The Good Life

San Francisco has a fabulous 1.5 km sandy beach that's perfect for peaceful relaxation. 

Normally when we visit San Francisco, the waves are big, but not nearly as huge as they were last week when we were there.

The amount to white frothy foam and loud thunder was incredible. We definitely never see waves anywhere near that big in Guayabitos.  

There were lots of people in San Francisco that day because there was a two day music festival happening at night.  During the day, everyone was hanging out at the beach enjoying the sun and the roar and rumble of the monster waves.  The beach restaurants and vendors were doing a booming business.

We had a really nice lunch with our toes in the sand and then took a drive further down the beach to the hotel and residential area where the homes, hotels and B & B's are very high end.

On one of Carla's trips down here, we introduced her to San Francisco and poked around a bit.  After we walked the beach and drove through town, we headed for the upscale area and stopped for a cool drink at this popular adventure resort .

  

When we were driving around the affluent area of San Francisco the other day, we were shocked to find the Costa Azul Adventure Resort long gone and replaced with a great gaping hole in the ground where the hotel, restaurant, pool and grounds used to be.  I guess we'll be seeing new condos or a modern new hotel being built on the site soon in the very near future.  I'm glad you saw it when you did, Carla.

We also came across this beat up old van parked in one of the beach accesses.  

The owners were either still sleeping inside or were somewhere down the beach.  Obviously they were prepared for campfires and had extra gas on the roof in case they ran out during their travels.

The gaudily painted old Volkswagen van was a long way from home. Check out the licence plate.   The van made it all the way to San Francisco from beautiful British Columbia, Canada - a driving distance of approximately 2800 miles or  4500 kilometers.

The van may be a little rusted out and has seen better days, but it evidently still gets the owners where they want to go.  I don't know if I would call camping in this van "the good life", but some people's expectations are different than others. 

I'm sure there was a whole lot of wacky tobaccy smoked and tequila consumed the two nights of the music festival in San Francisco. 

We probably missed a lot of fun, dancing and singing that went well into the wee hours that weekend.  

But for us a quiet evening spent on the deck of Casa Que Sera is much more our style.  And thank God we have a king bed in a real bedroom to share rather than a narrow hunk of foam in a grubby, cluttered camper van.

Are we getting old, or what?   

Bernardo's Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Plantains

Every Friday afternoon around dinner time we hear the sound of a shrill steam whistle making its way down our street.

The sound is coming from a portable wood burning oven in a cart being pushed by a shy young man named Bernando.  You can see the small wood fire towards the bottom of his stainless steel cart. 

Bernardo is selling his luscious roasted sweet potatoes and plantains.

I first met Bernardo a few weeks ago when he was around, but I already had my dinner prepared, so didn't buy anything that day.

It isn't easy work pushing and dragging Bernardo's heavy steel cart over the cobblestone streets in our neighbourhood, so this past Friday I hauled Bruce and his wallet outside and gave Bernardo a few pesos for a couple of small plates of his goodies. 

We took a good look at the well made cart because we'd never seen anything like it before.  I asked Bernardo where it came from, and he told us it was made in Mexico City.  His cart does look a tad more sophisticated than any of the apparatuses I've seen manufactured in La Peñita.

There is a place to store small hunks of wood that keep the oven hot.

You can see the steam whistle mounted in front of the fire box in the next photo. 

Bernardo usually drizzles sickly sweet condensed milk over both the potatoes and the plantains, because the Mexicans love anything sweet. 

We said no to any sweet topping on the potatoes, but said ok to a slight drizzle over the plantains.

Bernardo doesn't speak a word of English, so we chatted with him the best we could for a couple of minutes and then Bruce paid him for our treats and he was on his way.

Just before he left, he pointed to my camera and told us he'd like copies of my photos next Friday when he comes around again, so I must remember to get prints made the next time I'm in Peñita.

     



























I always put together a meal or two for Maria to take home on the days she works for us, so Saturday morning I added the syrupy plantains to her care package.  I know she'll enjoy them much more than we would.

This morning I chopped up Bernardo's sweet potatoes and fried them with some onion and pepper.

I also crumbled and fried some Italian sausage that I had purchased at the La Cruz market a couple of weeks ago.

Then I fried a couple of Maria's fresh eggs and toasted some caraway bread from the German Deli in La Peñita.  I spread a little orange marmalade on the toast while Bruce was squeezing oranges for our morning wake up drink, and breaky was ready.

We usually go out for breaky and then take a drive somewhere on Sundays, but I had some work done on my mouth on Friday and it's still a little tender and swollen.  So we are going to have a quiet day at home. 

Right now I'm sipping a nice warm cup of Chinese tea and thinking about whether I want to sit on the deck and read while listening to the waves, or if I want to just sit here a while longer and prepare tomorrow's blog.  

Whatever I decide to do, I know it's going to be very low key. 

Changing Landscapes

On our drive last weekend the scenery changed dramatically several times.

We started out from Puerto Vallarta on the coast where there is nothing but jungle and palm trees on either side of the highway.

Before very long we approached the small town of Las Palmas.

The next photo shows what the countryside is like around Las Palmas.   It is mostly farmland and gently rolling hills.



As we drove over a bridge in Las Palmas, I looked down to see to a beautiful river winding its way downstream.  

Several Mexican families were cooling off and having fun playing in the river.

Other families were spending the afternoon hanging out in the palapa restaurants at river's edge.

On a previous drive, Bruce and I enjoyed a peaceful couple of hours over lunch at one of these low key restaurants.  The food was really good and the view was spectacular. 

After leaving Las Palmas, the landscape began to change once again as we got closer to the mountains.

Just before we came to the historic small town of San Sebastian,

we crossed the Puente Progreso concrete bridge which has a span of 472 feet and a height of 390 feet.

After passing San Sebastian, we began our journey through the Sierra Madres which is always a feast for the senses, and believe it or not, I actually survived all the steep terrain and scary curves. 

As we got further into the mountains, we found ourselves driving up and around even more precarious switchbacks where the highway was carved into the high cliffs.

The scenery along the deep gorges, steep ridges, hills and valleys was spectacular as we passed mile after mile of gnarly pine trees. The pines aren't as tall as the Ponderosa Pines we see in the interior of B.C., but their shape is much more interesting and I think their needles are longer.



The natives use these pine needles to make the beautiful intricately woven baskets we see at all the local markets.

The pine forests and twists and turns finally ended and as we approached the historic town of Mascota.  The scenery and temperature changed once again as we drove by pastures for livestock, fields of corn and agave and other crops which were nestled in the narrow valleys.  We even detected the smell of sugar cane in the air.   The landscape was very desert like and reminiscent of the cattle country we see around Princeton, B.C.

On the way home from Mascota, we stopped for a few minutes while I took a photo of a tiny kindergarten just outside San Sebastian.  

The spectacular red double poinsettias against this wire fence really caught my eye. 

I wonder where our Sunday drive will take us this weekend.