Happy New Year Family and Friends

 What a surprise.  Friends we've known for years show up just before Christmas at our Couples golf.  Turns out they are building a home in Los Ayala.  Afterwards we drive up to their new home which is not yet finished.  They hope it will be soon.

The lovely dancer in the photo below is Lupita.  She works at the golf course and obviously takes dancing lessons.  Here I caught her smiling for the camera.  She and Paulette entertain us after golf on Sundays.

Mike was walking home from town one day and saw these turtles sunning themselves.  Notice how they have their heads reaching for the sun?  They live beside us in the slough, swamp, whatever it's called.

Wishing you all the best in 2011, we are

 

Holoidays on holiday

Merry Christmas friends and family; Feliz Navidad

It's December 23rd, 2010.  I've been to the market in La Penita; hubby is golfing at Mens' Day at Campo Ensuenado (sp?).  I am making stuffing and Mike is doing Caesar salad for Xmas dinner at the park down the street.  We are so few here that we, being Mike, Mave, Vic and Bev, were invited to El Caracol rv park to have Christmas dinner.
I picked up five heads of romaine, some garlic powder and whole garlic for the famous Lori's Caesar Salad dressing.  I bought a very fresh loaf of white bread which I have already cut up into thin slices to dry for making the stuffing, and some potatoes and onions.  The bread was so good I had to steal a few slices for myself.  Nothing like fresh white bread and strawberry jam for lunch. The market was very crowded today and the traffic on the highway was heavy.  We were going to P.V. for Xmas dinner but the hostess has decided to go back to Edmonton for Christmas leaving her hubby in good hands.
I'm missing my kids.  Only daughter is in Vancouver and I just wish she could have made it out here.  I know she would have loved the beach.  The waves are very quiet this visit.  Last visit they were noisy and strong.  Hubby has only used his boogie board twice so far. 
Only son and lady partner are in Tucson living the rv lifestyle.  Hubby isn't back from golfing yet so I might go to the beach or just lie on my zero gravity chair and have a snooze.  In case you haven't seen it yet, here is a picture of our beach.  It is exactly 260 steps from our park's front gate.  This is a photo from January 2010 when we first came out here, but it's still the same beautiful beach.  You can see why we came back.

Here is the cayman



The sun is warm on this side of the ditch.  He's about six feet long.


Now that you've seen him, don't worry.  He's seems harmless.

Turtles in transit

Here are the little turtles (tortugas) that I told you about in my last blog.  The Grupo Ecologista de Nayarit, A.C. were advertising for anyone interested to come out and help these little guys and gals find their way back to the sea from whence their mother came.  The group watches for turtles laying eggs in the sands near Guayabitos and they collect the eggs and wait for them to hatch.  There were 100 turtles this evening and there were probably 30 people, including a few children, who came out.  We were invited to pick them up (and both Mike and I did just that) and put them on the sand facing the water.  The waves sometimes lapped over them and turned them upside down but by the time it was dark most of them were well on their way out to sea.  It is estimated that out of those 100 only 1-3 would be back laying their eggs.  Most would not survive their journey to adulthood. Just writing about this is making me teary, as it did when we were told about the Riley turtles.

This season, having the car, we are able to go golfing anytime we want to go.  Mike paid 6500 pesos for a four month pass for two.  That is about $270.00 Canadian each.  We have golfed 25 games as of today, December 15.  We have paid for the passes and are now golfing for free.  We go out by 9 am but the breeze doesn't come up until about 10 am.  Then golfing becomes bearable.  The course is a par 29.  Ok, so it's not Royal York or Spallumcheen, but it is challenging.  The grass (if one can call it that) is no where near like our fairways at home.  The tee boxes are small and it is hard to find a good spot to insert the tee.  Number 6 hole is the course signature hole.  The green is on an island, surrounded by water.  It is a par 4, one of two par 4's.  When I first saw that green I refused to try and hit the ball onto it.  Now, it's ok.  Most times I can get close enough to pitch it on without it rolling too far or not enough and it plops into the moat (I call it that).  Twice today my partner and I hit our balls; they hit the rocks on the built up sides and ricoched back onto the fairway. Whew:)

Beside our rv park is a piece of bare land that is virtually a swamp (slough?).  In the early part of the year this year there was a lot of water and wetland birds, eg. egrets etc. and reptiles; like caymans.  Well the cayman is still there but there is not much water and the cows are herded in there to eat.  Anyway, to make a long story shorter, one day our neighbour came over and said the cayman was across the road, sunning him/her self in the ditch.  Sure enough, we took a walk over and there it was; but that is another picture for the next blog.

Cheers for now,
Holoidays on holiday 

It's December already

Happy birthday wishes to Taylor's mom, Trina, today.)  I just realized why November 28 seemed such an important day; Taylor turned 20!!!!  Happy belated Birthday Tayman.  Time sure flies when we're having fun.

I've been pretty lazy recently so I'm writing this blog mainly from my journal notes.

On October 29th we took the rig to a business that makes front window shades for motorhomes.  We left it there for the day although we weren't out of the lot before they started measuring.  Mike, Carol and I then drove over to Algodones, Mexico for a few hours.  I needed to get my glasses repaired.  On the way home from Mexico in the Spring, my glasses blew off a side table at the pool in Jackpot, Nev. and cracked one of the lenses.  The place I bought the glasses was out of business but I found another optical place where they updated my lenses and put in the new ones for me.  They are progressive lenses and only cost about 65.00 US.  I could have had a brand new pair of glasses for only about 120.00 US if I'd been more on the ball.  What matters is that I can see really a lot better now that the lenses are fixed.

The next morning we hit the swap meet before heading south to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.  We got two chairs and a large mat for the pad.  Good deal on those.  Not too many dealers there yet at this time of year.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is the northern point of the Organ Pipe Cactus, located south of Ajo, Arizona.


Sunset from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument