We're home. Arrived March 28 during some wonderful sunny weather.

March 30, 2013

We are home trying to pick up the pace from our Mexican doddle to this speedier world.  The sun is shining, Maya has our garden weeded and ready to plant, Lynda made us delicious food for our re-entry so we are so appreciative of our dear friends.

The deep greens of islands, mountains and land are refreshing and I hope my knee improves soon so I can not just organize hikes but attend.

Ivan is busy with plans to put a fence around his organic garden, and is so happy to be back in his Empire. His green house produced vegetables all winter and has offerings for us now of Kale, carrots and other greens.

So time to herald in the spring and bring the best of Mexico to the best of the Pacific NW.

I look forward to seeing my dear friends as soon as we are more settled.

Evi  (this photos was taken at our farewell dinner in Mexico)

Headed to Vancouver tomorrow March 27 and Gibson on March 28/ 2013

The last week in Mexico is always sad.  We will miss the morning birdsong, the mooing cows, the vibrant spring flowers, and the Jacaranda trees that soften the landscape with their  move-blue flowers. The hillsides are tinged with a soft blue while the road side wakes us up with the brilliant yellow of the Primavera Trees.

We will miss the shops, festivals and vibrancy of daily life in Jocotepec.  Not to mention the wonderful people we have come to know over our five seasons here.

We had a farewell dinner at Vive Mexico tonight. The warmth of San Juan Cosala, the ambiance of our favourite restaurant and all the quirky and wonderful folks that end up here from all over the world make life endlessly interesting. So many stories......

We will be flying on US Airways but need to spend the night in Vancouver as our flight arrives too late to catch a ferry.
Steve has offered to pick us up from the hotel near the airport (we are very grateful:) so we will get home on Thursday afternoon (March 28) if all goes as planned.

We look forward to seeing everyone, but it will take a few weeks to shift gears.
 

Hasta Pronto!

Evi y Ivan

Flight #/Carrier		Depart	Arrive	Travel time	Meal	Aircraft	Cabin	Seats
2628		4:55 PM  GDL	6:41 PM  PHX	2h 46m	None	CRJ 900	Coach (W)	8F 8D
	Operated by Mesa Airlines dba US Airways Express
Stop: Change planes  (PHX)
504		8:10 PM  PHX	11:32 PM  YVR	3h 22m	None	A320	Coach (W)	13E 13D
	Operated by US Airways

Conception de Buenos Aires- March 19- 2013

I traveled with Ken and Kris to Conception de Buenos Aires. This is a lovely town only l hour away on the wide road to Mazamitla. We arrived during a pottery festival and enjoyed the festive market that spanned 7 blocks.

The wide cobble stone streets, impressive architecture (1850’s) and pretty town squares were delightful to explore. We found some wonderful eateries and enjoyed lunch with the folks from Hacienda (a trailer park in a valley beneath Mazamitla).

Each year we discover more new and wonderful places. Some are 5-7 hours away, others just south of the lake by an hour or less.

We are slowly packing up the house and preparing for our departure March 27. We take time to float or swim each day with friends, and tomorrow we will enjoy the Tiangi (local market) and say goodbye to all the familiar vendors.

We hope everyone is well and enjoying the longer days. HAPPY SOLSTICE!

Road trip to see Conception de Buenas Aires, close to here - March 19/2013

More photos, coastal Nayarit, towns of Penita Jaltemba and Rincon de Guayabitos

Return to Roca Azul (yesterday March 10/2013)

The drive from Playa Chacala to Jocotepec is very beautiful. We passed sugar cane fields, agava farms, mountains in every shade of green with interesting rock formations and yellow flowering trees. The road is part "autopista" with toll booths, but as you get to sea level meandering country roads wind their way passed fields of cows or fruit orchards to the gorgeous deep blue sea.

We are delighted to be back in our Roca Azul home and will celebrate our friend's house warming later today. First I will attempt to see Dr. Nunez as now my right knee and leg is disabling me despite rest and care.

More story to come:)

Playa Chacala, Nayarit - March 5-10/2013

Staying longer at Playa Chacala, March 7/2013

Buenos Dias!

It's so nice here we booked in for two more days and will return to Roca Azul in the late afternoon on March 10.
We enjoyed a swim yesterday, watching the many sea birds (and pelicanoes) and the delight the Mexican children experience playing in sand and ocean. We arranged to go out in a boat possibly tomorrow to do some snorkeling.

Greetings from Nayarit (which is an hour earlier than Jocotepec)

Evi y Ivan

Wonderful Playa Chacala

We arrived yesterday at the lovely tiny little Chacala beach community. It is a sweet slightly "off the beaten track" place with some hotels, posadas, beach restaurants and a lovely deep blue sea.  The internet is terrible so I am writing this on our balcony while listening to the surf come in and hoping I don't lose the net.
We lucked out with Casa Chapala, run by a lovely family and on the hillside with a great view of fishing boats, this charming little bay.

Mexican maps are as bad as their GPS system (which has you in the Pacific Ocean) when you are driving along the autopista!!  Technology is not their claim to fame. But I managed to navigate using maps and people, enjoying the fact that now folks understand my bad Spanish and I usually understand their replies.

 We used the "Quota" road ( toll road ) which made the driving easy most of the way. When we turned off we were on a lovely rural road above the coast. Tree branches arched over the roadway with beautiful yellow flowers (sort of like Hibiscus).  The land was pastoral with friendly cows, farms, agava plants and mountains in the distance. It was so nice to see green again. Jocotepec has no rain during winter. Though their are many tropical flowers the mountains are not green until their rainy season (which we have never seen, it starts in June).

Ivan is happy here by the sea. We are dining on our balcony. We hope to swim but the sea is a bit wild which is unusual, it is also cooler here. The weather is very similar to Roca Azul. Cool at night and in the morning and pleasantly warm by day.

Warm greetings to all.

Evi y Ivan
I will chance posting this and hope to edit it once back at Roca. We may stay here longer than our planned 3 days.

Road trip to Chacala Beach in Nayarit, leaving tomorrow March 5- 2013

We decided to do a 4-6 day trip to Playa Chacala in the state of Nayarit. It is supposed to be a low key wonderful place with a “calmado” beach and beautiful scenery. We will set out early tomorrow, March 5, and if we don’t get lost it should only take 5.5 hours.

 Playa Chacala is 1.5 hours north of Puerto Vallarta accessed by a big safe highway most of the way. Mark offered us a better car for this trip so we are busy filling the cooler, looking at the maps and excited to see a new area.

We are anxious to find a beach on the Pacific side not too far from Roca in a nice community. We will be staying at Casa Chacala, an affordable hotel near the beach and will have our computer (there is wifi) and our cell phone numbers are 331 538 8409 (Evi) or 331 440 0471( Ivan).  The weather is still superb and it is always nice to get to the coast after 3 months inland. I look forward to the drive on a road we have never used.

Greetings to all…..we will be home in about 3 weeks!!! … the days are melting away in this endless sunshine. I must admit it is a little hard to move on:)

We hope everyone is getting a glimpse of spring back home, and that when we arrive a few flowers will appear along with warmer days. 

One gets very spoilt here living surrounded by vibrant coloured flowers, homes and buildings painted every colour of the rainbow.

I often wonder why we are so conservative with colour in Canada? I would love to see a street with houses painted yellow, brilliant orange, verdant green etc.  It always seems odd that we don’t perk up our surroundings during the grey and rainy season.  It is so uplifting to walk through most towns and enjoy the wall paintings, bold and expressive as well as the lively sounds and rhythm of life.

More to come on Playa Chacala (Pacific coast, north of Los Marcos) once we return.

Feel free to continue emailing us, we hope to arrive at Casa Chacala late afternoon March 5.

Evi y Ivan

New Paintings at Vive Mexico March 4/ 2013