November 20 - Viva la Revolucion! Viva Mexico!

Today Mexico celebrated Dia de la Revolucion (Revolution Day).  A national holiday celebrating a 10 year revolution that began in 1910 to end the struggle against dictator Jose de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz Mori.  We attended the parade in La Penita where the streets were crowded with people and vendors.  La Penita Centro was blocked off with police tape along the parade route with only the occasional truck lifting it up to cross during a break in the parade.

A reenactment of the revolutionaries shooting down the government soldiers

Lots of school children probably every child between here and Puerto Vallarta

Speakers on trucks blared out dance tunes

Speakers across the top of the Bug (Tokes on door)

Very colourful

Queen?

Notice the dress and headdress are made of styrofoam plates and spoons

We went back to the park and tried some surf fishing but wrong tide and time of day.   Then aquafit and back to town for a grocery shop.  Only 2 stores and many food vendors open.   It was entertaining as the local street parties were well underway.   The vaquero below had a well trained little horse as he weaved through traffic and people.  Heavy on the weaving part, I believe that is not his first bottle of Pacifico in his hand.  I think the horse is saying "Oh brother" actually "Oh hermano"

There were quite a few riders in town.  Although we didn't see any in the parade, of course we only stayed for the first hour and a half of the parade, it actually went from 9:00 until 2:00.  A motorcyclist also fell over as we were leaving downtown but many hands ran to help him up.  Back at the RV park, staying off the roads tonight, although I bet town would be interesting......

November 19th - Sayulita

We went for a ride to Sayulita this morning, looking for RV Parks.  We went into Sayulita Trailer Park and Bungalows, which was right on the beach, in the middle of town.   Sayulita is more of a tourist town with higher end shops, gringos, golf cart rentals, and lots of restaurants.   

A group of us taxied over to Los Ayala ($50 Mx) to a restaurant named Santo Remedio for supper tonight.  On top of a few drinks before and during supper, the restaurant treated us to a round of tequila.  They gave each one of us a plate of salt and limes then slammed the tequila on the table with the plate on top of the glass.  (The guy spilled the whole lot of it and had to go back for another tray so we cheered him on with his second attempt.)

Tequila

November 18th - Flying, diagnosing, and shopping.

Nancy, Kirk, & I were out before 9 am, to the field behind the beach a mile or two north of the RV Park.  The 2 metre electric Radian worked like a charm, and I spent a half hour or so, cruising up and down the beach at a few hundred feet of elevation.  Even this early in the day, the air that the Frigates made look so effortless and smooth turned out to be pretty active and turbulent.  I put it down to their higher wing-loading (couldn't be pilot skill, could it?).  The landing was uneventful, as was the retrieval from the meadow (none of the Coral Snakes nor fleas that Nancy was anticipating)

Cruising by for a photo

On final (you may have to zoom in, the Radian is just to the left of the picture centre)

Ocean out front - Jaltemba Bay

Mountains behind

The Bigfoot house batteries cutoff switch is used to isolate (shut off) the batteries for storage, or to prevent them from being over-charged when plugged into shore power for extended periods (like now).  I hit the store button, but the LED remained illuminated.  Reading the manual (something to which most men will not admit) said that the LED may remain illuminated if there was another source of 12 volt power.  We unplugged from shore power, LED went off, meaning the batteries were in fact, isolated (not being continuously charged), and we plugged back in, well satisfied.

The second learning experience of the day concerned propane (or butane/propane mixture here in Mx).  Last night when Nancy was cooking, I noticed that the stove burner flame had a large component of feathery orange, and not the usual light blue.  I was concerned that we were low on propane and checked the monitor, which indicated 1/2 full tank.  This did not make a lot of sense since we left Manitoba with our 90 pound house tank full, had used the furnace/stove sparingly, and the fridge should have been running on electrical when we are plugged into shore power.  Well, the fridge was on auto, and trying to maintain the interior cool temperature in an environment of 42 C humidex may have resulted in the fridge switching to more efficient propane.  Quien sabe?  So we asked the go-to guy in the Park, Antonio, to have the propane truck stop by to refill our tanks.  It didn't take much to fill, either 17 litres (in which case it was fairly expensive) or 17 gallon (in which case it was quite cheap)  I will find out in the morning when I get the recibo translated.....  Either way, we were a long way from out.

