My first visitor!

I finally have my wireless connection hooked up!!!!!!! You do not know how happy this makes me. It was only one week of "manana's" (every day they would tell me the wireless connection would happen tomorrow). It will be so nice to finally be able to sit on my deck and check my e-mail on a daily basis and be able to update my blog.

Well, this last week, I have been busy settling in to my new place, meeting my neighbors and the best part of it all - I had my first visitor!!!!!!! My dear friend Alex came to visit me in between business trips to the US. It was so nice to have my good friend here - words cannot express how grateful I am.

We had a great time together and it was so good to laugh again. His first night here , I took him to a local Mexican cantina where you only purchase your drinks (the food and entertainment is free). They bring out plates of various yummy Mexican food until you can no longer eat another bite. I thought this was a great way for Alex to get a taste of Manzanillo - he was able to try a huge variety of the local cuisine while listening to a traditional Mexican band. The food was amazing....they serve small plates of food (similar to tapas in Spain) and he got to try 8-10 different traditional dishes.

Part way through the evening, they were looking for "volunteers" to come up on stage and participate in an interactive show. This basically entailed countless tequila shots, dancing on chairs in front of hundreds of people and being spun around on one of the staff's shoulders until you could not take it anymore. When this began, Alex took one look at me and said "don't you dare". Of course, I replied that I would never do something like that! On my way to the bathroom, one staff member stopped me and told me they needed just one more volunteer. I was trying to be helpful and wanted to please the young earnest Mexican man, so I pointed to my dear friend and said that he would be happy to volunteer. Here are some photos of the events that transpired (with permission from Alex). Alex, do you forgive me yet?





Over the course of the last few days, my friend Alex has made it his mission in life to tell every single person we encounter that it was my birthday on Saturday. We received a few invitations to attend a few different parties that night. First we went out for a nice dinner. Of course, Alex was in payback mode and on a trip to the bathroom (yeah right), he apparently informed the staff at the restaurant that it was my birthday. After we had finished our meal, all of a sudden, there was this very loud obnoxious music playing. I shared a confused look with the lady at the table next to us and said to Alex, what on earth is that? Before I knew it, the entire staff were singing happy birthday to me (en espanol) and placed a ridiclous hat on my head for me to wear the duration of the very very loud song. Here is a photo (with ridiculous hat and yummy Tiramisu dessert included).


Afterwards, we went to a local cafe/pub to meet up with my new ex-pat friends/neighbors. After visiting for a while with everyone, the lady that owns the place (Pilar) made a big announcement that it was my birthday and brought out a cake with candles and everyone sang happy birthday. They had customized the cake to say happy birthday in spanish along with farewell to two other friends that were leaving Manzanillo. After the singing ended, and trying to blow out the trick candles, they informed me that it was Mexican tradition to take a bite out of the cake without using my hands. Of course, when I went to take the bite, someone pushed my head into the cake. Here is a photo of the cake before my face was implanted in it!



There are no words to describe how fortunate I feel to have met these incredible new friends. I now feel as though living on my own here is not nearly as overwhelming. A big thanks to those of you who organized this event!!!

Photos of the sunset during birthday dinner.





A big thanks to Alex for coming down here for a visit....you gave me much needed strength and helped me feel more settled in my new home. Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming!!!!!!