Mike & Carol's birthday party

 December 13th was Mike's 60th birthday as well as our neighbour Carol's birthday.  We drove to Rincon de Guayabitos to Salvador's Restaurant-on-the-Beach for the celebration. 

The restaurant decorated Mike's meal with his name carved out of carrots!  A good time was had by all!

Mike's name spelled out in carrots!

Delicious birthday cake provided by Mike's friend Darlene.

Walter, Carol, Bev, Vic, Bob, Neila, Mavis & Mike celebrating at Salvador's

A view of the beach at Rincon de Guayabitos from the restaurant.

Cancer de Mama

A Cancer de Mama clinic is run locally each year in early February to support Mexican women with breast cancer.  There are many ways we can assist:  Knitting tit bits (fillers for bra), sewing hats or sewing under arm pillows.  Gathering sample soaps, shampoos, creams.

http://www.cancerdemamaclinic.com/

Mavis purchased material to make under arm pillows this year.  Mavis and I spent an afternoon cutting the pattern out of some material.  Both of us have portable sewing machines with us so we managed to sew 13 pillows while Ruby, the receptionist at our park, stuffed the pillows.  This is only the start for us as there is enough material for at least another 20 pillows.

Ruby on the left.

Ruby stuffs pillows while Bev adds final stitches.

http://www.cancerdemamaclinic.com/information-for-volunteers/patterns/pattern-for-sewn-underarm-pillow/

Just a few pics.

Here are a few photos that I took in the last couple of days.

Link to Picassa Photo Album

Hint:
Use your left and right arrow keys to scroll through the pics.

Bats in the Palapa

Each afternoon, the 6 of us staying here in Savage RV park meet for Happy Hour in the palapa. We were getting a little tired of cleaning the table each day of droppings from the geckos that are living in the palm leaves that make up the palapa roof. Even while we were seated, the occasional drop would land on the table. You had to keep a cover on your drinks or else enjoy a new flavour. Yuck!

Our solution was to put up a tarp that would cover the area of the table. When we arrived at the palapa to get started, we noticed a much bigger mess than normal. Looking up we discovered 5 fruit bats hanging from the top. Ugly beasts with beady little eyes, staring down at us. With faces only Dracula would love.


We proceeded to put the tarp up and they got really nervous and then took off. Their wingspan was 12 to 15 inches!

Now the table stays clean and we are mostly worry-free while sitting in the palapa.



FYI:  Definition of palapa from Wikipedia:

A palapa (a Spanish word of Malayan origin, meaning "pulpous leaf") is an open-sided dwelling with a thatched roof made of dried palm leaves. It is very useful in hot weather and, therefore, very common in Mexican beaches 

The Fishing Expedition

Sun rising as the group heads out from Lo de Marcos

On November 30th, Vic joined 5 other gentlemen with 3 guides for a fishing expedition, leaving about 7:30 am.

We headed out onto the ocean a few miles watching for bird activity, which generally can signal some fish activity. Having little luck, we headed north toward Rincon de Guayobitos area. On the way we encountered dolphins jumping out of the water but never go close enough to get photos.

The first fish to hook onto the lure was a type of tuna called bonito. Vic enjoyed the fight of this fish and landed it with little trouble.

Vic and Mauricio with the first bonito.

The captain, Mauricio, asked if I wanted some ceviche. I was a little dubious but nodded yes. He proceeded to cut the tuna up right on the ocean while we were trolling for more fish. He fileted the fish and then cut the meat up into thin strips. The flesh was very blood red, unlike most fish. Using fresh limes, he squeezed the juice over the meat, adding some salt and little jalapeno. We let it "stew" for about 15 minutes.

Mauricio cuts up the bonito.

Randy marinades the tuna in fresh lime juice.

We arrived at a secluded beach just south of Rincon. Then we all began to each the ceviche. Most of us were a little unsure taking the first bite but after that it was very tasty and tender. It really was a special treat for us but nothing unusual for our Mexican hosts.

