Sylvie's Travels Home

February 20 and 21, 2024

We went to La Isla after Pogo came back from pickleball. We had a new server who didn’t really listen. Pogo didn’t want to share an egg dish so I decided to try the same thing as him but still order a fruit platter. We told him we wanted bacon and hashbrown and he didn’t bring any. We said no yogurt and granola with the fruits, just whipped cream. We got yogurt and granola and he brought the fruit platter after the eggs. We will have to train him better…There were a ton of iguanas in the parking lot feeding on fruits and vegetables. In my opinion, it is quite disgusting to have all the veggies and fruits in the middle of the parking lot to feed those ugly creatures but I guess it is an attraction as well. I’m always there taking pictures. I don’t understand why they don’t put the food by the tree line though.

We went back to Paradise Village to pick up Pogo’s dry cleaning. I went to the market to look for a cake but they didn’t have any. We went to Chedraui and found one there that said Congratulations in Spanish. We had them write ‘Mario et Josée’ on it. Then I thought they should add ’25th’, for their 25th anniversary, but it should have been ’25ième’. So the sentiment was in three languages: Felicidades Mario et Josée 25th! HaHa! Also we were looking for candles. The store clerks kept sending us from one side of the store to the other. Finally Pogo found a Virgen Mary votive and that’s what they got on the cake.

The day before I had been looking for a card everywhere and couldn’t find one so I had bought construction paper, markers et jeweled stickers to make my own. I spent an hour making a homemade card that looked like a 10 year old made it. I don’t know why we couldn’t find balloons, cards, bags or candles in any of the grocery stores we went to. They do celebrate life events here. Where do they shop???

I spent hours rewriting my blog. We had lost the internet connection and when it came back, my blog was gone. Grrr.

The chef and bartender had texted Pogo that they had arrived at Mario and Josée and nobody was there so I went up to let them in and waited until our friends arrived.

We got ready for the party and met our friends a little bit before 5pm so I could take a few pictures before the other guests arrived. We ended up being 18 of us. It was so much fun! The chef, his helper and the bartender did an amazing job on the food. Not only that it was beautifully presented but it was all delicious. And way too much! I think they had enough leftovers to do another party. After serving different cocktails, and serving the food all evening, including the cake which was delicious thankfully, the bartender kept everyone’s wine glasses full. When he left, Mario took over. I’m sure there were a few headaches the next day. Pogo was in charge of the music and we danced for awhile. I couldn’t dance much myself because my knee was still hurting a lot. Of course, Josée danced on the table when her favorite song played: Fire Burning, something about calling 911 on the dancefloor? It was also a lot of fun chatting with people that we don’t normally see because we don’t usually hang at the beach. We chatted, we sang, we ate and drank some more. You know you are having a successful party when the guard comes knocking at the door to tell you to keep it down. Thank you Mario and Josée for hosting such a special celebration!

We came home at 1am and were happy that we only had to walk down one floor.

We took it easy on Wednesday. We got up late, went on the beach to chat with Mario and Josée, Pogo and Mario went swimming in the ocean with the humongous waves of late, went for lunch at La Gaviota, went back upstairs to take a little nap, facetimed with Shaun, went through our mail that he had just picked up at the post office and caught up with his life. It was great seeing him. I miss him so much!

We went to the pool then I played dice with Josée. We took our showers and Pogo wanted to have Al Pastor tacos for dinner. We watched the last episode of The Tourist on our return.