House for sale in Parksville!

Well, here is a new and different blog entry for you. We have decided to sell our wonderful Parksville home. I know all the people who know us well will say, so what else is new......but we have owned it now for 7 years and invested a ton of blood sweat and tears into it. We are ready for something new and have an accepted offer on a large 3 bedroom condo in Parksville, subject to the sale of our place. Buying something from 5,000 miles you say....are we crazy....???  Maybe a little, but we have complete faith in our realtor, and have seen many pics, so feel ok about doing this. Our wonderful house sitters have done some final renos for us - painting, new walls and floor in the laundry room, tiling the fireplace, etc, and have been Amazing Angels not only to do all the renos but also to handle all the showings and so on which go along with being listed. If anyone knows someone who might be moving to Parksville please pass this info along - we only need one buyer.....! There is an open house on Saturday, and the MLS listing can be seen at MLS.ca - #311725

http://www.realtor.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?PropertyID=10436419&PidKey=-1374758113

You can always email me at darmstrong601@yahoo.ca if you happen to know someone who might need more info. Networking rules!!!

Cactus and popcorn....

The giant cactus is once again in bloom - only at night....and has several blooms high up on her arms.














For anyone who missed this last month, this cactus only blooms at night, on one night, and there are some buds low down which are going to bloom any night now. Really beautiful, so I will hope to catch them when they open.









Miki and I have been working too hard, so we ran off to Cancun yesterday afternoon and went to the movies.....air conditioned, of course.......and THEN went to Costco, Wallmart and Chedraui to do shopping for ourselves and 3 others. It was great fun and we saw the new 3D adventure called Sanctum from James Cameron. Don't ask why there is a blender on the seat beside us......we bought it for someone and didn't want to leave it in the car.

More Carnival....!

Oh, yes, she is back, friends and neighbours, the drag queen who was the MC for the dance competitions in the main square....this guy is as good as anyone in Canada or the U. S. and has the entire audience - including aging Mayans and families - howling with laughter.














The dancers have incredible outfits........















Men and women alike












And the float that went by just couldn't get enough of the camera.....!

Sat night on the town...

We all gathered at David Lau's for dinner and the Men in Blues, which Linda and Pat had not heard yet. Great food, great music!

Diego on lead guitar and Jean on the keyboards.....!

Kenny on drums and Manuel on  bass guitar.....

This is a dreadful pic, but this is the band that finally started playing in the main square after we left DL's....local, loud and fun - the last set of princesses and princes are just finishing their dance and then the floor was full!

Carnival in Puerto Morelos

This is the start of our 4 day Carnival....a tradition throughout Mexico and the Caribbean that ends on Fat Tuesday, before the beginning of Lent - one great blow out party! This is the scene from the bookstore window last night.....the Puerto town square was packed with people, food, vendors, and a huge stage for a great local band.










The King and Queen of Carnival were paraded around the square in a decorated pickup, throwing treats to the kids. On the basketball court, which subbed for a dance floor last night, all the princesses and princes were crowned as well.








Here is just one couple before they received their crowns....we wish we had more Spanish to tell you the basis for this custom. I will try to find out and add it later. The final couple to be crowned did the first waltz around the floor and then everyone joined them. There were hundreds of people and families here - it is Saturday night and most people have Sunday off - good thing - , as the band didn't even start playing until 10:30...!!









There were so many lights it was hard to get a decent pic, but you can get an idea of the numbers from this one. Sun night the next party is in the Colonia - our neighbourhood - in the zocolo, Monday is back in Puerto and Tuesday, the finale, is in the Colonia again.

Drinks and then dinner...

Robin, Gwen, Linda, Pat and Laura all came to our place Thursday night for drinks and appies. As you can see, I absconded from my photographer duties to spend most of the time in the pool on this hot evening.

We all had a lovely dinner at L'Oazis, one of our favourite places, and everyone was pleased with their meals.

Robin and Gwen shmoozing for the camera......

and even the photographer got her picture taken that night....!

Friends arrive in PM!

Well, I am having blog problems...blogger is not loading photos, so sorry for this delay. Have to download everything to the desktop and load individually....sigh. Anyway, Gwen and Robin have arrived and here we are at Ojo de Agua enjoying lunch on the beach.

They spent their first 4 days in a very small room, and then moved to a 2 bed 2 bath condo they will be sharing with other friends, Linda and Pat.



On Wed eve, another friend from Victoria, Laura, arrived safe and sound, so picked her up at the airport and got her settled into her place before joining friends at David Lau's....where else?....for some music.



Poor Laura - travelled all day, then off to a crowd of folks and loud music, but we all had fun and she slept like a log that night.