Lazy Days in Melaque

Well, we are having a fine time here on the Mexican coast. We have been getting lots of good beach time and the last few days have been downright hot. We try hard not to complain when we get too hot, as we have sure done our fair share of complaining about all the cold weather and rain. So.....I think we left off in Guayabitos.

We spent one day exploring nearby beaches. No swimming as it was quite cool out, but we found more nice towns where we say, 'Oh, we should have stayed here'. Our last day there was a nice one. One that dad said should 'save me some blog space', as we didn't do anything. Lots of beach time, eating and reading. It was a Saturday, so the beach was suddenly packed...a whole different scene. It didn't stop us from beach lounging though, and mom was feeling better so she was able to swim and enjoy herself as well.

The next day we headed off south. We breezed right through Puerto Vallarta. While we weren't impressed with the highly touristed area of Puerto Vallarta, we were quite impressed with the scenery to the immediate south of the city. Quite stunning jungle mountains that seem to just plunge into the ocean. No wonder it has become so built up....the pretty places often do.

On the way to Puerto Vallarta. Keith has been craving this barbequed chicken. He saw the smoke and said, "pull over, let's see if this is chicken". Sure enough, where there is smoke, there is chicken. A delicious lunch.


Cruisin on south, our intended destination was Melaque, but on a detour to look at a beach, we decided to go ahead and just stay the night there.....and camp! I say that with an exclamation point, because we've been lugging all this camping gear down thousands of miles and continually threaten to camp on Mexico's wild and free beaches, but we have yet to do so. We always have some excuse. Well in this very small place of La Fortuna/Playa Perda(? not sure on the name) we found miles of very accessible beach and several people telling us it is no problem to camp there. We had no excuse. So we camped. It was nice....except for the rouge wave that literally chased mom and me out of the water after thoroughly pummeling us - probably the hardest beating I've ever received from a wave. Otherwise, we had great weather and were serenaded to sleep by a local bad of some type with a very talented drummer.

Proof that we camped.


I have no idea where this was taken, but it is pretty representative of all the streets in all the towns. Give or take a few palm trees depending how close to the coast you are.


The next day we arrived in Melaque which was recommended to us by a friend of my mom's, Joy, who comes here for two months every year. It is a great place. Yes, lots of gringos (mostly Canadians) come here, but it feels even less so than Guayabitos. The town has just a nice, mellow, Mexican feel and everyone is so friendly and happy. We met up with Joy, said hi, then ended up settling into the bungalow across the street from her. A great place with a fabulous pool, a bungalow with two rooms and a kitchen situated just across the street from the beach. The only downfall to this area might be the beach. It is beautiful, but very steep, so not a great walking beach (or as we call it now, Gringo Marching beach - because in Guaybitos every morning there was a parade of gringos walking up and down the beach at a fast clip that dad called marching) and the waves are a bit intimidating to those of us that are now gunshy. The northern most end is quite calm, and appropriately called 'Chicken Beach' - Keith has had fun with that one.

Keith body surfing in Melaque. This is not Chicken Beach.


At any rate, we have spent three sun filled relaxing days here. Snorkeling at a nearby beach one day and who knows what we've done the last two. More of the same, so it's no use recounting here. I did get back on the proverbial horse and tackled the big waves today as did mom. They really aren't so bad because they crash so close to shore it is easy to get out beyond them. So between playing in the surf, cooling off in the pool, eating and riding bikes around, we have successfully killed three days and now will turn back north and start working our way home saying goodbye to the beaches.

Pictures from Melaque:

Our pool in Melaque. It is cooler than the ocean, but it feels great.


The northern most end of the Melaque bay.


One of the things dad likes to do best on the beaches. This is a beach just north of Melaque that mom and dad explored tonight for sunset.


After a sunset swim.


Look at all the gringos snorkeling! (I'm not talking bad about gringos, obviously we are one of them, it is just fun to make fun of us all cause we're all doing the same things everywhere we turn!) Surprisingly good snorkeling here. Not of Thailand caliber, but better than I expected.

Swimming With Pelicans

I think we have angered the travel gods. Maybe Keith and I have overstayed our welcome in the land of the aimless travelers. The latest travel woes include more rain, Moctezuma paid me a little visit, then dad, then mom´s back went out and now she is laid up in bed with a 102 degree fever on the first sunny and clear day we´ve had!

But I will stay positive. We have found a very nice beach town called Rincon de Guayabitos that we have decided to stay put in for about a week. It about one hour north of Puerto Vallarta and filled with its share of gringos, but not obnoxiously so. There is a nice mix of Canadian/American travelers with Mexican vacationers. The main form of accommodation here is bungalows, which really means bigger rooms with kitchenettes. There aren´t any high rise hotels (yet) and it sits on a really nice sandy cove with some halfway decent body surfing waves.

