No Comment . . .
Well, no, I guess I won’t. (See last comment on previous post). Now this blinking thing won’t let me write anything *after* the photos, but insists on popping the cursor back up in front of the photos.
Anyway, our last full day there I had booked a deep-sea fishing trip for Seamus. He LOVES fishing and wanted to try that. So out we went with Valentino. It was beautiful out there, and a perfect day as they all were. Valentino and his helper scanned the waves for activity and we did see some turtles on the way out. When he found a school of bonito he handed out the rods and let Seamus have a go. It was harder work than lake fishing I think, but Seamus managed to catch several bonito and get them into the boat and one mahi-mahi which got off the hook just as they were bringing it in. It had been a real fighter so I was kind of glad to see it get off.
We didn’t go for any of the big stuff, like swordfish as Seamus just isn’t filled out enough yet to have the weight to handle anything that size. Maybe someday.
After we fished for a couple hours we went in to one of the bays where they have some restaurants and a large area marked off for snorkeling. It’s better that way as some of the snorkeling areas aren’t marked so well and boats do wander in. A collision with a boat, or wrose, its propellor, wouldn’t add anything wonderful to your underwater sightseeing.
We got home mid-afternoon and spent the rest of the day swimming and on the beach. Neither one of us wanted to have to go home the next day, but life intrudes always on these idyllic breaks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5GwhMLgRWk&list=UUsIthqA8dWdIH7f9IFbXAIg&index=5&feature=plcp
I think I forgot to post about our after noon feeding the fish. I’ll post a video where we were feeding them and then I said we should walk out a bit further while the water was calmer, as it had been really rough and the undertow was fierce. I just said that and walked out a couple steps when a big wave and the undertow took me down hard and since I was trying to hold the camera up above the water, I darn near drowned trying to get on my feet again. Seamus had to haul me out, but he did get me out without the camera getting soaked, so that’s good. (Thank you Seamus!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCXBVLbI04I&list=UUsIthqA8dWdIH7f9IFbXAIg&index=1&feature=plpp_video
Seamus and his quatromoto
Granny loves lizards too
Famous Seamus and a banana split at Blue
Another beach
More beaches
Sr Ouraca on the roof at dawn
Seamus-the-Rasta and his BBQ ribs
The Rest of The Story
Bugger this site anyway!! I’m getting more and more annoyed with the way it’s behaving and my inability to get things placed where I want. Just finished this entry once and started to post photos and had to delete a photo and the whole post deleted and wasn’t saved anywhere I could find. So, here we go again.
After going for the trip with Lazaro, we had him drop us off in Crucecita again so we could finish our gift shopping. I took Seamus to the craft museum and store, since I figured he’d like to see the bugs, plants and rocks that they use for dye for the yarn they weave. He liked that. They have now started a mezcal tasting bar there too, with a lot of good, natually flavoured mezcals and I tried a few then settled on buying two bottles of the orange flavoured drink to bring home and give to my son and son-in-law. At the bar they have a bowl of fried crickets that you can snack on. I’d tried some on my first trip down and wanted Seamus to try some this time. He wasn’t really enthusiastic, but did try them. I don’t think he found them as bad as he’d feared, but I doubt he’ll be putting them into his daily diet either. They don’t taste bad, and are nice and crunchy, but I think could use a touch of salt.
Now I’ll post some random photos of neat stuff, then get on with the tale of the deep-sea fishing expedition.
I hadn't seen this shade before and I love it.
Bread basket - made from bread!
Big bird in the bush
Beautiful butterfly
Huatulco 2012 Day 4 and 5
Sleepy guy
We were up pretty late last night, so decided to sleep in this morning. Seamus didn’t want to get up at all!
After we did get up, we went with my favourite taxi driver to Sta Maria de Huatulco, a small town inland that I like to visit with my grandkids to give them a better idea of how ‘real’ Mexicans live. it’s a nice little town with another lovely church and a great cemetery, where I love to take pictures.
Church in Sta Maria
Tomb at the cemetery. Notice the non-Christian elements?
