San Blas...Nayarit...Mexico

After leaving santa maria del oro, and not being able to go to guadalajara I made a rash decision to head to san blas. It is about 2 hours from puerto vallarta and I do have to be there on Jan 19th. I had no housing, only hopes and a contact that I had made who owns a bunch of bungalows.

I pull in to the town, and start looking for the La Quinta California bungalows. But upon getting lost, a woman stops me and says "you are from Washington, where". It turns out she too is from Seattle, but she and her husband and daughter leave down here full time. She owns an Italian restaurnt in town. I tell her that I'm looking for housing and she says come with me to the beach, she has a friend looking for a house sitter. Amazing I thought.

So I follow her down and spend the afternoon with a bunch of her friends at the Stoners Surf camp and then she takes me to meet her friend. Unfortunately he is looking for someone for two months, which I can't do, but it was nice to make the contact. Afterwards I go to see Chris from the bungalows and as it turns out he has a great house that I can rent for two weeks. I see it, and take it. It is 300 feet from the beach, has a great kitchen and is very private with lots of locks and gates. Maddie can bark as much as she wants. I love it. And it is very cute inside.

Now I have begun getting to know the town. Finding the markets. Finding the laundry and getting to know the local sites, coffee plantations, jungles, and of course SURFING. But I am very comfortable, and very safe! And very content.

There is a lot of friendly people in town and lots of local delights. Such as banana bread pudding. It is the best bread pudding I have ever had. There is a certain woman that has the best, so while she walks the "ramada's" the beach palapas I flag her down to get a huge slice for 10 pesos or about a dollar. Bananas are a big deal here so you can find all sorts of banana items from yogurts with bananas to chocolate chip banana bread. And for anyone that has known me for a long time knows, I love my bananas! You can also get fresh roasted peanuts, and pepitas (pumpkin seeds) from the "beach shopping network" as Virgina or giny calls it. She is the gal from Seattle who owns the restaurant and I sometimes meet up with her for a couple of beers and antojitos at the stoner surf camp. She has kindly showed me all sorts of great places and given me maps to others.

As for my safety. It is well taken care of. There is actual a military base here (seems ironic huh, who has heard of the Mexican army) but they have a small force. And every morning att 7am they run the beach, in unison with their white shirts and red shorts. The first morning I saw them I thought while looking around, is this "Platoon" or "An Officer and a Gentlemen" i half expected to hear someone yell out "cut". But as the soliders ran by in unison they all looked over at me, so out of habit I said "hola" and in unison they all said hola back. I guess a little more lax than our military...

I should go now, I must hit the meat market for a couple of food items.

Oh, and one more thing, the house comes with a cell phone. So if anyone wants to call the number is 31-11-10-91-57. To call out of country you must dial 011 then the 10 digit number. Don't leave a message, I would never be able to figure out how to retrieve it.

Adios. And I promise to be safe(r)