THE LAST POST ON GUAYABITOS

So we have seen beautiful Mexican sunset for the last time on this vacation. We have the perfect venue for our last night here. All 14 of us plus the driver piled into a taxi van and up the hill we went. I’m thinking that he needed a new transmission after this trip. We had dinner up at the top of the hill at the Vista Restaurant. There were 14 of us for dinner, and the view was amazing. No windows or doors, just a huge covered patio. Barb and Ron were married at this restaurant last year. I haven’t seen their pictures, but I bet they were beautiful.

The rest of the day was spent quietly – well not always – at the side of the pool. We have made good friends and shared some great times. I understand why people come back year after year to this 2 and 1/2 or 3 star or whatever resort. It certainly isn’t for the amenities! It is for the things that you can’t measure or count. They come back for the beauty of the Rincon de Guayabitos, the same friendly staff of the Decameron de Los Cocos – that will be here to greet you and serve you your meals on your next visit and most importantly the wonderful friendships that have been made and cemented on the very first visit.

Adios, Guayabitos – until we meet again

WHEN YOU GOTTA GO…YOU GOTTA GO!

Went to Chacala Beach. Tina, Linda and I walked to the end of the beach one way. There was a lovely hotel at the end and we went up into the lobby and took some pictures of the grounds. We saw an iguana sunning himself on the steps. This is the first time I have been able to get a picture of this critter

So much of the beach is beautiful sand, but the rest of it is covered with large igneous rock. I think that’s the name of the black boulders that used to be lava. People were using their boogie boards here to take advantage of the large waves. It is a very picturesque beach. I missed seeing them, but there are bright blue crabs that inhabit the part of the beach where the lava rock boulders are. I did see a dead puffer fish and a dead squid (or something or other) and a dead blue jellyfish.

Lots of vendors here, even Cheap Charlie! I bought a wooden fork and spoon for my salad bowl and some cute little reindeers that will do for Christmas decorations.
For lunch we enjoyed red snapper that was smoked/baked over a wood fire. It was amazing. It had a wonderful smokey flavour and flaked beautifully – it was cooked to perfection. We had lots of beers and nachos and fish. What a great meal and a pleasant beach to spend a day walking, eating and lazing.

OUR TOUR TO SAN BLAS

What an amazing day we had today. We boarded a bus at 8:30 and began our trip to the town of San Blas – a town steeped in history. We stopped at the oldest church in the town built in 1878 and right beside is the newest church. Construction began in 1940 and is still continuing today. I guess for almost 70 years they have been working on Mexican time, cause it’s not all that complicated a design!

Along the saw we saw tobacco leaves drying, jack fruit trees, mango trees fields of sorghum and watermelon. We learned that mechanized farming was not available until the 1990’s and now with NAFTA the importation duty on farm equipment has been lowered from 300% to 17% - so more and more tractors and other equipment are gradually working their way into the area. We visited an old fort with a marvelous panorama view. I took a picture of the road that we had to turn onto. I don’t know what the incline was, but I was grateful we made it up and down safely!

After our stop there, we went to the place where we would be eating lunch and preordered our meal. Then we went to the place to get on boats and go up the river on the tour through the mangroves. That was the amazing part. This area is teaming with life. We saw so many birds. We were lucky enough to see gold crowned heron, egrets, ibis, spoonbill, flycatchers, boatbills, night hawks, other hawks, grackles and I’m sure I have forgotten a few. I missed the kingfisher but I did see a weaver bird nest. We also saw an enormous termite nest. I got a picture of it – but I was so glad I didn’t see any of the inhabitants!

Further along, we saw turtles and crocodiles. It was an excellent tour. The boat ride must have been close to 1 1/2 hours. Being in and out of the shade made is so refreshing and the gorgeous views made for a wonderful experience. I am so glad we chose to go on this tour – it was quite an adventure.
We got back to the resort around 5:00 – but as we had lunch at 3:00, we are not going to need any dinner. It is a little cooler out just now and it will be nice just to sit and relax for a couple of hours.
Tomorrow we are going to Chikala – a close town with a nice beach. We are counting down the days and making the days count!

