The latest on the Swine in Mexico

The Mexico government  remarkably put many precautions into effect when discovering the "swine flu" out break in Mexico City.  They shut down all schools throughout the entire country until May 6th in addition to other public events and social gatherings being cancelled.  I'm impressed with their swift action. 

Our particular state, Jalisco, has NO confirmed swine flu cases to date.  Many businesses, not all, are having their employees wear face masks.  This helps in prevention of spreading the germ if you are infected.

Find out about patient "ZERO" in this article.  You'll see that about  250,000 to 500,000 people die worldwide every year from the "normal" flu.  Far more than the figures to date on the swine flu.  However, the BIG concern is that there is no vaccine for SWINE flu and very little natural immunity.  

Hum, wash your hands and stay away from confined crowds.

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Sundays = Beach days for the Leshers

Austin is riding the waves with the boogie board.
Whole fish, shrimp or mahi mahi pieces are usually available on a stick at most beaches along with plenty of fresh fruit.
Wow, a Catana Catamaran almost identical to Duchesse we spotted at anchor off the beach near Punta Mita.  Fond memories were reminisced as I gazed at their home on the water wondering who they were and where they headed next.
Randall and Austin took a closer look at the Catana comparing theirs  to ours.

I designated Sunday's as a great day for the 4 of us to take road trips discovering the beaches of Puerto Vallarta.  There's so many why just see one or two?  Besides the fact that all beaches are not created equal.  Each one has beauty of it's own personality!  So, over the last 6 weeks we've been from one end of the bay to the other and in between.  Sunday in fact is party time at the beach for the locals making it even more intriguing to go kick back and watch everyone in action.

I'll just mention some favorites worth checking out if your headed this way someday:  

Sayulita(out of the bay a little north) - Surfing galore, lots of families, many palapa restaurants, a hippy sort of village 

Playa El Anclote(northern tip of bay) -a little bit of surfing, boats at anchor, food, nice sand

San Fransico(also nicknamed San Pancho by the locals, out of the bay and north of Sayulita)More subdued and pristine

You can get to them by bus!  Don't miss them if you come here!  It's better than "hotel alley" if you really want a taste of REAL flavor of Mexico!

 

Come on down...

March 11 to March 19

Once we moved into our new habitat, Randall made several calls on SKYPE inviting family to come visit. Using the laptop, he would give a tour while on SKYPE encouraging them to come and visit us. First takers, Brain and Shelly Lesher, booked a flight and left within 24 hours! And, just 5 days after our arrival to our new casa, we had visitors! Randall quite persistant! It was great to have Brian and Shelly here. We discovered new restaurants, beaches, golds gym, Cost Co and other things together.

While they were visiting, Randi had some orthodontist work done. Unfortunately she didn't feel like going out to dinner with us this one evening... :(

They have those cool authentic black dishes(forget the Mexican name?) to serve food, like the ones at El Sol, our favorite Mexican restaurant in Harrisburg

The coolest beach we visited was in Sayulita; which is about 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta marina area. It's not in the bay, so there is surfing which attracts a younger crowd and was entertaining to watch. Palapas restaurants line the beach with umbrella's and chairs for rent. All kinds of vendors selling some cool things.

Randi's lunch was shrimp on a stick...um mm!

The guys had a hard time sitting still on the beach of course, so they went for a long, long walk. We heard people around us laughing and as we looked up we discovered these JUNGLE men standing over us...

They met some locals who told them that this black sand had magnetite in it.

"If you rub some on, it's good for you!"

So they did. All over....

One afternoon we walked to a real "locals only" kind of a beach near our area just a little north of the airport. We were entertained with a little musica...

Just kicking back and enjoying the scenery...

Brain and Shelly did this several years ago here in Puerto Vallarta. They thought they'd try and do it again .... Same suit for Shelly too!

Wonderful time! So glad they dropped their busy(? not really) schedules and took time to check out this paradise again.

From Ajijic near Lake Chapala and onto Puerto Vallarta!

February 28th

Once again, we're on the road. And now, to our final destination, Puerto Vallarta, at least for a couple of months or so?

Nestled along the road and mountain sides were batches of agave, the plant the Mexicans use to make their mescal liquors.

