Circo De Los Ninos, Hike to Monkey Mountain, etc...

I have been tardy with my blog entries. Partly because my Apple laptop has decided that it won't take a charge and the blog app I was using kept crashing and losing whatever I had entered.  Thanks to Dan's prod I have finally downloaded a new app and I am writing a new entry.  

We have been keeping busy as usual.  We volunteered some time, last week, at Entre Amigos in San Pancho to help prepare for their annual fund raiser and Circo de los Ninos spectacular.  As I mentioned in the last entry, one of the  originators of Cirque de Soleil has a home in San Pancho and has taken an interest in Entre Amigos. Two Cirque performers spent the last several months in San Pancho coaching some of the children. The performance was staged last Friday evening to a sold out audience of over 1000 people.  It was phenomenal!  Unfortunately I didn't take any photos and I can't seem to find any on line either.   We also attended their annual fundraising event on Saturday evening. Hopefully I will be able to update this post with some photos. 

I can't begin to tell you how impressed we are with Entre Amigos and what a beneficial organization it is. I have found that most gringo funded organizations here in Mexico have god intentions. Most however fail to capture or encourage the participation of the local population.  This is where Entre Amigos excels far above the others.  It is well integrated in the community. It operates in both Spanish and English. There is support from both the expat and local community. 

There is a mountain located close to Sayulita with a nice hiking trail to a spectacular viewpoint. It is an extinct volcanoes that rise to just over 300 meter above the coast, half way between Sayulita and Punta de Mita.  The mountain is called Sierra Mono.  A mono in English is a monkey or a small doll. The common English name of the mountain is Monkey Mountain but I have been told that the name comes from an old Aztec doll that was found on the mountain.  The trails to the top of the mountain are accessible from either the Sayulita side or from the Punta de Mita side via Higuera Blanca.  

Last Wednesday, Alex (another regular hotel guest from Guadalajara) and I bicycle to the trailhead and hiked up the mountain. In total the round trip took 4 1/2 hours at an easy pace, including a stop for a snack at the top. We bicycle for 45 minutes to a small ranch (ranchito). Alex had been before and had met the rancher. We spoke to him (Manuel) and left our bikes at his place for safe keeping.  The hike to the top took 1 hour.  If not for some uncertainty with the trail we could have made it easily to the top in about 45 minutes. 

The trail follow a dry river bed and then up a jungle trail onto a ridge line. At Alex's suggestion I wore long pants and a long sleeve T-shirt. Thorn bushes and small biting insects are everywhere. Luckily we went early and most of the hike was in the shade. Parts were quite steep but there is no exposure to steep cliffs, unless you want to climb on the rock perched on the very top. 

The day we went there was some haze but the view is very nice. This photo was taken from the very top looking south toward Punta de Mita. Below are a few more from the hike back down. This time on a different route that intercepted and followed the dry river further up river.

These next two photos are of orchids that have seeded themselves in host trees.

The photo below is of the trail along the dry river bed near to the beginning of the trail.  It is interesting to note that although the river is mostly dry at this time of year, I was told that water still flows below the river channel. There are locations where the water can be seen flowing above ground.  These are the watering holes for cattle that roam this areas as well as the wildlife. 

Many varied and interesting butterflies can be seen in the jungle. 

We spent part of the afternoon on the beach. Here is a photo on Manny and Linda.  Manny sells frozen fruit Popsicles.  He is a fixture on the beach.  Anyone who has been here fir more than week knows Manny.  We have an account with him. 

Hopefully I will find some photos of Circo de los Ninos and date this post

The Ups and Downs of Life in Sayulita

Since the last blog entry, life has been full of adventure, some good and some not so good. Linda and I were both under the weather for almost a week... the lost week, as we refer to it.  This post will be a summary of the last  few weeks activities.

Bike Rides...

