Week of Jan 25th – hot times in Lo De Marcos

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, we had hot nights and resorted to turning a fan to circulate the air in the RV.  This is the first time we’ve had to do this since we left home November 1st.

On Wednesday Jan & Dale arrived back in the campground after a few days away. Dale offered us one of the coconuts that they had picked up along the way. If you want the coconut for the milk inside, you get one with a green husk. Or if you want the coconut meat, you wait until it ripens and the husk turns brown. There isn't as much milk but the meat is thick and tasty. After hacking off the outer husk with my hatchet, I discover that this nut is already starting to sprout. It looks like a Pinocchio.

After a couple of days sitting on the dinette table, we wake up in the morning to discover that the shell has cracked on its own so I proceed to open it up to extract the meat. There is a little surprise inside, just opposite where the sprout is. The meat is good despite the sprouting.

Thursday we went to market as usual.  A sample of grocery costs here:  33 pesos (less than $3 CAD) purchased 6 tomatoes, 1 onion, 3 carrots and 2 litres of milk.

On Sunday, January 31st we lose Internet capability at Savage RV park.  We are anxious as our first grandchild is due any day and need the internet for our son to contact us by Skype when the big event occurs.  The phone line is also down for the campground.  It seems like the Internet goes down whenever there is a special occasion...like Christmas, New Years, and baby deliveries. Darn!

Jan 24 - Big Waves

Yesterday, the waves got pretty big. They would come in sets of 4 or five large waves before settling back to normal size. The wave swell up as the bottom starts to get shallow, and the wave will grow up to 8 feet high. That is when the surfer dudes get excited and many of them get out to join in the fun to catch a big one. Even the boogie boarders join in.

 Surfer dude catches a nice wave.

As a novice, I watch intently from the shore and then decide to join in. Surprisingly the waves are not that difficult to manage once you get past where they crash near the beach. Way off shore, I realize that all the surf er dudes around me are less than 1/3 my age. Can you image what they think of this gringo? Too bad that I don't know enough Spanish to converse with then and learn a few things.

A wave crashes into the rocks.

When a big wave comes at you and starts to curl over, you have to duck under it. Otherwise, you are going to get tumbled around in the wave.The trick is to catch the "right" wave, before it breaks. You need to get up some speed and slide down the slope of the wave. Sounds easy? It was harder than I expected, even wearing special boogie board fins. After failing to catch a nice size wave a few times, I am able to get up enough speed on a wave with enough slope. The result is a wild ride, nice and long, right in close to shore. What a thrill!

Check the height of this wave!

Rick, I am enjoying it immensely. The surf is not as good as Sayulita, but still a lot of fun.

 A dude on a boogie board, just like me.

Today the waves are even bigger and none of us gringos are in the water. There are still a few of the good surfers out there though.  The trough to crest height is easily 12 feet, probably more at times. There is a mild wind blowing that is adding to the wave action and the period between waves is often erratic. Close to shore, the water is constantly white with froth, even 100 feet out from shore. The sea is angry and best to be avoided.

Week of Jan 18th

Week of Jan 18th

Monday morning 4 of the rigs have moved on so we are down to 6 rigs in the park.  2 have gone further south while 2 are heading back to BC, planning to be home by Feb 15th. 


When we arrived home after swapping the medium fins for the medium-large fins, we discover the box is marked medium-large but inside one is medium-large but the other is medium. That means another trip to Bucerias.

Today, we drive back to Bucerias.  Friends informed us there is a 9-day festival on in the centre of town. We wander through the town but we are too early -- 11 am and many of the vendors are not open.  We did find a general store selling inexpensive boogie boards and purchase one for Bev for $250 pesos. We stroll by the waterfront.  The beach here is better for swimming than in Lo De Marcos as it is on the north side of the bay and does not have the large waves.  By noon many of the vendors still were not open so we head off to the surf shop to get the flipper fiasco straightened out. It turns out that they don't have a medium-large pair and we get a full refund. Now we have to search out another surf shop.

We head north west to La Cruz de Huanacaxtle.  La Cruz has the largest marina in the area, and is a big or bigger than the one in Puerto Vallarta.  We last visited the waterfront in La Cruz in 1998 and can not recognize any of the places we had visited. The place is no longer a sleepy little fishing village – there has been a lot of development to accommodate the tourists.  No surf shop.

Next stop on our travels is Sayulita, a town known for the surfing activity – a very popular tourist area.  We stroll the beach area.  The waves here are much better for surfing than in Lo de Marcos.  Most of the tourists are a much younger crowd, here for the surfing.  The shops along the beach front are a mix of restaurants and surfing lesson/rental/repair shops. While in Sayulita we stop for lunch at YoYoMo’s which is known for it’s great pizza.  We order a Hawaiian and it is excellent.  We find a pair of fins that fits but have to pay much more than in Bucerias (different brand though) and certainly much more than in the US or Canada, or eBay. At 915 pesos the fins are about 265 pesos more. Back to Lo De Marcos by 2:30 pm, we head to the beach to go boogie boarding until about 3:50 when we return to our park to join our friends for happy hour.