Our first nights we stayed in one of the most "unique" places yet. We stumbled onto it when we first rolled into town and we couldn´t believe that we were getting a oceanfront room (two of them) for only 150 pesos each. That is less than $15 per room. We´re talking Asia pricing here! Granted it wasn´t the fanciest place we´d been in and had a bit of a stark, cold, on the verge of dirty feeling, but a huge room with an oceanfront view? We almost negotiated a week rate with her, but mom and I had a gut feeling that maybe we shouldn´t jump the gun. Later that night the water stopped running, and they said they couldn´t get to it until tomorrow. So Keith diligently ran up the two flights with multiple buckets of water for the all important activity of flushing. Too much information. The next day, we got the full story. This woman had just got back from California the day before after renting this place out to a family for the past year or so. Clearly she wasn´t ready for guests yet. We did stay there another night as it was a good view and rate and they got the water running. But then the water went out again the second night and no one was there to ask about it. More buckets. In the morning she showed us the breaker switch we could have flipped to turn it back on - a little late with the information! The day we left, there were for sale signs on the place.

The view from Hotel Marlennes.


We have since moved further down the beach and closer to town to a much nicer place with a full kitchen and another great oceanside view. We´ve been in this room for two days and will stay at least two more. Yesterday we had a sunny first half of the day and went in the car back north a bit to a more secluded beach. Well, secluded isn´t the right word...less crowded would be more appropriate. It was very nice and we had our first swim. With the pelicans. There are so many pelicans around here! At this beach they were all around us dive bombing for fish constantly. Quite a sight.

Watching the pelicans at Playa Chalaca.


Today with mom not feeling well and the sun and sand at our doorstep, we just had a beach bum kind of day. Lots of body surfing, reading and mosying around town. Not a bad life.

The view from our current hotel - Jacqueline.


Dad waiting for the perfect wave. Wait? Was that it?


Some more pictures from around town here.
A very colorful bungalow.


Anybody want to buy an inflatable toy? I think I know where I can find one.


One of the ways we amuse ourselves as we make our way from one city to another. Here we are throwing rocks in a rock quarry. It wasn´t listed in the guidebook as a popular activity in the area, but we gave it a go anyway.


There is a group of these guys that descend in front of our hotel each morning waiting for the fish heads that the beach vendor diligently throws out for them.

Getting Warmer....

We have finally made it to some warmer weather. We have put some shorts on, but haven´t made it into the water yet. We did enjoy our time in Alamos. A very interesting town - unlike any we have seen. From Alamos, we planned to push straight on through to Mazatlan, but came up just short. Driving in Mexico can be quite spendy as they have many toll booths along the main highways. Up until now, this toll road (that you don´t really have any choice but to take) hasn´t been the highest quality road for what you have to spend on it. Nice pavement, but literally no shoulders and some less than sane drivers. But at least it had four lanes. Coming out of Alamos we now had the option to continue on the toll road or take the "libre" (free) highway. We had heard the free road was also more scenic, so we took that.

It was more scenic for sure and it takes you directly through more small towns, so we had a few more cultural (i.e. cheap and authentically local eats) experiences. However, the traveling is a bit slower as it is only a two lane road and the truck drivers seem even less sane here. A bit of white knuckle driving, but lots of nice amapa trees to look at (a hardwood tree with beautiful purple blooming flowers). About 100 km north of Mazatlan, it was coming on night, so we pulled into a random hotel in a very small village (a quite large hotel for the size of the village....a bit strange) and settled in for the night. The surrounding scenery was lovely and as we were the only ones staying, it was a very peaceful stay. The further south we move, the more interesting and pretty the scenery gets. It is becoming more lush and more mountainous.

On our way out the next day we saw a road to the left to a town mom had briefly read about and decided last minute to drive up and check it out. A very scenic drive with lots of views of lakes and more dramatic mountains and a few military drug checks. The town, Cosala, is another old colonial town with nice buildings and cobblestone streets. We walked around in the rain for a while, had a very nice lunch practically in a woman´s kitchen, then headed back down, arriving in Mazatlan by dusk.

On the way up to Cosala.


Our first major gringo area, but we wanted to keep with our low-budget theme and so we did not stay on hotel row, but instead in "Old Mazatlan" where we found a pretty decent place at by far the cheapest rates yet. There was one old gringo we met there that has been coming to this hotel (Hotel Lerma) for about 20 years now! A real basic place, but in the heart of the "real" Mazatlan. We spent two nights there and spent our time riding bikes up along the strip, walking through the mercado, and walking around the true "Old Mazatlan" where the historical colonial buildings have been restored a bit. It was nice to stay put for a couple nights and the city was beginning to grow on us, but my folks have been to Mazatlan before so we pushed on today.

Hanging out in Cosala.


