Noise and Nuts

February 2017 - Mazatlan Mexico

For the weekly posts I found a list of Mexican Idioms that I thought would be fun to use. I will also post the meaning.
CHILI LIME PEANUTS — CACAHUATES ENCHILADOS

“So much noise and so few nuts.”
(Mucho ruido y pocas nueces)

This implies you can surely talk the talk but you rarely walk the walk. There is another phrase that has a similar meaning, but with more tortilla in it, the infamous: “I’ll eat that tongue taco” (de lengua me como un taco). And yes, tongue tacos are actually a big thing in Mexico.


Saturday started with John cooking our bacon and eggs and then reading, blogging, and generally surfing around the internet.

Some pool reading and Happy Hour.

Then watched the movie Lion.

We got dressed up for dinner at Angelo's and would you believe we didn't take any photos????

So you have to believe me when I say it was an excellent dinner. We arrived and spoke to Pedro, the wine sommelier, I had spoken to him previously about John's gluten free restrictions and he was totally aware of celiac. I had brought the GF pasta with me and he made the arrangements with the kitchen to cook it separately. 

We shared a Caesar salad, nowhere as good as Jose's are Royal Villas. John had the pasta arrabiata and I had the 6 oz filet with creamy mashed potatoes, spinach and mushrooms.

We had a bottle of Australian Little Penguin Shiraz.

Dessert was an orange sherbet. All in all a splendid meal.

Live entertainment was provided by a singer whom we know from Torres Mazatlan. It's a small town and the same performers rotate around.

Sunday breakfast on the balcony.

we went strolling around the Golden Zone, I bought a bracelet then we had to find an ATM that either accepted our cards or had money, not sure which So we walked about 3 Km to one and then back.

Laundries are easily found in the Golden Zone, this one is across from the resort. There was also one across from us when we stayed at Royal Villas. You bring your laundry, they weigh it, wash and dry and charge you by the kilo. it is usually ready the same day.

Michael's Gallery always has nice stuff.

Pulmonias waiting for the light.

Everyone was headed to the Malecon for the big parade.


Our friend Carol blogged some good pictures, no , they didn't go to the parade, no one in their right mind would, hot, crowded etc.  Click here.
We then just sat and read and then watched the Oscars.

Monday moving day for one night. We had a $200 resort credit and free internet. Our bill when we left was $50, not bad for two weeks. That credit had got us a bottle of tequila, pool drinks and a fancy dinner in Angelo's.


We go to our old haunt and favourite, Torres Mazatlan. We had missed one night when we were making our reservations and we managed to snag a night here on points, so $0!!
We love this place so much that we have already booked it for a month next February!

We didn't stay here in 2016 as we had used up a few years of points in 2014 when we stayed for two months!

We grab a cab for the short ride.

We may only be here for one night but we feel like we're home.

We won't even unpack our food we brought, it went straight into the fridge.

Lunch was a California club for me with chicken, ham and avocado and John had nachos.

Then we got our room, C105 a one bedroom,

We watched Moonlight the Oscar winner and we very disappointed in it.

We sat out waiting for Bill and Carol to come to meet us, figuring they would walk right by us and did. We strolled a few hundred feet to the Palapa and enjoyed happy hour drinks followed by dinner.
Flowering banana plant.

Tuesday Carol and Bill come over for breakfast and then we checked out after I picked up a couple of things for dinner. Nothing fancy.

After reading for a while we are on the move again. A reader commented recently that she had never heard of someone "resort hopping" and I had to smile as I hadn't thought of it that way. That is the beauty of being retired and getting to use up all that timeshare.
I took some photos.
Who's a handsome fellow, not?

It's Shrove Tuesday the last day of Carnaval, it should be safe to go back downtown tomorrow!

This map shows the four resorts we booked for these 7 weeks. The plan had been a month at Royal Villas but we changed that at check-in when we realized they had a mandatory all inclusive plan and were able to get two weeks at Pueblo Bonito Mazatlan.

We're now at El Cid Marina Beach, not to be confused with the high-rise in the Golden Zone. Once we checked in we were "offered" a timeshare presentation, breakfast and a $100 resort credit along with coupons for free drinks. Sure, why not.

