HAPPY SPRING 2019: I wrote the Blog below while we were still in Mexico. These two paragraphs are an addendum to that Blog. I guess the Blog written in Mexico was confused as I had made several edits to it so could not get it to publish.
We have been home in Minnesota since March 20. Today is April 2nd and on Thursday of this week, we are driving to Sun Lakes, Arizona (near Phoenix) to visit Phil’s Army buddy, Tony. Wednesday will be “load the Suburban” day. Our plan (however, with road trips, we rarely have a “plan.”), we will be home no later than May 4th.
I hope you enjoy this Blog with its photos…………………Anne
MEXICO….We have rented a car for our last week here in Puerto Vallarta and have been on the road most of every day. What fun we have had, what interesting things we have seen and the wonderful people we have met. I have taken so many photos. Enjoy our travels with us.
We stopped at this family’s restaurant for breakfast on our way to Barra de Navidad. It was right along the highway and we were hungry. We hoped they had pancakes – one of our favorites. We always figure they are pretty safe although in the 9 years Phil and I have been going to Mexico for the winter, we have never gotten sick from eating food. This little family spoke English and were wonderful ….mom, dad and 2 sons. (Oh, that is me in there too!!) We had so much fun with them. Lots of laughs and hugs.
This is their oldest son, Memo, with a deck of cards on top of his head. When Phil uses 2 decks of playing cards for a card trick, someone always had to hold one deck up high. Memo figured out a way to keep it high without taxing his arm!! He simply put it on top of his head. Good thinking, Memo. This is not a part of the trick….it just confuses people!!
Along the road, we stopped (again) for these delicious pastries….actually soft bread stuffed with pineapple, coconut, and even sweet potato. (No, Phil….there is not any with strawberry jelly inside!!!) We bought pineapple and one of the sweet potato, but I did not like it so much…..so Phil ate it. The pineapple was to die for (just an expression, you know.) Don’t they look absolutely scrumptious? I wonder if there is a recipe on the internet?
Further down the highway, we turned off onto on a gravel road. Who could have known what we would find.? First it was these adorable little calves just looking at us. They are so curious. Phil picked some green stuff, but they passed on it as they must have known it was not their kind of green.
The little ones were so darling. Such cute faces.
We saw some people watching us at the next farm so we drove in ……it was a huge watermelon farm….The young man (Jose) who owns it has 50 acres of watermelons. He spoke perfect English as he had lived with an uncle in Boston for some years.
They load the semi by THROWING the watermelons from one person to another until the truck is loaded. There were 3 men and 2 women making up the “watermelon loading chain.” Amazing what muscles they must have. Those watermelons are heavy.
Jose checked for a good melon, cut it open, and here is Phil eating it. How lucky we were to have stopped at this young man’s melon farm. What fun we had.
Here I am among the watermelons.
When the semi is loaded, Jose says the truck goes directly to Texas where a distributor markets them to Walmart and Costco. The meat of the melons is not bright red as they have miles to travel in the semi. Thought not fully ripe, the mellon we ate was very sweet.
While this one semi was being loaded, another tractor and huge wagon with about 6 people on it headed out to the field to load up more watermelons.
If we had not taken the unknown gravel road, we would never have had such a delightful experience. We learned about watermelon farming in Mexico and tasted the melon right from the field. How lucky we were in the sun eating fresh watermelon.
Monday, March 18. We heard about a mountain town called Mascota, and since today will be our last get away, we thought we would go there. It looked like it was about 100 Miles (160 Kilometers) from Puerto Vallarta. We figured it would be a nice easy 2 ½ hour trip and we would be back to sleep in Puerto Vallarta.
Before heading out for Mascota, we went to The Pancake House, had a nice breakfast, said goodbye to all our owner/waiter friends there, and our new email friends – then onto the road we went. The road is a winding narrow, high mountain road that is not in the best condition. They are making a new highway, but the old one was not so good. It was spectacular, but we could only drive at speeds of 30 to 40 Kilometers per hour especially with the road winding its way up and over the mountains. We got to within 40 Kilometers of Mascota, and checked the time. If we continued to Mascota we would need to drive most of the way back in the dark, too dangerous – so we turned around and returned to PVR. It was a spectacular trip, even though we did not reach our destination.
