Another busy and enjoyable week in Sayulita

Mandatory beach shot looking north from the area of beach closest to our place.

It has been a busy week in Sayulita. Last Monday was President's Day in the US. We were told that it is a common holiday break for those from the USA.  There were a lot of weddings in town as well. Also the annual fair arrived in town. The fair is larger this year. It occupies the baseball / soccer field and all the surrounding streets.  It is a big local event. The partying will continue tonight and into Monday morning since Monday is also a holiday in Mexico... Flag Day.  There will be a big parade tomorrow morning.

Several friends arrived back in town for vacations or extended stays so we have been busy visiting and socializing.  I put in a few hours of attempted surfing.  One day the waves were very good and I felt like I was progressing. The next day didn't go so well, but it is great exercise and I enjoy it.  We also did a couple of bicycle rides and plenty of walking, exploring previously unexplored roads and trails.

Here are a few local shots. ...

 The river at this road often dries up in the winter. This year a temporary bridge is required.

These chicas are the daughters of Mary's restaurant owners.

Linda had just given them some bubble makers. Smiles all round.

 Below is a shot of a little pizza bar near the beach. 
Love the name & the slogan!

 A few days ago, Adrian, a friendly young fellow a who works at the hotel, introduced me to his friend Alex.  Alex is drummer whom I recognized from around town. I have always been interested in hand drumming. Linda bought me drum a few years ago but Paco complains every time I try to play it!  To make along story short, I am meeting with Alex twice a week on the beach, for drumming lessons.  Last Friday, 3 gringo would-be-drummer met with Alex. Our hotel neighbour, Corinne and a friend from Nelson, Gary and myself met for our first lesson.  It went pretty well. Thank goodness Alex has lots of patience.  I discovered that it is one thing to "bang" on a drum. It is a lot more difficult to consistently "play" even the simplest rhythm.

Alex sounding smooth and making it look easy.

Last Sunday we drove over to San Pancho to visit our friend Paulina. We had a drink on the beach at sunset before going to a great little restaurant. The family was so friendly and they served some of the best food we have had. Unfortunately we can't remember the name of the restaurant but we are definitely going back soon, so I'll let you know.

Sunset in San Pancho

I finished my SUP cart and have been making good use of it hauling the board and other stuff to the beach. It has created quite a bit of interest around town. One of the beach vendors offered to sell them for me if I wanted to make them. While designing the cart, I worked with a fellow who owns and operates a bicycle shop.  Baldo, has been a great help and friend, so I passed on my plans to Baldo and he is going to build them.

 This is Baldo in front of his store.  

           Parked in front is his treasured Ural with sidecar.

 Just before we left for Canada in December I started having an intermittent problem with the motorcycle. The starter button intermittently did not produce the desired result. The starter would not turn.  A little over a week ago I disassembled the starter button and cleaned the contacts. Still the starter motor would not go. I have a service manual and some testing equipment. I focused on the starter relay and my limited tests indicated a possible problem.  The starter relay is easy to remove so I removed it and went looking for Jesus.  Jesus is a certified Suzuki mechanic and owner of a shop in San Vicente, a town not far from here. I didn't see Jesus but Sammi, the head mechanic, tested the relay. He found it defective and I was able to order a new one. The part should be in this week. Hopefully it solves the problem.

 Here are a couple of shots of Jesus's repair shop.

This weeks puppy picture. This little guy is 3 months old.

He is the smallest dog we have seen yet. Too cute!           

Time for a margarita!

A Morning Bike Ride in Sayulita and more...

A friend told us that it was unkind to have posted a copy of the PV weather forecast on out last blog. I promised not to do that again. Suffice to say that another week passed and still no snow.

We have been busy as usual. Getting lots of exercise. This week we enjoyed 4 good bike (pedal type) rides, several hours of paddling but very little surfing, since the ocean has been quite calm this week.  We put on quite a few miles, walking up, down and around town. We met and socialized with some very nice visitors. Also, I found time to build a paddle board cart.. more about that later.

 We started the week with trip to Vallarta to bicycle to the old town beach area. As I mentioned before many Mexican cities close off some of the major streets on Sunday mornings to allow for bicycle and pedestrian use. We parked the car near the beginning of the route and rode about 5 K to the town centre. Most of the route was on the closed roadway but the last K or so was on a bike path marked on a widened sidewalk and then along the malecón. 

 Here area couple of photos of the malecón in Puerto Vallarta. 

