This post is in two parts: the first was posted first thing this morning, when I was overcome with guilt for not having posted yesterday. The second is what I'm about to post, near the end of the day.

First, guilty post:

Oops. I confess. I did have wi-fi yesterday. I just got busy, and then I was too pooped to post. We walked to the end of the beach in the morning, then went for coffee -but I really just wanted a nap. I think it was because there had been no breeze at all during the night, so neither of us had slept well. It wasn't all that hot - just muggy.

So anyway, I did take a nap, but not until I got home. Afterward, I made some fresh salsa, cooked a batch of beans, then took my Amy Tan book to the outdoor common room that overlooks the ocean and read for a while while Robin surfed the internet.

TJ and Kris came by and said they were going to go play bingo at Las Torres. Did we want to join them? I said I would check with R and maybe join them later. Well, he didn't have any interest, but I decided to go anyway. I walked and walked and walked, finally found the building and the bingo game, but no TJ and Kris. It turned out that they had missed their bus (Duh. I could have taken the bus) and ended up going somewhere else altogether. I came home, footsore but pleased that I had truly gotten enough exercise, for once. The four of us went out to the beach to watch the sun set, then came back here for the cocktail hour.

The only real excitement came when the police came looking for our landlord - a truck and a couple of flashing cars, complete with several gun-toting officers. Alfredo was still here last night, so I don't know what the police wanted with him, and I missed the whole episode. It must have happened during my nap.

As it's Christmas Eve, we're planning to have a movie party tonight. I have to make more salsa - and I promised Robin I'd go swimming with him today.

Second, more relaxed post:

I didn't go swimming, as it happened, but Robin did. He and JT and Kris all took turns on the kayak, and both the men snorkeled a bit. I stayed ankle-deep in the sea, using Kris's camera to take pictures of the three of them. She is going to send me copies of some of the photos (hers and mine) to post here. Wading seems to be enough for me, at the moment. It's just as well. Yesterday, Robin went out for an hour and a half, with no ill effects. Today, he wasn't in the water nearly as long, and he made himself sick - not to mention sunburned. I think JT and Kris may have experienced something similar, because they slept all afternoon, only surfacing a few minutes ago (after dark). I, on the other hand, had a bit of a nap this afternoon, then got up and went to Soriana, the closest of the big supermarkets.

My intention was to take a bus to the market, then taxi home. I got out to the street just in time to see a bus go by, so I strolled on down the street as far as the next big block of condos. I turned to look for a bus, and just then a woman came out. I think she works on the property. We had been chatting for a couple of minutes, and she had been advising me which bus to catch for Soriana, when a friend of hers drove out of the complex and offered her a ride. She told him where I was going, and he offered me a ride too. So I piled into the car with Veronica and Ernesto, and off we went. Veronica spoke no English at all, which was great. That meant that we could carry on our conversation in Spanish, and I couldn't cheat. It went quite well. Veronica got off at her house, and Ernesto took me the three or four blocks further, to Soriana. Nice people.

I did my shopping, then grabbed a taxi home, as planned. When we got to Mar-a-Villas, the front gate was closed, which was a little disturbing, but it turned out that Happy Hour was in progress on the upper level (It's another world up there. The RVs are huge).

So I got out of the cab, went to the next hole in the hedge, stepped over a chain, and sneaked into the park by the back door.

I brought home a roasted chicken, some potatoes, a pineapple upside-down cake, and a liter of ice cream. We are hoping that TJ and Kris will join us for Christmas dinner tomorrow. Meanwhile, the TV and VCR are set up outside, and there are totopos (tortilla chips) and guacamole out there, ready for Christmas Eve Movie Night in Mazatlan. I understand we're going to see A River Runs Through It. It's JT and Kris's movie. I hope they haven't seen it too often. Robin and I have never seen it at all.