Cottonwod Canyon Photo Album

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sayulita - Day 6

We've all enjoyed the move to the hillside house, replacing roosters, dogs, and other jungle noises with those sounds associated with waves crashing ashore a few hundred feet below us.  However, we were not expecting the sounds of an old school pop corn maker in our new digs.  Apparently, the water drips off the roof at a perfect angle to exactly land upon the one inch wide metal rail that surrounds our deck.  The rains arrived with darkness, thus all three of us were left to our imaginations as to the source of this mysterious new noise.  Morning delivered more rain and enlightenment as to the cause of the new thorn in our side.

After a leisure morning, it ever so slowly dawned on us that the rains weren't going to recede anytime soon, Meanwhile, the locals claimed, "I've been here xx years and I've never seen it rain like this in the winter, blah, blah, blah."   Sounds like a well orchestrated plan by the local tourism board.  CW and AA eventually tired of Words with Friends and checking the news and scores from back home, and Jared finally had enough of Facebook.  We could not longer take the deck, we had to leave.  To town we went.

Not all Golf Carts are created equal, some are better prepared than others.

In reality, the only hard part was walking down the super steep road that led to our hillside house.  The town itself was well drained and was quite easy to navigate.  Wilson headed for the only surf shack that was open while Jared and Amy located ringside seats at Don Pedro's for an excellent view of the Old Man's assault on the waves.  He actually looked better, until the exploding waves scared him out of the water.  It was comical to watch him contemplate which way to go when a 6 foot wave was heading onshore while a 3 foot wave  of undertow was heading off shore with our poor little Laird stuck in the middle.  When those waves met, it looked like a violent lava explosion, shooting 20 feet skyward.

We stayed on the beach for sunset, but the real light show was in the eastern sky.

On our final night in Mexico, we all voted the affirmative for a fancy sit down dinner.  Jared and CW had a working list and after consulting Amy, the Sayulita Cafe was chosen.  The ambiance was perfect, the decor, interesting, and the food, well, it was outstanding. Note the steam rising from Jared's plate.

Amy went with the Chicken Mole on the left, Wilson ventured into Aztec cuisine, while Jared chose the Pineapple stuffed with seafood.

And no night in Sayulita is complete without getting more sage advice from Lalo.  Oh wait, apparently Lalo has less time on his hands these days.

In spite of the distraction of our blog, Lalo still had words of wisdom for Jared.  We exchanged heartfelt goodbyes, but not before locating each other on Facebook.

With all the rain, we all voted for an early night, so we could hit the beach first thing in the morning.  All we had to do was walk back down the main drag, cross the bridge, and go up the hill.  What could possible go wrong in such a short stretch of real estate?

Wilson was not driving this cart, and none of us ever touched any of the several empty beer containers inside this golf cart.  But it does make for a funny photo.   The golf cart magically disappeared a couple of hours later.  Now, how would we know it was gone a couple of hours later if we were headed straight home.  We ran into Trevor and the "8 Tacos Guy".

That's Trevor in the top photo, and Morgan (the 8 taco guy) in the bottom photo.  We ran into Morgan after the Super Bowl when we pulled up to Eduardo's taco stand.  We mentioned, "hmmm, these tacos look good", and Morgan quickly responded, "of course they're good, that's why I'm getting 8 of them".  There was no sign of a Jack in the Box camera crew in the vicinity.

Note the TV screens in the background, Wilson recalled that this place was the hockey bar in Sayulita and that Vancouver was playing Calgary on this night.  Needless to say, we stayed for a while. Trevor and CW discussed the Blue Jays, Mariners, and Canucks while AA got the lowdown on camping on Vancouver Island from Morgan and girl friend. Hey wait, where's the girl friend?  She's sequestered Jared and is offering her views on everything.

And she couldn't resist this photo op.

Morgan and Kay were spending the winter in Sayulita and confirmed our suspicions that there's a great similarity between this place and the Canadian adventure towns we've frequented.  They've demanded that we pay them a visit on the east coast of Vancouver Island this summer, opening their house to us, taking us river rafting on the Cowichan River, and kayaking on the Strait of Georgia on a moonlit night.

We all like the idea of " the journey is the destination", but that concept is so tough to wrap your head around. . .  I flew 3000 miles dammit, where's the sun, I have to leave tomorrow, make the rain stop, I'm bored, blah, blah, blah.

In this world of instant gratification, those thoughts came easily to all three of us.  We're very fortunate to have nights like this . . . saying goodbye to Lalo, knowing we would see him again, having a wonderful dinner with family, getting a good laugh from a random street scene, and meeting complete strangers that welcomed us into their lives. 

