Above is a photo taken of Mazatlan sunset on 2/13. To the right is one of the (many) fish the guys caught the day they went fishing.  Don't know if this is a Grouper, Trigger fish, or?  They are wonderful cooked on the BBQ!  Our host loaned me a book he said re-minded him so much of Mexico - he said I would really appreciate the humor and similarities, although it is placed on a fictitious island in the Caribbean. It's Herman Wouk's "Don't Stop the Carnival".  The similarities are astounding.  Imagine a kind of Murphy's Law thing ...

Fortunately we have lots of time to work out the problems that we encounter every day.  Two weeks ago at the 34th Annual Chili Cook-Off competition here, we came out to our car after our visit and it wouldn't start.  No problem, we know someone who knows someone who does good car repair work.  We went to Mazatlan after he took possession of our car, came back 5 days later and he had done nothing with it.  In the meantime we are renting a car which we find costs about what it does up north.  In this case, we won't get reimbursed I don't think... Gregg talked to the guy this morning - he can't find the part we need.  Gregg went on the internet and he'll have to get it sent in by UPS himself!  In the meantime the daily rental fee keeps tallying up.  So, if the bill for the actual repair is cheaper than at home, it makes no difference because it will end up costing us a LOT more because of the non-refundable rental car fees.  Not to mention, the inconvenience.  But it's better not to dwell on that as, this is Mexico, and that's how it is. We lost TV for 3 days as well.  It was a credit card issue with the owners, and is OK now. On the upside, we have figured out how to deal with the phones.  Skype is set up to communicate with our family.  We have learned how to work with the odd open and close hours here, for the most part.  So much of it is all about picking your battles or shrugging it off.  The weather, by the way, is back to fantastic.  80 degrees for several days now.