It's a Carnavil

They actually call it Carnaval and it's the 3rd biggest in the world behind Rio and New Orleans. My Lumix camera got some fantastic shots so I'm going to do very little dialogue here and just post a bunch of my favorite pics. This year theme was ' Alebrijes and Dragon ' , I'm not sure if I ever figured out the Alebrijes but I sure did all the dragons. It ends on fat Tuesday (last Tuesday) and it this year all the events were exceptional, like Mazatlan knows the uniqueness of the event and with the new road to Durango  completed they have turned the wick up to get more visitors....and it was working. We shared the event with thousands of people, no worries, nothing but a wonderful vibe,

I've bought many of these stools...watch the Pacifico's if you're standing on them like everybody does. Oh, they cost 2 and a half bucks.

These guys tell you about the Mardi Gras spirit. They are promoting their special hot sauce and having fun doing it.

Of course Mazatlan is WAY more conservative than New Orleans or Rio but there are still a lot of pretty girls / women .  I love the way my camera froze the confetti in this pic....

In the middle of all the bands / Dragons / Pacifico floats / bottle rocket launchers / horses / dancers came this float....tossing free anti-acid samples to the crowd.

I tried to get a close up of the detail on the Dragons....you tell me which one you think is the best.

Being  ' Game of Thrones ' followers me and MPeasy know a bit about Dragons. Remember thescene when they were first hatched ???....it worked better on TV than it did on the malecon on Fat Tuesday.

The tallest Float at Carnaval 2017....I'm guessing 45  feet.

One of the coolest things is they honor all the past Carnaval Queens. Still beautiful.

Miss Mexico was there....

Our friend Trustin was in the mood....Good Alaskan there for sure.

Who wasn't smiling ?

And we even came across some wildlife on our hike out 

Hope ya liked it.....😀😀😀😀

It's easy,

if I could be in two places at once you know where they'd be. Right here at Mile 14 and on the sandy beaches of Mazatlan of course. But life don't work that way so on Friday we jumped the jet and after a long 3 flights with a few close calls due to delays we arrived in Anchorage 14 hours later. I'm not a big fan of the flight experience so when our friend Chris offered to upgrade us it made a long day soooo much easier, thanks again buddy.  So we close the book on Mazatlan 2016 / 17....Party over from our new favorite eatery, Todos Santos on LaMarina Blvd next to the Soriana, all you guys in MZT need to get there.

We walked an hour our last morning. MP never missed a day with her girl friends and I go fish. But lately the fishing was so slow that we walked that morning and shared our thoughts . You can kinda tell she 's a ready to go home girl with a big smile . I turned and snapped this pic of her and our friend Linda Kolbo.

With about 4000 peso left over we decided to hit the airport early for a game of Scrabble and some airport food. We do this so routinely that we know the staff at our favorite place. So we pick our first 7 Scrabble tiles and MP has the first play and she's sniveling about here letters....yikes....who places a questionable word not once but twice and gets the 50 points for using all the tiles ? We've played a lot of Scrabble through the years but this deal was like hitting a inside the park home run. But I hunkered down and when we folded it up for the flight I was ahead...but not by much. Did you know that the word 'mismal' is a weather term and a cross between dismal and miserable ??? I didn't either until I started playing Scrabble with MP.

As we waited for our luggage at the Anchorage Airport I noticed something that all of our Alaska Board of Fisheries members either missed or more likely could care less about. These are all the local Chamber of Commerce Visitor Guides trying to sway an important segment of the Alaska economy to come to their towns and maybe.....fish.....sport fish....It looks like the B.O.F. meeting which ends today has been a real slap in the face to an important growth industry here in Alaska, tourism and sport fishing. With a tight grip on Alaska politics the commercial fisherman continue to not just keep the status quo but to also convince the decision makers that they need more and more and more fish...like they own them. Never mind that this is a non-growth industry and that they stand against all the rest of Alaska industry and continually  lobby against oil, logging, mining , tourism....Feeling the frustration of a B.O.F. meeting years ago my buddy Randy Berg leaned over to me and said " hell of a way to run a railroad ".....and it sure is.

