A Brief Hiatus

We disembarked the ferry in Mazatlan around 10 in the morning and were met by Dan and Caroline Tarney. Dan is the brother of one of Brad's best friends and one of an entire family of teachers.  He and his wife are retired and spend their winters in Mazatlan, volunteering a large piece of their 'winter vacation' to a variety of local causes.  They had just arrived for the winter and were swamped with chores (all of the necessities to open their house and prepare for the coming months) so we really appreciated their gift of hospitality   So nice to see familiar faces on the mainland of Mexico!

Dan and Caroline on the Malecon in Mazatlan

They showed us around their adopted city and winter home, which is in Old Mazatlan or Centro. After a great visit filled with helpful hints on life in Mexico, a tour around the old quarter of Mazatlan, and a lovely brunch, we continued the journey south.

After about a five hour drive down the toll road 15D, we broke off onto a secondary highway winding through very lush and overgrown trees that formed arches over the road. Quite a change from The Baja!

Welcome to the jungle

Our first night on the mainland was spent at a small hotel in San Blas. Brad thinks that the name may be Spanish for 'sand flea' as we were absolutely chewed up on the beach having supper.  I still had red spots for 10 days after! Overall our night in San Blas was forgettable: a hotel hidden in a secret corner of the small town, extra charges over the booking, and a room that was at best 'nothing special'.  The highlight of the hotel seems to have been a pool that we never even had the time to swim in.  C'est la vie.

Sunset at Lo de Marcos beach.

Onwards to Lo de Marcos, a small village north of Puerto Vallarta which we had visited six years ago, staying at a staying at a large villa on the beach with Brad's entire extended family, over 20 in-laws and outlaws. We liked the town and were looking forward to visiting the area again. It is the last of 3 beautiful fishing villages, all quickly morphing into surf towns.  The first was Sayulita, busy then and frantic now.  Next down the coast was San Pancho, sleepy then and busy now.  Lastly, Lo de Marcos was pastoral 6 years ago and is still clinging to its rural character.

We had been introduced on that first visit to the parents of Scott Oberg, a friend of Brad's brother Jeff.  Ross and Iris have been spending winters in LoD for well over a decade and, together with their children, have bought a large lot in the center of town.  Their plan is to develop 4 homes on the land and try to place it with like minded Canadians. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see what a beautiful complex they will be able to create in the heart of lovely LoD.

Our plan was to stay a week so we booked into the very laid back "El Pequeno Paraiso" RV and condo complex, right on the beach and a 10 minute walk from the center of town. We stayed in a third floor apartment with a large deck and outdoor kitchen that felt like it was buried in the jungle.
The surf was much calmer than it had been when visited six years ago and we were able to go swimming comfortably every day.  It was easy to slip into the local routine of meeting for Happy Hour on the beach each day at 3-4:00, sip a cold drink, watch the surfers, and go for a swim whenever you got too hot.

Las Huertas Golf Club

For a change of pace we played a round of golf with Iris and Ross at Las Huertas, a gorgeous little 9-hole track in San Pancho.  Until recently it had been a private course owned by a Canadian couple who had bought the land, which had previously been a type of horticultural park or research station having fallen into disuse. They have recently opened the course to public play and, while not a long layout or a prestigeous venue, it was a challenge and an absolute joy to expereience.

A 'tunnel' from the tee box

After golf Ross suggested we could catch the last few innings of a baseball game between rival towns in the local Senior baseball league.  Being fans of the game we were all in.  Off to Sayulita where we were lucky to find standing room on the 3rd base line and a close game in the 4th inning.  It was 90C in the shade, 50 cent pony Pacifico beer was vended in buckets of ice, and chilled ceviche was sold in solo cups: Heaven!

At his pace I probably only had 3 or 4 innings in me before the heat and the beer took over.  Sayulita tied the game in the 6th.  Stranded runners in the 8th and 9th inning but no runs.  Tied after 10, after 11... this was getting critical. 

There was still 1 maybe 2 innings of light left and the most unexpected thing happened: the team managers decided that folks should go home for Sunday dinner and that they would finish the game prior to next weeekend's match between the same teams.  It seemed like the first rational thing I had seen since crossing the border and, strangely enough, you probably would never see such civility north of the border. 

After the game we took leave of the notion of civility and went for dinner at Ross and Iris' favourite spot in Sayulita.  This little gem featured great seafood and free tequila. Really!   There was a bottle of decent tequila on every table and you were free to help yourself.  What a country!

The next morning there was this very large and unusual vehicle parked in the RV spots near our condo.  It was a huge 4-wheel drive military transport by Mercedes Benz and it appeared to have either of a emergency medical response laboratory, an armoured tactical personnel carrier, or an RV mounted on the deck.  Turns out it was the latter and it led us to meet the most interesting couple from Germany who have been travelling for over 3 years through South and Central America. Their adventures are captured on their blog http://www.die-ausreiser.de/english which they have kindly allowed us to share. Now this is a REAL blog! Check it out.

on the left: Manfred & Karin, the Germans with The RV
on the right: a lovely Canadian couple, Larry and Maria

One of the most unique events we witnessed and participated in was releasing baby turtles into the ocean on the beach at Lo de Marcos. Every day through the season a group of local volunteers supervises the hatching of baby turtles at protected nests just on the outskirts of town. Each evening at dusk they guard the day's hatchlings as they make there way to relative safety in the surf at Lo de Marcos,

Here I am holding two little baby turtles that are straining like crazy to get moving towards the water!

There were probably around fifty of the little guys crawling their way down to the water.

Next we transit through a favourite Mexican resort of San Patricio Malaque on our way to the favourite Gringo resort towns of Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo