December 18 - Surfs up

Another lovely morning and this beautiful Crinum lily was blooming just to the left front of our patio. It is related to the white Texas swamp lily we saw last year.  It will open even more blooms in the next few days.  It is native to the area and grows from a bulb.

 

For our gardening friends out there.  Mañana

Spanish class and then the entertainment started.  Mexican families are moving into the park for Christmas and one of them decided a ride on the beach in his all wheel drive was a good idea.

Hmm, tides coming in!

Gringos to the rescue.  First with one quad, then with 2.

Hmmm

This can't be good

Ok how about 2 Quads and an all wheel drive truck

Our patio had a prime view of all the action.  Good thing we had cold beer!

Dig out that front end!

Well, although it would have made a great reef for the fish, the gringos finally rescued them.    Sixteen people, 2 quads and a truck to do it.  Someone said this only proves Alberta is not the only place you can find rednecks. No better place to get stuck than in front of a bunch of Canadians!

And the big news, through great effort on Cam and many others part we now have TV.  We moved it indoors.

December 16 & 17 - Market & Puerto Vallarta

We spent yesterday birdwatching from our patio, Spanish class and more patio relaxation.  So that sums the day up.  Today, was the opposite starting early at the La Penita Market where we bought some cakes for the students coming to practice their English on us, the Spanish language students, this Saturday.  That should be interesting.

Then on to Puerto Vallarta for the preChristmas shop before things get really busy.
We did the Costco and giant Walmart tour buying only those things we can't get in La Penita.   The exception being cheaper booze in Walmart.  We had 8 people, a CRV and a 3/4 ton Dodge truck to pile groceries in for 4 families.   Sounds good except we couldn't load the back of the truck until we had made our last stop.  So one guy had to ride in the back from PV to Bucerias just like the locals.

ok, we are adjusting to the lifestyle, also going back in time about 40 yrs

We finished the day with lunch on the beach at 2:00 in Bucerias.

Looking back at Neuvo Vallarta

We made it home before dark which is always the goal in Mexico.

December 15 - New Hummingbirds & Market in the RV Park

We started the day with breakfast on our patio.  The big news is we have new Hummingbirds including an Allen's hummingbird, Broad-billed Hummingbird, and a Berylline hummingbird. for a total of seven species  The other earlier arrivals are the Violet crowned, Cinnamon, Ruby-throated, and Black chinned.
The Hawk-eagle was also back hunting just below us and a Yellow-winged Cacique has been visiting the neighbour's oriole feeder.

We were getting into our car to check out more hotels when I heard the call of "Bollito!  Yes, it was the (roughly translated ) "bun" truck.  I went over and purchased croissants, cheese buns (nothing resembling our cheeses more like a vanilla filling), and delicious strawberry tarts.

It is Yolanda"s mobile Bakery

I was just getting back in the car when Cam said the vegetable market is also on in the park. We had forgotten that certain vendors can come to the park on Saturday and Tuesday.

Out I went again buying an assortment of fruit and vegetables.  They also sell beer, eggs, wine, DVDs, nuts, dried fruits, etc.  There was an old fellow with a 5 gallon pail on his shoulder in the morning calling out that he had bee pollen and honey for sale.  The park has other interesting services on certain days like water delivery - Ramon, haircuts, manicures & pedicures, laundry pickup & drop-off, propane, Ruben's pizza with Wednesday night Italian specials, acupressure, blind repair (miniblinds that is), ice, mobile car wash, housecleaning, etc

DVD sales on extreme right hanging on tree

Eventually we made it into Rincon to the hotels.  While Cam was waiting for me he captured a few more Mexican memories.

We returned to the park to discover the pool was being refilled after the rains.  Note the hose on the left, this could take awhile (ok, there is another hose on the other side).

Hey, is that Santa in the hammock?

December 14 - Black Hawk-Eagle

Today was another beautiful sunny day.  The iguanas on our wall are adjusting to our presence and we spent the morning watching trawlers going out at sea and what we believe was a Black Hawk-Eagle hunting on the beach vegetation edge.

  The Hawk-eagle was sitting on the fence posts below our site and hopping down to catch small lizards, crabs and hermit crabs.    We went into Rincon and I checked out more hotels.  Then home for rib night by the pool (they spoil Cam by making him shrimp as he is not fond of ribs).  The parks getting decorated for Christmas.

The tree above is made of palm fronds. (front area still needs a little work)

Decmber 13th - Sunny Days

8 C in San Diego this morning, 2 in Tucson, 13 and massive thunderstorms in Rockport, 24 and sunny in Zephyrhills; there's not much question where you need to be in the US, if warm is your purpose.  I don't think we've been under 20 C here in La Peñita.  After a day and a half of rain, the day dawned bright and clear (just in time for Terry's sailing/snorkeling tour).  With the humidity wrung from the air, I can see details on the far set of mountains to the north that I did not know was there.

Found out this morning that the point north of us is called alligator point.  Can you see it?

7 am Sunday morning, and half of the park is out cleaning up after the storm, hosing the red mud off patios, putting things out to dry in the sun, and generally re-establishing order over chaos.  Our patio is a bit tricky this morning, wet ceramic tiles have an amazingly low Canadian runway friction index, combined with a slight slope to a low wall and a long ways down.  Our mentor in all things Mexican, Terri, was over first thing, to rig and hang a solar light bulb (which she donated) so that we will have light under the canopy.  She also borrowed us the correct open end wrench so we (I'm using the Royal we here, meaning Nancy did it) could torque down the loose toilet mounting bolt.  We were lucky to catch this before malfuntion, since toilets and fridges are quite hard to replace/repair in Mexico.

With all the rain over the last day and a half, the local creeks are running fast and dirty.  The swamp north of us accumulated water until it finally breached the sand wall in the beach, and sent a slug of brown, fresh water (also with, unfortunately, the runoff from the streets of the town) into the clear, blue salt water of the bay.

Beach is cut down about 8 ft high on the right 

Hmm, wonder where the 6 ft croc went?

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.