Christmas and New Year 2015/16
As one might expect, a Canadian couple living in the tropics in December would obviously be thinking and feeling that it was July, duuhhh... In addition, we are not being inundated with Christmas carols on the radio and in shopping malls, there are little to no commercials on TV as Christmas reminders, and there is no pressure to go out to see Santa. Spending time at the beach and in a swimming pool every day under a bunch of palm trees just didn't seem to get us thinking about yuletide tradition, and with the weather being warm, those types of preparations were just a distant memory from last year.
It seemed to me that Christmas “commercialism” is very low key here compared to Vancouver. We had decided that buying gifts for each other would be frivolous as it would be difficult to have to move them if / when our adventure time in PV comes to an end. So, it was difficult to “feel” the Christmas thing that we have gotten used to every year in Canada when we go shopping for stuff for our family and friends while listening to Christmas carols in the stores.
Puerto Vallarta religious traditions are observed in many ways here, and the churches have a big “presence” or influence for pilgrimages that take place and end up at the cathedral. Streams of people arrive in early December to participate in the Feast of Our Lady Guadalupe celebrations (to mark an event in 1531 when and image of Mary showed up on a peasant's cloak after Mary appeared as a vision to the peasant), and then later in December the Mary and Joseph celebrations (to mark nine days spent in the manger), and other religious events tied to the Christmas period. We see long lines of people waling into PV on the main roadways to join in the celebrations. The locals would help out by setting up temporary food venues for the folks that arrive (over 5 million this year!). All of the religious events include a requirement to make very loud noises (banging noises all night long that scare the stuffing out of every pet in the city, and scares the crap out of us....) to ward off imagined or real evil spirits. We just couldn't get used to that...
We tried to get into the mood with installing strings of Christmas lights in our apartment. That helped somewhat and we enjoyed the nice ambiance it created, but still no yule tree to decorate and the thin fern palm was a bit too wimpy for hanging balls and such. Artificial trees are available here but what would be do with it afterward? The lights would have to suffice for decorations this year, and once they were up we admitted that it did start to feel a bit like Christmas. It seemed strange to have been so conservative with use of lights as we were told to be careful of our electrical costs, and then to have strings of them lighting up the living room.
The City has been decorated with lights on the streets, angels blowing horns, colorful flags and piñatas where ever street celebrations would be taking place. New Year's parties are a big deal and they set up band stands and huge video monitors up and down the Malecon and on the streets.
We were able to have a few SKYPE sessions individually with Tyler, Jenny and Derek, and Christine and Mike. That was awesome as we got to “see and hear” what our family members are doing at home – feeling more like Christmas! :-)
We wanted to spend Christmas Day with Patty and Jonathan and fortunately they were available to be with us - yaaaaay! - and I went through much consternation about wheather to eat out in a restaurant versus trying to cook in the warm weather, in a new kitchen with new spices, new food sources, and using a small oven with no real heat control. In the end, I decided that I would find a turkey and cook it up for dinner so we have those great smells in our home. The turkey was located and tucked into the freezer, and the fresh foods would have to wait until they were needed a couple of days before hand. Cyndi somehow managed to find the little turkey skewers for closing the bird after it was stuffed – thank you Cyndi!
The morning of the fresh food shopping day was not a happy one for Cyndi as she ended up having a major tummy issue with something she ate, and I was sent off to shop by myself. Aaaaargh.... The bumpy bus ride, fighting for a cart, navigating the crowded isles in the supermarket, dealing with my bank card not working (saved by VISA), hauling the many bags into a taxi with a driver that spoke no English (lots of hand signals by yours truly), and getting the stuff back to the apartment with Cyndi still looking like a green Martian. Poor girl - had it for several days...
Last minute things had to be found that were not available at the supermarket:
stove top stuffing was finally found after looking in three places and cost C$10 per box
poultry seasoning was C$6
gravy browning was a lost cause – da nada – so I thought I would try a gravy mix. Big mistake...way to salty...
Our gift giving to each other was replaced with gift giving to others. We found out from our new friends Bob and Joy that there is an annual event that was started 7 or 8 years ago to help less fortunate children who would not normally receive a gift. Expats and vacationers bought gifts and they were hung by string from small palapas on the beach. It looked amazing as there upwards of 50 gifts hanging on each palapa. It was fun hanging up the ones we brought and we helped others to get their gifts hung up too. People started waiting in a line with their kids during the wee early hours of the morning – first come first served - and almost 400 gifts were handed out. Children were escorted into an enclosed beach area by several “Santa's helpers” where the palapas were filled, and they got to chose whatever they wanted from the stings. It was heartwarming to see and be a part of....starting to feel like Christmas. :-)
So.... the big day arrives and I am standing in our little Mexican kitchen with two feet of counter space by the sink (most of which is taken up by the dish rack) and a four foot wide bar area complete with wine glasses hanging from a rack overhead. The 20 inch wide stove top is gas fired and so is the 16 inch wide oven (inside). The dinner menu includes turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy (lots of gravy), kernel corn, mixed vegetables, sweet/sour red cabbage, pickles, cranberry sauce, and associated drinks and pleasantries. So Jan, roll up your sleeves and get at it....
The turkey weighs in at 14 pounds and becomes 17 pounds after it is stuffed. It barely fits in the disposable aluminum pan. The pan doesn't fit in the oven. Some careful bending and creative pushing was helpful and somehow the oven door gets closed.
I knew it was going to an "experiment" doing this big meal for the first time in this new kitchen. And, it was a learning thing for me as the stuffing ends up too salty, as do most other things as the seasonings here (that I got my hands on) all seem to include salt. The stuffing was also too wet as the butter is different and so is the bread and milk I used. Anyway, I had to do some creative doctoring on most things and in the end I think the meal ended up a success. Jonathan and Patty were smiling and went home with full tummies and full take-home containers with left overs. Whew!
Jenny and Christine tuned in for a short SKYPE session right after their Christmas dinner was done in Vancouver... it was great to see everyone in Canada. :-)
New Years Eve...... Bob and Joy dropped in during the afternoon to wish us Happy New Year and brought a nice bottle of champagne with them – very nice surprise! We were invited to our neighbour's home – Lance and Dawn – for early drinks and met a lots of new people there before heading to the streets to participate in the fun. The entire city was crowded with people enjoying the evening with their friends and families. Sparklers in kids hands, music playing, people dancing and singing, paper lanterns being lit and lifting into the night, fireworks in all directions for a couple of hours, private parties visible along the beach and in open night clubs – what a great place. We heard no reports of anyone getting hurt or misbehaving – just a lot of great fun with a lot of happy people!
At midnight we ended up on the beach at Langostino's Beach Bar and met up with Bob and Joy and some of their friends. We brought our own champagne with us so we could stand in the water and toast in the New Year while watching the fireworks show all around the entire bay. It was amazing to see all of this going on all over the entire city at the same time, and we thanked Bob and Joy for recommending that we do that. A few more cool ones with our feet in the sand and then the beach bars started to close up.
We headed back to our little apartment and we were redirected into our neighbour's place (where we started) and stayed there until four a.m. with yet another new gang of people. Too many names and faces to even start to try to know them. Eleven a.m. arrived very quickly on January 1st and coffee was definitely calling. Somehow my groggy mind was able to navigate the kitchen and I made some ham and cheese omelets to get something into our tummies. Then Cyndi decided she needed to go for a swim, so we had our New Years polar bear swim in the pool at noon. Awesome.
What a memorable time we had. Our first Christmas together in the tropics - absolutely would like to do that again. :-)
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