Hi! I'm paco the panda bear :D

Many of you may saw my update on my Telegram Channel about me witnessing the total eclipse from past April 8, 2024. From Mazatlán, Sinaloa, México.
In few words, such an experience! I went through so many things before and after it, but it was completely worthy in the end.

I had anticipated all these plans with so long in advance, so many things were already paid and very well planned, but it is true that, despite everything is considered planned, definitely not everything always goes according to plan, and in this journal you will understand that almost nothing went according to plan.

Blink-182

Eep! What this punk rock band is related with the total eclipse? Because attending their concert was also in my schedule for this trip, and it was something I had planned way in advance.

Originally, I was going to see them in March 29th, 2023, at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City, I had purchased my tickets to see them in 2022, two years ago, and indeed their tickets were by sale almost a whole year of anticipation. But one week before their concert, with my plans for going to Mexico City, they posponed their concert another whole year, I went to Mexico City that time anyways because everything was already planned, with tickets, Airbnbs booked and everything. But they re-scheduled their concert for April 3rd, 2024.
I was not worried by then, I thought "I'm going to see Blink-182 later this year, I got my ticket for the "When We Were Young" festival and they are going to play there", but I couldn't attend the festival, I couldn't sell my ticket for the festival either, so a big disaster!
Around April 2023 is when my family, especially my sister, told us that we should totally plan for going to Mazatlán in April 8th, 2024, to see the total eclipse of the sun. So even from back then, I decided to book an Airbnb to Mazatlán, knowing that there was going to be a lot of demand at that time, and later on it would be impossible to find accommodation. (Remember this sentence very well, because it will be kind of true ahead). So for me the dates were perfect, I could go to Mexico City to see Blink-182 live in April 3, and from there to go with my family to Mazatlán.

I had, once again, my flight ticket to Mexico City on April 2nd, I was so excited at the airport knowing that a day later I was going to see Blink-182 live, I was even listening their entire discography on my waiting at the airport and during the whole flight, trying to guess which songs they were going to play (I never spoil myself checking online which songs they have played on their tour, I love surprises).
Wednesday, April 3rd. It was the day of the concert, I was getting ready to start heading to the venue when I receive an e-mail from Ticket Master "We apologize to tell you Blink-182 cancelled their concert of April 3rd, you will receive your refund on the next 30 days. But you can purchase tickets for their upcoming concerts on next April 5th and 6th on the same venue".

That was completely out of my plan, my family and I were going to depart on Friday, April 5th, but I didn't have too much time to decide what to do, and I immediately clicked on purchase new tickets for their concert of Friday, April 5th. I had to inform my family and we had to delay our departure to Saturday. This didn't affect our booking in Mazatlán, since we were going to do different things in other stops before arriving to Mazatlán, so they agreed to the new change and departing a day later than expected.

Friday, April 5th. Once again, I was getting ready to start departing to the venue of the concert, and instead of receiving an e-mail, I got to know on social media that Blink-182 had cancelled their entire remaining tour in Mexico, and they were going to refund completely their tickets to everyone. Boo!! So it was not worthy to wait one day more!
So, it's my 4th time that I get the illusion of seeing Blink-182 live with no success, I guess I'm so late for seeing them. Around 25 years late!

The Big Chaos of the Arrival to Mazatlán

The first unexpected disappointment of this trip, planned a full year in advance, is that who originally had the idea for traveling to see the total eclipse of the sun was my sister, and in the end she couldn't go because of a big job she had precisely that weekend that she couldn't reject. That was very sad, but it was her decision to not miss that chance and she didn't want to sacrifice that opportunity.
So in the plan it was only Roni (my husband), my parents and I.

Do you remember when I mentioned that we had to book with almost a whole year in advance because I knew it was going to be almost impossible to get any kind of accommodation in the near dates?
Well, I knew some people who wanted to plan that trip with even three months before it, and they couldn't find any affordable hotel nor Airbnb.
Now imagine trying to get any kind of accommodation... THAT SAME DAY!!