5 hours was all it took from Ajijic to Puerto Vallarta. Once we arrived we found a coffee shop, checked email, and spoke with our friends (Mike and Sara formerly on Sailing Yacht "Wayfinder"). They sold their boat a year ago and settled in Puerto Vallarta. To our surprise we were happy to hear that Sara booked a hotel for us! She got us a discounted rate with her real estate license. Yea!

The next 5 days, March 1st - March 5th, were spent at the Flamingo Hotel in the "marina area"as we searched for a furnished apartment or house(?).

Here's a view from Conchas Chinas, an area south of down town, where we considered staying. What views!

Conchas Chinas is south of centro or old Vallarta, sitting way up in the mountains. We heard, that during the rainy season, the roads would be hazardous. I can imagine the down pours making these pebble stone alleys quite treacherous! So glad we didn't end up there as beautiful as it appears.

To get to some of the apartments we traveled up this incline in a little cable car.

Made it up!

6 day's later and many apartments searched over, we got REALLY LUCKY! We received leads from friends, craigslist, real estate agents, people we met along the way. One house in Marina located on the golf course with a pool that we wanted to see had a real estate agent sign out front. Ironically this house is across the street from our friends house located also in Marina. We figured it might be out of our budget but you never know. We called and it was way more than what we wanted to spend. But Trinny the agent had something else for us to look at that was in our budget. It was perfect. In Marnia area, on the beach, first floor with a Jacuzzi and the HUGE pool for the complex right out our back door. We checked it out, later took the kids. They loved it and we said we'd take it! Too good to be true. Long story short. It fell through.

Fortunately, Trinny felt bad, showed us the other house that we originally called her about and rented it to us for what we wanted to pay(which was half of what she normally gets!) It just so happened to be HER home that she had for rent. And well, I think for her it was better than having it sit vacant. We noticed that the economy here is slowing down, making it more of a buyers and renters market right now. Yea for us, this time anyway.


Alas, March 6th we moved into our new habitat! Trinny's husband, Rolland, who happens to be French and a renowned chef owns the cycle!

Since Rolland is a chef, the kitchen is stocked with a great assortment of gadgets!

The family room provides awesome acoustics for Randi's guitar music!
A view from the family room to the patio...

Our pool on the back patio overlooks the golf course which has picturesque landscaping.

Some hot days will be spent in here I'm sure!

Long beautiful trip - well worth the effort. Now to unpack, settle into a new culture, and discover the possiblities with an open mind!

Leaving San Miguel :( and onto Lake Chapala

February 27 - arrived at Lake Chapala in a town called Ajijic

We got see the birds eye view of what we missed coming into San Miguel. That beautiful cathedral is in the middle right side of the picture.

We were told that when we head to Lake Chapala there will be a road that heads way down near the lake, DON'T TAKE THAT ROAD. Well when we came upon route number 35 there were two options. Oh well, we picked the more scenic route and the one that ended up down by the lake. See this is one BIG LAKE with this little tiny road that took us way DOWN nestling us in this small village quite a distance from our destination and well at times we were unsure just how long it may take driving 5 miles an hour.

Here's a portion of lake Chapala and the village at the bottom.

Fancy grave yard roadside along the way.

As we approached the twining roads of the village, I spotted this odd sight. See how dusty it is(dry season here, no rain) and this lady she is sweeping the dirt?

Yes, route 35 disappeared as we meandered skeptically through the village. We paused to ask in our best SPANGLISH how to get to Ajijic, a town by lake Chapala.

They were curious about these strangers in their town.... More than willing to assist, they told us it will take 2 - 3 hours to get to Ajijic and pointed us in the right direction....? That's not what we wanted to hear!

Might as well enjoy the ride..... We stopped at a tienda for refreshments.

Well on roads like this, it will take forever driving 5 miles an hour.

Where does it go from here? How much longer? Will it be dark? What if we get a flat? Really, this way?

Well finally we approached Ajijic along the lake and we just happy to be on real roads again! Now again the mission is to find the right place to stay at the right price.

Spotted this elegant peacock at one of the many resorts/hotels we checked out.

While checking out a bed and breakfast, we encountered this procession headed right toward us... The locals sang as they carried Jesus on the cross...

Patiently hoping to find a place soon.

Finally, ready to unpack our bags and stay here for the night. Quickly, I check email in the lobby.



We decide we are just anxious to get to Puerto Vallarta. So we stayed just one night in Ajijic.