Last Day - Tuesday February 28, 2012

Tomorrow we fly back to the cold north so this will be the last blog entry.  Thanks for following along and we hope you learned something about Mexico because we sure did!

The last symbiotic relationship

The last garbage pickup

Veronica + Julie making an educational difference in San Pancho with their own school

The last coboss

The last adventure

The last architecture study

The last giant tree

The last walk in a park

The Last smoothie

The Last sunset

The Last Supper

We decided to take a walk in the jungle one last time to find Luis, the biologist’s house, and see what we could see.  We saw the biggest higuera blanco tree strangling a giant palm right in front of Luis’ house.  It was spectacular!

Stop number two was at the EntreAmigos library where we emailed the manager of La Patrona about the mix up at the polo match;  wished Axel happy birthday; watched the volunteers paint rocks for the fundraiser in March;  wrote a letter to Nicole (founder of E.A.); and sent yesterday’s blog off into cyber space.

Our next stop was the beach.  On our way, we saw the giant tree covered in circular wreath-like orangy red flowers once again.  We asked the local real estate man by the name of Jordi, if he could identify the tree.  He had no idea but he invited us into his office and after a 45 minute chat, we knew more about San Pancho and the Mexican education system.  He invited us to the local Montessori school where his wife Julie is the principal.  

We found the private school with its 48 students from kindergarten to grade 6.  It was started by a group of locals who knew that the education in the public system was not very good.   We talked with Julie and Veronica about their facility and their programmes and decided to help them with some resources from Canada.  They identified the tree as a flamboyant tree.

Jordi, the realtor, had told us about the property behind his office, which use to be a “Sea Museum” 40 years ago, but is now a pasture for sheep and horses.  The ruins and trees on the property were spectacular!  We stopped there on our way to the beach.  It is an amazing secret hideout in the small village of San Pancho.  Maybe the local people some day will realize that they have another gem in their midst.  

Finally, we made it to the beach.  It was sunny and warm once again so we sat in the shade awhile and then Rob and Sue walked to the cove and waded in the water, while Milla rested at our favourite log.  We returned back to our casa to get freshened up for supper.  

We decided to return to our favourite two restaurants in town. We first got delicious smoothies from Vieque’s “Verde” cafe to sip at the beach while we watched the sunset for the last time.  Sergio’s lasagna beckoned us at Dolce Amore so we stopped in there to feast on his multiple cheese lasagna and his jumbo very fresh green salad.  His berry water washed it all down.  His food alone was worth the trip to Mexico.

Well, all 3 of us waddled back up the street in the dark for our last sleep at casa Tequila.  We will visit EntreAmigos in the morning to post this final blog entry and then our friend, Domingo, will pick us up at noon and drive us to the airport in his shiny white Nissan cab, with the dent in the back.

Tonight we will be dreaming of our wonderful learning and relaxing experiences we had here in San Pancho Mexico, officially known as San Francisco on the Emerald coast.

Special edition on Tuesday Feb. 28, 2012

The People We Met in San Pancho Mexico

San Pancho People

1. Erik - jaguar scientist
2. Alejandro - orchid sanctuary owner
3. Virgilio - jag man who hugs jags
4. Sandra + baby - partner of Memo the taxi driver
5. Camilla + Bill - birders from Oregon
6. Jose - Mexican who walked from Sayulita and met us at the cove
7. Carol - lawyer who drove Milla and Sue to whale watching
8. Nicole - founder of EntreAmigos
9. Axel - makes bread at E. A. and owner of Refugio de Sol b+b
10. Vieque - artist +veggie cafe owner
11. Shoshana - Margaret Barr lookalike
12. Kim and Chris King - real estate "San Pancho Life" owners
13. Lupita - hairdresser
14. Moy - fruit and veggie truck driver
15. Earl - owner of Roberto's Bungalows
16. Vicky and Bob Farmer - owner of Casa Tequila
17. Walter - architect living next to Villa Paradise
18. Oliver - whale watcher with bad arm
19. Lourdes - housekeeper
20. Dr. Antonio Gonzales - osteopath in Tonderoque
21. Luis - biologist birder who took us on 2 tours
22. Frank - estate owner
23. Frank - turtle man
24. Alex - parrot man
25. Murco - sold us bracelets off his umbrella
26. Juan - healer across the street
27. Camilla - pizza artist from E. A.
28. Sergio - lasagna maker at Dolce Amore
29. Kurtis and Cele - people across the street who lent us baking soda
30. Daniel - chauffeur who picked us up from the airport
31. Karen - kite lady - sanpanchoaire@gmail.com
32. Diane - owner of Cafe Arte -  met at Zumba
33. Maria - owner of Marias
34. Mary - owner of Super Mary’s
35. Betty and Victoria - met on beach at cove and lived in blue arch house