Readers of Mile 14 might remember a pic I took at the Anchorage Airport  of a guy with a new scoop shovel flying home, Alaska is unique. So where else in the world does your commuter Airline have a spare prop waiting in terminal just in case it's needed....' we'll be about 20 minutes late with flight 21, gotta change the prop folks '...

So we get to Mile 14 and we need to move snow to get the car out of the garage. As I was doing it I realized I was really enjoying it, the privacy here, the clean and crisp air and the fact that I do everything myself like most Alaskans. What a place, when we left in November we were losing 5 minutes of daylight a day and now we're gaining that same 5 minutes back.  It's gorgeous here, it really is.

And how could you not feel at home and a part of small town Alaska when you get up the first morning and your newspaper is waiting without you having to call an 800 number and activate your subscription to an electronic voice. AND, it has this sticky note on it.....

This selfie didn't work out so good a few hours back on our first walk down the river but I want to print us together, happy and one day past our 39th wedding anniversary. To our Mazatlan friends we say thanks for everything, thanks for being you. And to our Alaska friends we say ' see ya around town, swing by for a song and a beer'.....we're back....

The Tuesday before we left we went to the Carnaval parade and this year the Floats were exceptional. I'll post pics in just a few days....no editorials mixed in, just cool Mardi Gras like pics....

Fishing for Life

That's what I'm doing. fishing has been so slow that my next Mile 14 Blog post will either be pics of a fish in the next few days or us landing on terra firma in the froze north. We're almost done with another portion of this life long fishing trip I'm on....but I WILL post if I catch in the next few days.

In the mean time it 's Carnaval and tomorrow is Fat Tuesday and we'll be at the parade for sure and I'll have pics. But me and MPeasy went downtown to get Lobster one last time and we noticed a disturbing trend. A whole bunch of the 'Deposito's had these signs on them. What a heck of a time to start enforcing beer sales rules. I mean Pacifico and Corona beer is the life blood of Carnaval, heck, it's the life blood of Mazatlan and look at this .....

So we weren't surprised when we came across a demonstration at the first Goverment Building on the Malecon....Now I'm not sure that was the focus of the protest but it ought to be. I can't think of a prettier place to sleep in your tent and let the Government know that you're mad as hell and you ain't taking it anymore....mmmmm. can ya tell I watched 'Network ' on Turner Classic Movies last night ?

We got our Lobster and I learned something really cool about them as we waited for the boat to come in and chatted in spainglish with the lobsterman  that had to  know all about the TV series ' Deadliest Catch'.  I paid about ten bucks for these two beauty's and as you can tell they look a lot different so I asked. The real spiney and more colorful one was caught in the rocks where the spines are their defense and makes it hard to pull them out. The smoother less colorful one was caught in the sand where they rely on just the camouflage for protection from critters that want to eat them like us. Pretty cool. I made a new friend and next November he's getting some home smoked / caught Alaskan Salmon.

,Here's a pic of me and MPeasy after nearly four months together in the tropics.  She's still smiling and  that's a wonderful thing....I know I'm a little intense sometimes and probably not the easiest guy to be in love with. But we have a way so all I can say is this...thank you MP for everything, and I mean everything.

In the ' you've never seen that department '....we must have gotten on the 420 bus. All you in Alaska that voted to legalize Marijuana will like this, and it's public transportation. Ya know it's funny, I think people who don't know me well assume I'm a pot smoker because of ahhhh.....just the way I am. Well I ain't but I guess being a product of the 60's I guess I'm an ' interested observer' of all these kinda things. I shouldn't be surprised by these hand holds because we also have buses that have beer can hand holds....pretty cool.

Our building is dealing with a horrible situation and it's actually best that we're leaving on Friday. We had a huge rain storm which we call ' tormenta' two Sunday's ago and it seemed to over flow the storm drains and somehow has helped back up the city sewer line that services LaMarina.  I've always said that Mexico is not for everybody and this is a true test. This area has had an ongoing problem for years at buildings and houses down the street from us and you can usually smell sewage somewhere on some days...but now raw sewage has backed up into the parking lot and flooded the tennis courts. Where we live is not so close to it and we have an onshore breeze but when you come and ago from the building the smell is disgusting.....and I'm pretty sure not too healthy. If it gets any worst we'll check into a hotel for the nights before we leave. Here's a pic of the tennis court this morning.