We arrived to Mazatlán on April 7th, one day before the eclipse, that was the date I could book our Airbnb. I had been sending messages to our host a day before, and during that day, I didn't receive any answer by them, but I thought it was going to be very intuitive at our arrival, it's not the first time I book with Airbnb, actually, it is the 15th time, and I had never had any bad experience with it, there were many times that our host replied an hour before our arrival and in the end we always figured out how to enter. This was not the case, we arrived to the address, which was a private subdivision, and the doorman had no knowledge about our arrival, but he was willing to help us, and he was the one who had to call the owners of the place, and that was the very first time we were in contact with our host.
The host told us that he was expecting us a day later, on April 8th, that he had no idea we were arriving on April 7th. When he saw his calendar, he realized that indeed, our booking was on April 7th. His reply at that was "I can't let you in today, I'm sorry, I'm going to cancel so you can get your refund!"

He gave us no other solution but that, which was not good for us, we were already in Mazatlán, very far from home, it's not like we could simply go back home. And that brought us another big problem, we knew that the whole Mazatlán area was going to be completely booked because the total eclipse. I tried to look in many apps, in Airbnb there was not a single one available anymore, Hotels, Expedia and Booking showed me a couple of available rooms in some few places, but at unpayable prices (more than $30,000 mxn a night). Even we were calling some places with "For Rent" signs to know if they could rent us their place at least for one night. The doorman from the place was, once again, helping us, trying to get in their contacts he knew for anyone who could rent us a place for at least that night, but all his contacts had gotten their places all rented for those days.

I still remember those hours as very frustrating moments, and the later it got, the less we were going to get accommodation. We were even considering staying at any motel, but motel we called, they were also fully booked, except for one, but in the reviews people said their beds had fleas, so we were even considering sleeping in the car.

My parents suggested to drive to the pier, where there are many hotels, and be asking directly, one by one, if they had any room available, but I thought that it was going to take us ages to be doing that, and it was going to start getting darker, so calling them one by one was going to be faster and a better idea. I started calling numbers I was finding in Google Maps, of course all of them were telling me they were completely booked, but there was one hotel that, instead of telling me they had no availability, they told me if I was not interested in a house for rent, I said yes, and he shared me a phone number of his aunt, who has some houses available in front of the beach. I called his aunt, and she told me "I just rented some moments ago the very last house I had!" Noooo!!!! But then she told me "But I know a friend who also has some house for renting, can I share her your phone? So she can call you back if she has something available!" I said yes, I gave her my phone number, and as soon as I finished giving her my number, she hanged up. That didn't give me confidence, and I was already giving it away as a lost option, I thought "she's not going to say anything to her friend" or "her friend is not going to have any anymore... and who is going to have houses available on these dates and at this time?". So I kept searching online.

By miracle (but in the end you will see it was not really a miracle, now it is a problem), I found in the Hotels app a department for rent available for two nights very close where our original Airbnb was going to be, it was not cheap, but it was more affordable than the other options we were. I booked it and we were heading to that address. When we arrived, we found it was another private subdivision, the doorman of this another one was not kind nor helpful. I tried to call the number we had of the host and all the time I had the response that the phone was not available, my dad also tried to call to that same number and he received the same answer, we parked nearby waiting for any kind of answer for this new host, but there was none. I tried to contact any agent on the Hotels app, and they just told me I had to receive an answer by the owner, that I should keep trying. I tried to send them messages, their number was not on WhatsApp and they didn't put any e-mail, there was no way to contact them, we only had that phone as information but it was never available.

Then, I received a phone call, it was a lady who told me her friend told her I was interested for renting a house in Mazatlan for that night and a night later, telling me she had two houses available, that if I preferred a house in front of the beach or in downtown (even with options!), I said that any that was available was alright, but if I could even choose, that in front of the beach was going to be ideal. She gave us the instructions of where to head, and at that moment we departed to there. In the meanwhile, I kept trying to contact the previous host from Hotels but they did never replied, so I contacted an agent from Hotels to tell my situation and to cancel it. The agent was very helpful, but today I received the answer that the host don't want to give any refund, since "their policies are very strict of "no-refund" ", but I'm trying my best to insist because they NEVER, not a single time, received an answer by them of how to get in their property, even if I would have waited there the entire night, I never received any reply nor instruction, so I would have been screwed with them. But that's another story with no conclusion yet.