Several of the campers have brought dogs with them. Many of the dogs love the water and some are fearless of the surf. One couple, Lorne and Michelle Lyster of Penticton BC, have a Golden Lab that joins them in the water, and is often totally underwater, as the wave crashes over it.

  

Lorne and his Golden Lab.

Tuesday is housekeeping day – do laundry, make some orange juice and bake a loaf of bread.  (Yes, Bev brought the bread maker along with a 20 pound supply of 3 different flours for the 5 months of our journey). In the afternoon we head to the beach to socialize, boogie board (body board), read in the shade of the palm trees.  The evening is mild.  At 10 pm it is still 22C and the sky is clear with lots of stars in site.  So nice to be away from city lights to enjoy star gazing.




Tuesday is also the day that the bread and pastry lady visits the campground. This is the same girl that we met on our first trip to Mexico in 1998 when she newly opened a small outlet in Rincon de Guayabitos, selling muffins.

Campers line up for goodies.

Bread, muffins, little pies, donuts, croissants, peanut brittle,

Week of Jan 11 – Month 1 in Lo De Marcos

We have been at Savage RV Park in Lo De Marcos for one month.  Looking at our hydro and propane consumption, it is costing us about $1/day for hydro and $1/day for propane.  Not bad at all.

Monday the surf is too strong for swimming or boogie boarding as Spring Tide occurred yesterday.  A spring tide occurs when the moon is full or new, and the resulting tides rise to their highest and lowest levels within the day. With the tide at its high level, and combined with the wave action, one of the streets in the village gets swamped. The same has occurred in La Penita, just north of us.

We drove north a short distance to explore the small town of El Monteon and followed a dirt road out to the small isolated beach there.  No palapa restaurants open during the week there – just on weekends.  Just one other person besides ourselves there.  Much of the land is fenced off in the area as a large hotel chain has purchased land for future use.

Tuesday is laundry day and a visit from the veggie man.  The frame of this truck has been lengthen to the extent that you wonder how the front wheels stay on the ground with the load of veggies and fruit. Luckily this vehicle stays strictly in town, never out on the highway...I think. But the goods are always fresh and the service is very convenient.

 The Amazing Veggie Truck

The surf continues to be too strong but we did our usual walk on the beach in the morning for about an hour.  It was hot starting early this morning so any exercise needs to be done before 11 AM.

Wednesday, Vic teaches Bev to boogie board.  She has lots of fun in the surf but does it the whoosie-way, catching the waves as they crash rather than riding the top of the wave like Vic does.  Vic loses a flipper when it gets caught by a wave as he’s surfing with his boogie board.

Surprise!  It's Bev.

Thursday, another rig arrives from BC – first timers such as ourselves.  We now have 11 rigs in the campground with only one site left open.

Friday is the first windy and rainy day we’ve had since arriving here.  The winds combined with the high tide cause the surf to swamp one of the beach restaurants. Since the forecast is off and on rain for the day, we drive south to Puerto Vallarta going into the old town, driving by the Malecon and places we had visited in 2001.  We looked for surf shops along the way to buy new fins for Vic but alas, none in site.  On the way north, we take the highway to Neuvo Vallarta as we have never been there before.  Lots of hotel/condo development but no much in the way of shopping. 

Along the way, we stopped to shop at Walmart.  The nose clips on Vic’s glasses have broken twice since the start of our trip and are held on with globs of JB Weld. (The frame was replace under warranty by our optometrist Thornhill in June).  We had a quote for new glasses when we had stopped previously in Buceria at the Mega store -- $1850 pesos for frames $950 pesos for lenses and $35USD for eye exam.  At the place within Walmart they were able to provide titanium flexible frames that Vic’s existing lenses fit into for the price of $1635 pesos.  They did it while we waited.  Perfect!

Next stop is the Coral Reef Surf Shop in Buceria.  We find surf fins at $650 pesos for Vic.  These are short, less flexible fins than those for diving.  Coral Reef has boogie boards but they are all $1800 to $2000 pesos which is too expensive for Bev.  We had paid $600 pesos for Vic’s board at Mega in Buceria but they have been out of stock for weeks.  Bev will just share Vic’s board with him for now.



Alas, on the next day at the beach, the fins are just too tight and need to be swapped for a slightly larger pair.

