It  started out
as a normal day, but by 4:00 PM it was threatening.  Suddenly,  like
someone turning on a faucet,  the
rain came in sheets and buckets. 
Thunder and lightening.  I
was in my room looking down at the beach. Rivers of brown muddy water ran from
the town streets down channels and into the ocean. 
In a short time there was a growing area of muddy colored water along the beach area from the
rain and mud. The storm continued for
some time pouring rain in heavy sheets and then it suddenly quit . The sky began to clear and within a half hour the sky  was normal.

Fortunately, we 
missed getting wet. We left in the morning. We drove into the mountains,
along rough dirt roads to very small villages. Gerry Spence and I, with our driver in control, drove along looking for
pictures to take. On the way we approached an old man slowly walking along the
rough dirt road with a walking stick. He had on a straw hat and a bandanna
around his neck. His face was lined with the  toil of his life. We stopped and asked if we could take his
picture.. He was friendly with a big smile. I gave him a few dollars and he
gladly posed for us. I wondered
what his life story was and where he was going since it was in a somewhat
remote area.

In the mountain towns we saw many men on horse back with
western hats and western clothes. Their horses and sometimes mules, were saddled and they looked every bit like our American cowboy. One
man, in his Western hat, was walking along twirling a loop of rope as if prepared to lasso something at any moment. They
were all happy to have their picture taken and waved at us. One man
demonstrated how his horse could “dance” on command.

A large man, seated on a small mule, came down a dirt road. Tied to
each side of the mule were cans that looked like old fashioned milk cans. He looked over sized for the small animal, but it trotted along like a horse. He
smiled and waved as he passed. 
Other people were sitting in the shade outside of stores and homes, just
looking or talking to each other. Two old men sat side by side in the shade, sitting on the steps, outside a large church. They gave toothless grins as we snapped their pictures. In one town we went into a small church. It was empty
except for one woman in the front pew praying. I wondered what she was
praying about so intently and all alone in that empty church in the middle of the morning.

We passed a large field totally filled with a bright orange
flower. I got out to take a picture of the  display of color and watched butterflies landing on the the flowers. Later,we stopped to take a photo of an old
man and his wife sitting outside the small home along the street eating lunch. When he saw us pointing our cameras, with long distance lens,he
because irritated. He got up and went inside. We had invaded his privacy and probably ruined his lunch. A very old woman sitting on a bench at a bus stop gave us a
toothless smile when we took her photo. 

We drove up and down unpaved roads
through small villages looking for a photograph.The  weather was
hot and very humid so we were slow to exit the air conditioned van we were in
and, instead were lazy, We began to roll down the window to take pictures Around noon we drove to a remote area with little around it
except one small town. At the end of a long narrow dirt road there was a large outdoor ranch house and covered eating area. It was high above a river below and there were tables for eating
spread over the rather large developed area. It was a place where tourists
and locals come to ride horses and to 
use the “zip” cable. These are cables stretched from the high area above
the river down at this location to the other side of the river. People put on harnesses and
attach to the cable. They ride the cable to the other side. We didn’t try it.
A woman was cooking tortillas by taking the dough, pressing it flat and cooking
it in a large pan over a fire. We had a good Mexican lunch and I had a cold
beer. Afterwords we headed back to Puerto Vallarta and our hotel.

We took an afternoon siesta and then had an early dinner at
a restaurant on the beach.  We came
back early in order to watch the debate. The TV at the hotel did not carry it
so we watched it on our computers over the Internet.  Neither Gerry or I felt our candidate Obama stood up  for himself nor counter punched they
way we would have liked. His style just isn’t my style and I felt like McCain
was allowed to misstate facts without being called on it. I also was amazed at
how McCain tries to put the blame for the mess we are on in on Obama as if he
had not even been in the Senate for 26 years. His stand to de-regulate and his
following Bush policies is why we are in so much trouble. Yet, to listen to him
he had nothing to do with it. He pretends that he has not done a 180 degree
turn from his policies before he ran for president. I also think both
candidates talk entirely too much and are incapable of directly answering a
question. I think McCain did a better job then Obama on answering questions,
but both rambled on like the politicians they are. Are the American voters that
uninformed that they will fail to realize how hypocritical McCain is in his
lust for office?  I hope not. We must elect Obama if there is any chance of turning this crisis around.

The next morning news reported that neither of us knew what we were talking about. Apparently the two of us, who pride ourselves on reading jurors, were totally wrong about who won the debate. For that we were both very happy.