After that, Lazaro, the taxi driver, took us to his home for a glass of Agua de Melon, which is a drink they make from the juice of a cantaloupe. It’s really lovely and refreshing – and it was great that there was a level of trust and respect that allowed him to do that. The first year we just went to the town. The second year he drove us past his home and pointed it out, and this year he invited us in. I was most honoured.
Lazaro, his wife and grandchildren.
When we got home and went to the beach, Seamus decided to try a boogie board. Another new experience for him.
Boogie boarding
Next day, we swam, got henna tattoos and I was really surprised at how much I liked my tattoo. If I was braver I’d get it done for ‘real’! We went shopping to see if we could find the rest of the gifts for his mom, dad and brother. We did get his brother a belt, but were having a really hard time finding a buckle to go with it, but on the last day I found one at a beach vendor. Beautiful! A big silver buckle with inset mother-of-pearl, and in the centre this honking big scorpion set in amber resin. I haven’t got a picture of that, but I’m going to try and get one.
My tattoo
Seamus's tattoo. Looks like him first thing in the morning.
Huatulco 2012,
OK, I’ll start here with Day 3 – and as usual, you can click on any of the thumbnails to see a full-screen picture.
Seamus meeting the babies
This was the day that we went to the Iguana farm. Iguanas had been becoming scarce and were being protected by the government as they are good to eat and the leathery skin is used for clothing. The locals are allowed to still kill one at a time for food though. The farm is a local initiative for breeding iguanas, and then releasing them into the wild. Unfortunately the locals did not know much about breeding so after a few generations of iguanas they ended up having quite a few birth defects in the new babies as their breeding population was small. They have now realised their mistake and are releasing more of the adults and bringing in new adult breeding stock to enlarge the gene pool.
A breeding mommy
Moving the iguana eggs
Good for Friday night movies
Seamus feeding the big guys
Handsome fellow
After the Iguana farm we spent the rest of the day just limin’ on the beach. When you only have a week to see everything, you never have enough time for that.
Just limin'
That night there was the festival, Primo Viernes (First Friday – of Lent) in Sta Cruz, and Seamus and I went to that. That was good fun. There was a miday with rides, lots of booths selling things – everythin you could think of really – food and drink, and a rodeo with bull riding.
Seamus got a Rasta tam and some dreadlocks. Lookin good!
The bull riding was the funniest thing, since as rowel spurs, burrs under the saddle blanket and ropes around the testicles are no longer allowed, and the bulls know it, they would come flying out of the chute, buck their way across to the gate where they had been brought in, then stand there waiting to go home. There is no longer any “incentive” to keep bucking after the initial shot from the cattle prod that got them out of the chute.
After that there was a dance contest where the MC would pick a guy and girl at random from the audience and they would have to compete as a couple in various Latin dance routines. Shortly after that began I could feel a change in the crowd and I told Seamus we had to get out of there (the bandstand enclosure) right away. As we left there were about a dozen police entering so they must have felt the change too. Enormous amounts of alcohol were being consumed, and it was hot, and folks were starting to get rude and testy about things. We spent another hour or so at the midway, then went on home.
Seamus had been determined to get himself a coconut, which he finally did by throwing rocks at them until one fell, and he was persistent enough to crack it open with his pencil and other found objects. Unfortunately it was dry and tough inside so not too good to eat.
Coconut disappointment
Huatulco 2012
Church interior 2
Well, Seamus finally got to go with me to Huatulco, and we had some neat fun.
The first day we didn’t do much, slept late then went into town for some lunch and to see the church there, which I never tire of. Pictures appear to be posting wherever they like this year, so sorry, but I haven’t been able to change it yet. Also, I didn’t take quite as many pictures this time as a lot of it you folks have seen before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElkWhLimXns
Blue has the best lemonade in town.
Church interior 1
- Church interior 3
The second day we went for our ATV tour and Seamus got to drive his own ATV which was good fun for him, I think. We went to a lot of places and through the bush to some beaches we never would have seen otherwise. Seamus, of course, was busy investigating all the rocks for crabs and anything else he could find. That night we went out for dinner and Seamus got a job. <G> I also finally, with my new camera, got some good pictures of the ouraca (I think that’s how it’s spelled). (I’ve just found out that the bird world calls it a white-faced magpie jay.) I’ve been trying to get pics of him for years and never gotten a good one.