We are currently in a studio until Saturday. It is huge compared to Pueblo Bonito and much brighter.

We decide on some pool time. Check out these guys!

This is George.

Wednesday we attend a timeshare presentation for the $100 credit and breakfast. It is quite the resort, but extremely expensive. Plus their program only last twenty years, shorter than most. We took our money and left.

Then we took the bus to Mega to get some groceries for a few days and took a pulmonia back. We then relaxed.

Thursday we head over to Bill and Carol's and form a convoy to La Noria. Bill is leading and we are followed by three couples in two trucks from the RV park.

Bill takes us on a tour. Click here.
Here is Carol's post of our outing.

A couple of photos.

It gets a lot hotter inland.

These cactus leaves would make great nopales.

Use a pot holder and a sharp knife to scrape the cactus spines off the nopales. Trim the edges of the cactus leaves as well, to remove the spines growing there. Rinse the nopales when done, judiciously ensuring that all cactus spines have been removed.
Cut the prepared nopales into strips about the size of green beans. Cut them again into 3-inch pieces.
Put the sliced nopalitos into a large pot and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Drain off the cooking water and rinse the nopalitos with cold water. Drain them again and let them cool. Cover the nopalitos and store them in the refrigerator and use them in scrambled eggs, salad, stews or soup, or as garnishes for tacos or burritos. The flavor is mild, somewhat like green beans.

What am I doing????

We bought some dulce de leche candies!

Bill drove us back to our resort and came in for a visit and lunch. We have to use up our $100 in the resort.

The food is good, but not great. A club sandwich at Torres Mazatlan is much better and John said the tortilla soup at Royal Villas is better also.

Friday started out overcast, quickly got sunny and just as quickly, by 11:30 it was cloudy again.
We decided on the buffet breakfast at the resort to use another coupon. Delicious green juice, spinach, beets, celery and carrots. We both had omelets.

We got ourselves ready to be picked up at 3:30 by Bill and Carol. It is Art Walk, the first Friday of every month and Carol wanted to see the artist's house on Calle Flores. So the guys dropped us off and we went in, not realizing neither of us had any money on us!!
This is just a tease of the house as I plan on using some of the photos later.
These are some of her paintings. Susan Carnes often does the covers of the Pacific Pearl monthly magazine and did the March 2017 edition cover, there is an article about her on page 17.

The murals and stained glass are all her work.

After we stopped in a few places we met the guys in Machado and walked to Topolo for dinner.

Carol's long-anticipated watermelon margarita (on her bucket list) turned out to be disappointing. Oh well, at least it's another check mark on the list! And Topolo did not disappoint her!! So,1 for 2 as she states in her titled post.

One mild, and one spicy salsa being made. It is the only place I know that uses canned tomatoes. I love canned tomatoes but found this a little odd, as I prefer the crisp fresh tomatoes for salsa. Here's a recipe if you want to try it, probably a good idea when you can't get decent tomatoes.

Pork shank and mashed potatoes.

John, assisting our server with the preparation of our flambeed strawberries and bananas for Bill. John is pouring the cinnamon on the orange peel.

We strolled back to the car through the Plaza Machado which was now quite busy.

Students at the Music Conservatory. They sounded really good.

Diners around the plaza.

Murals in the parking lot where Willie was waiting patiently.

DINNER

Saturday - Angelo's Pueblo Bonito
Sunday - chili
Monday - Torres Mazatlan salad and fajitas
Tuesday - chips and eggs
Wednesday - chicken divan
Thursday - ham and cheese wraps
Friday - Topolo pork shank and flaming strawberries

BOOKS

20 books year to date.

Finished Splinter the Silence an enjoyable read.

Some Luck started out slowly and I wasn't sure I would stick with it but then I got really involved with the family's lives. I'm ready for the next two books.

Orphan Number Eight started well, but I soon got tired of it. Did finish though.

House of Secrets was a run of the mill mystery that left several loose ends. Kind of a Dan Brown mystery but not terribly exciting.

Started Elizabeth the Queen.



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