Rincon de Guayabitos
Trip Start
Dec 31, 2006
1
2
11
Trip End
Feb 27, 2007
Rincon de Guayabitos, Mexico
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Ray Girard is the hotel manager of the BRISAMAR - an 18 room 3 story hotel with a central courtyard and a small swimming pool. It is NOT the Ritz. He is from Edmonton. We are 14 seconds to the beach, according to Ray. Ray has been coming here for a number of years and looks after the place for a local Mexican owner. He knows EVERYBODY, speaks Spanish, and can give you advice on anything Rincon. He is full of energy (and some bullshit) and entertains you with stories of holidays passed.
Jan 4 - Went to La Penita, an adjacent town that is more Mexican. There is a market there every Thursday. We made a list of stuff for our abode and Heather, Ray´s ´wife´ (also from Edmonton) led us on a 30 minute walk to the market. The market was typical and we didn´t find too much stuff but got some in local stores. Then Heather took us to a house Ray has been building for about 5 years in La Penita. It is on a hill and has a beautiful view of the ocean and the hills around. What´s finished is nicely terraced to take advantage of the hill and all tiled and colorful. Ray met us there in his half ton and gave us a ride back where we sat in the box - Mexican style.
Jan 5 - Tom and Marsha arrived around 3:30 PM. We didn´t really expect them until next week. Good to see them. They´ve been having fun but immediately said that Rincon is way cleaner than where they were down south. (Really?)
Jan 6 - Ray organized a fund raiser for the local doctors and first aid station to buy a heart /blood pressure monitor. He sold tickets for 100 pesos ($10 CAD). Ray is a human dynamo and set up the tables and got the chairs and arranged for the food and booze. Merilynn and the other ladies helped prepare the veggies. We arranged for Tom and Marsha (who are staying here for a couple of nights) to bartend for their supper as Ray sold all the tickets. But Tom got sick and Marsha had to do most of it. The food was great and it was a fun party and they made money. Later we walked to the local zocalo (town square) where a mariachi band was entertaining. We didn´t stay long as there was no place to sit. Checked the internet going home and the news is not so good: Mom is not well and the Oilers suck.
Jan 7 - Signed up to go on a whale watching, beach bumming trip to Playa Chacala - a Gilligans Island 3 hour tour - along with about 10 others from the Brisimar. It started at 9:00 AM. We sailed by some beaches around Los Ayala then, about 5 km out, we saw a school of dolphins but they were just passing by. We were about to get discouraged and head to Chacala when suddenly a male and a female humpback pair appeared and did they put on a show! They female breeched (by Ray´s count) 37 times!! The male just plodded along and blew and showed his tail now and then but the female waved her front flipper and cavorted and leaped out of the water. They were no more than 25 to 50 meters away. Ray was beside himself and claimed it was the best show he had seen in his 20 years of organizing these tours either in Puerto Vallarta or here. In his words it was ´FABULOUS´. We actually left them early as we had arranged for lunch at Chacala. Playa Chacala is nice little undiscovered beach and cove which has since been discovered. The beachside restaurant barbequed 2 huge red snappers for 6 of our group. It was delicious. We stayed about 2 hours then headed back. Just before we left I took a quick dip to cool off and met a 50ish athletic- looking women who is a long distance swimmer. She was camping by herself and wanted to know where we were staying and how much, etc. I sicked her on to Ray and she wound up hitching a ride to Rincon with us and staying a couple of nights at the Brisamar. The other women on the trip just hated her. We got back around 4:15 and bragged to the crowd back at ´the compound´ as Tom calls it. Tom found a nearby campground with a vacant spot and moved their stuff while we were gone.
Jan. 8 - Tom was feeling a bit better so we 4 walked to La Penita to shop for some souvenirs and so I could cash some travellers cheques (9 pesos for $CAD). There was a half hour line-up in the bank but it was air conditioned and they had a TV showing highlights of the NFL playoff games. We took a minibus back to Rincon (5 pesos - 50 cents CAD each). That night Ray arranged to pipe in the BCS football game -OSU vs Florida. We went out for pizza at half time. There are lots fewer folks around now that the Mexicans have returned home.
Jan 8 - Marsha was not feeling well - a sore throat. They took us out for breakfast and we took some clothes to the laundry. $11CAD for 3 loads washed, dried and folded. Beached it in the afternoon and went out for dinner with about 10 others from the compound at the El Marlin. The margaritas were fabulous and the meal was good. We had a good time and, as we were walking home, I remembered that I hadn´t paid the bill. I ran back and settled up. Blame it on the margaritas.
Jan 10 - Tom and Marsha are both feeling better and decided that they were going to Sayulita for their last few days in Mexico. We went out for breakfast with them and left them to pack up and catch their bus. We´ll go see them in Sayulita tomorrow for something to do.
