February 10 - Beautiful night

Kirk and I go for our late night walk through the campground.  The "Snow" moon lights our pathway interspersed with patches of darkness where trees overshadow us.  Reminding me of the poem The Highwayman "the road was a ribbon of moonlight".  

According to the Farmers' Almanac, full moon names date back to Native Americans, each full moon has its own name.

Crickets sing, an owl hoots, in the estuary a toad sings its high chirring tune.  As we progress around the park we pass unnoticed by four sisters sitting on a patio in quiet conversation having each come from different countries, or parts there of, to gather here for a time.  The quiet is broken by laughter from several levels below us, Friday night revellers.  

We move away into the warm, humid darkness and once again it is only the insects we hear and if we could the tramping feet of leaf cutter ants in their nightly march.  These wee beasties will climb right over you if you stop unawares and not cause harm unless you try to brush them off and press too hard.  Even then I find the bite is light and does not last long for one with so formidable jaws.

A large purple flower falls from a vine above us joining others strewn about the path.  We pass through scents of jasmine and other flowers, a waft of wood smoke, and green vegetation.

Back on our patio the full moon hangs above the silhouettes of mango, fig and palm trees.  I can see a long way down the beach.  Geckos chirp.  It is a calm night but the surf continues its endless assault on our moonlit shore.  Each cresting wave lighting up the edge of the beach as it runs along in a surge of sparkling silver.

We decide to take one more turn round the area.  A neighbour passes me by "Beautiful night"!  Yes it is.  It truly is.

February 9 - Patio Time with family

Today was market day so our Aunt, Uncle and cousins walked over to our place afterwards.  We had some fruity drinks on the patio, watched the iguanas, soaring frigate birds, beach activity and ocean waves on another beautiful sunny afternoon.  The conversation ran from bargaining and travel experiences, best restaurants, worst restaurants, etc.

Every year one or more of our fellow travellers has their RV painted in the park.

Final prepping before paint.

Panel painted and drying on the clothesline

I will have to remember to include a photo once it is finished.

February 6,7 & 8 - for those of you needing color besides snow white

Well the internet has been abysmal.  So I will speak generally of the past few days.  We travelled to Las Varas and impressed the local Aurora Bodega clerks by buying every last package of Cam's favourite and hard to get soup.  This amounted to several cases worth.  The local flora has been outdoing itself as Spring nears in Mexico.

Bougainvillea 

Tulip tree

Bougainvillea

Hibiscus 

Citroen Trogon

We went to Steffany's and visited with family.  One of the best things about La Peñita is the easy access to the airport in PV.  It is so great to be able to spend time with people from home.

February 4 & 5 - J.E.E.P & spay & neuter clinic

I spent yesterday and today at J.E.E.P.  Saturday was the usual cleaning of kennels as well as cleaning the veterinary room for the spay and neuter clinic today.  About 6 vets arrived this morning from surrounding towns, some from as far as Compostela.  The animals were operated on in the clinic area while we volunteers manned recovery stations in the kennels.  Once an animal was done we had to monitor its temperature, heart rate, and respiration rate and turn it over every 15 minutes.  Ears were wiped, toenails were clipped on dogs, any ticks removed.  I had a young cat for two hours as the recovery period from the anesthetic for cats is longer than for dogs.  We also had to put in eye drops to keep their open eyes from drying out.  It all went well and I learned a great deal.   Jose (my usual taxi) and I gave a lady and her still sleeping chihuahua a ride down the hill on the way home.

The kitty I had to watch.  

The cat was a stray but lucky enough to be going home with a retired vet who will find a good home for him.

It was a sea foggy morning. 

Kennels are large and airy.  She is unimpressed.

This shelter like many others requires old towels, old beds, and volunteers.  Before you throw out towels, old pet toys, leashes, consider giving them to a shelter.  No matter what country you are in.

Today the volunteers were Canadian, American and Mexican not much difference there other than a minor language difference although actions proved to be the driving force not words.  

February 2 & 3 - Tianguis & Hasta luego

We went to the market in La Peñita and worked our way through a list of purchases.  We each bought a beautiful hand woven sheep wool rug.

We finished off the evening with dinner at La Pineda restaurant.  The evening was gorgeous, and we had a table against the bay looking out on the panga boats moored for the night.  A few fishermen were out late and we watched them maneuver their boats into position with the others.  I counted 51 boats.  

Squid appetizer

Sarandeado Sea Bass

Sarandeado (or sometimes Zarandeado) is a traditional fish dish served along Mexico’s Pacific Coast. It is usually made with either sea bass or red snapper.  The fish is split in half from head to tail, leaving in most of the bones. The two marinated sides get grilled along with the marinated backbone.  The recipe uses a chile and garlic-based seasoning paste, and a final glazing of flavored mayonnaise before it goes on the grill.  Although our Spanish teacher tells us the marinade varies from place to place and his mother's is the best.

The next day our family left for Puerto Vallarta and the trek home.  It was great two weeks of adventuring around the area.

A Vine taking advantage of our distraction with visitors to encroach on our patio.

We also had a 5 foot brown rat snake on our patio about a week ago.  Tacho says he is a good snake and we should keep him as he eats rodents.

January 30 & February 1 - Chacala & San Pancho Birding

We went to Chacala Beach for lunch on Tuesday and discovered some really beautifully coloured tropical fish swimming around the edges of the marina.  Gorgeous angelfish, wrasse, tangs and many others we could not identify.

The main event of the evening was Taco Tuesday and free margaritas in the park.

Today we went birding in San Pancho.  We saw a wide variety of birds at the estuary and also in town, however, I was too busy birding and forgot to take photos of them.  We saw Jacanas,  Anhingas, numerous warblers, terns, herons, egrets, caciques, etc.

San Pancho town square where we saw some Black throated Magpie jays. 

We walked up a hill trail, San Pancho in the distance.

The trail ended in thick jungle.

We returned home and walked the trail along the beach and estuary.  We saw 3 large crocodiles, a Purple Gallinule and a Vermillion flycatcher.

January 29 & 30 - Lo de Perla orchids, PV & Rincon market

On Sunday we went to Lo de Perla Jungle Garden ( http://lodeperla.org ).  Alejandro met us at Los Lomas and we all piled into his Suburban and took a very rough road into the mountains.  He has 13 hectares of land where he is reintroducing native orchid species.  We went on a 4 hour jungle/orchid tour.

Our guide Alejandro at Lo de Perla

Vanilla vine on right

Bishop's eggs

Orchid plants

Cat's eggs

Early blooming local Nayarit orchids

Bromeliad

Bromeliads

The jungle orchids mostly flower in November and March so he had a greenhouse with some hybrid orchids for interest.  

We finished the day with dinner at a new restaurant in Rincon.  

On Monday Cam drove Meagan and Lyndon to Puerto Vallarta for their return trip home.  He then picked up more family arriving by plane and drove them to Rincon.  Meanwhile the rest of us went to the Rincon artisan market.  Later we went to Los Compadres restaurant in La Peñita where we had a great meal and a fantastic view of Jaltemba Bay.