Lovely LaPenita

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We arrived back home to our “Mansion on Wheels” or our mini home in LaPenita on Jan 14th and it was a wonderful feeling. It is amazing how close you can get to people that were strangers just a few months ago but you get 240 people living a rabbit warren (if that’s a word) what can you expect. You know each other pretty well.

Our wonderful friend, James was at the airport waiting for us. We drove up to LaPenita from Puerto Vallarta, dropped our stuff here and then we jumped in our truck and drove John and Sharie to their accommodation in Chacala. Chacala is about a 20 minute drive from here. A very small town with a few restaurants, a couple of tiny stores and a beautiful beach. I think it was a cultural shock for them to go from Mexico City of a zillion people to Chacala with probably 500 or so. Their hotel was nice but no TV, internet. We drove up a couple of times to visit, spent an afternoon on their beach and dined out. They had 3 weeks in Chacala and then on Feb 3 they moved down to Rincon de Guayabitos. Staying the same place as last year, Las Cabanas del Capitain.

We’ve had a busy time since we returned after Christmas. Participated in probably the most rewarding event in my life in Feb. A couple of park ladies have taken on the Breast Cancer project that was started a few years ago in LaPenita. This project provides prosthetics and bras to support the prosthetics to women who have had cancer, had a breast removed and have never had a prosthetic. These ladies arrived, often with a husband, son or daughter, walking very slowly, a little hunched over and just generally very self conscience. They arrived in busses that were parked at the local Pemex station, and then the parks 12 passenger van was used to caravan them from there to the park. They were escorted to the restaurant by the pool. The park provided soup to all the ladies and their companions. The Clubhouse in the park was converted to 8 curtained off little rooms where these ladies were fitted with a breast prosthesis and a bra. Each lady had 2 ladies working on them. One was a fitter and the other was the runner to find the perfect size and shape. These hunched over ladies came out of their cubicle leaping for joy, many parading around the Clubhouse in their new full bra, lots of tears and hugs. I was walking down the street by the clubhouse and 2 ladies were walking toward me admiring their new physiques. I said “Oh, Beunita”?? they were all smiling and replied “Si, moi beanita” I said “Oh, beautiful” and they replied Yes, very beautiful. All in all, 270 ladies were very happy with full figures after the 3 day event. Park campers had brought the bras and prosthesis from their home towns. Most were second hand. I think in Canada a woman can get a new one every 2 years so their used ones are usually discarded. Some of these Mexican ladies had breasts removed 20 years ago and had never had any kind of prosthesis.

The other project that has been very worthwhile is the Eyeglass Project.
My friend Sharie sent down about 40 pairs of eyeglasses that she collected over the last year. I wasn’t exactly sure what she was planning on doing with them but we brought them. I mentioned to my neighbour here about all these glasses and she was excited because she had retired a couple of years ago as a Opticians assistant. She checked over the glasses and quickly realized that we didn’t know what these prescriptions were so I took them home at Christmas and my local Optician neutralized them (read the prescription) and I brought them back to Mexico in January. Debbie, my neighbour recruited a local Optician in LaPenita to provide free eye exams to elderly poor Mexicans. The Optician offered us 4X2 hour times to provide this service. The local Third Age Society for seniors personally hand picked the needy, asked them to attend the Opticians office for an eye exam and then Debbie did her best to match up glasses to people. We had wanted to have 10 people at each session but our first night we only got 6 people and provided glasses to 5 people. One little lady cried when the Optician told her that glasses would not help. She was blind in one eye and the other eye had such a bad cataract on it, left untreated for so long that there was nothing that could be done. Her husband on the other hand was outside amazed at how far away he could see. 1 sad lady but 5 very happy people. One lady was so happy even though the only glasses we had for her were so heavy that we had to tie a piece of elastic from arm to arm to keep them on her face but she had not been able to do needle work for years. After the 4 eyeglass clinics were done, we had provided 18 people with glasses. These people all danced around the room, hugged and kissed us and left with a spring in their step.


There are so many good causes here. If a person wanted they could be run ragged volunteering.

Our friends, Mike and Marg arrived yesterday. We picked them up at the airport and did the usual Marguerita stop on San Pancho, then dropped them off at their hotel. The same hotel as John and Sharie. We will have a fun busy time for the next couple of weeks. We had lots of welcome parties and going home parties in the last few weeks. Mike and Marg were here 2 weeks. They left on March 1 and then Sharie and John, who had been in Mexico for 2 months left the next day on March 2. All 4 of them have emailed many times asking why they are at home in the snow.