See the Gorilla Head?

Same rock but no gorilla from this angle!

Mike Murray lands a bonito.

Island near Rincon.

 We stopped at the tourist beach on an island off of Rincon de Guayobitos to enjoy a couple of cold beers from a little kiosk.

See the pelicans? They blend right in.

 Then we went back to fishing.

Joe caught this dorado and Lenny and Mike look on.

Mauricio proudly holds up the dorado.

Mike and Juan hold up the dorado.

Mike catches another bonito.

Lenny landed this dorado and it is still quite lively.

 We arrived back to the beach about 2:15 PM and the owner of the palapa restaurant fileted the fish and cooked the smaller of the dorado.

Dorado cooking on open-flame wood fire.

A feast fit for royalty!

 We spent the next couple of hours enjoying the savory flavored dorado and copious cervezas.

In all, we caught 2 durado and 3 bonito.  The total cost each was 600 pesos  ($46 CAD) for 5 hours of fishing.

Hummingbird Visit

Hummingbirds are lots of fun to watch and photograph here in Lo de Marcos. Highly entertaining to watch their aerial acrobatics, and defense of territory.

Check out this video of our latest fun.

Hummingbird pays a visit.

There is a small story behind this escapade. This hummingbird, or one just like it would often hover outside our window, looking in at us. Once, it even landed on the window ledge. Was it curious or just curious behavior. While video hummingbirds feeding at the feeder hanging just a little more than a meter away from the window, this one decided to fly right into the open window. There is the possibility that it was trying to escape from another attacking hummingbird. There antics happen so quickly that it is often difficult to see exactly what is has happened.

December already

How quickly the time has flown.  It has been one month since we left home and 2 weeks since we arrived in Lo de Marcos.  More northerners are arriving each day to settle in the RV parks here for the winter. 

The veggie/fruit/eggs truck and the bread truck come to our RV park on Tuesdays and Fridays.  We walk into town for dairy items, fresh fish and meat. (each at a different specialty store) The local lady butcher has very lean smoked pork chops, bacon and lean ground beef.  She shows you the meat before she slices it or grinds it to your specification.  And of course all are cheap: $70 pesos ($5.38 CAD) for 1 kg of beef, $60 pesos ($4.62 CAD) for 1 kg of pork chops, 80 pesos for bacon that is very lean.  We are getting pesos at about 13 to our Cdn dollar so you can do the math and see that the prices are very affordable. Fish has been little more expensive this year.  Our fresh tuna steaks were $35 ($2.69 CAD)pesos for .35 kg. and our durado fillets (mahi-mahi) were $70 pesos ($5.38 CAD) for 1/2 kg.  A shopping bag of fresh fruit and vegetables is usually $30 pesos ($2.31 CAD)

Bev is back to making orange juice with our citrus juicer.  The juicing oranges are green and mottely looking but they make juice that is so sweet.

The nights have turned cooler.  The overnight temperature now  is 17C.  The ocean temperature has dropped to 80F.   The daytime temperature is 28C and not as humid as when we first arrived. Mornings are the time for walking. We spend a couple of hours each afternoon at the beach socializing, enjoying the ocean breeze, reading and swimming. Boogie-boarding has been less than ideal.

One morning while we were all sitting in the shade of a tree next to our site, an unusual bug landed on our friend's arm.  Vic managed to snap a photo of the bug on her arm and again when it returned to the tree.

Today is the first day of the 12 day festival honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe.  The churches ignite fireworks repeatedly for 15 minutes at midnight and again at 4:30 am every day for 12 days. The noise can be heard all over town. Luckily we have only 1 church in our town.  A Mexican lady told us it is very loud in Mexico City with the number of churches there! Note: they aren't really fire works, just cannon that shoots a projectile into the sky and they go BOOM. No colour, just a big boom. We just cannot grasp the concept.