Holy Hurricane Batman!

 

Well, sad to day, we have had very unsettled weather for the last few days. Saturday was beautiful. We walked the beach to the Decameron and back through the town. The sun was glorious and hot. Sunday, we went to Sayulita for breakfast at the best place in Mexico, a little place called Rollie's (look it up on the net). We were going to go boogie boarding after in the waves but the tide was so high that there was hardly any beach. no problema, we went to the next town, a little place called San Pancho. The beach there was wide and sandy and not too crowded but the waves were very high and somewhat scary for a non swimmer like me! Tim and Dale went in for a bit but the surf drove Dale out-as she "had sand in every orifice"! Then around four it began to spit a bit with rain so we packed it in and drove the long way home through Punta de Mita. 

Monday, we went into Puerto Vallarta for the "tour", meandered along the Malecon and people watched. We stopped at Cheeky Monkey for a bevy (fabulous view) and then carried on to the southside and Los Muertos beach; then it was on through the area where we lived a couple of years ago. We stopped to see Marilu, our landlady back then and it was great to have a quick chat and to introduce her to Tim and Dale. 

Finally, we stopped at Cafe Roma to visit Fox and Juan Carlos. If you remember, that was our hangout and where we met Robin and Sergio. If we had not been going there, and had not met them, we would not have our little piece of paradise here in Bucerias. So, we have a great fondness for this little place.

THEN, Tuesday, Groundhog Day and Candlemas here in Mexico. Remeber, we had planned a pot luck BBQ as a result of the January 6th Kings Day cake. (If you don't remember, scroll down to the post about it.) It rained just about all night and was horrible and wet all day. Actually, this is an understatement. It poured like we have rarely even seen in Victoria. We decided to go ahead with the party under the small palapa anyway and used Greg's gas grill instead of the charcoal we had planned. It was a huge success, even in he rain as we had 45 people there and had a great time. The only people there were Canadians as everyone else found it too cold!

We left to go home around 10PM as it was really getting cold due to the wind picking up. The four of us sat around and were having a nightcap when all hell broke loose! OH MY GOD! The rain and wind were incredible. We heard things banging and crashing around outside and then the thunder and lightening started. The wind was howling and blowing against our windows so hard we could feel them move inwards. It was truly frightening. We pushed a heavy wooden table against the patio doors because we thought there was a possibility that they would shatter. Then the power went out. We were able to see outside with flashlights and candles and when the lightening struck we could see the palm trees almost blowing flat on the ground. My patio umbrella, which was set in granite and concrete in the yard was upended and the patio chairs were everywhere. This went on for about fifteen minutes until it started to die down a bit. In the meantime, we had water pouring in below our patio and living room windows. Poor Dale, seems she gets to be on mop patrol a lot for us. First she had our flood in Victoria and now our leaking windows in Bucerias. 

Eventually, we all went to bed toting flashlights and candles and hoping the power would be restored by morning. It came on at 3am went out again for a few minutes around 8AM and has been on and off all day. 

I was up early and saw the neighbours out surveying the damage. There was a lot. Our beautiful, very old and very large feature mangrove tree, by the large palapa, was uprooted. I was sad as I love that tree. It took all day for the the staff of four gardeners to clean up the mess, using machetes and finally, a chainsaw. 

Other people had their satellite dishes sheared off by flying metal from unknown sources. Paul, our Yorkshire neighbour was one and he was upset as today was a big Leeds football match he was longing to see. Amazing really, as he also had one of his skylights shattered. Oh, and their three teenage grandchildren, 13-16 arrive tomorrow for a week of fun. They will be crazy busy cleaning up and repairing the damage. 

Just about every house had water coming in through the windows. Some had bad leaks in the roofs and others lost plants, trees and pots. We lost our garbage can (shattered) and have a bit of repairable damage to our umbrella base so we consider ourselves very lucky. 

Around mid morning the four of us went into Bucerias for a walk and to see what had happened. There were many uprooted trees, windows shattered, power lines down and palapa roofs lost. Our beach access is almost washed out. We spoke with two ladies from Victoria who are here on vacation for a few weeks. Their building was right on the beach and the upper floors from 4-8 lost patio windoes. They said everyone in the building took shelter in the inner hallways. One fellow had a lot of things sucked right out of his condo-including his laptop.

This weather system is supposed to be here until Friday. It's crazy. This NEVER happens at this time of year. Our administrator, Channy, has lived here all her life and has never seen wind that bad, even when Hurricane Kenna struck in 2003. 

We feel so bad for Tim and Dale. They are amazingly good sports about it but it has to suck, spending all that money on airfare and all that time looking forward to a holiday in paradise, only to experience a hurricane. We heard today that the wind was blowing at 150km at the height of the storm, which is hurricane force. They feel it is only right that it is known as Hurricane McManus! It's the least we can do. One thing is for sure: That was a Groundhog Day we will never forget!

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!