It's big problem,,,,no ..... a huge problem and it's compounded by being Carnaval week. It's a city problem so we're kind of at the mercy of the bureaucracy . As with any family we have some ' personalities ' that I expect are being critical of how the situation is being handled or what can be done....to those I'd say this.....C'mon, doe's anybody think that if this was fixable right now it wouldn't be ? Does anybody think that everybody is not just as horrified and tired of it as anybody else . So, ration your water, be patient, be good neighbors for cryin out loud.

Ya Wanna get Married ?

Well if you do, I've got the place to make it ultra special...and I figure pretty inexpensive compared to the great U.S, of A. where I've heard tell of people spending 40 or 50,000 big ones just on the ceremony and reception. Right next door to us is El Cid Marina where they have an event center on the beach that has to be the busiest marriage spot in Mazatlan. We've seen many of them but this last Saturdays was the nicest ever and with a smaller crowd than usually attend and listen to blaring Banda music until 4:00 a.m. The El Cid people are artist's at the erection of beautiful Pavilions, this is the nicest I've seen , up in a day and down the next.

Is that gorgeous or what ?  The sun is just setting and the music quaffs through the air . When you get off the water taxi you are greeted by Juan and Cindy who have just walked on this aisle to where a flowery trestle sits for the vows.

MPeasy and I actually had a wonderful wedding in the basement of my folks house but it was light years from this shin dig. We happened to be on the water taxi with the events director and I told her how beautiful it was and jokingly said that if I ever get married again we'd.....well ya know it turned out I had this same moment of overflowing sentimentality when we just happened to be at the Tropicana is Las Vegas on our 20th anniversary. I had gone to the wedding chapel and gotten a brochure. I found MP playing video poker in the 5 cent section and I showed her the brochure and asked if maybe she'd like to renew our vows. I got this look that I'm still getting used too after all these years...it's a kinda ' whats the matter with YOU ' look. And then to MP's credit she thoughtfully asked what the cheapest package was and I told here $ 380.00 . She quickly replied " lets split it in half, give me $ 190.00 and I can move up to the 25 cent video poker "....so, wouldn't ya love to be a part of something ;like this baby ?

Speaking of married life.....every guy who's been married ny on forty years like me has heard " what the hell is wrong with your aim " or the infamous " try getting a little bit inside"... So here in Mazatlan they have a simple solution that we should have come up with years ago....yup, a target in the urinal.  And there's even an arrow showing you where to hit for a 10 point  bulls eye. I'm gonna market this baby when I get back to Mile 14 as part of my ' how to happy in marriage in an 800 sq, ft condo for 4 months ' lecture.

mmmmmm.....some how or another I need to sag way into the subject of fish..... I KNOW....if you want to find me just look  for the guitar playing fish on a ground floor ( I prefer ' garden suite ' } unit door . This guy is actually my alter ego, my inner self.

Well that was an amazing lead in....what I really had to say about fish was this ( serious face now )....The Alaska Board of Fisheries started today to deliberate on Cook Inlet and mine and everybody else who fishes has their future at stake. I used to ring lead the charge for fairness against the commercial types but I retired from that and now all I can say to those doing the work is ' Keep THE Faith' brothers. I know a lot you read Mile 14 and I even expect some of you at the ADF+G read it too. So we're many, us Sport people. Our Kings need help. We will have a new policy on how to get the best and biggest on the spawning grounds. Us sport fisherman have a tool called catch and release for our part of that effort.....what do the commercial guys have like that ?.....mmmmm....Right now there is story in on ADN.Com ( Alaska Dispatch News } about Monica Zappa Iditarod racer who ' mushes for a cause' one of which is commercial fishing advocacy . The on-line story has a picture of her in a set net skiff holding up,,,,, yep, you got it.....two large King salmon . They always tell us that they try not to catch them and that red salmon are their bread and butter. The picture is  an ' in your face ' moment I'd say, kinda like getting flipped the bird.  It tells the story, the fish belong to them because they were here first. The fish belong to them because they have the commercial fishing ' culture' The fish belong them to them because sport people ' just play with our food'.... So here;s the deal for all my friends working so hard for all of us, thank you and good luck, we will prevail.