DAY OF MOURNING – BARB AND RON WENT HOME

Last night Barb and Ron caught the 7:00 bus back to Puerto Vallarta and eventually home to Cloverdale. We will miss them for sure. But I did take this lovely picture of them before they boarded the bus. We wished them a safe trip and then went down to Mexican Fiesta night down by the beach for our dinner.
There wasn’t much on the menu that appealed to me. It was very authentic and everyone who can do spices enjoyed it very much. There was a mariachi band and the lead singer had to be all of 5 years old and could he belt out a tune! Not always quite in key, but powerful voice and very sure of himself! As for my dinner, there is always lovely fresh salad to be had with plenty of fixinings, so I never go hungry. The dessert bar had rice pudding and churros on it and that completed our meal.

I walked into town with Linda today to get a t-shirt dress – they are only 70 pesos. I bought one yesterday and another one today. They are kinda cute. I also bought a cute little dress for Cassidy that she will be able to wear this summer and be a cute little chikita. On the way back, we walked further down towards the beach and found a breakfast place that was selling fresh squeezed orange juice – so we each had one and it was so delicious. On the beach I found a fruit seller and bought jicama for Joan – she really enjoys it. So it was something nice I could do for her after she gave me a lovely satin pillowcase for traveling so my hair doesn’t muss in the morning. She so reminds me of Debbie Reynolds.

There were some pelicans really close to me on the beach, and as some kids came running to scare them off I said “no, por favor” “une photo” I guess they understood my mixture of French and Spanish cause they stopped – I took my picture and then said ok “Vamos” which means ok go on or just go depending on the situation!

Later me amigos

HE’S NOT SLEEPING … HE’S DEAD!

We found a new friend where we sit by the pool and named him Juan. He was quite a smoker and a drinker...but not much of a conversationalist. We let him join us around the pool for the day. He had a swim with Tina and lay around on the air mattress for a while – but turned out he was just looking for someone to procure him drinks and smokes. I think he was waiting for some seniorita to sweep him off his feet – so no doubt he will be gone by tomorrow.

This fisherman comes along daily to fish from the shore. Not sure what he is trying to catch, but he has an empty plastic pop bottle with string wrapped around it and he puts some bait on the hook and throws the line out into the receding tide and then reels is it. I haven’t seen him catch anything but with all the activity of the pelicans (or penguins as Tina calls them) diving in the waters not terribly far from shore, there must be good eats out there. The most common white fish that is readily available at most buffets is Dorado – it is a really ugly fish but a firm white fish and so good.

One of the couples in the group we are with are Leo and Joan from Comox. Leo is quite the artist and painted a picture of Willy the owner of the restaurant Tequila Willy’s. It is such a great likeness and he took it to the restaurant yesterday and gave it to him. A bucket of beer was $6 contained 6 beer.

We took some laundry to the Laundromat and for 450 pesos we had our clothes washed, dried and folded. I will certainly be taking all clean clothes home at those rates – what a deal. Right next door was an esthetician and Barb and I had French manicures done for 80 pesos each. A pesos is approximately 8 cents. So if you do the math – it is cheapie cheapie - hey amiga almost free!

OUR DAY IN LA PINEDA

We took the short cab ride to the town on La Pineda. On Thursday they have a market downtown with lots of vendors with lots of stuff. It was fun to look around at the huge array of clothing, jewelry, purses, souvenirs, bathing suits, pottery, carvings etc.

When it was time for lunch, we met Ernesto (a waiter from the resort) with his wife and 2½ year old son, Iker – what a cutie. It took a while, but eventually he had lots of smiles and even a few giggles.

