December 12 - Monsoon rain

Today was a very rainy day.

We still managed to get into town to look at a few hotels for friends who are booking a trip out here and a group of us went out for a farewell dinner with a couple who are returning to Victoria.    The restaurant has a great view over town but the clouds obscured it. I did get to pet El Gato (the cat) who politely avoided the guests while we had dinner but sauntered over later.

Other than that it was a play computer games and read kind of day.  We did manage to get out and help with some drain digging around our trailers since we Manitobans are champion drain diggers.

December 11 - Relax

We picked Terry up from his hotel in Rincon in the morning and spent a relaxing day on the patio and beach.  The view was much improved by Mario's hard work the day before.

Cam and I headed off to Spanish class and Terry went for a walk.  Then it was time for a swim on our beach and lunch in La Penita at Hinde y Jaime's for shrimp and fish tacos ($12 pesos each).

Uh oh!

Get ready for the next one!

Then Terry headed back to PV via the Primo bus where a monsoon rain awaited him.

December 10 -

A busy day today.  I walked into the La Penita market with friends while Cam headed off to meet Terry at the bus stop.   We were also dog sitting 3 dogs.  Terry, Cam and I spent the morning relaxing on our patio and walking on the beach.

Taking iguana photo

Then we decided to head for Chacala Beach where we had a great lunch, cervezas and Pina Coladas.

(We left Kirk and the other 3 dogs with backup dog sitters)  We dropped Terry off at the Hotel y Bungalows Guaybitos for a swim and a rest.  When we arrived back at camp Mario was there to machete down the trees and vines that had grown up into our viewpoint.  

December 9th - Spanish lessons and construction

Mi amigo

We had our first Spanish lesson today.  A nice young man from Tepic teaches us raw beginners, his wife works with the more advanced speakers of Spanish (just one at present), and their four year old daughter hangs out.  Más despacio, por favor.  Oy, he speaks quickly!  Our group of approx. 8 people vary in experience with Spanish from none to quite a bit, so we are a challenge.  It is fun, though, and the group setting is just what I need to convert the time I've spent with Duolingo and Rosetta Stone into conversational speech.

After lunch, Nancy headed up to aquafit in the pool.  I spent a couple of hours wrestling with a laptop recently converted from Windows 7 to 10, which was not performing as expected.  Then, it was on to anchoring down our new canopy.  With considerable wind exposure, and few anchoring options, I feared the first north wind would be it's last.  I had a good look at the neighbour's canopy, which had similar exposure and has remained in place until now.  He had drilled the concrete and screwed the feet to the cement.  When I was admiring his setup, he produced a big corded electric drill, a cement drill bit, and four epoxy coated cement screws for my use.  My old neighbours came up with the washers needed to allow the screws to anchor the somewhat larger holes in the canopy feet, and the other neighbour produced the ratchet and socket needed to torque the cement screws in.

Fifteen minutes of work, and Presto! one well-anchored canopy.

Terry is busing out from Puerto Vallarta in the morning, and staying overnight in Rincon.  We're looking forward to adventuring about with him.

December 8th - Settling in

Nancy and her morning coffee (honest!) online ID'ing the plethora of birds at our neighbour's feeding station.   She is already planning our feeding station setup.  She was happy to add a White Collared   Seedeater to her life-list this morning.

Our first feeder is up!

Violet Crowned Hummingbird

I think immature Black-chinned but could be immature Ruby-throated

Violet Crowned Hummingbird

We have word in with the park to have the encroaching vegetation out front macheted back a little.  We were reluctant to do so, but the neighbours told us that if we did not, by next year there would be large trees grown up in the way, and it would be much more difficult to cut back (since it's essentially loose rock on a cliff face).  Friends that we caravanned down with, dropped by with a 10 x 10 foot canopy.  They were originally going to loan it to us for the season, but we convinced them to sell it to us.  The trick now will be to figure out a sufficient anchor system, since while there is almost never much of a wind, and even then usually a south wind (we face north-ish), but once in a long while there is; our tremendous views then translate to wind exposure.

Looking back up the hill to the Bigfoot (middle left) from the beach

We did a shopping run into La Peñita this morning, we're groceried up for a few days.
There's a couple of graveyards close to the park, one just on the southwest side of the hill the park is on, and one on north on the east side of the highway.  The reason I'm sharing this tidbit of information is a cultural one.  The local Mexicans feel the need to consistently and at inconvenient hours, repeatedly fire off canons/loud fireworks, reportedly to repel encroaching evil spirits.  There will be twin reports, at 3:09 am Wednesday, for example, or randomly throughout the night.  Kirk disagrees with this practice, and barks to show his displeasure. The locals are fond of these large explosive noises, also firing them off for religious celebrations, holidays, or just because.  Unlike Kirk, Nancy & I have become habituated to the explosions.

December 7th - Site 21

It was moving day today.  Nancy was active at first light, packing, stowing, unhooking, and getting the Bigfoot ready to move.  This section of the campground is pretty full now, as we approach peak season, so with the directions of my concerned neighbours (wouldn't want to scratch that 40' Tiffin Phaeton, or have to crank your awning in),  I threaded the Bigfoot through the vehicle parking, around the loop, and backed into the revered site 21 (Except for Ken's help, he was most helpful).  A large gaggle of our friends walked all of the chairs, tables and various patio shiite up the hill to the new site in rapid order; in fact it was all pretty much on-site before I arrived in the Bigfoot.  Despite the all the help, shouted directions, and general helpful advice, I positioned the Bigfoot to Nancy's satisfaction, levelled it, and with a sigh of relief, threw on the parking brake, and we were home again.

Note Iguana on the wall between the posts

Pretty much the rest of the day was spent establishing base camp.  We did host a gathering of those that aided the move, with celebratory beverages on the patio.

December 6 - Opportunity strikes

I was supposed to go for a 2 hour Razor ride with a fellow camper, but it got canceled.  Instead I managed to get us a free round table, umbrella, 4 chairs, an awning tie-down kit, and for good measure a brand new campsite, all at no cost.  Not just any campsite, though!  A coveted "we had to be here 20 years to get one of these campsite".

The previous campers had decided not to return and the news was spreading fast.  The site was limited to smaller rigs.  So I zipped over to the manager but he said for this one you need to talk to the owner.  I found her and the rest is history.  It has a magnificent unimpeded view of the ocean and entire beach.  We spent part of the afternoon sitting gazing out over the ocean watching the dolphins frolic below.  We received a fine welcome from our new neighbours and congratulations from many others.  Tomorrow is moving day.