We are now north of Puerto Vallarta in a small beach town called San Blas. It is much warmer here and it has a long flat beach that at some times of the year apparently has the longest surfing wave in the world (I feel like I heard that claim somewhere in South Africa...). We got here kind of late, but found a cute hotel that has a communal kitchen, so for the first time in a while we cooked our own dinner. We will probably push a little bit further south tomorrow to try and find some more remote beaches, and maybe even do some Mexican beach camping.

I saw these guys in the main square today here in San Blas, and just had to take their picture. So I told them how handsome they were and asked if I could take their photo. They agreed.


I am finding that my Spanish isn´t half bad. Granted, I can´t understand overheard conversations, but when I have a very specific conversation directed right at me, I think I get about 50% of the words and 85% of the meaning. Everyone else is trying very hard to learn as well, and I am impressed at their efforts. Dad seems to be the most gung-ho, or at least the least shy about trying. He will work very hard to learn a word, and while it may take many repetitions to get it right, he doesn´t give up. A funny story - we were sitting at a very local taqueria eating tacos and the waitress gal came up to dad and said (in English), "Do you speak English?". Everyone´s first reaction when anyone local speaks to them is to turn to me immediately to see what they said. So, dad immediately looked to me in panic with that look on his face that says, "What did she say??!!". I calmly say, "She´s asking you in English, whether you speak English". We all got a kick out of that.

An old shot. Keith and Dad literally wormed their way into this mine somewhere in the middle of Joshua Tree.


Another shot from earlier. A very old door at the hacienda in Alamos.

Finally in Mexico....and It Is Cold!

Mexico is a good place to come in the winter, right? Because it is so nice and warm here? Well, not if there is a major cold front encompassing the entire continent! Yep, it has gotten us down here as well. While we were in Tucson, we had record colds (in the teens) and since we have been in Mexico, we have yet to put on a pair of shorts.

But I guess I should back up.
From LA, we cruised east to Joshua Tree National Park. A climbers mecca and a very cool place. We got there late in the day and intended to camp, but we all wimped out from the quite brisk and fierce wind that was whipping through. We scrambled around on the rocks until dark, then found a hotel back in town. The next day was devoted to just exploring and driving through the park. We did a nice walk up to the top of a mountain, had lunch and did some bouldering, Keith and Dad explored a mine, and then took the scenic road out of the south part of the park. Meanwhile I had developed a fierce cold and by the end of the day even had a low-grade fever. By this time we were in Blythe, California, just on the border with Arizona.

Dad and I on our dusk rock scramble.


The coolest Joshua tree.


I was feeling somewhat better the next day in that my fever was gone, but now I had somehow managed to throw my back out! What a damper I was becoming on this crowd. So instead of rushing right down into Mexico, we stopped in Tucson, found a reasonable hotel, and I spent a day just hanging out in the room while the rest explored one of the canyons in the area. Feeling better with each new day, we then realized that it was the weekend, and before crossing the border, we wanted to purchase the Mexican car insurance that everyone so highly recommends. None of the offices (the reputable ones that is) were open until Monday, so we had two more days of kickin around Tucson, which is really quite a nice place. A bit on the cold side for us (a freak storm, we know), but it was nice nonetheless.

A short walk at one of the state parks nearby to our hotel in Tucson. Lots of saguaro cacti and nice mountain scenery.


Finally, on Monday we crossed the border. It is very easy to drive into Mexico, but the lines going the other direction indicate that coming back into the States might be a more time consuming affair. Nevertheless, with our premium car insurance in hand we cruised across the border and on down to "Kilometer 21" where you do all the paperwork. Not a very well set up border post, and the people could have been friendlier, but with my choppy Spanish we got through it and are legal as we can tell.

There is not a lot to see in the northern part of the country, so that first day we just went for miles and pushed to a large city called Hermosillo. The advantages of having your own car are obvious - you can go where you want when you want. One of the big disadvatages is that you cannot necessarily park wherever you want. So, while Hermosillo had a lively and bustling downtown, we could not stay at the quaint hotel we found downtown as we did not want to park on the street overnight. Oh well, we found something outside of town, but not for very cheap. We are learning quickly that Mexico (this part anyway) is not all that much cheaper than the US. We paid $50 for a middle of the road hotel and were woken at midnight to the recycle truck coming to empty the dumpster followed by lots of shoveling of concrete (do you know how loud the sound of shoveling concrete is?). We all got a little grumpy - mostly because of the poor value for our money.

So, on south we went the next day, stopping in San Carlos, which is quickly becoming the next resort destination for those coming in from Arizona. It sits right on the Sea of Cortez and has some very nice surrounding scenery. We drove out to a beach for lunch, and it was cold, so we ate and ran. The Highway 15 that runs south to Mazatlan is a toll road and in fairly good condition. It moves along real fast, but there are literally NO shoulders, so you do not really feel like driving all that fast. We saw one caravan of gringos that passed us at high speeds and with trailers full of toys later on down the road with their toys (ATVs and the like) spread out everywhere...they must have lost control and become disconnected from their trailer. Yikes. We bypassed one of the toll booths for fun and to see some of the more local roads, but it ended up adding way too much time (we are all quickly growing weary of the Explorer!)