For dinner, we walked down the beach to a restaurant called Totinos. The dinner was absolutely fantastic. The had the most amazing large shrimp wrapped in bacon and cheese and then grilled. Most of us had that, but the other dishes were good too. A few had fish, one had coconut shrimp, one had stuffed shrimp which was stuffed breaded and deep fried, and one person even had chili relinos. There were 14 for dinner and with drinks and a 15% gratuity, the bill came to 20,000 pesos or 200 dollars. The drinks were on that bill too – so it was so very reasonable.

While we were at dinner, the moon was visible in the sky and appeared as a small sliver. I tried setting the camera on a post and pressed the button to take a time lapse photograph and it worked out beautifully. I have had fun playing with that feature and even having a bit of success now and then.

We walked back to the resort through the town of Guyabitos and I couldn’t believe that the stores were still open. So many families ith small children were out in the streets. A very social and festive atmosphere and so very different than home, but I can’t get used to seeing small children out so late at night.

HEY AMIGO .... NICE NUTS!!!

I took a picture of this fellow who walks along the beach every day selling candy and nuts. I bought some Spanish peanuts, some coated peanuts and some hot and spicy nuts from him. They were very tasty. There are so many vendors but none of them are very pushy and some of them come right up to the area by the beach restaurant at night and sell their wares there.

Today we rented a taxi van and 10 of us went into Bucerios. It’s a town about 50 minutes south of here. We met some people for lunch at a place called Miguel Angel. Tina and Barbara knew them from a previous vacations t in the Dominican. Oh my goodness – what a lunch it was. They had fresh fish and prawns caught first thing this morning and some of the catch was displayed on a platter. I took a picture of it and you can see how lovely it was. Peter had prawns cooked in garlic butter and he loved every slurpy mouthful. Tina, Linda and I all enjoyed avocado stuffed with shrimp. It was absolutely delicious. The mango marguerita was delicious too. We certainly aren’t suffering from lack of good food!

There is a market in Bucerios that we wandered around for about an hour or so. The market was just off the beach and the waves and the wind were quite strong there. You could feel the grains of sand blowing at your legs and stinging as they hit. There were a lot of little shops and a lot of the same stuff. I bought a hat for the sun and bought some figurines for Matthew. Peter found me a lovely pendant and earrings to go with the ring we saw the other day. Not very much money and they are really pretty fire opals in silver. I really like them.

Peter got talking to this man that I helped with the internet yesterday and it is very possible that Peter and his parents and this fellow and his wife came over on the same ship from Europe. They came over on the Colombia on September 23 or 25 of 1953 and landed in Quebec. It was a very stormy ride with lots of Germans on board. Peter knows that he came over when he was 2 and a half. That would make the timing about right and his mom has always said it was such a rough crossing. We will ask his mom when we get home. It seems the world gets smaller and smaller with each trip.

That’s it for now

I CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCE....CAN YOU SEE HE DIFFERENCE

So…another difference between a 3^ and a 5^ well imagine being in a secluded resort, no phones, no tv’s, no stereos, no construction noise, hardly any wildlife or life sounds – got the picture? Now hold that thought – ok now you are thrust onto mainstreet downtown Penticton on the July 1st weekend! Car alarms going off, ice-cream trucks cruising the 4 bloch long strip playing the Pink Panther theme song over and over….dogs barking, birds singing (if you can call it that) roosters crowing…jeeps with boomboxes – no not inside the cars, the are so huge they need to be SECURED TO THE ROOF TOPS – with music blaring and microphones inside to advertise whatever it is that they are advertising but I can’t understand because they are talking away so very quickly and loudly in Spanish. Meanwhile jackhammers and pick axes are tearing up something next door – don’t quite know what or why, but they are working hard anyway.

OK so all that being said, would we come back here one day? Sure we would – in a heartbeat – because you make real honest to goodness friends here and the staff remembers you and greets you very warmly and because Momasita is making omelets in the small restaurant outside our resort every morning while two of her sons are waiting table in the main buffet. Tina knows their wives and children and they have been working here for several years. In fact when we go to La Pineta on Thursday, we will have lunch with one of the sons and his wife (who is expecting baby #2) and the little 18 month old.

