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Cocos Helados
Road side stand selling cold coconuts for 10 pesos. His name is Jesus but the tacos are definately not fom heaven. I am still paying for the habanero salsa I heaped on in drunken delight...
It's been a busy couple of weeks "waiting" for Brady and Mel. (Happy last day of work kids - we'll see you next week!) Sayulita has turned out to be the perfect place to spend a month. The surf has been small but clean - we are usually in the water 2 or 3 times a day to escape the heat. Jesse and I have both gotten some great rides although it can get a little dangerous. One wave I rode in to the beach and it doubled up and slammed my board into the sand. It ended up breaking the nose off my board and cost me $25 to fix. I have already seen 2 near-drownings, both were mid-20's male mexican tourists caught in a cross current that happens here every high tide. The first one was panicking and screaming - i paddled over to him, and got off my board to share it with him. He grabbed on and I told him to stand up - it turned out he was in
Chinos Paradise
Chinos is a small resturant about 10min south of Puerto Vallarta. about 4 feet of water. The second one all I saw was the guys arms above the water - his girlfriend was screaming for help and an american tourist paddled over to help him out. The only other danger i've seen here other than the reef is jellyfish. A friend of ours Johan was stung last week on the neck and hands - he was in some serious pain and said his heart was beating like crazy - jellyfish kill their prey with a neurotoxin that causes heart attacks in small fish. His girlfriend got him some kind of ointment from the pharmacy that didn't seem to help and he was better the next day.
It is still hot and dry here but you can feel the humidity start to climb as the rainy season approaches. Maggie spends most of the day in the shade under the camper - Jesse has started to add ice cubes to her water bowl. Can't wait to feel the 38-degree-95%-humidity of the Yucatan this summer. We have driven the 30min to Puerto Vallarta a couple times a week to tour around with friends and hit the markets. They have much better produce there
and the air conditioned ride doesn't hurt. Diesel costs about half of what it does in Canada and the exchange rate is at an all time high of 10 to 1 right now - so it has been pretty cheap to explore new areas.
We spent a few days in Guadalajara last week and it blew away our low expectations. The plazas and museums are incredible. The city dates back to 1530 and is now Mexico's 2nd largest - but it has the feel of a small bohemian town with lots of artisan markets and free entertainment in the squares. The Instituto Cultural Cabanas was built as a 19th century shelter for the city's orphans and is now a museum for various collections. The architecture is amazing and you can picture the halls and cathedral busy with orphans in the 1800's. The drive from Sayulita to Guadalajara took about 3 hrs with the toll roads. After a look at the map we decided to take a shorter, direct route back to Puerto Vallarta through Ameca. We arrived 7 hours, 2 crazy mountain passes and 1 river crossing later.
Sayulita is a standard surf village - a lot of
surf shops, gringos and weed - people pretty much smoke in the streets. This morning on the beach I ran into John, a french-canadian guy that we have been surfing with a couple of times over the past week. He was at the bar last night and one of his friends gave him a couple of buds that he couldn't take with him back to the states. On his way back to the campsite he was stopped by the Policia. It was 1 am, he was alone and didn't speak a word of spanish. The policeman was smiling and talking about the
chicas and I guess he clued into Johns sketchy nervousness - John is pretty straight and rarely smokes pot. Upon finding the 2 joints worth of bud, the policeman began talking crazy and John caught a few words like
estacion de policia and
prision. After a few stressful minutes of not understanding what was supposed to happen next - the policeman took Johns wallet off the hood of the police truck, took out all the cash except $5 (about $80 US) and told John to have a nice night. Better than a mexican jail I guess...
I
Cinco de Mayo
Jesse and I at the Barcelona resturant in Puerto Vallarta for Cinquo de Mayo. posted way too many photos this time - I am now using a photo resizer to speed up the uploads.
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Johan and Marie
non-member comment
losing it
24hr part people! Just got back to work here in the beautiful Island City of Montreal! Who brought the camera to the beach? I thought we said no traces.....Jesse and Dave, you guys rock! We had an awesome time hanging out and we want to wish you guys a safe trip down south and we look forward to seeing you on the Island later this year perhaps. I did find the blog I started and we will add some new picks soon. http://spaces.msn.com/johanandmarie/ Ciao!!