Little beach over the hill.
Crashing waves.
Grouchy rock found on beach.
Another day Vic & Bev drove south along the coast visiting San Francisco, San Pancho, Sayulita, Punta Mita then along the top of Banderas Bay passing La Cruz and on into Bucerias. There is so much new construction of condos and resorts since we visited here in 1998. Near Punta Mita there was a huge resort that had been started and is currently abandoned due to the economic down turn – 4 large skeletons of condos/hotels with paved roads and street lights already installed. It seems that projects get started and then sit for years until they get going again. Same thing with some of the houses in the village.
In Bucerias we stopped to shop at Mega store and picked up a few items including a boogie board for Vic.
Trees create a tunnel on Hwy 200
On December 22nd, the 6 of us were joined by 2 other Canadian couples at Happy Hour under our palapa in honour of Jan and Dale’s 25th wedding anniversary, then the 10 of us headed out for dinner. The dinner was coconut shrimp with orange sauce – absolutely superb. The dinner for the two of us cost $350 pesos plus tip which included a pina colada “grande” for each of us.
Jan & Dale 25th Anniversary
Dale pours the bubbly.
Bob & Judy Lambe from Penetang
Doug and Linda Colburne of Minden
What a small world this is! One of the couples, Doug and Linda, have been friends of Jan & Dale for years, after meeting up in Mexico. It turns out they are from the Minden area. I ask if they know 12 Mile Lake. “Oh sure. We live there.” I ask do you know Bill Leo, as Bill has a cottage on 12 Mile Lake, where the Tuesday night hockey guys go every year, the weekend after Labour Day. “Yes, we know Bill & Karen. We sold them their Mariah ski boat. We used to own the marina.”
On December 23rd, we had heavy rain during the night but the sun is back out during the daytime. This is the first rain we’ve had since we got here and we don’t mind when it occurs only during the middle of the night.
On December 24th, the 6 of us went into Market Day in La Penita. While there we jointly purchased a Santa Claus pinata and filled it with candies. Later in the day, we took it to a young family with 4 children as they live in very poor circumstances. Jan & Dale have been very kind to them over the last 10 years as the couple struggle to eke out a living. Their eyes lit up at the site of our gift to them – they had no other decorations, etc for Christmas. The mother, Carmen, is missing four teeth which were lost during child bearing due to the poor diet during pregnancy. It reminds us of how much we take things for granted in our life. They live in a small cement block house down a dirt and pot-holed road surrounded by their small herd of goats. They can’t afford hydro so the business behind them lets them plug in an extension cord to run their minimal needs. There are two little white & black goats that are so cute you want to take them home. They follow the kids around like puppies.
We do appreciate that this part of Mexico has improved so much over the last 10 years or so. And yet there is still a lot of improvement needed. The husband was doing odd jobs, where ever he could find the work. Now he has a steady job and income, working on garbage collection. Years ago there was no garbage collection! Garbage was burned, including plastic. Now some gringos (Americans and Canadians) have started a program to collect glass, plastic, and cans. They have built special wire mesh containers and placed them all over the local villages and towns. I don’t know where it all goes but it doesn’t get burned. That is a huge improvement.
Christmas Day our internet service is down – the son of the owner has taken the router away to Bucerias so we are unable to use Skype to communicate with our families. Everyone in the park is hugely disappointed. We had an excellent pot luck dinner, consisting of turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberry sauce, yams, mixed veggies and brownies. Plus a super large bottle of sparkling cider. Weather a comfortable 28C and sunny. It sure doesn’t feel like Christmas but we enjoy the company, but miss our kids very much.
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