We arrived to the agreed address, and this was this very nice young lady with her daughter who showed us the apartment she was about to rent for us for the next two nights, it was perfect, very clean and beautiful. A big department with two big rooms, two bathrooms, a big living room, and a communal roof garden in front of the beach. Why that place was still available? Was that a miracle? Where this person and with this available department came from? She told us the price and it was not even expensive. And after giving us the tour through the department she asked us "So then, are you interested?" The answer was obviously YES!

And everything went pretty good with that, this lady even became good friend with my mom, she was messaging us by WhatsApp often if everything was alright, if we needed something. So there was no trick, simply it was just a perfect miracle.
At least there was a big problem solved, we had where to stay, that was important, we got to see the sunset on the beach, and I wanted to have that hour just for enjoying that moment and not thinking in anything else, after such hours of stress.

Later I had to fight against our original Airbnb booking and that host, because I realized that person never cancelled the reservation and it was still going, it was due a notification I received on my phone by Airbnb that said "Did your check-in go smoothly? Hope you enjoy your stay in Mazatlán". I had to call Airbnb Support (I'm surprised that their support was in English, which I have no problems at speaking it, but if I'm calling from Mexico and having an issue with a booking in Mexico, I would have expected they could connect me with someone who spoke Spanish, but it's okay!). I told the lady on the phone my experience and my case, she told me that they were going to contact my host, and if they didn't reply in the next 2 hours, they were going to automatically cancel my reservation, refund me, and put the hosts a strike. She even offered me to help me to help me with rebooking on a new place, but I told her I had already found a place.

Then, not very smartly, that host from that Airbnb sent me a message, not by WhatsApp (which they had sent me WhatsApp messages before), nor by call, but by directly the Airbnb app!!
"I can give you a refund directly to your bank account, so we don't cancel your reservation directly with Airbnb, can you share my your bank information, please? I can transfer you immediately!" .
OF COURSE I WAS NOT GOING TO SHARE THEM ANY INFORMATION!! I didn't even reply them, I preferred to wait the response of Airbnb. And a couple of hours later I receive a call by the same lady from the Airbnb Support: "I noticed you received a message from your host asking you for your bank information, please, don't share that information to them nor anyone, neither in the Airbnb app nor outside it, what they wrote you is against the Airbnb rules and policies and because of that, your reservation is automatically cancelled, we are going to refund you, and we are not just going to put the host a strike, but we need to suspend them from Airbnb". I guess that was karma.

Sadly I haven't solved the problem with the second booking with Hotels, I really hope I can receive at least some kind of refund from them, because it was not cheap, and it's the time I can't be spending that amount of money. Later on this journal I will be able to tell you other economic situations.

Total Eclipse of the Sun

Calmer, and with my mind sending me so many strange dreams related to sleep on the street or in motels with my family, and seeing an imaginary total eclipse (or even missing it), I woke up the next day, and we went to the roof garden of the building to save our spot where we wanted to see the eclipse. Roni prepared a big jar of piña colada for everyone. As closer as it was getting the time, and the more the Bonnie Tyler song stuck to Roni and me, the roof garden was receiving more and more people who wanted to see the eclipse, most of them foreigners.

9:50 am. We had our eclipse glasses ready, and someone who was on the roof garden yelled "it is starting!", we all put our glasses and we could see how a little bit of the moon was covering the sun.

11:00 am. The moon was covering a big part of the sun, with the glasses on it looked like the sun had turned in the shape of the moon in waning quarter, and we could see the difference on the environment, it was getting unusually darker, not like when it is turning night, but as if the entire city was slowly becoming desaturated, and we saw all the birds confused, wanting to take shelter, as if it were already night.

11:07 am. Despite the city and the beach was looking slightly darker, at that moment it turned completely dark from a moment to another, like if they had turned the entire sky off. I turned to look up, now without the eclipse glasses, even though they suggest that we should not do that, but it was a view that was completely worth it. I could see, with naked eyes, a large black circle surrounded by dancing white rays, as if that was a great living being, an entity far superior to us, it made me feel insignificant. I have not seen any photographs or videos that show the true appearance of what was witnessed at that moment. I have seen many photos of the eclipse with specialized cameras, I myself took photos and a video of the moment, but absolutely none of it really captures what was seen.
We could see the entire city of Mazatlán cheering up, so many happy yells of all the people witnessing that moment, it was a big party, the beach was completely full of people looking up, they were celebrating to be there at that moment.