Larry discovered we had a wonky wheel bearing in our truck. It was kind of groaning when we made right turns. He checked the power steering etc and finally took the wheel off and realized that we had a bigger problem then power steering fluid. We live on the Street of Dreams, self named!!. We don’t park on our street because we all try and leave as much space around us as we can. Of course, Larry removed the wheel etc from our truck right in front of our trailer so we cluttered the street for days. More about that later!! I know from experience of living with a backyard mechanic that nothing is as easy as anticipated. One of the nuts or bolts or whatever was rounded off from a previous visit to our wheel assembly. Check out the picture of “how many campers does it take to remove a bolt” 4 men under and over at the same time and 3 supervising. Anyway, thank gosh for them all because after 2 solid days of work the bolt was removed. We made a trip to PV via a friend to order parts. $7800 for a wheel bearing ($700C) wow, came back here and phoned Barnes Wheaton and they wanted $415C so our friend Viv, who arrived on Friday came with an extra suitcase full of 2 wheel bearings probably weighing about 60 pounds or so. No issue with the airline. Noticed that they inspected it in San Fran but no comment. The wheel bearing was replaced the next day and we are back on the road. The other one will be replaced before we head home. What a community. Everybody that came and looked at the event came back with a bigger hammer, bar, wrench, impact drill?? Or file!! It was great, just like home. At home we have Doug, our neighbour. Anybody puts the hood up of a car and he is there like a shot looking or offering tools or advise. If Clay has trouble with his car, I say put the hood up and Doug will come and help you!! Of course, during the process the Happy Hour crowd are bitching and complaining that Larry is infringing on our Street of Dreams and there must be some by-laws. The next morning there appeared a ticket on his windshield. Check out the picture. These guys really do have too much time on their hands. Larry paid up with the beer and settled the score.

One last wonderful event. I was looking for someone to help me clean my trailer. (Be quiet, I don’t want to hear it!!) At our friend Sharie and John’s accommodation there was a family that all worked there. Mom, 13 year old daughter, 17 year old son. Sharie found out that they all worked full time because their 10 year old brother/son had leukemia and they had to pay for treatments. Mom was looking for extra work so she agreed to come to help me. By the time she arrived here I had arranged a few more people for her so she had 4 hours work. She arrived as scheduled which is unusual in tow with another daughter, 19 and Gilbert the son with leukemia. Gilbert was very pale, no hair wearing a paper mask over his face. They cleaned like Trojans and moved on to the next trailer. The next trailer happened to be the administrator of our trailer park fund raising. She quizzed the family about the next treatment of chemo in Guadalajara, a 4 hour bus ride away. They explained that they all got paid the week after the treatment but were going to request their pay a week early to get dad and Gilbert to the treatment. Wonderful Faye recognized an instant need, went to her co-administrator and arrived with $3,000 pesos for the next round of treatment, bus fare and help with dads accommodation. What a wonderful site. This family was asking for nothing, just work and left this park with another round of treatment off their shoulders and hearts.

Our friend Vivien and her daughter Jess are here for 9 days. They have rented a trailer just up from us. It is nice, they have their own space but we see tons of them as well. The weather is hot and they are enjoying walking the beach.

About 10 guys are driving 1 ½ hours up the road to the city of Tepic to golf on Tuesday. They are very excited. The ladies have a day planned of shopping, lunch and then in the afternoon, Jess is going to teach us oldsters how to make the most of what we have using makeup. She has a Bachelor of Science with a Makeup certificate just for fun. She is such a good sport.

Sorry you everyone that has to bear with the snow. No snow here.

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Photos

What better Birthday Card could there be
My Grandma name is Leta. A nickname in Mexico for grandma

SilverStar ski weekend
Mark, Carli and children on their annual ski trip to Silverstar. This is what is important in life!!

How many campers does it take to remove a bolt??
Four, in this case. another body behind Larry

Parking ticket LaPenita RV
We have nicknamed our street in our park as Street of Dreams because we have made it the most sotafter street in the park. This is just for fun. Larry paid up in full to everyones satisfaction

Restaurant of 1000 stars
Another hidden and secret treasure. No electricity so must pre-order but what a venue