Linda & I did a nice bike ride with some friends a couple of Mondays ago . On this ride we followed our normal route south of town. On the Wednesday a friend and I finally rode the trail from Sayulita to San Pancho, the next town north along the coast (San Pancho is the commonly used name but actually the town is called San Francisco. Pancho is a nick name for Francisco).  I have been wanting to explore this trail for a while now. The following paragraphs contains a description of the route for those who might want to follow this trail. Last Saturday (post recovery) I rode with 3 friends south along or normal route but this time we pressed on a bit further. A wicked climb up and over a hill overlooking Playa Patzquaro. This was an energetic 2 hour ride with some gnarly single track.

Sayulita to San Pancho Trail....
From om the centre of Sayulita to the centre of San Pancho is a approximately an 8 kilometre ride. The challenging part of this ride is along a gnarly single track jungle trail.  It is hilly for most of the single track portion with  a 100+ metre climb, creek crossings and a board bridge. The trail is dusty at this time of year. There are rocky sections and wash outs but the trail can be ridden full length. There is wildlife in the jungle.... snakes and jaguars live there. We didn't see any. Insects are more of an issue. Stinging bugs and ticks are in the vegetation. It is best to avoid contact with the plant life.  I didn't have any problems with bugs on this ride but my friend had to have a tick removed from his ankle when he got back to Sayulita.

The main hazards are the thorny bushes, both to the inner tubes and bare arms and legs. We each had one flat tire on the return trip. We only had one spare tubes but the leak in my front tire was slow enough that I could re-inflate it every kilometre or so and ride home.  Since this ride I have installed plastic flat protectors in the tires. These strips of hard but light plastic are placed in the tire between the tube and the riding surface of the tire. I also installed self sealing tubes in the wheels on Linda's bike. Hopefully these will reduce the need to frequently repair or replace tubes

The trail is accessed from the Sayulita end, by riding to the north end of Avenida de las Palmas, lifting your bike over the chain and continuing on the dirt track / road until you reach the next beach north of Sayulita (Known as mal paso). Follow this road until it reaches the beach. The trail goes up into the jungle to the right at the end of the road.  The jungle trail ends at a cobble stone driveway to a home overlooking San Pancho. To continue on the San Pancho from this point follow the driveway to the right until in intersects highway 200.  This is a busy highway and riding on the road is not recommended.  On the left side of the highway, facing traffic, is a narrow dirt trail just off the pavement. It is wide enough to ride or walk along.  It is about 1 K along the highway to the San Pancho road and about 2 K from the highway to the San Pancho beach.

Ricardo, my bike buddy, making coffee for us.

Ricardo's cafe.  Cafe en la Esquina  / Coffee on the Corner

Sayulita Days Parade

 Motorcycle maintenance adventure continued...

Baldo on his Ural in the Sayulita Days parade

On my last post I mentioned that our trusty Suzuki had electrical problems and that I had ordered a new stater relay.  I picked up the part on Tuesday and installed it. Unfortunately it did not rectify the problem.  To make along story short... After studying the wiring diagram I figured out a way to hot wire the starter relay. While installing my make shift wiring I realized that the problem related to a bad ground connection somewhere in the starter circuit. I didn't find the bad connection but adding a new ground wire to the negative terminal of the starter relay solved the problem. The starter button now does it's job and all the interconnected safety switches seem to function properly. Time will tell how it holds up. I made that sound pretty simple but it took quite a few frustrating hours of testing and investigation to come up with a solution. We are planning a trip up the coast tomorrow to explore another beach.

The Lost Week...
We spent a lot of time at the hotel this week. Linda contracted either a bacterial infection, from something she ate, or the flu, which is going around town. I think that it is the former. She was quite ill for a couple of days but seems to be slowly on the mend now. This kind of adventure we caould do without.  We were suppose to go the Yelapa this morning to visit with Christa and Carmen, from Kaslo. We only planned to stay 2 days but had to cancel the trip.  Bouncing through the wave in the water taxi ride can be unpleasant even without stomach issues.