I finally did something really stupid....

Sure did. The other day I got on a scale at the Walmart Store. Now you know how I train for life so you know I lost 10 pounds before jumping the jet to Mazatlan. Well I found it at Walmart. I could kinda tell that I had a little tortilla tummy going on and when it registered 91 kilo I let out a gasp and MP went to giggling, Mmmmmm so I said "it's your turn baby" she said  " pound salt ". Oh well, it's the cost of a good life. To all my friends @ The River City Wellness Center....you'll be seeing a lot of me ( in several different ways ) real soon. Here's the speed-o shot for 2017.

If there's a such thing as a good Dental experience I've found it. I've been going to Francisco Bouttier for years and we're friends. MP and I both needed Crowns , hers was a new one and mine was replacing a failed one. So if you are like us and don't have insurance for your chompers do yourself a favor and pay for your Mexico vacation by having the work done here. Have faith brother it's fantastic . Here's me and Kayole after she finished my crown, I guarantee she's got a big ol smile under that surgical mask. We listen to rock and roll, we talk politics, we talk family, it's just fantastic 😏.

When I write that book about guiding / fishing and the secrets of struggling feet first into a happy life I'm going to allocate one entire chapter to gill nets. I've been haunted by them my entire life. Right now the beach fishing here is so slow people who have less stamina than me are giving up. There's just very few fish around so why not just stretch 1/4 mile of net from my house to Cerritos and catch the rest of them. This was it this morning, you can see the high flyer and the net was just at our casting range. It was so long that they were still pulling it after I fished for two hours.

But when you see this next pic I think you'll agree...I might not catch a lot of fish lately but when I do they have personality. This guy here was the knarliest, toothiest, hard fighting critter I've ever caught. He had that long beak with sharp long teeth and he was trying to bend in half like an eel and get me. If he hadn't had a 200 peso Mirro Lure in his mouth I'd have cut the line and forgotten the surgery part....and did I mention he stunk ? , no kidding his slime smelled like something that came out of my refrigerator when I lived on 5th Ave with Rick Sewell.  I looked him up and he's a ' Snake Mackerel' and a huge one at that according to the book.....maybe I let my first world record go ???/

Team X's point man my friend Slah Sahli has been building a restaurant . I've learned so much about surf fishing and Muslim life and Mazatlan from him and now I've learned that you need to save room if you eat at Ara Mex.  We went on the first day he was open and he still was waiting for ingredients for the Arab part of his menu but the Mexican was fantastic. Here's his sign with the address and all, tell him you're a Team Xer.

Here's a pic of the interior with Slah doing something or other. He and Maria renovated a derelict building right next door to Topolo one of Mazatlan's nicest places. Ara Mex is sterile like clean and has a courtyard although we ate inside.

MP and I both had Mexican plates. Mine was Carne Asada and MP's was Pollo. Here's a pic of our new friend Chef Jesse with our food and me and her sharing some love over the flowers we brought.

It was just perfect for me. Here's a close up . I've been on an avocado rich diet so genuine Guacamole was a nice surprise to go with my meat and enchilada....that sauce is to die for as they say in the paper's food section. Fresh tortilla's of course and Jesse followed up with a rice pudding desert when I thought we were done.  Congratulations Slah, Maria and Jesse....we wish you the best and we're in your corner buddy.

The other morning as I fished at 6:30 a.m. it was crazy still out , All I could hear was the motion of the ocean. The fog was thick enough that I  couldn't see where my lure landed....guess the fish couldn't either....but...it was just magic . The tide was building and each wave would just barely wash to the flat that the last tide had left. Then it would run parallel with the beach looking for a low area to return with. It was really just another moment on the beach but I just felt so good I took a short video.....please watch and pretend you're there....and I wish you were.

