La Manzanilla

Our week in Sayulita was awesome apart from the lack of surf, but we did manage to soak up some pretty amazing sunsets.

 We bided some time by getting a custom painting done by a local artist. We were super stoked on the out come!

And some of the Frenchies in our campground allowed us to test out their slack line. I think I have lost some balance skills since retiring from ski racing!! But it was fun none the less!

From Sayulita we headed south past the crazy city of Puerto Vallarta to the mellow town of La Manzanilla. Thank goodness for friends as Craig Hill's (trainer from the ski team) father Gerry has an amazing little place here and was kind enough to let us borrow it for a few days. So for the last few days we have been experiencing the lives of the snow birds.

One of the huge crocodiles that live in the Lagoon in the middle of town!

 Dont want to get too close!

Snowbird Living

While having happy hour we discussed our next adventure we are dreaming of which is buying a boat and exploring the oceans!

Mmmm Happy Hour

My parents rental car has ATTITUDE

The fam in Melaque

 A couple days ago we headed to the mountains to check out a couple of volcanoes. This one is Volcan de Fuego (Volcano of Fire). It was amazing to drive around it and watch it smoke.

Volcan De Fuego

Delicious quesadillas in the shadow of the Volcano

On the way back to La Manzanilla, we stopped to check out some Mexican Horse Dancing (see video in the post below!) 

The Silver Spur!!!

Mexican horse dancing is for people of all ages!

All in all it has been a blast to have my parents here, but we are itching to take off again. Today or tomorrow we shall pack up Kumu again and search out some surf. Take it easy

3 Words- Mexican...Horse...Dancing !?!?!?

Parental Visit Part I

On the 2nd of December my parents, Clive and Wilma flew down from cold, cold Alberta to meet up with us for a two week hiatus from the frigid north. We arrived in the ever growing surf town of Sayulita on the 1st to scope it out before picking them up at the airport in Puerto Vallarta. It was a strange experience picking them up, knowing they had had a quick 5 hour flight from Calgary to arrive there, while we were well into our 4th month of driving! However it was great to see them and we were glad that they didnt have to run the gauntlet of the vulture cab drivers at the airport basically yelling in your face, "Taxi! Cheapest price! Taxi!" That being said, it was highly entertaining watching the vultures attempt to capture thier prey, all the while sticking to some obvious unwritten code of the Mexican Taxi Driver.

We had an amazing stay in Sayulita minus the fact that there really were no waves. the first day we were there we actually had some great waves, but the ocean calmed down to almost snorkeling water for the rest of the week. We had a few sessions in the waves, but it was a challenge with sets rolling in only every 10 miuntes or so and every local and tourist going for the long sought after waves. We did manage to sneak away to the mountains for a great day excursion to the small, very spanish town of San Sebastion and the farming town of Mascota. If you are wondering where we are check out the updated map on the "Route" page!

A plash of color in San Sebastion

A meal fit for... Kings? All the bits and pieces that you don't really want to think about... I think I may pass on this culinary delight

San Sebastion was hosting a chicken farmers meeting and brought in all sorts of amazing looking old Mexican men. 

In Mascota we popped into a small corner store to check out their selection of Tequila. Amidst the rows of large bottles we spotted a glass Coke bottle on sale for just under five dollars. We asked the lady at the counter and she proceeded to take her bottle out that she had hidden under the counter and offered us a sip informing us that it was made locally by the farmers and was very potent! After just a sniff that statement was confirmed and we proceeded to buy a bottle. How can one resist? Its in a Coke bottle!

My parents sweet rental car. A Dodge "Attitude"... a very unfitting name if I do say so myself

 A wild perro (dog)

We stopped at the San Sebastion Tequila distillery and learned tons from Antonio about the process of making Tequila from the Blue Agave plant. It was a fascinating process and the bonus was tasting five different Tequilas including an Amaretto flavored one! Yum!

The Blue Agave plant from which Tequila is made.

Clive's sweet new toy!

Our cute little campground in Sayulita. It felt very strange staying at a real campground for so long. EIGHT nights! But we met lots of great people including Kristel from France (that is her sweet 70's westy in the background!!), Bradon and his girlfriend from Australia that helped us fix our boards! as well as Neil and Will from Liverpool.

My Parents living up the Mexican life!

Strange but true!

New friends and New stories

The Mexican adventure continued off the Baja peninsula by taking the Baja Ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan overnight arriving at 730 in the morning. It was the perfect way to combine lots of miles with not having to pay for a place to sleep. However the ferry itself ended up being a cool 300 bucks, so its not a super steal. The ferry was fairly luxurious compared to Alaska and BC ferries. It was almost akin to a cruise ship equipped with nice bunk rooms (those were extra) and a cool discoteque. 

