La Vena- Playa Los Angeles Locos

This Sunday our landlord, at the lovely Jardines Tropicales, invited Lyle and I to go with he and his partner to La Vena. La Vena is a beach about 25 mins of La Manzanilla. You take the exit for Los Angeles Locos and follow it to the end of the road.

The beach here is gorgeous! The water is crystal clear, a river meets the ocean in this lovely spot. You’ll find lots of small shells on the beach and a small outcrop of rocks provides some interest if snorkeling is on your agenda.

Lots of locals in the water but I wouldn't go too far up the river, it quickly turns to mangrove and that means you could, theoretically, meet a cocodrillo. The water is moving pretty fast, not a favorite of cocodiles, but something to ponder.

The locals say two more weeks of heat in La Manzanilla!

So, I wouldn’t call it “sweltering”, well ok maybe today I’d call it “sweltering
I checked the weather and it reported 94 degrees, feels like 101, that was at about 3:00.

I’ve been working in my landlord’s outdoor kitchen so I can be as close as possible to the wireless router. It’s a pretty great “office”, nice concrete breakfast table to work at, on the second level so it’s breezy and I can reach out and grab a mango off the tree if I want. But alas, I had the ceiling fan and a standing fan both going and I was still sweating.

The locals say only 2 more weeks of heat!

Our routine is to hit the beach everyday around 6:00 for the cool breeze and sunset. It’s a nice routine, the water is very warm but cooler then the air, the rocks washed up during the rainy season are settling back into the ocean and the long flat, clean beach is on it’s way back.

At sundown- around 8:30 we make our back to the apartment, have a shower, snack and then off to bed. It’s now 10:00 PM- I have a fan about 3 ft from me, my hair in a pony tail, a beer on my desk….and I’m sweating. Oh well, what’s a couple more weeks!

Tipping the police in Mexico

After 5 days in the car we are here in La Manzanilla. Crossing the border was easy, took about 40 mins and the border patrol guy insisted on filling out the paperwork. We crossed the border and made it Navajoa the first day.

We were feeling so smug that we decided to start out very early in the next morning (just before daylight), get a head start and all.

We completely forgot that we are driving a white subaru with a thule on top that just scream's, "tourist". Not 5 mins out of the hotel parking lot and the lights of a police car are behind us, we pull over, cop walks up and say's "hola", shakes my husband's hand, smiling and tells us we ran a light, and then says, "un ticket you pay $300 dollar and bye, bye." We start protesting that we don't have $300 dollars, he comes back with "$200 dollar and bye, bye", we continue the protest and finally he agrees to "$100 and bye, bye."

So we pay the "ladron" and are on our way, upset and $100 poorer...here's the kicker, 5 mins later we get pulled over by another one!

At this point I'm mad, the cop walks over, friendly, hola, handshake, starts down the "too fast" line of bullshit and I start yelling that we just got pulled over and the other guy took ALL our money. The cop is looking at me like I'm crazy and my poor husband is now offically upset. The cop waves me off and walks back to his car and other cop gets out. I tell him the same story, "we were JUST pulled over and the other guy took ALL our money." He smiles and say's no problem, steps away and waves us off. Rick and I wondered if maybe they share the take?

The lesson here, no need to get upset. Be friendly, negoicate down as much as you can, keep smiling, pay the ticket and move along.

The next day we felt better about it all, enjoyed the last day's drive and arrived saftely in La Manzanilla to a beautiful day, sunny, not too hot, nice breeze.

I have a Facebook page-who has time?

Ok- so due to a work thing my research lead me to a facebook page I wanted to view, only catch was I had to sign-up, become a member, whatever it is. So I fill out the information and low and behold there are several people from my high school who are facebook members. So of course I invite them to "become my friends", then they respond inviting me into their inner circle so I view their pages, send comments, update my page....good god, who has time to blog, facebook, move to La Manzanilla, work, call your mom because she thinks moving to Mexico is like moving to the darkside of the moon, and all those other things that make up a life!

BTW- I have a meeting with a client tomorrow at 10 and then we are packing up the subuaru and driving out of town.

Two more night in the US and the Mexico all the way baby!

Hang time

Well everything is a blur. I had to fly to Seattle due to a death in the family. I left Friday night and Rick had to meet with the renters on Saturday morning to turn over our house. Unfortunately they did not arrive together so Rick had to go over everything twice. Then he had to move into short-term housing.

I just got back to Denver last night. It's Tuesday and we are trying to work in what is basically a glorified hotel room. With only 4 more days until take off it's drag to be in this limbo.

We plan to pack-up on Friday- need to go back to the house and get everything out of the garage. I kept adding things to "go to Mexico" pile and I'm not exactly sure what will and won't fit into the Subaru and Thule. We are trying to concentrate on our office equipement, books and supplies for Lyle, medication we might have trouble finding, a few clothes, not like you can't buy most things in Mexico.

Book Club in La Manzanilla!

I'm so happy to report that there are plans for a book club in La Manzanilla! I've been lamenting the lose of my book clubbers here in Denver, although I think I've convinced them to come down to La Manzanilla for a visit. Seven days and counting until the 5 day drive south. It's cold and raining here in Denver, and hot and muggy in La Manzanill.

Looking forward to seeing the new road into town.