It is not always this tranquil,  generally a pretty happenin' place

It was an easy fun ride. It is nice to see all the families and groups out riding... balloons tied to their bikes, all having a good time. There are not many safe places to ride bicycles in Mexican cities.   We stopped at a cafe on the malecón for a bite to eat before returning to the car.  We had checked several online pages and a recent pamphlet to find out what duration the road was closed to traffic.  We had read that it was closed to traffic until 1pm. However, when we arrived at the location where we had exited the main roadway onto the bike path, vehicular traffic was once again flowing. Que sorpresa!  Actually, not a surprise really. We rarely trust any of the information pamphlets.  We made our way back to the car by riding on the service road and sometimes on the sidewalk. Most of the business and non tourist related stores are closed on Sunday, so the traffic was light. We picked up a few supplies on the way back to Sayulita... including material for the cart.

Most paddle board are a bit heavy to carry for more than 100 metres. The one I have is not one of the heaviest boards but it does not have a handle, so it is clumsy to carry.  We are located only a couple of blocks from the beach but sometimes I arrange to meet someone at a more distant location.  I had been looking at a variety of carts online, mostly for carrying kayaks.  I don't have any sophisticated tools here, but a have a few basic ones. I needed to find a simple design that used readily available materials and one that I could build with the available tools.  PVC piping is easily available in town. The hardest parts to find were the wheels and an axle.  A friend with a bike shop had one used wheel and tire that I thought I could make work. He lent it to me and I headed out on a hardware store (ferretería) shopping trip to try to find a matching wheel or something similar. No luck in Sayulita but at the second shop in Bucerias, they had an exact match. I won't go into anymore boring detail.  Here is a photo of the prototype.  I have plans for a few modifications but it works just fine the way it is. It took me about 2 hours to make and about $45. in parts. Mostly on wheels, axles, nuts, spacers and washers)

As I mentioned, Linda and I did few bicycle rides. One of them I videoed from a handle bar cam. It is an early morning ride in and around the streets and nearby jungle dirt roads. The video is on YouTube.com  Here is the link to the video if you are interested.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAXMsDVK-M0    It is 40 minutes long and not terribly exciting but it gives you and idea of the town and area.

These are a couple of shots from downtown Sayulita. 

This one is taken from ablock off the beach looking inland to the central plaza.

This is of a Sunday morning sale of local handcrafts in the central plaza.

This little gal recently delivered 13 pups. She is quite a sweetheart! 

Many of the dogs in town are pit bull. All that we have encountered have been very friendly.

The weekends in Sayulita are generally quite busy. This afternoon we spent an hour on the beach listing to music on our ipod.  As we were getting ready to walk home, this group arrived to entertain the sun worshipper.  Here is a short clip.

That's all for this update... We are going to San Pancho this evening to meet a friend for dinner. Time to get ready.

Settling In

We have been in Sayulita a week now. Some of the time was spent getting organized.  We took one trip into the outskirts of Vallarta to pick up a few items but primarily we spent the time relaxing, renewing acquaintances and getting lots of exercise (walking the hills, mountain biking and paddling).  Of course, there has been some time spent lounging on the beach and an occasional cerveza or margarita but not too much!

Below is a photo of the patio in front of our suite. The sunflowers are from yesterday's market and as I am writing, Linda is planting a few new plants in the the planter, located just to the left of this photo. Linda thought the planter was a little bare, so we made a quick run to a nearby greenhouse to pick up a few more plants. From the sound of it, another trip to the greenhouse is on the agenda.

Yesterday, as we were walking to the beach we noticed hundreds of birds whirling around over the ocean. As we entered the beach we saw that most of the birds were pelicans, some frigate birds and some smaller shore birds, similar to sand pipers. There was a feeding frenzy taking place in the ocean close to the shore. A large school or multiple schools of small fish were in the water just off shore. At times you could see them come close to the surface. When this occurred the water appeared to be boiling.  The pelicans and the smaller shore birds were diving for their dinner. The frigate birds aren't divers, they just circle around looking for the left overs. Below is a video of the action. Watch for the pelicans diving.

The birds were not the only ones interested in the schools of small fish. The bigger fish were also attracted to the area. Several fishermen had already arrived and were casting from shore.  One fellow we watched was catching and landing good sized Pescas Toros (Bull Fish, in English) every 10 minutes or so. Two Mexican men in front of us were buying all he caught.  Apparently you didn't need a line to catch these fish. There were so many close to shore that several people simply picked them out of the water by their gills!

