Just had to admit I need a new camera

I have 3 Sony cameras and only one is working. All are FD (floppy drive) cameras and the newest also has a memory stick. I've loved these things for the last 5-6 years (one is from 2000) but they are just wearing out. I'm convinced it's the salt air and humidity here along the coast of Mexico which effects everything electronic ... but what are you going to do.

I did just buy a set of jewelers screwdrivers and will try to take apart the older two that don't work. There is a chance just the contacts are corroded but who knows what the inside of the camera looks like.

Anyway, the Canon Powershot looks to be 10 times the camera with larger zoom and can take as much video as you have room for (not 15 seconds like mine). This puppy will be waiting for me at my sisters back in the states. Hope it's what I need.

The Canon Powershot SX10is is canon's leading "ultra zoom" P&S digicam. It has a 10MP 1/2.3" CCD image sensor (6.16mm x 4.62mm). The Powershot SX10is features an Image Stabilized lens which is equivalent to a 28-560mm zoom on a full frame 35mm camera, an enormous 20x zoom! It's not slow either with an aperture of f2.8 at the wide end of the zoom range, dropping to f5.7 at the telephoto end.

In movie mode the Powershot SX10 IS can record up to a file size of 4GB or 1 hour (whichever comes first) at 30fps in either 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 formats.

Contrabando and the Flu

From day to day and restaurant to restaurant the rules seem to change about what they can serve, how they can serve, who can be open ... etc. The only hard and fast rule I've run into started Sunday with the no serving of alcohol.

We brought a cooler with beer, coke and snacks 'cause we heard everything was closed but the beach places looked to be operating as normal. When our waiter came over he checked the cooler for contrabando ... and then just said the beer is OK if we keep it covered. Everyone else made the 1 block trek to the local store to buy their beer or ordered coco's and added tequila

So much for saving us from the flu .....

From the Guadalajara Reporter

“First there was last fall’s financial crisis. Then came the drug war. Now this,” he said wearily. “I had already started cutting work hours for the staff. Now I may have to consider some layoffs. I hate to be a pessimist, but my overhead is tremendous. I can’t afford to close down the restaurant for a week.”

At press time it appeared that members of the restaurant sector had agreed to keep their doors open come what may, with backing from the national restaurant chamber (CANIRAC). “Most of us will stay open for food service and suspend bar sales,” said Javier Raygoza, whose family runs central Chapala’s Restaurant Superiors, pointing out, “That should work to meet the main objective – preventing large conglomerations of customers.”

Chavela Vargas

In honor of ranchera crooner Chavela Vargas' 90th birthday on Friday, Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard will honor the singer as "Distinguished Citizen" during a ceremony on April 21.

Vargas, who emigrated to Mexico from her native Costa Rica when she was 14, has been called the "Voz Aspera de la Ternura" ("The Raspy Voice of Tenderness"), for her gruff singing style and demeanor. As one of the few women in a genre dominated by men and macho themes, she smoked cigars, drank heavily, carried a gun and sometimes dressed like a man.

San Miguel on the horizon?

Sad to announce there is a thief in the family that got away with a significant amount of money that was here to pay for materials and labor on the house. In the family because they used keys, disrupted nothing else ... only going for the money.

Going to take some time to reevaluate the relationship and generally get past the emotions of this. We will finish up the septic tank which was just a hole and would collapse in the rain .... and then pack it in for awhile.

So after emailing Ron in San Miguel, who knows the family, he suggested a getaway. They have an unused room and I've never been to that part of Mexico. Sounds like a great idea and may have fotos and notes from there in a few weeks. Life goes on !!

Cihuatlan Municipal garbage men value their job

Well at least I think so. This they really couldn't drive away from.

Due to cars parked on the street (Semana Santa) they knocked down two huge branches of a tree in front of the house. Couldn't miss the noise and I found the whole street blocked with greenery. One guy asked for a machete and after deciding he really wanted it I got my small one. After a few minutes a neighbor came out with a larger sharper one and within minutes they had it in pieces we could throw in the truck. Took about a 1/2 hour but they left nothing but a street full of leaves.

Another neighbor raked up what was left and I bagged it up. What a crew !! Another day in Melaque