An Australian New Year, mate

Temptation on the beach.

Mel(anie), Aaron and David getting ready to leave after a whirlwind week of examing A & M's new boat: an Orion 52. Gary Mull, who cut the hips off of I'O designed the Orion 50 and one of the owners extended the back deck by 8'. Aaron bought the boat on the Internet, from Oz, and David and Angie bought the boat across from us the same way. And they had only a week to familiarize themselves with their purchase(s). It is astonishing that they were able to trust a broker and surveyor in a foreign country to tell them about their boats. We went below and oohed and aahed about the luxery and space. We all went to Bucerias for New Year's eve dinner, getting a bit lost on the way but eventually found the beach and walked it until we found a restaurant we liked. Years ago we had rented a nearby house and spent the two New year's eves there where there were only about four restaurants Now there are hotels, condos

and more restaurants you can count. We managed to stay awake and drove back to see what was happening at the Vallarta Yacht Club - which turned into about five sleepy people. That tells you something aobut the median age of the members. We then drove back around, with minutes to spare to Eddie's, near our marina and found a crowd straggling down to the beach. We found out why with the stroke of midnight as the sky

exploded with glorious fireworks right overhead. And then we could see them in several different areas around the Bay. Wonderful. Kids were selling lethal fireworks on the beach....in the US, they would have been thrown into juvie and the parents fined.

The wheelbarrow above was wheeled onto the sand in Bucerias, where we had made the mistake of going for lunch two days later. It looks wonderful until you get closer and then see that some of the candy is a little "aged. The beach and the palapas were lined with crowds of people and it took us about an hour just to get chips and salsa. And another hour for lunch. The crowd here is just a small portion of what was there. I think the whole point is, if you sit on the sand, under a palapa, you are to drink something alcoholic, eat some chips and not give a damn about your growling stomach, order another drink, get sunburned, order another drink - hey, forget food. Order another drink. This is Mexico, get real, relax, lady.