It is a good thing hat we didn't go to Yelapa because Linda's stomach issues continued and I  didn't feel to well myself. Monday morning we both went to the walk-in clinic. Linda received a prescription and after a few days we both felt much better. We are both back to normal now.

The Laptop Adventure
My Apple MacBook Air had an accident about a week ago. I knocked over the flower vase on our table and most the water flowed over the keyboard. The computer was on at the time. After the water flowed over it, it appeared to have shut down since the screen was blank and it was unresponsive.

Linda went to a nearby tienda and bought a bag of rice. I dried off the computer as much as possible and I sealed it in a large ziplock bag along with the rice that Linda purchased.  This idea from an article Kevin had written for the Fernie Fix. The theory is that the rice absorbs the moisture from inside of the computer.  After about 10 hours I opened the bag to have a look at the computer. To my surprise it was on. I quickly shut it down and placed it back in the bag of rice.  Later that evening I decide to power it on and see what happened. It ran normally and we started watching Net Flix. However about 2/3 of the way through the program the computer emitted a sharp "snap" and the screen went black.

When I removed the computer from the bag of rice I had to shake several grains from out of the inside of the computer. They had entered the computer via the cooling vents and gaps near the screen hinge. I believe that piece if rice, still in the computer, started cooking, absorbing liquid and expanded enough to short circuit a connection. I put the computer back in the rice, regretting my impatience. The next morning I tried to turn on the computer once again. This time no response. I resigned myself to the fact that the computer was dead, but I put it back in the bag of rice and left it there for a week.

I have been writing this blog entry on an old Acer netbook that I plan to leave here in Mexico. While waiting for the netbook to load and process some photos I decided to have another look at the MacBook.  I didn't think anything would happen if I turned it on but to my surprise I plugged in the charger and it started normally!  The battery was dead flat but appears to be recharging. So I am now writing this blog on the MacBook... waiting for the next "snap". Time will tell if I lucked out with my clumsiness!

The Punta Sayulita Surf Classic
This past weekend was the 5th annual paddle board and long board surf competition. It is a well organized event that draws good participation and large crowds to the beach to enjoy the competition and the evening party atmosphere.

The event itself have 3 different competitions... paddle board surfing, paddle board endurance races and long board surfing. All 3 events are unique. This year the event was blessed with larger waves. The normal wave size here is in the 3 ft range. This past weekend the wave height exceeded 6 ft. This added some additional excitement for the spectators and challenge for the participants.

The long board competition is judged on style, smoothness and competence. It is a more laid back event compared to the paddle board surfers, who use shorter boards that are much more manoeuvrable than the long boards.

The top picture in this set is a long board competitor nose riding a smaller wave. Love his grin!

Paddle board surfer entering a wave.

Another just starting his run.

 The other paddle board event is the endurance race. This is a photo of the start of the 10K event. These boards are much longer than the surf board. They are light weight and designed to glide though the water. They are narrow and unstable. Very tricky to ride, but some of these guys made it look easy.

Salim, the manager of Villas Sayulita starting out on the 10K

These pros make paddle boarding look easy. I, on the other hand, make it look difficult. Just as the ski conditions change from day to day, so does the surf. Sometimes it is easy to catch a wave, other days it seems impossible.  Today was one of those days. I have a sore shoulder and few scrapes from spending an hour or so in the ocean.


Linda is currently in San Pancho with her friend Amy to volunteer at EntreAmigos. Entreamigos is a very interesting and worthwhile organization. More info is available at http://entreamigos.org.mx/ 

One of the creators of Cirque de Soleil has a place in San Pancho and is a huge supporter of Entreamigos. This year a group of Cirque performers have been coaching some of the children in San Pancho and their performance is to be presented on Friday, March 21st. The annual fundraiser is set for Saturday, March 22nd.   EntreAmigos is essentially run by volunteer labour.


Here are a couple of Linda's photos

Fishing boat on the beach, ready to go..

Baby iguana