This will be our last year in Puerto Vallarta. We are both happy and sad. We love Puerto Vallarta, all the experiences we have had here, all the friends we have made. It is still wonderful but is starting to change, and when the new highway from Guadalajara that is scheduled to be completed this summer, it will change even more. It will likely attract an element we would not like to see here. At times there are already too many tourists, traffic is increasing, many huge non- Mexican high rise condominium buildings are being completed, more noise, and increasing pollution. We still love it and enjoy it but we do not like the changes we see coming and want to remember it as it was with its charm and flavor of old Mexico. God willing we are hoping to spend 6 months next winter in Pompano Beach.
The day before we left for the airport, we stopped to see our old friends – most of them we have known for the 9 years we have visited PV. It was sad and yet we the decision not to return is the right one for us.
The Jaguar is protected in parts of Mexico and we saw these signs along the highway.
And you know me, I always take photos of cows. I thought this one quite another beauty and she posed so nicely for me. She has a mouthful.
And here is a little black foal enjoying the warm sun and grass with his mother watching over him. He would roll onto his back and kick all four legs up in the air, but he was too quick for a photo. At least there is something green here. Some of the pastures where we saw cows and horses were only brown. (If only I had had a few bales of hay for them.)
A place I will miss in Mexico is the Botanical Garden. It contains specimens of all of the many plants growing in Mexico….and the orchids are absolutely beautiful. It seems to be the tiny orchids that have the most fragrance.
In years past, when my sister, Katy, has visited Phil and I in Mexico, we have walked to the rocky, fast-running river at the Botanical Garden to catch the pollywogs. This action of ours was a throwback to our years on the farm where we had a river running just a short distance from the house, and we caught pollywogs there as young girls. This shallow Mexican river is so clear, one can see all the rocks of every color that line the river bottom. My photo is a bit tipsy, but the sign does stand straight. (Phil is so great about my photo “addiction”….he never complains when I ask him to slow down – and even to turn around…..he is a great road companion.)
And another place I will miss is FireWorks. I loved painting the ceramic bisque pieces. I only discovered FireWorks a couple of years ago, but have spent many a happy hour there since. Bea, who owns the shop, is from France. We quickly became good friends. She is sweet, I treasure her friendship and will keep in touch as the years pass. You have seen many of my ceramics bowls painted with blueberries, but this year I also did a tray to hang and with which to remember Mexico when I walk by it. This is a Mexican Hat Man. They are always seen on the tourist beaches selling hats. The hats are piled high on their heads and arms…..hoping for a sale or two to lighten their load. A dear friend of mine sent me a photo of this and it was too tempting not to paint it. I even put a flower on one of the hats on his head. (Well, I have no way of knowing if this is a man or a woman. My sister, Katy, thinks it is a woman, but I see the short hair and believe it is a man.) What do you think?
Today is April 2, 2019 – All the snow is gone except for the biggest piles where snowplows pushed up huge piles of snow. We have a pile along our driveway it will take a couple of weeks for it to totally disappear. There was just no other place to put all the snow that fell in February….a record February snowfall for Minnesota.
When we arrived home from Mexico, our refrigerator was empty so we decided to go get a bite to eat…..you will never guess where we went…….TACO BELL!!!!!
On the road again…..Arizona here we come.
Anne & Phil
It will soon be Spring in Minnesota and the birds will be singing, courting, and building their nests. so I thought I would share a poem with you called The Architects by D.M.Liefer.
“I wish I could watch the Orioles build their hanging nest, What materials they use that can stand the test. God himself gave them the know-how and the built-in tools – to swing their young according to the rules. No human could build such a nest that could take the wind and weather. No human with all of their education can put such a home together.”
Here is Safety Advice for people who use Uber…..Never get into a car without asking WHAT IS MY NAME AND WHAT IS YOUR NAME. If the driver does not know your name, DO NOT GET IN and if his/her name is not on your phone, DO NOT GET IT. This likely would have saved the life of the young woman recently killed by getting into the wrong Uber car.
Bye for now.