That was the night too, where I was kept awake all night by dogs barking and I thought one of the guests had smuggled in some pets and then left them lonely while they partied. It turned out that two dogs, well-kept and knew their basic commands, had fallen down the cliff behing our room and were trapped with no food or water. Seamus figured out a great way to get some water to them – I’ll try and load the video here, but if I can’t it’ll be on cybercroneca’s YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCHReWmjLkE&list=UUsIthqA8dWdIH7f9IFbXAIg&index=8&feature=plcp
The really funny thing was that I figured out that the dogs knew their hand signals for sit and so on, so when the animal rescue came to get them out I told the guy that the animals knew English, and said “Sit” and did the hand signal, and they sat. It caused quite a bit of excitement among the workers to see that the dogs understood English. Seamus did the same thing to the second set of guys that came and got the same reaction. It was a HOOT! 
I will be closing this now and doing some more days later, hoping that the glitches here will be fixed or else that I can insert the photos appropriately if I do all the text first.
The puffer fish on the ceiling at the beach cafe.
Senor Ouraca
Seamus investigating the wild and marine life.
Oaxaca 2010
Don with cat he befriended at Bocano beach
This year I took my grandson Donovan, who is 14, to Huatulco with me. I don’t have so many pictures this year as much of where we went was the same as with Kate last year, but there are some new things and views.
We arrived on the Friday – package tour planes only come in on Thursdays and Fridays here – and spent the rest of the afternoon getting the layout of the hotel, unpacking and swimming.
Saturday I took him off to see the small ‘real Mexican’ town of Sta Maria Huatulco, and later on to Puerto Angel. I love the churches and cemeteries there, so wanted to see those and wanted Don to see a more authentic side of Mexico than what he’d see at the hotel or in La Crucecita. We hired a taxi and I really struck gold, as the taxi driver lived in Sta Maria and was a mine of interesting information and sites to see, though he didn’t speak too much English, and us not hardly any Spanish, we managed to communicate. And he was a great driver, which made the day relaxed. For those interested, his name is Lazaro Ruiz and he can be contacted at 958.107.0355 there.
** All photos are clickable to full size
Church, Sta Maria
Main street, Sta Maria Huatulco
Side street, Sta Maria
The churches in Mexico seem to have some wonderful paintings and generally are decorated in a way that’s well worth taking a look at. The cemeteries fascinate me since, in this area anyway, they can’t dig down because of rock, so they have to build up. The crypts are painted bright colours and decorated with flowers, photos, paintings and garlands and seem to announce that those who have passed on are still a part of everyday life here.
Sta Maria, meeting place in the plaza
Sta Maria cemetery
Sta Maria cemetery
This program is really giving me problems this time, so the entries may go much slower than I’d hoped.
On the road between Sta Maria and Puerto Angel, we even saw a Golden Eagle. Apparently they sit around, having gotten used to the fact that sooner, rather than later, the Mexican drivers will provide them with lunch in the form of roadkill. It was truly majestic and beautiful, and I so wish I’d been able to get a picture, but there was traffic behind us so we couldn’t stop.
Taken off the fisherman's wharf in Puerto Angel
Little home on a hill above the river
Another home in the countryside near Sta Maria
Puerto Angel is a lovely little fishing village, built into the crags of the area. There are two sides of town (I guess that most towns have two sides) one for the locals and fishermen, and the other for a small tourist area and beach, with a restaurant, a store run by a woman who does wonderful hand embroidered clothing, a bar and a dive shop. I took lots of pictures here last year, so you can find them in the 2009 blog and will only add a few here, plus some video of Don having a ball in the water.
Tourist side of the beach at Puerto Angel
Cemetery at Puerto Angel
Neat piñata in beach palapa resto at Puerto Angel
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4209015/don_in_the_ocean/
So that was Saturday.
Sunday we spent sightseeing and shopping for gifts in La Crucecita – and then I went to a neighbourhood resto/bar that has a blues band composed of over-wintering blues musicians from Italy, Spain, Argentina, Canada and the US.
In town, the military was putting on a show to advertise their new initiative to combat drugs and illegal weapons. The camo suit was really site-specific, and I’m not sure I see it catching on as a teen fave.