While we were walking back from lunch down from the beach, we saw this interesting mode of travel – had to take a picture of these fellows who all had friendly smiles and waves – you do see almost everything here. There was even a 6 car parade that went down the street this morning – not sure why, but more music and fan fare - little children some sitting on the hoods of trucks and some dancing in the boxes of trucks – no floats, just old battered vehicles sparsely decorated with people smiling and waving. Someone thought it might be because tomorrow is the beginning of Lent? But I don’t know for sure. Probably just because it was Tuesday in Guyabitos, Mexico and people were able to start their vehicles today!
Hasta la juego

94 DEGREES IN SHADE AND LOVING IT

We had a lovely day today. Started out like the previous ones with a leisurely breakfast at the buffet and then up to the pool to lie around until it’s time for lunch. After coming back to the room for a visit to the banos the fellow next door pointed out a little bat that was clinging to the wall just outside our room – so of course I had to take a picture to share with the blog. He didn’t move so I was able to get a little closer.

We walked down to Tequila Willy’s last night and one side of the wall had this painted on it. Imagine all the way to Mexico and he knows about Surrey Girls!! We didn’t have dinner there as on this once a week steak night, he was out of steak, potatoes, lettuce and bread. So back to the buffet for our dinner!

This is where I compose my blog entries and download the pictures I have taken each day. The table is so slippery I put a facecloth on it so the computer wouldn’t slide off and if I didn’t put the phone book under the one leg, it would slide off! But at least I can type what I want to and save it to my little thumb drive and walk it down to the internet café and plug it in and it works! The hardest thing about using their computers if finding the @ sign – you have to do alt and then 6 4. You can’t use the numbers that are part of the keypad, you have to use the ones on the numeric part of the keypad. Oh well, thanks to the neighbour on the other computer that told me that or I would still be stuck down there trying to figure it out.

We walked into town today and saw store after store of the same stuff – one wonders how they all manage to eek out a living when they all sell the same things. I almost found an apron for Eileen, but it said lift this flap and under it was a man’s unmentionable part. The lady and man shop owner laughed so hard. I did not see that coming – oh well I asked her if she had any other aprons and she said there is one for a lady – I said no gracias and went on my way – they were still laughing …sheesh Haven’t done any bargaining yet, saving it for market day at La Pinita on Thursday. That sounds like a fun day.

Buenos Noches for now

SO HERE WE ARE IN MUEY BUEÑO PUERTO VALLARTA

We’ve arrived and the weather is muey bueno! Our resort is interesting! Very rural, rustic and friendly. The blenders whirrrr from dawn til well after dusk and the staff is very accommodating and friendly. So far it seems that about 30 – 40 percent of the guests have been here before. Tina is forever sharing hugs with people she has met before. I can certainly see why this is her favoured vacation spot.

I have seen the differences between a 5* and a 3* first hand. On the one side, there are no elevators and as you can see in the picture – there are many stairs from the lobby up to the first floor or our four story building!! You must bring your own shampoo (soap is in the room) there is no towel art, however there is facecloth and toilet paper art. People are allowed to bring their pets and even bathe them in the open areas. No pillow chocolates unless you happen to drop one of your own there.

Tina and Linda had a visitor in their room when they arrived and so far I have only found one working outlet to plug anything into. On the other side, the food and drinks are plentiful and delicious, the rooms are clean and fresh towels are provided every day…the staff is so very friendly…because we are so far away from the city, the birds and their songs are incredible…10 minute walk to Guyabitos and quaint and rustic town…oh and did I mention the blended drinks? Well, they certainly bear mentioning again!

There is a fellow on the beach who sells bbq’d fish and shrimp on a stick-today I will find out just how much they are – they sure look delicious and he also sells those wagon wheel chip things that I like so much – so I will pay him a visit

On my next blog, I will include pictures of the table in our room where I type my journal and blog each day.

Adios for now and I will drink a cervasa for each and every one of you!