Monday February 27, 2012

Another great day began at the Entre Amigos where Robert met Diane, the owner of the Cafe Arte, who gave Robert the history of Entre Amigos.  Through Diane who acted as a translator for Robert, and the Zumba teacher, Robert got information on new moves for Zumba.  He also got the history of Axel’s life, who bakes at the Cafe, and also runs a bed and breakfast across the street.  Milla talked to several people who volunteer at Entre Amigos, while Sue surfed the net.  Then we wandered off to the' Sweet Sisters Cafe' and bought two slices of cake to share.  Leftover lunch was then served by Sue.  After lunch we headed to a sunny and warm beach where Robert worked on his illustrations for his children’s book, while Milla and Sue read and baked in the sun.  While there, Sue found a heart shaped rock for Betty.  

At about 3 o’clock we came home from the beach and passed our favourite empty lot filled with garbage and a very red rooster.  He must be the bird who wakes us up every morning at 5:30 a.m.  The biologist said that roosters crow because of temperature changes.  

Sue cooked everything in the fridge to get rid of it.   Milla relaxed, and Robert went to email Bob Farmer about' leaving procedures' on Wednesday.   We ate leftover lunch and everyone shared the cake. Robert, who found dozens and dozens of shells down at the cove,  sorted them out into those to trash, and those to take on the plane.  Many discussions about what to keep was held between Sue and Robert, as they already have shells at home in their garden.  Milla and Robert decided to feed the horse next door.   Unfortunately, the horse’s rope  was very tangled around a tree.  Milla felt sorry for it, and decided to untangle the horse who willingly went with her.

After dinner, we were on a search to find Dominigo, the taxi driver who apparently lives by the hospital,  Bob Farmer, our landlord, and Frank the turtle man.  We were not successful in finding any of these people.   We were successful though, in finding a lot of Mexican men building a new cobblestone road.  We walked through a very wealthy area, and found the beach where we came upon a camping area.  Robert found an 'aqua' watch under a log.  It actually worked.   Waiting for the sun to set, we saw 3 boys doing acrobats, a cowboy on a horse, a man kayaking, and ATV’s.   The sunset fired up the sky with its golden colours as usual, around 7:20 p.m..   We headed back to casa Tequila straight up Av. Tercer Mundo as usual.  That is the main street.

Before we turned in for our second to last sleep, we wrote a letter about the awful service we received at Saturday night’s polo game.  La Patrona is the polo park, and the restaurant’s service that night was quite unacceptable, so we want them to know it.  La Patrona is world famous!!  The polo matches were great, but not the food or the service.

Tomorrow we are hoping for a nice day so we can spend it on the beach.     

Mexicans love their chihuahuas.

These culprits wake us up early every morning

Milla says 'adios' to her new friend.

building cobblestone roads in San Pancho

Robert admires the fig tree.

 acrobat boys

2nd last sunset

Sunday February 26, 2012

Everyone woke up to sunny skies. After a hearty breakfast of poached eggs and porridge, we accompanied Kathy and Bill to the bus stop for their return to Bucerias.

Their plan was to attend the market in La Cruz,  while we decided to walk to the north end of the beach.  We bumped into Recia along the way,,,,no Libby in sight ,as she had injured her foot on the birding adventure yesterday.  We continued our walk to the end of the beach where we took some stunning shots of the pounding surf!