Army camouflage
The church in La Crucecita was open this time, and I marveled at the front door. Can you just imagine what it would cost to get something like that done today? And if it was here? Yikes!!
Church doors, La Crucecita
And I got another part of the ceiling photographed too.
Church ceiling, La Crucecita
There are wonderful legends about this section of Mexico, which say that in 100AD, a white man with a long beard (no one there had ever seen a white man before, or anyone with a beard) came sailing into port at Santa Cruz – which was named Santa Cruz because of this incident. He evangelised and I couldn’t get straight whether there were miracles at that time, and don’t know what happened to him, but the cross made from the wood of his boat stayed and when future conquerors tried to burn it or break it up, they couldn’t. Then came the Spanish some hundreds of years later and the wood from the cross was set as relics into some other crosses, one of which is still in Sta Cruz and two more in larger centres where the Spanish took them.
Chowing down on tlayudas at Blue
Next we decided to get our gift shopping done and have some lunch. We both tried something called a tlayuda (I think) which we both liked. It was meat and a dry sauce in a tortilla. Then off to the textile museum since I thought Don might like to get a shawl for his mom, or a blouse for his littlest sister. They have weavers that use hand looms and make rugs and fabric right on the premises, and they have all the things they use to make the authentic dyes, the mud, rocks, plants and beetles. Lets just say that Don was less than enthralled by the weaving demonstrations . . . So we went to a coffee shop and bought some coffee for those who like it. I don’t drink coffee at all, but apparently the La Pluma from the mountains is really good. We bought some silver and beads for gifts, and there are two of the downtown silver stores I like best from my two trips there. One is called The Little Shop and the other is Gabriel the Owl. Both are on Bugambilias which is the main street across the plaza from the church.
Sunday night I went to see the blues band, and I don’t think they even have a name as a band, as they are from all over and play together there in the winter. I didn’t get everyone’s names, but I know it was Nelson Lunding on the piano, and Albert Colombo and Enrico Crivellaro on guitar(s). Alberto will be coming to Toronto this spring it seems, and be playing with David Rotundo, who is a singer and harpist who plays with them in Huatulco some years when he goes down for the winter. Actually I just checked, and they’ll be playing 3 dates in Toronto on April, 1st, 4th and 5th. I’ll have to get out to see them, as I was told in Huatulco that Rotundo is something special with a blues harp and that he sings well too.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4241222/tipsy_blowfish_huatulco_oaxaca_mexico/
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4257186/blues_at_the_blowfish/
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4257437/blues_at_the_blowfish_2/
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4266287/blues_at_the_blowfish_3/
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4267717/blues_at_the_tipsy_blowfish_4/
Monday we had decided would be a rest day, and we would just kick back. Swimming, sunning and eating, along with reading were our main activities.
Tuesday we had been booked for a jungle ATV tour. The young woman who booked the tour for us gave us the wrong meeting place and even though I’d checked back, the same wrong place was given. According to other people we talked to, her English is practically useless as she really doesn’t understand much except the common questions and answers which she has memorized and has made mistakes before. The tour company was very good about it and offered us a 3 hour tour that afternoon – we had booked a 6 hour tour – as well as refunding the fee I had paid, so that was about as much a saving grace as we could expect. Unfortunately, Donovan had changed his mind and didn’t want to go.
I decided to take him for lunch to Bocano beach, to the Finca de los Vaqueros restaurant there that I had been to last year. They make the best arrachera (flank steak) grilled over an open fire. It comes with fresh, hot tortillas and a lovely green salad. I had ordered the white bean soup too, as I had loved it last year, and it was just as good this year.
Bocano beach is a lovely spot – too rough for good swimming, but the best spot in the area for boogie boarding. Also, if you go for the mud bath, wear something that won’t be damaged, as the mud does stain as it’s a red clay.
Donovan checking out the beach at Bocano
Here you can get the famed mud bath or buy locally made clothing jewellery and bags.
Finca de los Vaqueros
The hub of the Bocano micropolis
Wednesday was a very full day as we had booked the Outback tour, which takes you to the local herbalist to discover his garden, and of course I had to spend time playing with my old friend, his bird Paco, who is too sweet for words.