Sunday we head back to Buceria and visit the travelling market by the river, on the opposite side of the highway from the main part of town. We enjoy browsing through the various vendors.  Typical of weekly markets, they sell fresh produce, clothing, herbal medications, kitchen utensils, plastic items, hardware, parts for stoves and blenders but this one had a vendor selling bicycle parts!


We return to the surf shop and swap the medium fins for a set of medium-large.

Week of Jan 4th

We start the week with a visit to the local hairdresser for haircuts for both of us on Monday -  Janett does a great job for $40 pesos per person (about $3.20 CAD)!  What a bargain! 

Vic says it is another first. He sits in the chair beside Bev and they get a hair cut together. How cute!

The weather continues to be hot.  The waves are great on Tuesday for Vic to get some more runs in with the boogie board.  Bev relaxes in the shade of the palm trees at the edge of the beach and enjoys the gentle breeze.

Wednesday, we head into Puerto Vallarta to shop at Home Depot, Walmart and then the Mega store. We pick up a new variety of Tequila that has been recommended to us.  Campo Azul cheaper than our usual Jose Cuervo Especial. In the evening we head out to Arcelia’s Sugar & Spice Café to celebrate Vic’s birthday with 4 other couples.  The special on Wednesday evenings is Fish or Shrimp for $90 pesos which includes dessert – the fish dinner consists of 2 large fillets of fish grilled with herbs – delicious!!  The ten of us go for a stroll around town to walk off the dinner.  It is a beautiful clear starry night and still mild – no need for a sweater or jacket.

On Friday we order in the propane truck to fill our tank.  Despite the leak we had early after we arrived, the tank lasted us a month running our fridge and water heater on gas.  It cost us $306 pesos which is < $30 CAD. 

On Saturday 4 more rigs arrive in our campground – all from BC. 

On Sunday we are surprised when a couple drive into our park in a red 1978 Triumph Spitfire.  They are from Montreal and had bought the car only 1 week before the left on their trip south!  They have a 38’ motorhome parked in a campground in Puerto Vallarta.

Jan 2 Saturday – Return of the Internet

Today is the day! The phone rings and the park manager calls me (Vic) to the phone. Who would be calling for me? Telmex! The local techie asks a few questions and then says he is coming out to check the line. I tell him gently that the router is resetting on its own, and the line is OK. Regardless, he appears in 20 minutes and checks things out. He disconnected the phone line from the router and goes off to test the line somewhere. I am a little frustrated but I can’t stand in the way of his procedures. He returns later and reconnects the line. The router works for a short period of time before it resets again. Finally, he goes to his truck and returns with a new router. Now we have a stable router and can use the Internet without interruption. I have to tweak a couple of settings on the router to adjust the wireless side and everything is wonderful. The sun is shining. The Internet is working. What a great day!

 Our rig at Savage Trailer Park

 Jan & Dale, Walt & Carol rigs

 

Happy Hour Palapa

The beach looking south.

 

The beach looking north.

December 26th to 31st – New Year’s Eve

The campground internet service was down for 4 days.  The router returns with a new power supply and the service centre in Mexico City works with Vic (the most computer savy person in the park) on this end of the phone to change the settings on the router.  Alas, the router only works for a few hours and then starts once again resetting itself every 5 minutes.  We’ve requested a new router but will one be supplied?  We’re dealing with the reset every few minutes to read our email but it is useless trying to use Skype. The park owners don’t fully understand the problem. I guess that the campers have been saying the service is very slow. It isn’t that the service is very slow. The problem lies with the router resetting. The owner lets us know that they have ordered the line to be upgraded from 1 Megabits to 2 Megabits per second. While that won’t solve the problem, we will gladly accept the upgrade.

Vic has been able to use his boogie board a couple of days.  The surf is not always the greatest to do that kind of activity.  He’s doing quite well compared to some of the local guys. Since the waves are too much for swimming, why not still enjoy the ocean!

 Vic boogies into shore.

While Bev noodles in the surf.

Yesterday, the 6 of us went north along the coast to shop at the market at Zacualpan and then travelled to a lovely beach at Platinitos (southwest of Tepic).  It was hot and humid.

We heard a pecking sound by the clothes line at the rear of the RV and spotted a cinnamon hummingbird checking out the coloured clothes-pegs!  Such a beautiful bird!




Tonight we had reservations for ribs at Arcelia’s Sugar and Spice Café.  Supposed to be the best place in town for ribs and it lived up to it’s reputation with meat so tender it fell of the ribs.  It was a delicious meal of bean and ham soup, ribs/rice/cole slaw, cake and a drink for a total of $230 peso per couple (about $20 Cdn).  We strolled around town to walk off the meal.  The sky looks beautiful with the “Blue Moon” – we have never seen such a huge halo around the moon!  (Blue Moon is when the full moon occurs twice in one calendar month).