After lunch, the three of us hiked to the south cove to swim and search for treasures.

Sue dug under the beach stones and found several shells for Rob’s collection. It’s going to be tough to select the most beautiful shells to bring back to Canada...we have about 20 pounds of shells to sort and select the best, or our luggage is going to be over the limit weight wise.

Robert made a delicious vegetable stew for supper ,using the fresh produce we bought from our buddy Moy, who drives his truck up and down Av. Tercer Mundo everyday selling fresh veggies and fruit.

We returned to the beach for the 3rd time today, to witness the sunset and possibly the turtle release.  Unfortunately Frank the ‘turtle man’, didn’t show up so I guess the eggs haven’t hatched...maybe tomorrow evening!

The beach was buzzing with activity though....soccer games, A.T.V. brigade, live music and dancing, miniature horse rides, kayaking, surfing, fishing , cooking over open fires,

kids feeding the seagulls, dogs chasing birds, kite flying,  ultraliting and sunset viewing.  Every Sunday is family day here in Mexico, so lots of locals come down to the water to spend time together.

On our way back to Casa Tequila to bake oatmeal cookies, we stopped briefly at the San Pancho Music Festival held in the park. Tonight it wraps up it’s 3 day event with a ukelele player from Tepic who sang off key, and a band called ‘Sons of the Beach‘ (clever name).  Three more sleeps...we can hardly wait to return to the snow and the freezing temperatures!   

Milla at north end of San Pancho beach

Rob looking for the whale that slapped the man on the head yesterday while whale watching.

Hey Sue.  Can you see Hawaii?

Moy snuggles up to Milla at the veggie truck.

Tea cup chihuahua on the beach.

The owner of Cirque de Soleil heading down to surf while his house sits on the hill behind.

fishing boat surrounded by hungry frigate birds looking for breakfast

The Cisco Kid and Pancho on beach.

ATV parade at sunset

soccer at sunset with Recia's casa behind in white

Saturday February 25, 2012

 We woke very early this morning so we could be down at the estuary before sunrise to check out all the birds having breakfast on the beach.  We saw trokens, whistling ducks, ibis', lesser egrets, and fly catchers.  We then moved into the jungle and saw chacalacs, lineated woodpeckers, buntings, and a big black iguana sunning himself on the side of a giant fig tree.  Breakfast was served in the jungle along a dusty road next to the golf course.  We had refried beans, mangoes, coffee, juice, and plantain.  By lunch we were back at the casa when Kathy and Bill arrived just in time for lunch.  We decided to eat at the beachside restaurant.  We stuffed ourselves with empanadas, tostadas, tacos, and fajitas with guacamole and hot sauce on the side.  Many tasty drinks went around the table to wash the loads of food down our old gullets.  That lunch deserved a long walk on the beach so we headed for the cove where the fishermen came in daily with fresh red snapper.  It was time to return to the casa again for a swim in our pool before dinner at the polo club.

By 5:30 p.m., we were all slicked up and ready to sit beside Queen Elizabeth and Lady Di at the San Pancho polo club.  Tonight was a special tournament so the meal was extra so with drinks and dessert, it was priced at 400 pesos each which is approximately $38.00.  The polo club staff couldn’t have been nicer and they seated us on the upper level with a great view of the field.  The players all dressed in red and white and sometimes black, riding quarter horses and Arabian.  They carried extra long mallets and raced up and down the field trying to hit a small wooden ball between two goal posts.  The game was exciting and we clapped at the appropriate times and sipped our coloured drinks very politely.  We sat through 2 games with many chukkers and watched the presentation of the trophies.  No food yet.  It got dark and we watched the equestrian display on the field with white horses and black horses dancing with a beautiful senorita accompanied by a full band.  No food yet!  The field shut down and the Mexican orchestra started with lots of dancing.  No food yet!!  We decided to be very diplomatic and demand that we get our food but not have to pay anything.  So we called for our waiters and managers and demanded food.  They brought us a delicious meal.  We snuffed it back like those buzzards we saw early this morning on the beach and then left in a huff.  The manager tried to tell us that we only had to pay for our drinks but that he wasn’t happy that we refused to pay the full price.  We left very unhappy with the staff’s attitude and went back to our casa to eat lemon pie and play euchre.