Here we are. A Motley crew.


It was a lot of hours in the car yesterday, but we eventually got to our current detination of Alamos just at dusk last night. Alamos is a small town of 8,000 and is itself a national monument. It is an old silver mining town and has many Spanish colonial buildings that many rich gringos have purchased and restored, turning them into either their private winter homes or very cool hotels. We stumbled into being able to stay at one such place at a much reduced rate. When we arrived in town last night, all the budget options were full (and not so budget) and everything else was way overpriced (there is a big music festival starting tomorrow and it is high season). Our only budget option was 500 pesos (about $50) and a dump. Debating our options, I stopped a passing gringo to see where we could camp, and he ended up being the owner of one of these haciendas and invited us to stay at a reduced rate as he could see we were frustrated and lost (and he had rooms to spare). It is such a beautiful place. These homes look like nothing but cement walls from the outside, but when you step inside, you are in a lush courtyard with deluxe, refurbished rooms surrounding it. So we took his offer and settled in for a cool, but comfortable nights sleep.

Here is our 'hotel'. This is a look at the inside courtyard. Our room is just off to the right. As our host tells it, this house was one of the first buildings in the city and used to be the original fort and then government seat. The city was settled in 1693 or so. That makes this building about 300 years old!


Today we are taking a day off of driving and just looking around the town and at the various buildings and will stay one more night and leave just before the throngs really arrive for this festival starting tomorrow.

And, by being delinquint and traveling, I have missed the birth of yet another of my friends' babies! Welcome to the world Baby Jordan! Congrats Andrea and Jason!

Travel Plans and Wedding Fun

Things have not necessarily been going as planned (with our travel plans, not my brother's wedding!). After spending so much time working on the VW bus, we got it "purring like kitten", but were never able to get it to pass emissions, and no emissions, no title/registration, no registration, no crossing the border. It was a frustrating last couple of days running back and forth between a VW repair shop (with a not-so-nice owner) and the emissions office (with a very nice and accommodating "Kentucky honey"). Lots of tries, but eventually time and options ran out so we called it quits and went for a nice long walk up into a nearby canyon and did a little work for Paul in the master bedroom he is remodeling. In between working on the car, we celebrated Paul's birthday, Keith's birthday, New Year's, and a crazy night out of bowling (where the girls dominated, thank you very much). Three days before the wedding we loaded up our Honda and headed southwest so we'd be at the wedding in time, sadly leaving the VW behind. Our plans were now completely open.....Central America, South America, Mexico, the SW USA, or just go on back home? How to decide.

On the way up Willard Canyon - about 10 miles north of Paul's house.


The whole group at the turnaround point:


A frozen waterfall.


We stopped overnight in Las Vegas as neither Keith nor I had ever seen the city. It is quite a place. We stayed in a hotel slightly off the strip and spent the evening walking up and down the strip marveling at it all. The only place we could find to rest our feet for a while was in front of a slot machine, so of course we threw a dollar in. Mine was some kind of Keno game, and on the first try I won $27! We are in a state where every dollar counts, so we took our winnings and walked away.

We hit the autobahns of LA the next day. I know everyone says it, but it is so true....the drivers here are absolutely crazy. You can be cruising along at 80 mph and be the slowest one on the road. Blinkers to change lanes? Not necessary, just find a pocket and go. Keith is adapting to this style of driving much better than I am.

We spent the day before the wedding doing some sight seeing before rushing off to the rehearsal dinner. The next day was all about the wedding. And a beautiful wedding it was. A perfect, sunny, southern California day, a stunning couple, amazing food, and some of the most beautiful wedding vows I've ever heard (they wrote their own). Lots of dancing and well wishing and then the couple was off to Kauai and we (Keith and I, mom and dad, and Aunt Irene) moved from our luxurious Hampton Inn back to the Hollywood area for more sight seeing and trip planning.

Everything was so beautiful.


Mom, Dad, Paul and his girlfriend, Heidi, who we had SO much fun getting to know!


Picture perfect.


We finally decided today our next plan of action. It's not much of a plan, but it'll get us through the next two weeks or so. We will leave our car here in LA, jump in the back of mom and dad's Explorer and hitch a ride with them down into Mexico. We'll travel with them for as far south as they are going, then move on to somewhere else from there be it more travel through Mexico on our own via public transport or maybe a flight to points further south. We'll see.

And that's it for now. We'll say goodbye to my aunt tomorrow, then head east and eventually south of the border!