As you know from the previous blog entry we went home for Christmas. We managed to fit in visits with our son and his girlfriend Roza, Carole's mum, Ken's sister and family, brothers and sisters and several of our friends (sorry to those we did not manage to see). It was cold up there; we have acclimatized to the warmer weather here. We had a great Christmas!
We flew in on New Year's eve and our friends Dick from Full & By and our friend Rick from Point Roberts picked us up at the airport...thanks so much guys! We managed to fit in a visit with Julie and Rick (Reverie from Point Roberts) while they were visiting Full & By. Fun was had by all. We said farewell to Full & By and Buena Vida along with Rick and Julie as they head to places farther south. We will miss them and look forward to meeting up as we head south in a week or so.
Our friends Bill and Bonny flew into Puerto Vallarta the day after we did, it is great to see them! We stayed with them for a couple of nights at their hotel downtown and they stayed with us for a couple of nights, it has been great fun. All four of us explored Old town Puerto Vallarta and had a blast, the market goes on and on and on forever and took several hours. Last Friday we took a tour to San Sebastian up in the mountains; it really is an old Mexican town from years ago. We highly recommend taking this tour. First off we stopped at an old Hacienda owned by the actor John Houston, next was a small coffee plantation where they grind their own coffee and sell to the public, after that we had lunch at a restaurant not far away....wow what a great meal (all part of the package). Friday was three Kings day so to our surprise and the bus drivers', they had a piñata for us to take a whack at and also had a special cake with small dolls inside, if you got a doll you had to put on a dinner on Feb 7th (at least I think that was the date). Then onto San Sebastian itself, it truly is a town from the past, we visited the jail, the church, the museum and a silver retail outlet, there are silver mines around San Sebastian. We were amazed with the trip already but there was more to come, on the way home we stopped at a Tequila tasting to be had, their Almond tequila tasted just like Amaretto, so needless to say we bought a bottle and so did Bill and Bonny.
On Monday January 9th, we headed out in the boat with Bill and Bonny, hoping to see whales and we did, they had several sighting of the whales broaching. Bonny had also wanted to see a Sea Turtle, which we had not seen yet and lo and behold there was a Sea Turtle with birds catching a ride on its back. This was an amazing boat trip for them. We tied to a mooring ball in Yolapa and went ashore, Bonny was able to find more treasures to take home to the family. We had planned on staying overnight but the swell picked up in the anchorage so we had to move on and return to La Cruz marina. This ended up being a night sail and Bonny was amazed at the moon and the stars that lit up the sea as we motored along. It was quiet and peaceful.
The next day we headed on the bus to Sayulita, a surfer town just north of La Cruz. We continue to be amazed at the little towns, it was fantastic, lots of restaurants, shops, people surfer in the ocean, it was a bustling little town. When we got back to the boat it was time for Bill and Bonny to return to their hotel downtown, we were sad to see them go. It has been a hectic week and a half since we returned from Vancouver.
Carole was not feeling well when we returned from Sayulita and it ended up that she had the flu, so she was pretty much laying low today. This a good time for Carole to update the blog for sure!