I noticed "our" Mango tree puts out new leaves in purple, then once they are full-sized and functioning, they turn the more usual green.  This is the opposite of purple leaved ornamentals at home, which produce new leaves in green, which turn purple as they mature.

We took the advice of TTK (Those That Know) and left our La Peñita shopping until 3:30 pm. today.  Mornings are hectic, they said, no parking; try later afternoon.  Worked like a charm.  Centro was much more laid back and parking was abundant.  Cash, groceries, and rum were acquired painlessly.  (This advice does not hold when shopping for fish, or things in short supply).

We bought some rib eye steaks for dinner 76 pesos,  hmmm, they were ok but a little tough.  TTK later told us we need to ask for Sonora beef which is about twice the cost but more like home.  Live and learn (in Mexico).  One new bird today Mexican parrotlets.

This little fellow (above) has decided the flies at the feeder also make it a gecko feeder.

Gecko stretched out along stick nearly invisible.

November 17th - The wind is here!, the wind is here!

Well, maybe.

Well, it's a month yesterday since we hit the road, and we've been in La Peñita RV Park for two weeks.  In the two weeks that we've been here, the maximum wind has been 2 - 4 Km/hr., and most of the time there's been zero wind.  Nada.  It's spooky how calm it has been.  We were going to head out to the beach field north of here to fly the big Radian this morning, but the neighbours came up with a plan to go check out the Alta Vista petroglyphs .  It involves a fair amount of hiking, so Nancy went, and Kirk and I stayed home.  I warned her to beware of Throat-slitters.

Kirk and I went for a cruise through La Peñita and Rincon, just puttering about, enjoying the morning.  I checked the ATM's, since we're building cash to pay next months rent, but sure enough, in the wake of the long weekend, they were all out of cash.

Back to the Bigfoot for some reading.  I've been working my way through the sci-fi Culture series by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks (highly recommended).  I finished "Excession" today, the fourth book in the series, if you don't count an interim, only partially relevant, book of short stories. The books are getting better and better as the series progresses; I will be sad to complete the series.

About 11:00 a.m., something weird happened.  The wind came up.  At first, laying there with the iPad in the recliner, I didn't get what was happening.  Then as the Bigfoot awning started to flap in the NW wind, I figured it out and cranked the awning in, with the Neighbour's assistance.  They went from unattended (people were out for the day) RV to RV, taking down tarps, awnings, and generally anchoring things down.  I couldn't figure out why they were so happy with all this.  "It's the Santa Ana winds!, probably." was the reply.  Autumn and winter sees the Santa Ana winds blow down from the north, dropping the humidity and temperature (which has been running a humidex of 40 - 42 the last few days).  Sure enough, we have a cloudy day, lovely north breeze, and temperature of only 28 and a humidex of 29!!  Let's hope this is the start of a trend...

Last night our neighbour had a large turtle come up to his door, maybe that was a sign.

A few of us (3) went to find the Altavista  petroglyph complex today.   First we visited the village of Alta Vista perched on a mountainside.  We followed a paved road then a narrow dirt road then a rutted, sometimes cobbled even narrower road at an increasingly sharp angle.  We finally stopped at a cerveza store (yes its true go figure) at a fork in this road where through our broken Spanish and hand signals we were assured by 3 guys that we were headed in the right direction for town.  One guy even offered to hop on his quad and lead us there.  He also managed to get across to us that we had missed the dirt road to the petroglyphs on the way up.  We continued up to the town fist.

Corn drying on a rooftop in Alta Vista

Houses were built on hillsides as we climbed higher into town

This vaquero stopped his horse when he saw we were taking a church photo

Then he continued on

Note the chiweeny dog barking from the rooftop

This fine figure of a rooster looked down upon us 

MACHO!