Paco. Don't know what kind of bird he is, but he's so cute.
Then we went to the fruit market. Just as we were leaving the herbalist’s, our battery died and we had to wait for a boost to come. That was better than last year when we got a flat tire on the road to the fruit market.
The road is fascinating – many different kinds of fruit and flowers, plus someone who raises peacocks and another place with ostriches.
Part of the herbalist's garden
The school bus local to the fruit market area.
A moocher watching for dropped fruit
Fruit market
Fruit market 2
Next we went on to the beach at San Augustin. There is really good snorkeling there for those who want to go out. I sat on the beach and Donovan swam, getting rolled around by the waves. The food is reasonably good there, though the prices are high. All the places the tours tend to take you have higher prices than a smaller local place, but that’s life on the tour bus, I guess.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4270907/donovan_swimming_at_st_augustin_beach/
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4271031/don_swimming_at_st_augustin_2/
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4271466/sitting_on_the_beach_at_san_augustin/
San Augustin is really a squatter community. The government had taken over the land as part of the eco-preserve, but people who work in the area continue to live there on suffrance and they fish and make restaurants, but someday they will be made to move.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4271686/leaving_san_augustin/
Next the tour took us to a huge empty beach that has a look off where you can see many raptors and other birds. The view of the ocean and the beach is spectacular. The neighbourhood is picturesque and has lots of great photo-ops too.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4275428/at_the_look_off/
Homes near the look-off
View down the coast from the road
Incredible sea view
Interesting birds, but for Thanksgiving, not for birdwatchers
We were pretty tired after our day out hacking around across the countryside, so we had an early evening, watching the jays from the balcony and watching movies on TV.
Jay with the curly feathers on its head screaming goodnight
Thursday came, and we wanted to get our fill of beach, swimming and sun before we had to get on the plane the next day to come back home to the cold. We found a place on the beach where all colours and sizes of fish would swarm around your legs as soon as you went into the water up to your knees. They wanted to be fed and would hang around looking for goodies. They seemed to really favour banana for some reason. I’ve never heard of fish eating banana before, but there you go – something new to learn every day.
http://www.box.net/shared/static/nbidep6vf7.mpg (This is the video of Don and I feeding the fish. It will take a while to download as it’s a bigger file) If that link doesn’t work try copying and pasting this one to download the file: http://www.box.net/shared/nbidep6vf7
That afternoon one of the other guests had told me about finding a snake in their bathroom the night before, and I was telling Donovan about that as we sat on the balcony just before we got ready for supper that night. We thought it must have been pretty scary, and felt very sorry for those people. I went in to get my clean clothes from the closet before I took my shower, and there on the closet floor was a snake, all rolled up in a writhing ball. Scared the liver out of me!!! It unrolled and crawled deeper into the closet to get away from the light, I guess. It was long, but not too fat, so I figured at least it wasn’t going to have a passel of babies in the closet. We called the front desk and they sent a guy up with a broom and dustpan to remove the snake, but it wasn’t very co-operative about getting in, or staying in, the dust pan. Finally he got it out, but I didn’t sleep too well that night, kept dreaming about snakes in my bed. People at Las Brisas had scorpions in their rooms, so I guess I’ll just have to remember to shake out all shoes and clothes just like I did in Africa before getting dressed.
Snake in the closet
Friday dawned bright and sunny, and we took a sad last swim and walk on the beach before leaving for the airport. We sat on our balcony for a while and took a last look at the view, and waved goodbye to the 7th floor swimming pool. We really wished we could stay another week, but work and school made that impossible.
A last longing look off the balcony
Given the many types of long line-ups you have to go through at airports these days, Don and I agreed that the worst part of travelling is the actual travelling. Once you’re there you can have fun until you have to face the aggravation of getting home again.
We had a really nice time though, and got to know each other better. Fun, sun and lots of swimming made this a vacation to remember.
Other stuff . . .
In Friday’s blog post, I mentioned that I would be uploading some video for those who want to download it. Downloads do take some time, so be sure, if you decide to do it, that you have the time.
