozen limes for a margarita in record time - as well as season most of the meals I cook. The shrimp man has been around several times, and we have generally been unable to resist buying a kilo of shrimp. Last night I made curried prawn. Some of the prawns were so big that I had to cut them in three or four pieces to make them bite-size.

We have been out in the canoe several times. The time before last, we took a rather long trip - we were gone over three hours. By the time we got back, my arms were threatening to fall off, so I was very grateful to see the beach sliding under the bow. When I climbed out, I caught my foot on the canoe and the next thing I knew, the canoe was tipping over, having been tossed by a wave, and Robin was tumbling out at the stern. I only got wet up to my chest, but Robin went right under, and of course he banged one of his ankles (his ankles being his Achilles heel, as it were). We managed to empty and right the canoe and drag it up onto the beach, and when we got out to the road with it, a gentleman walking along noticed our dripping and bedraggled condition and offered to help carry the boat back to the RV park. We went out again yesterday, and I am pleased to report that I climbed out with grace and style.

When we first got here, I reported that I was practising the art of staring into the middle distance. Lately, it seems I don´t have two minutes to rub together. This morning I went over to the club for the 8:15 am exercise (weights and stretching class), and I stayed for the 9:15 am "Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds Express" and did the whole three miles. When I got home, starving, I took a shower, then made coffee and got as far as cooking Robin´s breakfast before company started arriving. It´s now after 4:00 pm, we´ve been socializing all day (I did manage to feed myself somewhere along the line), and we have a date to be at the club in a few minutes for a dinner - with local kids doing folk dances. It is to raise funds for the secondary school, as was the dinner we went to the other night at the park . We are having a wonderful time, and it will be very hard to leave on Monday.

My proudest moment came when Ted and I cycled all the way into Kino Viejo (finally - I´d been meaning to do that for weeks). It was a nine mile ride to the pier, where we went to buy some fresh fish, only they didn´t have any that day! So we rode to the tortilleria and bought half a kilo of tortillas - four hot, the rest cold - and sat outside, wolfing down the hot ones before we rode back home. I B strong like bull.

It´s time to go to the club now. I shall try, really I shall, to come back between now and Monday.