The Big Dipper may have dropped the rain, but Sayulita lifted our spirits.

Sayulita - Day 5

After a long wait, we've finally captured something more rare than a condor in the wild lands of Southern Utah.  Indeed, evidence of Wilson on a surfboard, while on the water, he's even standing up.

That might be the lamest excuse for surfing ever witnessed on camera.  We stroke his ego and tell him, "Sure, you're getting better" and "looking good today".  He just sucks on a surfboard, and it's not for lack of trying, we've seen him venture out there on 4 different days, and it's all looked about the same.  If Jared and Kira hadn't seen him ski with their own eyes, Amy might doubt his ability on the slopes, because he's proven beyond all doubt that he has zero surfing ability.

On to more interesting uses of the Go Pro camera at the beach.

There were two major developments on Day 5 in Sayulita, first, the clouds moved in and it actually rained several times during the day.  Secondly, we traded in our jungle digs for a new place high on the hill just north of town. 

We were only able to get the jungle place for 5 days, so we knew the last 2 nights would be spent elsewhere.  We settled on Casa Zorro and were rewarded with ample elbow room and a view to match.

After "surfing", we enjoyed tacos at Captain Cook's on the beach and wandered through town.  While walking up the main street, we peaked into Mary's Tacos and spotted the hardest working man in Sayulita on a computer looking at Trip Advisor for our review.

Before CW and AA had a chance to pat themselves on the back for a job well done, Lalo told us, "Nice post guys, but you put it on the wrong Mary's Tacos".  Oops.  The error will be rectified.  Lalo also checked out this blog, and was an immediate hit at Mary's when his mug showed up at the top of our Day 4 post.

We're accustom to the alternate forms of transport in Mexico, Baja's terrain and roads often demand the use of an ATV.  In Sayulita, it's the narrow streets and steep hills that lead many to other vehicles.

ATV's and Golf Carts are a common site on the roads of Sayulita, the ATV's are easy to avoid since you can here them coming, the golf carts, not so much.  They can sneak up on you in a hurry.  That's the only hint of danger we've seen in our week in this part of Mexico.

Unlike Baja and even Puerto Vallarta, Sayulita is distinctly Mexican.  No American fast food joints, 7-11's, or big box retailers, and nearly every restaurant specializes in Mexican food.  Somehow, these guys snuck into town and set up shop. Perhaps, a city ordinance keeps their hours to a minimum.

With fresh food supplies in hand, we made it back up the hill just in time for sunset.

We've traded in the jungle sounds of chickens and dogs for those of waves crashing ashore below us.  A good night of sleep was had by all. 

Sayulita - Day 4

As promised, photographic evidence of the hardest working man in Sayulita, with brains to match.

Lalo is once again conferring with Jared regarding plans for life.  Seriously, this guy is a gem.  We've travelled all over and we've yet to meet a person that captured our attention as Lalo has.  The funny thing is, Jared looks forward to these conversations.  As do all his parents, step parents, grand parents, step grand parents, et al.

Honestly, we were lazy today.  4 hours at the beach and barely a person made a move for the water.  Apparently, the waves weren't exactly as we ordered.  The Old Man took a day off from surfing, claiming he needed to rest and let his muscles build back up.  Really, which muscles does one use to fall off a surf board?

We chose the path less well travelled tonight, going a block towards Gringo Hill instead of hanging out on the main plaza area.  A fine little Spanish tapas joint was discovered.

We enjoyed Pacificos and red wine from Spain.  Both Jared and Amy are a bit disturbed at CW's latest pastime . . . He feels compelled to keep an eye out on the street.  What's he looking for?

He did this every time we stopped for tacos tonight. Speaking of which, our favorite street vendor, Eduardo, sets up shop just to Wilson's left.  Last night, Jared was in charge of the salsa, both suffered from the heat.  Tonight, Wilson took charge and delegated proper salsa distribution.

The results . . . the same after burner effect they both felt last night,  Note that there is only one Pacifico bottle on the table.  Jared soon learned that emergency beers always go to the Old Man.

With all the construction in Sayulita, bars with banos are a tough commodity around the town plaza.  Water gets cut off from time to time when the worker guys deem it necessary.  Thus, one of our favorite haunts has been a "one beer only" stop the past two nights, since they don't have a working bano.  But tonight, the workers have moved onto tormenting another street, so it was all systems go.