11:12 am. The sun came back, and from a moment to another the sky returned its day color, we could hear how, once again, all the people celebrated that moment, between shouts, applause, whistles and cheers. My dad even started crying. I was about to, it was such a very emotional moment, even right now while I'm writing this I remember very well how was the feeling of that moment, I feel so lucky I could witness something like that, all the problems we lived a day before was completely worthy for living that moment.

We had an entire day ahead in Mazatlán, we cooked at the place, then we took a bus to downtown and to the pier, we could do many things there, like eating ice cream, having a coffee, walking on the sand and walk next to the beach waves. But then, while walking on the pier, we could see one of the most beautiful sunsets ever, the sun hiding behind the sea, clouds of many warm colors, the flag of Mexico on the boardwalk waving presumptuously, and the tranquility of listening to the waves breaking on the rocks.

Then we returned to the apartment when it was already dark, but the city was very alive, we took a "pulmonía", a very traditional transport mode in Mazatlán that is a taxi with a shape of a golf cart. And we slept very early, it had been a totally exhausting two days.

This time are very few pictures that I'm sharing, but if you want to see some of my pictures and videos: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/zggdc20137thb3674o3e5/AJBHPmwLzlPsalUzP7Czeik?rlkey=8fi2toux06kal17d7xlznw2aq&dl=0

More Health Problems, Oh No!

Among the times that I'm trying to solve this refund thing with the second booked accommodation in Mazatlán, and that I was finally getting out of my financial problem from the beginning of the year, which I had already told about in a previous journal, and also that I'm finally forgetting little by little of my issue of my arm (not totally, tho, I still have constant checkups, injections and I definitely needed to reduce significantly my drawing time)... suddenly it appears a new evil boss.

For those who read my previous journal about the trip to Europe, may remember when I mentioned about a sudden pain I got on my right knee. Immediately I came back to Mexico I went to the doctor to check what was going on with that pain.

After some tests, it was determined by the doctor that my knee shows wear and tear, which is very common in people over 60 years old, but very unusual for someone my age. He explained me the causes, why it was manifested precisely with the sudden change in temperature, why it is only in one knee, and what's the solution for it, which needs to be applied urgently.

The procedure I should undergo is radiofrequency and knee viscosupplementation, they helped me with making an appointment in a hospital to make this possible, and then they quoted me how much that was going to cost me. Cost!? Yeah, it seems that it is difficult that the insurance covers that procedure, but I've been researching how the insurance and the social security can covers it, because when they told me how much that was going to cost me... it's not unpayable but it is going to be a lot, it will affect completely my finance and I will be, once again, under red numbers.

This is already on the go, I can be updating you when I get to know more about this situation, I really hope the insurance can help me at covering at least some part of the expenses, as the same as I'll keep fighting with the Hotels app so they can refund me what I paid for that place where we didn't even get to stay.

Otherwise, I don't know what I'm going to do, I may open emergency commissions but it wouldn't be healthy for my arm to be working that lot, and I still have some projects that I was working on and I don't like to look bad with others. I may start selling some prints or I will see what I can think of that I can do.

Dang! Am I really getting that old? I don't feel old yet.
I was not considering that this trip to go and see Blink-182 and the total eclipse on Mazatlán was irresponsible with my current finances, since those were plans that I had considered (and supposedly paid) from long in advance, also my family also cooperated with the expenses of everything on the trip. But everything was so unexpected and very out of any plans, all plans changed from a moment to another, and some decisions (like booking the "Hotels" accommodation) were not very wise to do.

Thank you very much for reading me, I know that many of the topics I write about are not really of interest to anyone but mine, but I have heard from many people and friends who read my journals, so really thank you very much, and for those who are really interested , I will keep you up to date with how current situations progress.

panda hugs