The night ended around 10:30 p.m. over nuts and the festival music brassing off in the distance.

Kathy and Bill decided to stay with us in San Pancho for the night.  We all gained weight.

black bellied whistling ducks at estuary

trogan bird

black iguana sunning on fig tree

lunch on the beach eating Mexican food at La Playa

fishermen on beach with red snapper

Rob and Kathy at poolside before polo game

Where is our food?

Raoul is #3 in blue - the star player

4 happy snowbirds at La Patrona Polo Club

don't cross the line of trajectory

the best tomato sope ever

Friday February 24, 2012

Today was sunny, warm and beautiful!  

We went to EntreAmigos and ordered our lemon pie for the party with Kathy and Bill tomorrow after the polo match.  While Sue browsed in the thrift store for a new computer bag and I worked on the blog, Milla decided to volunteer by helping move tables for the big art extravaganza on March 8.  

Milla wanted to visit the secondary school (gr. 7,8, and 9) next door to our house so we went there to find out about teaching English and the status of their volleyball collection.

It was noon, so while Sue and Milla stayed back at the house, Rob went to the beach.  There were some men building a palapa with palm leaves and some kids flying kites.  When Sue and Milla arrived, we all helped the kids with their kites.  Someone donated the kites to the EntreAmigo community centre.  What fun the kids had.

In the early evening, we went to the music festival down the street in the park.  We saw Mexican folk dancers and a folk singer who sounded like Sarah McLaughlin.  This music festival is on all weekend so stay tuned.  We briefly witnessed another wonderful sunset and then went for a pasta feast at Dolce Amore, a little Italian restaurant owned and operated by Sergio and his assistant Arisbella.  The lasagna was the best we ever had.  Instead of listening to more tunes in the park, we decided to go to bed early because we are off bird watching at 7 a.m.

Axel bakes bread and pies at library daily.

more palapa

Palapa being built on beach

kite happening on San Pancho each.

Sue's horse across the street eating mangoes.

Milla and Sue on San Pancho beach at 7 p.m.

Sergio makes the best pasta in the world all in San Pancho Mexico on Mundo Main St.

Thursday February 23, 2012

Recia arrived at 10 o’clock by taxi to go with us to the market in La Penita which has a population of 10,000 and is 25 kilometres north of San Pancho. As we were waiting for the bus, a taxi stopped and took us to the market for the same rate as the bus.  The taxi driver’s name was Dominico, and we made arrangements to go to the Puerto Vallarta airport next Wednesday with him for 300 pesos.  We were not impressed with the city of La Penita.   It seemed disorganized and dirty.  The market there was large and colourful with lots of Mexican wares such as dresses, candy, silver, jewelry and food.  Sue and Robert bought a dress for Mandy and a wristband for Chris.  Milla bought bracelets for her boys.  Recia bought a bar-b-que chicken for dinner. We returned to San Pancho via  a Pacifico bus which flew down the highway and passed many vehicles. If there is a slow bus driver, we haven’t found one yet.  

On our return, we stopped in at EntreAmigos to buy bread and order a lemon pie for tomorrow.  Later in the afternoon, it was cloudy but we headed to the beach to all read our novels at our favourite log.  We then walked down to the cove to watch the surfers and collect shells for necklaces. We walked by the turtle man’s house to see if there was any action in the turtle nursery.  All was quiet. There will be one more turtle release at the cove soon.  A late supper consisted of a delicious meal of salad and veggies topped with  cream sauce that Robert made. Our day ended with writing the blog and picking pictures for it.  

    

baby for sale at La Penita market

the one that didn't get away

eating a strawberry popsicle in La Penita

fisherman shows Milla his Red Snappers

Robert's getting better

Frank's turtle nursery