The streets were always going up and sometimes cobbled

We walked through town.  I didn't photograph people sitting and socializing on the plastic lawn chairs in front of what seemed to be way too many small stores in the village because I didn't want to offend.  They smiled, said Hola, and we also caught up to the vaquero who had joined them.  We were the only tourists we saw all day.  We told an english speaking delivery truck driver that we couldn't believe he had made it up there and he said "I can't believe it either".  We went back to find the turn to the petroglyphs.  Another vaquero (cowboy) sitting along the road gave us further directions, once again no English but luckily our understanding is getting better.  We could ask in Spanish- Left, right, how far, where, etc.  He wanted to make sure we understood that our CRV was not going to make it all the way in there!

Road into petroglyphs

Alta Vista in the distance

We left the car eventually and continued on foot

We came across orchards and a guy loading wood, then a guy digging post holes then a guy cutting brush all of whom cheerily tried to help us find our way.  "Yo no hablo ingles" but they tried anyway.

The road ended here with a cow path leading into the jungle.

We walked for hours along a stream towards the side of the Copo volcano.  It turns out we should have bushwhacked another 30 minutes on the path and we would have made it.  We had left our machete at home and felt ill prepared so we turned homeward.  On the way back our helpers seemed concerned that we had not succeeded so we told them we would return (volveremos).  This seemed to make them happy.  Not once did I ever have a care for our safety today.  The highlight of the walk was 2 new birds - a Citreoline Trogon and a White throated Magpie Jay.  Back at the RV park we are told as the tourist season comes on someone will clear the trail.

In light of my experience today, I can't help but think of the broad brush concerns raised about travelling in Mexico.  I find that people aren't all one thing.  I think we wish they were for simplicity sake, but the truth is that people are good and bad, simple and complicated, happy and sad, frightened and courageous.  A mix.  We learn to take in everything about a person or a country as disparate parts to the whole, and its the whole that we decide upon, even at moments when the other isn't who we wish her/him or it to be.  We are beginning to see parts of the whole.  The contrasts of barbed wire fences in La Penita and barred gates, poverty, and machine gun wielding constabulary mixed with the smiling, helpful, welcoming faces of the people in the streets, shops and rural areas going about the motions of everyday living.   This doesn't mean we are not taking precautions or wandering about the streets at night.   (We may yet experience some of the bad.)  Just like we would do in Winnipeg.

November 16th - Monday

Today I walked into town with some ladies through the park's back gate.  I am becoming accustomed to the streets of La Penita - the people, the dogs, the cooking, the chickens, the housing, etc. No matter where you go it is always the same.  How will I ever find my way around, can I go there?  Then over time it all becomes familiar.  The traffic which once seemed haphazard seems to have its own weird flow or dance.  No straight lines on the town streets just everyone trying to "get through" people, cars, dogs, kids, vendor carts, taxis, 3/4 tons - you get the picture.  (yes, I should have taken one).  Someone told us that many of the houses are unfinished because once they are finished you have to pay taxes, hmmm.

On the left above, the white building houses the zumba class.  We checked it out.  Mexican and Americanos zumbaing to a Latin american beat blasting loud.  (It's true we americanos are not as good at rhythm- ok maybe Auntie Bev)   

A quiet morning at 9:00

We passed the guys making pork cracklings in a large drum while we squeezed by the propane truck, squeezing by the brick truck, running chickens (of course), with a scooter with 2 people and a cooler weaving in and out for good measure while a dog slept on the street inches from us all.  

The La Penita Malecon

We visited the shoemakers with many fine huaraches (sandals) all handmade specifically for you if you'd like or buy a ready made pair.  One of the ladies had sandals ready for pickup.  

