Southbound Canucks: Family visit

Our son Warren and his family flew to Puerto Vallarta on February 6th to spend 10 days with us. They enjoyed lots of beach time. The ocean continues to be warm this winter -- temperature at 82F or 27.7C.

exploring the tidal pools at the end of the beach

Maxine holds a star fish that had washed up on the beach

February 7th was the Fiesta for Lo de Marcos event to raise money for the Amigos de Lo de Marcos organization which funds various projects around town. This year the fiesta included a rummage sale, raffle ticket draws for large donated items, a Loteria game (similar to Bingo), free face painting for the children, food booths by several local restaurants, a talent show and folkloric dancing.

the folkloric dancers preparing to go on stage

The playground at the town square is a stopping point on our walks. The most popular item in the playground is the cement automobile.

Watch out! Maxine's driving!

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On our daily walks we often sight iguanas perched in trees near the lagoon next door to our campground.

We search the spines of the palm leaves for a lazy iguana enjoying some sun

A heron fishing in a ditch across the road from our campground

We drove about 35 minutes from our campground to the Cocodrilos del Nayar, a crocodile sanctuary located just off Hwy 200 about 12 km north of La Penita. It opened about 3 or 4 years ago. A small donation of 15 pesos (about $1.25 CAD) per person was requested to help buy chickens to feed the crocodiles.The keeper could not speak English but spoke slowly in Spanish so we could grasp what he was explaining to us.
The facility had 2 older crocodiles, each in their own enclosure.


This older crocodile hissed at us as we stood looking down into his pen from a bridge

This 40 yr old crocodile was about 4 metres long. When he completely submerged himself in the pond you couldn't see him. When the keeper dribble water into the pond the crocodile launched snapping into the air. Unfortunately he moved too fast for me to capture it on my camera.

There was a pen containing young crocs which all were allowed to handle. The young crocs were 8 months and 20 months old. Vic and Bev had handled young alligators in Louisiana. A 3 year old alligator would be about the same size as the 8 month old crocodile. The baby alligators skin was soft like Italian leather shoes but the baby crocodile skin was very tough.

Another pen held small crocodiles that were about 3 years old and about to be released at an estuary further north up the coast.

There was a slider turtle that had been rescued after it was harmed by people throwing rocks at it. It's shell was cracked and his head damaged but he seemed to be recovering nicely.

Driving south from Cocodrilos del Nayar, we turned off Highway 200 to follow the road to El Divisidero to visit the new subdivision being developed there.Vista Encantada Eco-Club is 4 or 5 km further along the road past the town of El Divisidero. Every housing lot and every condo unit has a scenic view of the ocean.

The development has beautiful gardens and many walking paths including one through the jungle to a waterfall.

One of the walkways overlooking the ocean

Palm trees whose cluster of nuts produce palm oil

There are many palm oil trees throughout this eco park. These trees are important for the amount of oxygen they release.

One day we went out whale watching with Mauricio, a local tour guide who operates from our beach. We saw a mother humpback whale and her baby, a pod of dolphins, a glimpse of a sea turtle plus a school of bonito (a fish belonging to the tuna family).