Here is the link:
http://www.box.net/shared/f1ifsa3dhj
The files are as follows:
328 – Hotel beach
333 – Kate in the pool
335 – View from rooftop pool
337 – View of seven bays
340 – Karaoke performance at “cowboy” restaurant, part 1
341 – ditto, part 2
342 – cart ride from lobby to room (yer not gonna believe this!!)
343 – entertainment at Don Porfirio
346 – local school
352 – waves at deserted beach
Something else I forgot to mention is that you can’t swim in the ocean near the hotels near the full moon. The tidal effects of the moon create a very dangerous undertow. Many of the other more sheltered bays are fine though, and there are plenty of pools.
Horrible life, but somebody's gotta do it . . .
Ditto, eh?
Looking from Hotel lobby towards boulevard
Sea turtles
Small shrine at tiny country roadside sundries store
Another cutie pie
Boneyard 3
"Knob" hill
Better idea of balcony
Can you see the Mayan bird? I think he's called a jay of some type
Side door of La Crucecita church
Great open air restaurant, unfortunately closed until supper time
Small shopping area in either Huatulco or Sta Cruz
Roofing the palapa
Can't remember what these are. Mel?? In brujo's garden
Indi the guide is grinding the corn the old way
Local style cradle
Saturday
Having taken my eldest granddaughter Kate to Huatulco Mexico for a bit of a winter break, I decided to try something new – organised tours.
I’d never done those before, except once over 20 years ago, and in fact hadn’t travelled with anyone for that length of time either. Lots of new experiences on this trip. But what’s life without new experiences, eh?
Kate’s off to Uni next year, and I won’t see much of her for a few years after that, so I wanted to have a bit of face time with her before she left. And since neither of us had been to Mexico before, I decided that the organised tours might be the best way to see lots in the short week we had.
Oh, boy, did we see lots . . . !!
We arrived about noon on Friday and took Saturday to settle in to our little nest. I’d gotten a small suite, since I thought Kate would have to do school work, and wanted to have a table for her to work at. This was the view from our balcony.
And this was our balcony. It was really very large and a lovely place to sit.
Balcony from sliding doors
Huatulco is very mountainous, so the hotels are built up the sides of the mountains. All have fleets of vehicles like 8 person golf carts that whiz you around the grounds, as walking can get tiring when everything is uphill – both ways <(^o^)>
Our hotel was across the boulevard from the beach, so was built up the mountainside even more so than those on the beach side. Our room was on the 8th level, and after we got off the cart we still had to walk down one flight of stairs, along a path and then up 4 flights of stairs to get to our room. I think ours was the most difficult set of rooms to get to, but the beauty of the view made it worth while.
The rooms were clean and quite nice. There was a bedroom with two double beds, a sitting room with a couch and table and chairs, a full bathroom and a small kitchenette – really just a sink, bar fridge and coffeemaker.
View from roof pool
There were three pools, one on the 7th level, called the roof pool, one on the main level and one across at the beach club.
The carts took you across to the beach club for meals and beach activities. There were also two other a la carte restaurants at the hotel where you could make reservations to eat, but we didn’t get the energy to try those.
The carts were circulating fairly regularly, and if you had to get somewhere “right now”, you could always call the front desk and have one sent up to get you, so that aspect didn’t seem to be much of a problem.
After we got settled in, we went off to the small nearby town of La Crucecita. The week was going to be busy, so we wanted to get the souvenir buying out of the way. Kate wanted something for her mom, and I wanted something for my house-sitters – my house had been flooded just before I left and I had to leave a relative in charge of the insurance, clean-up and so on, so figured a token of appreciation wouldn’t go amiss, especially since there was more water damage while I was gone. *sigh*
La Crucecita is a really pretty town, with a typical town square at its heart.
Zocalo (Town Square) de La Crucecita
I had really wanted to see the inside of the local church, which has a hand-painted ceiling which has been deemed a ‘national treasure’, but both times I went to town the church was closed. I did manage to get a couple peeks through the wrought iron airways at the top of the walls, and it sure looked worth seeing.
