A Post for Alan!

 

  

 

Hola Alan!!!!!!!!!
The eagles have landed. I promised to post as soon as Tim and Dale arrived and this is pretty darn good seeing they have only been here just two  hours. We met them at the airport, road rockets in the cooler in the car just so they would have a good first impression of Margaritaville! Anyway, here are a few pictures (they are in the background of the first one) and I am sure there will be plenty more to come. Stay tuned!

Fiesta Patronales -Nuestra Senora de la Paz

  

 

 

 

 

 

The Patron Saint of Bucerias Our Lady of Peace Festival was January 24. Here in Mexico every city, town and village has a patron saint and the feast day is celebrated for the week preceding it. It is always wild here during the festival. At the beginning of the week there are very loud firecrackers and loud gunshot noises that start early in the morning-all week long. And I mean early-like 5am! Some of them sound like bombs! We were away for most of it this year but on Sunday we were home and decided to walk into town in the afternoon to see all the festivities. There is always a carnival in town during this week and they close two of the main streets to traffic to set up the rides. It's almost impossible to drive through the town so it's much better to walk. For us it's only about ten minutes so we always walk anyway. Sunday is also the Blessing of the Fleet day-which I wrote about last year. Just before we arrived there was a parade where many of the people and young children ride horses.

The town square was filled with people-lots of vendors and food stalls and even liquor stalls-I guess the Mexican version of a beer garden. One food stall was mobbed by people because they were giving out free plates of tiny tacos filled with vegetables. Every night in the square there is free entertainment on the large temporary stage and the first and final night there are fireworks.

Road Trip! Part Three

 

Friday morning we were on our way by 7AM. There was really nothing more to see or do in San Juan de Alima. We decided to drive northeast, back into Colima to visit the city of Colima. It is very well known for it's volcano and colonial city. The volano erupted in 2005 and is the most active in central America. The city reminded us completely of Merida, the beautiful capital city of Yucatan state. In fact, the town centre looked exactly like it, even the placement of the tourist office was right where we thought it would be! I've included a photo of the front of the Best Western Hotel, which was beautiful-but the back of the building looked like an earthquake had hit it (and it probably did). We spent the morning there and shopped a little. I bought a little pre Columbian reproduction statue that I just fell in love with-will probably take it back to Victoria.

After Colima, we drove back to Manzanillo and had lunch at a perfect little spot on the Malacon. Great food and the view was to die for. We were on a small enbankment overlooking the beach to the north and south. Manzanillo seems to be much less commercialized than PV. There were little shops and vendors but no one bothered us or hollered for us to "come in amiga"!

Finally we headed back to Melaque for our final night. On the way, we took a detour into Isla de Navidad, where the Grand Bay resort is located. It was a lot like Nuevo Vallarta. The place is huge and manicured and doesn't look at all Mexican-but much like Florida or California or Hawaii. We stopped and took a couple of great shots of Barra de Navidad way down below us. It's on the same bay as Melaque, just a couple of kilometers away. It's a very pretty little Mexican town too.

Once in Melaque we stayed in a different hotel this time, much nicer and the rooms were more efficient. We met a guy from Calgary who stays at this hotel for three months every winter. He suggested a few places for dinner and his advice was excellent. We went to a little place not far from the hotel and had an awesome meal. I had ribs which were fabulous and way too much to finish. Gail had chicken with mushrooms and cream sauce that she loved as well.

Saturday morning we had to reluctantly leave. The hotel was booked solid for the rest of the weekend. On the way home we stopped at a little beach town called La Manzanilla (not to be confused with Manzanillo). Maureen's sister Bonnie had told us to stop there. We had missed it on the way down but had plenty of time to stop on the way back.

I think it was our favourite spot on the whole trip! The beach was gorgeous. The waves were small and gentle and the water was bathtub warm. The prettiest thing was the sand because when the waves washed over it with the sun sparkling it looked like there were little flecks of gold in it. I wanted to scoop a pail of it to take home with me, but had nothing to carry it in! (I have a new little side table that has a wood bottom and a few inches higher, a glass top. I want to put sand and seashells in it.)

So, that was our first real exploring trip down here. We had a wonderful few days and will go back to Melaque and La Manzanilla for sure next year!

Road Trip! Part Two

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent Wednesday night in Melaque and then early the next morning left to head south toward Manzanillo, about 60 minutes away. It's a big port city and I was expecting it to be like Mazatlan but it seemed much cleaner and prettier. We drove by the port and it was huge. There were thousands of containers being loaded and unloaded onto rail cars. We stopped by the area where the fishermen dock and it was lovely, with lots of sculptures on the walkway.

After Manzanillo, we continued south through the state of Colima and into the next state of Michoacan. Our furniture builder, Juan, had told us to be sure to visit his favorite little town of San Juan de Alima because of it's fantastic beach. He was right, the beach was fantastic. There were huge rolling waves and breakers. Unfortunately, the town was not! It was tiny and the hotels were very basic. The biggest problem was dinner. There were only a few restaurants in town, they served nothing but seafood and shrimp (not a problem for us as we love it) and stopped serving at 6pm!!!!!  We found this amazing because most Mexican's eat much later than this. We made the best of it however and think it really was worthwhile going there because of the beach and the fabulous sunset that night. The town is situated more due west so the sun sank right into the ocean. Beautiful!

Part three to come!

Road Trip! Part One

 

 

We decided it was time to take a road trip south so on Wednesday morning we packed the cooler and two backpacks and headed down the highway. It took us about an hour to get through Puerto Vallarta and the areas just south. Our plan was to go to Melaque and Barra de Navidad, two small towns quite close to each other about three or so hours south of PV.

We were amazed at the different terrain we saw. There are so many banana and coconut and papaya plantations! I had to pull over to take a photo of the papayas. We literally drove for miles and miles and saw nothing but fields of bananas or groves of coconut palm trees. It was so green and lush and tropical.

Last week, our neighbour Maureen's sister Bonnie, who lives in winter in Melaque, was visiting so we picked her brain on what to see. She was a great help and suggested lots of lovely little beaches and towns to visit. Some were very remote and reminded us of Long Beach in Tofino. Our favourite was Tenacatite, just a gorgeous tiny beach town about 30 minutes outside Melaque. We stopped for lunch at a little beach restaurant and had a great meal. Then we headed into Melaque to stay for the night. Our hotel was right on the beach, where we sat until sunset. Melaque is a very popular and quaint little Mexican town and we just fell in love with it. We will be back next year for sure! More to follow.....

More Outside Photos

Our friend Marg in Victoria wants me to post more outside photos. Here are some I took this morning. There are a few taken from our patio looking toward the small pool, which has a small view of the ocean beyond. There are some of the main palapa and infinity pool-which has a fabulous view of Banderas Bay. This morning I caught a shot of a cruise ship entering the bay and looked up the cruise schedule just now. It's the Sapphire Princess as it's the only ship coming into port today. There is a photo of Gail in the garden area outside our back door. Our house is over her right shoulder where the brown umbrella is open. The final ones are taken from the master bedroom window and  balcony. Enjoy!