Don't think just because I'm writing about sun up that I don't like the sunsets. But I must admit a bias for the morning when there's always new hope and freshness. A couple nights back I almost got a perfect ' naval assist' so I figured I'd better share it. It's not sunset on Mazatlan 2017 yet but we're just a couple weeks out from returning to the frozen north....which is just fine with us. MP says I could stay longer as she has work to do and my fishing season is still a few months off....But nope, I ain't doing that and miss my friend Mike Sweeney's St. Patrick Day Parade....See ya soon Slowdotna.

How's about the Super Bowl !!!

That pic of my fishing buddy Alejandro tells the fishing story pretty darn well I'd say.  I kept putting off doing a blog post at Mile 14 figuring that I'd catch a fish tomorrow....or the next tomorrow....or...The way it's going my very next fish could well be a salmon from the Kenai river come June, we WILL work through this slump one way or another,

But last Monday Tim had to jet back to Iowa so we fished the last day at our favorite rocks in the Gold Zone. I had to leave early as our maid comes every Monday at 9:00 and around here you gotta clean everything up for the maid so she doesn't think you're a slob . We have a Canadian women who is the Administrator here and likes to think she runs the building....wrong, the maids run the building, But I digress....no sooner had I left Tim to go clean than he hit this beautiful Snook, his first one ever. I was and still am stoked for him because I remember how long it took me to get my first good one. The way it goes tim is like this...one down 100 more to go eh ? Nice work.

So I still fish every morning and quit when I'm good and cold, this morning I lasted 1 1/2 hours. You know you've been in Mexico a while when you get cold when it's in the high 50's and low 60's. I feel like a local almost. Then I get a nap and do some reading and then I usually take a hike and then I work up a new song on the guitar and then we watch Alaska Bush people or Zeke and
Emily floundering around trying to get gold. Here's list of my books so far.
1. Old Man's War....about the stupidest science fiction ever where they fight in space with old people who are given young bodies....I'm keeping mine.
2.War at Sea...an actual text book about Naval warfare in WW 2,,,,,boy howdy that baby took some discipline.
3. Book of the 7 Seas.....really cool all about the discovery's and everything you ever need to know about the oceans....marine life, marine geology, ancient sea battles and boats.....cool stuff.
4. Positively False.....Floyd Landis's account of how he won the Tour De France...he says he didn't do it, I don't believe him.
5.Gray Mountain.....John Grisham, pretty darn slow if you ask me.
6.New Jack....I guy wants to write about prison guards in Sing Sing Prison and they won't let him research the subject so he goes to the Academy and then becomes one. After the book he better tow the line and not end up in that place .
7. The Lion's Gate....personal stories from the guys who waxed all the Arab's during Israel's 6 day war  that actually went 7 days....did you know that Israel is only the size of New Jersey ?
8. Rose....a novel by Martin Cruz Smith about the coal industry in England during the Industrial Revolution....Gorky Park and Polar Star were both so good that I read it just because it Martin Cruz Smith....y0u can skip this one,
9. The Last Vampire....Whitley Strieber who owns the end of the world story's. Weird , but good.
10. The Peninsula Clarion......weird, but good.

So you can see I'm staying busy. We've got exactly four more weeks before we land back at Mile 14 of the world famous. I can tell we're getting close because MP seems to be quieter than usual and when she does talk it sometimes starts out with.....' what's wrong with you'....Well nothing really. So far I'm really doing well. I haven't been sick except for the usual dose or two of ' tourista' and I have yet to do anything stupid AND I'm getting along with everybody, even the A Team that everybody just ignores.

Next time I play at the bar I'll ask MP to take a video or two and post them. For some reason Mexico is really good for my creativety.....Sorry about a little delay in my Mile 14 post's. On Friday the internet finally got fixed. We were hanging out reading and the most unusual thing happened....the phone rang and I new that Telmex's man had finally arrived. He said he would come sometime between 9 a.m. Monday and April.  More corrosion on the street connection was the story. In the 3 months we've been here it's been down for almost an entire month and by all rights we should get our bill credited for that. mmmmmmm, I got the feeling that ain't gonna happen.

That's how I'm feeling......