Acting like locals

We are amazed at how quickly we are able to feel like locals here. I realize after several days since seeing them last that i have no ideas where my shoes are.  Im sure many with cleanliness issues might not approve of walking around the streets of mexico barefoot…but it just seems like its the way things should be done.  and shirts…they just seem too restrictive and should be saved for only special occasions.  we actually forget from time to time that we don't live here and are simply passing through.

Wednesday saw one of those shirt and shoes occasions.  Outside of one of the restaurants in town sit a few guys who try to recruit couples to go see a timeshare presentation.  Obviously Jen and i said no immediately but over our weeks here the offers keep getting better and we finally agreed to go sit through a demo.  No, we have no interest in buying…it isn't  our style of vacation and we are clearly on a budget…but the few thousand pesos we were promised in return pays half our rent during our stay here, and the gift bottle of tequila didn't hurt.

Lets face it…we aren't yet hard up for cash but every little bit of money coming in means longer we get to stay on the road.  Jen doesn't like to think about these things yet, but my brain can't stop thinking of how to make a bit of money from time to time and slow down the rate at which our savings is dwindling.  In this case it seems like easy money and we agree to spend a few hours listening to the sales pitch. I put on the shirt, jen pulls out the wedges and we hop in the free taxi to the resort.  Nice free breakfast out of the deal, and other than spending half our day talking numbers and trying to convince them that we can't be convinced to buy…it's totally worth the cash.  One more of those and our 5 weeks in Punta de Mita will be on the house…but that may take a while for us to save up the energy for. I guess my haggling skills haven't disappeared completely because I even got a job offer out of the deal (of course, theres a chance that was just the power of the leftover cheesy halloween stache).  I've already done my time as a car salesman and i don't think I'm ready to start slinging timeshares just yet.  Besides…that would probably require staying around a bit longer than we anticipate and despite how nice it is to have a place (and kitchen) to call our own we are feeling that drive for exploration building every week.

We also keep scoring in the fresh fish department lately.  After two days of jen walking down to the guys looking for tuna and striking out- we get a large ahi steak gifted from a friend, and then the next day one of the fisherman comes to find us and we end up with a huge slab of ahi (just caught) that makes 6 thick steaks worth…not bad for under $10.  Im sure there will be a point where we can't eat ahi a couple meals a day…but that time isn't now (and we don't see it coming anytime soon).  Bring on the next round of seared ahi tacos!  Still nothing to speak of on the wave front, but i did finish a painting in the down time.  Cant say i love it, but it felt good to finish something and i even took it to show at an open house yumiko held yesterday.  Still not busy season here, so odds of a big turnout were low but after she suggested it i still managed to come up with a few dozen excuses not to show off the piece.  Put myself in timeout, went back to our last post and realized it might be a good test for me.   

I took the piece, put it out for others to see and had a few conversations…and as you might expect i survived.  Then we rewarded ourselves with some tennis and tacos with dean and yumiko.

The next piece is underway (slowly)- we'll see how it turns out...