For those with sharp vision, you did read the hamburger sign correctly.

Not even Whistler has a bar called Monchis.  In spite of this establishment, the presence of weed is, well, non present at all.  About a 100 vendors hit us up each day at the beach, and none offers weed.  You'd have an easier time scoring a joint at sea tac than here.  Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration.

Many of you may correctly assume that all is easy down here on the Mexican Riviera, and for the most part it is, until one retires for the night.  These stairs must be climbed every night.  The horror, the horror.

And don't even think about going back down after too many beers.

Shop early for cervesas.  There's a finite number of times that a person can negotiate these stairs after a night out in Mexico.

Sayulita - Day 3

There is only one thing that makes one long for the roosters and other noises that are emitted from the jungle between midnight and 10am.

This guy and others drive the streets on a regular basis to deliver their political messages.  Note the dual sided mega phone on his roof.  I wouldn't be surprised if one of them is protesting against having guys driving around with mega phones.  The only reason we even notice these guys is they tend to rile up the dog that lives below our bungalow, and that dog can wail and awful wail.

Amy had been eyeballing the Choco Banana for breakfast on the town plaza, we decided to brave the construction and partake in an American style breakfast.  The Old Man and Jared previously claimed they were going to have tacos for every meal.  That policy lasted two days.

That blank stare is a result from be rewarded with a visit from the hardest working man in Sayulita.  Indeed, Lalo also works here and was our server this morning.  Thus Jared was forced to consider his future under the scrutiny of Lalo.  We seemingly run into Lalo every day, pictures should appear in future post.

We developed a routine by day 3, wake up, have coffee, venture out for breakfast, and of course, count the number of Iguanas in the trees around our digs.  How many do you see in this picture ?

We counted 7 in this shot, taken of the palm tree that sits adjacent to Jared's room.  Our landlord said they never come into the bungalow.  We're not convinced and keep them under diligent surveillance.

The waves were much smaller today, thus Wilson had an ample supply of little kids waves to surf, meanwhile Jared went out to the big boys' area to ride the boogie board.

Meanwhile, Amy was having a tough time watching Jared, that guy's hair was like a mirror in the sun.

The main beach in Sayulita is short walk from our place, and offers ample room to set up shop in spite of the large crowds that gather each day.  We decided against using the nice setups provided by the local bars and restaurants.  We took a vote and decided there is a very limited number of good things that can result from Pacificos at noon, followed by playing in the waves.  Thus, our setup is not fancy, but quite adequate.

This was a rare moment in time in which there was no vendor hawking his wares to one of us.  We've all gotten used to constant selling, and most are very friendly and simply move on when you drop the old "No Gracias" on them.  This guy is our favorite vendor. 

Seriously, have you ever been to a beach where doughnuts are a hot commodity.  This guy wasn't alone either, several are pushing fresh pastries on the shoreline. 

After noting the lack of shots of Wilson on a surf board, Jared suggested that we needed a staff photographer for the blog.  His choice settled in with a bunch of similarly clad friends right next to us.

After 5 hours at the beach, we all returned the cabana to shower up and prep for a wild and crazy night out on the town.  Here's some pictures of the activity on our street.

Yes, that was real caballero driving his herd of horses through town.  This green place always seemed to have a beehive of activity.  We get a great view of their living room every time we walk past.  Apparently, Hostel living treats you quite well in Sayulita.

Our neighborhood taco shack takes top billing on Trip Advisor.  We're not convinced it's the best in town, nonetheless we've been twice already and plan to hit it again. 

And yes, that is a banana tree.  After a tasty dinner we headed out for more exploring.  Wilson walks past this sign every day at least 4 times.  How is it that he didn't notice it until Amy pointed it out.

Thankfully, it was not open, otherwise the Old Man might have gotten sucked in to watching hockey with all the Canadians down here. In spite of no sports, a crazy night was had by all.

CW and Amy convinced Jared to pose with our favorite piece of street art.

Amy found her own place to pose later.

Jared advised the Old Man to avoid this dangerous bar stool after consuming more than 3 beers. 

He didn't listen very well.

We found this ancient foosball table down by the beach, is it a wonder that

CW lost this match? Note that neither of his hands are on the rods.

And of course, no night is complete without a final round of taco shopping and dinner with a new friend.  The dogs are pretty well behaved and friendly.  A Canadian family almost convinced Amy to adopt their dog, after 3 months in Sayulita, they had to return to their jobs up north.  Hmmm, people live down here for months on end.  Maybe there is a dog in our future.