On the ship we met a couple from Kingston, Ontario, Kahung and Mel, traveling with their 4 year old son Dante to Panama and back. Check out their BLOG. We decided to travel for the next day or so together, just for a slight change of pace. It was great fun and I think Andrew became Dantes new best friend. We spent the morning after the boat trip exploring old Mazatlan, but quickly tired of the city so we headed to Noviellro about 150km south and spent a couple nights there exploring the beach, checking out all the creatures the ocean washes up on shore and enjoying good food, good company and great fires on the beach.

We somewhat reluctantly tore ourselves away from the untouched beach and headed to the crazyness of Sayulita.

The huge Baja Ferry with THREE levels for cars and trucks!

Central curch of downtown Mazatlan

Having fun at the market with Dante and Mel

Just one of the delicious dinner options!

Checking out the things that wash up on the beach. Observing the circle of life

Kumu and her new friend The Mule

Teaching Dante how to surf. Sorry for the poor quality of pictures, again the internet here is a big struggle! (picture credit to Kahung)

Dante's loving it (picture credit to Kahung)

 As with most kids he was a quick learner. Hang loose dude! (picture credit to Kahung)

The killer sandcastle crew.  (picture credit to Kahung)

 Dont mess with us (picture credit to Kahung)

Wild horses on the beach (picture credit to Kahung)

Unfortunately the wicked skull we found looked better on The Mule than it did on Kumu, so we sent them off with a new momento and a warning for any who come close!

Cruising down the endless miles of beach at Noviellro! Amazing, not a soul or a house to be seen.

Fwd: Baja Livin'

Mexico has been treating us well. Besides keeping us so distracted that we are falling far behind with our blogging. In fact this blog has been almost 5 days in the making with poor internet and little time. However, that being said, you know your life is good when your biggest problem is not being able to tell everyone about how great your life actually is.

We had an incredible stay with Barb and Christo in San Juanico, but felt like we should be moving on as we knew there was much more to see on the Baja. We took a couple days to get down through La Paz and to a beach called La Cerritas just south of Todos Santos. It is a different feeling than the remote chillness of San Juanico, but it has its own amazing charm and vibe. We stayed 6 nights, just staying on the beach for free with a few other campers including fellow Canmoron Ben and his dad Ian. It was a great week and our surfing is coming along slowly but surely as we build up our confidence. However, we realized we were getting itchy feet again and headed to La Paz on Sunday to check out the ferries to the mainland. We took the ferry on Sunday night from La Paz to Mazatlan. It was a 12 hour ferry of luxury. Dinner was included and there was a cool discoteque that played overly loud Mexican music complete with entertaining music videos. The ferry was honestly way fancier than any BC or Alaska ferry I have been on, which pleasantly surprised us both. After arriving in Mazatlan we hooked up with a couple and their son that we met on the ferry and explored downtown Mazatlan, realized that the city was way too overwhelming and hit the road south to a small town called Noviellro. Without knowing we apparently stumbled onto the longest beach in the world.... Which i don't doubt as we drove for over 15km in one direction on the beach from town and still didn't get to the end. After that I feel is a little too much for one blog posting so I will complete the last couple days soon.

 Barb & Christo's pad in San Juanico.

 Our great camp spot on the beach in San Juanico

Christo killin it on the paddle board

 Andrew and I with our great hosts Barb and Christo!

Downtown San Juan.... how perfect is that? 

 Full moon in the middle of the desert=an incredible night

 Great camping under the full moon

Checking out San Piedrito beach near Todos Santos 

 Grafiti on run down palapa on the beach

 Beautiful flowers for a beautiful van

 What a killer place to change the oil

 Bens gnarly puffer fish

 Bens purely mexican back windshield compliments of Christo

 Taking care of the tortugas (turtles) so they can make it to the ocean alive!

 Sunset on San Piedrito... perfecto

We have also been following the Alpine World Cup which has started up again back home. It seems very strange to know that they are right into the season, and we are basking in the sun. But we are sending the Canadian Team super fast vibes this winter, I have no doubt that the guys and girls are going to kill it! Way to go to all the athletes who have already scored world cup points. Big congrats go out to Anna for her fist points since coming back from ACl surgery as well as Eve Routier for her first points ever!  It was incredibly strange to run into Robbie Dixon's mom on the beach a few days ago as she was ready to head home and watch Robbie slay at Lake Louise! Definitely reminds us what a truly small world we live in these days.