Here are a couple of photos of the fisherman and his catch.  The meat of this particular species of fish is dark red in colour.  We had some ceviche the other day that was made from Toro.  It was very good.

I understand that it has been pretty darn cold in Fernie, BC.  I can't say that I miss the cold weather. Not everyday here is perfect. It has been a bit cloudy for the last few day. Yesterday evening I wore a long sleeved T-shirt when we went out for a bite to eat.  Today there is not a cloud in the sky and a comfortable on shore breeze.  This is a screen shot of the forecast for the next 5 days.  The locals call this cool weather, but we call it perfect!

As soon as I finish this entry I'm going to get ready for a bike ride. A local fellow, Ricardo and I are heading out on some back roads and trails toward Punta Mita.  I'm going to try to get  video of parts of our ride.

On Sundays many cities in Mexico prohibit motorized traffic on some main street near the centre of the city. Vallarta is no exception. The main highway and beach road through Vallarta is a divided boulevard with a business access (service) road on either side of the through lanes.  The main divided portion of the road is closed off for several kilometres to allow bicycles (walkers, skaters, etc.) to ride from the outskirts of town to the malecón and into old Vallarta.  Linda and I are planning to go into Vallarta tomorrow to see what it's like.

Just a quick closing photo taken a breakfast this morning...

Getting Back To Blogging

It's been a while since I sat down to share our life experiences with others.

   I have been struggling with my desire for privacy versus the advantages of sharing our experiences with family and friends  Many of us have realized for some time now that privacy, in the age of the internet, has been eroded. Thanks to Snowden, the whole world now knows that personal privacy has been eroded to virtually nothing.

   So what the hell....  Apple, and CSIS know where we are. You might as well know too!

    Since our last blog entry, in March 2013, we returned to Canada and spent most of the summer in Kaslo, BC working on the renovation of the old house.  Although not yet complete we made great progress and completed the vacation rental space (www.kaslohouse.com) and a major landscape project.  We returned to Sayulita mid October, then back to Canada in December. We spent Christmas, New Years and a few birthdays with family and friends before returning to Sayulita at the beginning of February.  Our plan is to stay in Mexico until mid April.
 
   So...  currently Linda & I are happily settling into our rented studio apartment in Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico. We are gradually accumulating a lot of "stuff" down here in Mexico. Moving piece by piece? Quien sabe? Quizas?  (I'll leave that for you to translate)  Anyway... we are planning to return to  Canada when it starts to warm up, on April 10th.

We drove our VW Golf from Fernie to Sayulita this time....  4200 K and 6 travel days. Fortunately, we lucked into good weather all the way. The weather in the western US has been warmer and dryer than normal so highway conditions were excellent. We stuck to the interstate highways, as much as possible, to make good time. The speed limit on I-15 is 75 or 80 MPH, except for busier sections though cities (where everyone does 75 MPH anyway).  I set the cruise just under 140K and you can make good time at that rate!  I was happily surprised that we manged over 50 MPG as well.

   We brought the car to Mexico so that we have ability to transport the mountain bikes and paddle board to trail heads and surf locations. Also, to help determine if it is an advantages to have a vehicle down here, other than the motorcycle.  Our temporary resident visa expires in 2 years and a decision on how to proceed with the visa has to be made.   How we proceed with the visa process affects vehicle ownership in Mexico.  It's complicated and the situation is uncertain because the laws regarding vehicles in Mexico, for non permanent residents, are in limbo and likely to change. Enough of this!

   The night before we reached Sayulita, we stopped in Mazalan to visit with Lee. We arrived early and got settled in the Lerma Hotel, Lee's "home in Mexico". We had plenty of time to go for a nice walk up one of the hills in old town Mazatlan before being treated to supper at a restaurant in the main market.  After supper Lee took us on a walking tour of old Mazatlan, through the busy commercial areas,  the more touristy areas and finally along the malecón.  We had a very enjoyable evening reacquainting and educating ourselves with old Mazatlan.

Mazatlan Bay looking north from old town.

Early morning fresh catch for sale.

  We spent the last couple of days getting settled and reorganizing our belongings. It is always fun bumping into old friends and catching up on the latest rumours and stories.  It is a holiday weekend and the town is very busy. It is Superbowl Sunday as well. We watched the last half of the game in "Fajita Banana", a restaurant and bar. By then there were quite a few drunk and happy Seahawk fans whooping it up. 

Well that is a quick summary of the last 10 months of our lives...  More to come.