Hotel Bahia, La Penita

Pool at Hotel Bahia

We checked out the Hotel Bahia in town.  Rooms called bungalows have 2 double beds, kitchen with gas 2 burner hotplate and fridge and bathroom with shower for 3400 pesos for 2 weeks.  Pretty basic but roughly $22 a night.   Looked clean and short walk to town centre or RV park or beach.   We will have to check with Alberto as to its suitability.  The website jaltembabaylife.com also lists other accommodations in the bay area.

Courtyard with Cam in CRV

Administracion

We later walked back into town for takeout Chinese, fresh juice and a cabbage.  Oh, oh starting to sound boring better do something for the readership soon.

November 15th - Lazy Sunday

So the loud partying was done by around midnight after a few fireworks.  The mega kitchen a few sites over from us, has been putting out barbecued plantains, fruit, huge pots of something, etc all day as people come and go from the beach or pool.  I really wanted to see what was in the pots but felt it would be intruding.  Seems the big meal of the day is around 3:00 and then only a light snack later in the evening.  Kirk and I saw a Whimbrel on our morning walk. Just at dusk yesterday we saw hundreds of Magnificent Frigate birds soaring above the beach moving south.

Whimbrel

The ocean is body temperature as we walked through the water today.  Other than that a pretty lazy day, visiting with a few folks and waiting for the Santa Ana winds to break the humidity.  Somebody told us that close to Christmas I may even require a light jacket to walk Kirk late at night.  I look forward to it.  There are a lot of great restaurants but due to the long weekend we have decided to cook at home tonight.

We are slowly getting our outdoor kitchen area set up under the canopy.  The tiny ant battle continues as we learned today that gee that old cure - vinegar tends to keep them at bay indoors.  So long as I don't see any of those humongous spiders indoors I'm good.

This summer, we visited the kids at Grand Rapids and Thompson, Mb.  Thompson is north of 55th parallel.

Somewhere around north of Mazatlan (apparently it moves around?), we crossed the Tropic of Cancer, which is longitude 23.26.14.0, and here in La Penita, we are at 21.0385.  Even globally speaking, that's a far piece.  Let's hear it for the good old reliable Bigfoot...

November 14th - Saturday

It's a long weekend here in La Penita.  It's a little fuzzy, but I think the government moved the Independence Day (26th) long weekend up a week.  The RV Park is filling with tents full of Mexican families, who are having a wonderful time on the beach, and barbequeing with extended family.  Weird to have kids laughing and running about.  Normally, just us codgers, with only some laughing, and very little running about.

More recon for a glider flying site today.  Found a second, larger soccer field in town, off of the highway, but in a populated part of the village (too many witnesses for my kind of flying).  Talked with Carole, the Park owner, and she confirmed that it was OK to fly out of the beach grass areas north of us that we explored a day or two ago, so maybe tomorrow.  Temperatures are 33 C, but the humidex is 39C, and the heat doesn't break until 10pm or later (when it abates to 27 and a humidex of 33....)

About all you can do is eat fruit and drink juice.  We were invited on an excursion to Chacala Beach but declined as it is a busy weekend and we can go during the week when the locals are working.

So, for the first week or two, Kirk laid about on his dog cable, doing his usual laze about in the sun until bright pink, retreat to the shadows to cool for 10 or 15 minutes, then back to the sun and heat.  After all, no squirrels here.  Nancy, however, has been feeding the iguanas, so now there's a couple of bright green 12"ers, a brown and orange 2 footer, and a reported, but as yet unseen 3 footer, hanging about (we have seen the turds...)  As well, we have many 3-4" geckos scampering about on vertical surfaces.  It was inevitable that Kirk spotted something under the Bigfoot, and made a lightning dash for it, but was thwarted in his efforts by a too-short red cable with which we anchor him.  He was inconsolable; he would not, could not forget the issue.  After a day and a half of "stay-in-the-RV-all-day" purgatory, he is somewhat persuaded in the error of his ways, and is back outside on his cable.  He has altered his sensor sweeps now, however, and spends a lot of time surveying vertical walls, and closely examining the underside of tables and chairs, nose up and sniffing the wind.  His vigilance is unceasing.