A glimpse of the church ceiling
In order to find what Kate wanted for her mom, we investigated 3 or 4 jewellery stores in the area, but couldn’t find what she had in mind. We saw a couple other things that might do as a substitute, but decided to go and have lunch and think about it. Kate ordered a shrimp pasta, and I swear those shrimp hadn’t been out of the water more than 10 minutes. I ordered the Mexican version of a Club House sandwich, and it came smothered in avocado! We were both really happy with our lunches!!
Then came the purchasing part. Now I’ve gotta tell you, I am NOT good with this bargaining stuff. Though it is, I’m sure a well choreographed dance among those who do it regularly, I just get mad, frustrated, grumpy and tired. Some jewellery stores in the area have started weighing jewellery and basing the price on the weight, but haven’t figured out that you can price by weight for metals, but you can’t do that for things that are combined metals and stones or wood or ceramic. And of course, when we went back the second time, the prices had mysteriously gone up. I was fit to be tied!!
Anyway, we did get a couple things, saw a bit of a Mexican town that had no Micky D’s or Wal-Marts, had a very pleasant lunch and then off we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
Sunday
Sunday was our first tour. I have to say that the tours here are very long. They seem to always combine several sightseeing destinations into one tour, with the result that you’d be gone for most of the day. I’d have preferred to see some trips of shorter duration and have suggested it, so we’ll see what happens.
Today we went to see the old lighthouse which had been very important to that coast at one time. We also saw a huge iguana sunning himself on the cliff nearby.
Old lighthouse
Then it was off to a beach for a couple hours of snorkelling. Neither Kate or I snorkelled. I had thought she’d want to since she’s an avid swimmer, but that didn’t fly.
After that we went to an organic papaya plantation and saw how they grow. I had no idea that the papayas grow right on the main trunk of the tree, not out on a branch like other fruits.
Papayas - YUM!
Our host served us beans and tortillas with toasted crickets (Yes, I did eat the crickets – they were kind of shredded so no biggie), fruit salad and of course, papaya. It was lovely.
Papaya plantation lunch room
Next, off we went to a local river to do some white-water rafting. With it being the dry season and that particular location, it was only level one rafting which is the slowest/easiest – but that was just fine with me. I was disappointed since they put all our cameras in dry-bags, and when we could have taken them out to get some great pics of families camped and women doing wash in the river, it turned out that my camera was in the other raft!
A-rafting we will go . . .
When we got to where the river ended and the ocean began, we hiked over some dunes to get to the truck and stopped to get coated in clay by some local women. It was fun, and getting it off took days!
Kate the Mudblood (She's a Potter fan, she'll get it)
After trying to rinse off, our guide took us to a local eatery for a “cowboy lunch). Lunch in Mexico seems to be at 3 p.m., so of course we were starving! But boy, that lunch was superb. Probably the best meal I had during our stay. This bean soup that was the best I’ve ever tasted, flank steak done over an open fire, but marinated in something so that you could cut it with a fork, a lovely fresh salad, warm tortillas, and a shot of mezcal for dessert. And as an added treat, the owner (?) and his wife did a karaoke of Mexican songs while we ate. It was a wonderful experience.
Cowboy lunch
Restaurant mascots
Our hostess sings
After lunch, it was a trip back to the hotel, a swim, shower, supper, and fall into bed after the supper show.
I just hope I don’t snore . . .
Monday
Monday was our lazing around day, though not much slothfulness was in evidence.
I had booked a facial and pedicure at the beachside spa, and after that went into town again to get stamps and mail our postcards.
Katie was in the throes of a creative spasm and wrote most of the day, as well as each evening.
La Crucecita church door
Lunch in the palapa by the beach club pool
That night we put on some better duds and went down the street to Don Porfirio’s for supper. I had heard lots of good things about this place. He grills out front and the waiters put on a short musical show.
I’d ordered the grilled prawns, and Katie ordered the steak. Hers was really tasty, she said. Unfortunately, my prawns tasted like beef liver. I’ve never heard of such a thing! And being the Canadian that I am, I just shut up and ate them, and was mad at myself again! They sure looked good though.
Lovely looking liver flavoured prawns
Katie and her steak at Don Porfirio
Don Porfirio has the grill in high gear
The entertainment is all on my video, some of which I may post on BoxNet for those of you who want to see it.
So, that was our Monday – off we went to bed to get ready for a big day Tuesday.
