Friday night and Saturday morning

Wonderful dinner at Dago's tonight. One of our group ordered this seafood melange; shrimp, octopus, scallops, fillet. I had my usual camerones mojo de ajo, the patient his fish tacos. Our Friday night dinner confab swelled to 14 tonight; the more the merrier. Great food, lots of laughing, several bottles of wine, good conversation all around. This is a congenial group of folks from very different parts of the world who share a love of Mexico, the beach, and the laid-back life. I sometimes wonder if I would know any of them in my "real" life. Some yes, some no. Some of them I would come across because of interests I have at home; for others, our paths would never cross. I would be the poorer for that.

We finally called it a night at about 9:30, just as the fireworks were beginning. Tonight is the first night of Carnival. The bands were on the malecon, and the Queen of Carnival was crowned at a ceremony in the jardin. Tomorrow night is the parade and the Queen's float. The parade will be on the next street over since the malecon is now blocked off for vehicular traffic. We may be able to catch it from the 3rd floor.

Tomorrow the opera is Il Trovatore, another one of those over-the-top stories where the heroine dies at the end. But beautiful