Happily "Stuck" in Bucerias
We spent the last few days "stuck" in bucerias, in all the right ways.Stuck because Dean and Yumiko provide such an easy environment for us that it's hard to leave and we have already stayed well longer than we might have anticipated on the way in. Is it wrong to want to be adopted by a couple that's essentially your same age?
We feel like we just became part of the family and couldn't be happier…except that we aren't really contributing members of the family and seem a bit too old to still fit in with the kids. Watching them with their kids is a great experience for us and we love the way they are raising them, from the 4 languages the boys a growing up speaking fluently to playing on the beach or a nighttime Xgames exhibition on the couch. The boys are adorable, cute, and also extremely well behaved and mature for their ages.
We still feel the need to explore, but it could be so easy to settle here for a while and get lost without going any further. Good friends, good surf (for our level), great times…then we remember that we don't actually have the money to pay rent for the perfectly air conditioned room we've been calling home, much less a home of our own.
Saturday we explored the town of Bucerias, had a grilled feast at the house and I hurriedly sent off a design competition entry that i started a few days ago (a skin for a baja race car design oddly enough)…don't really expect much out of it, but was a good chance to keep the creative-brain working. Design submitted, we headed out to the local sports bar/pizza joint with Dean and friends to watch the ducks. The bar was hot like a sauna, but the atmosphere was great and we all traded off games on the pingpong table throughout halftime and the second half…fun times.
Sunday of course, is beach day- early on we stayed around Punta de Mita where they both work so Dean and Yumiko could trade off as schedules allowed. This gave us the opportunity to get the royal tour from Yumiko and see both inside and outside the gates of the exclusive community being built up all around the point. The area is amazingly lush and beautiful and the homes are impressive enough to match their price tags. It is amazing how much this entire stretch north of PV is developing and i still can't imagine having seen it even 5 years ago, much less 15. Post-tour we hung out on the beach, ate ceviche and waited for Dean so we could all head out for some surf. So nice to quickly get the lay of the land in an area (best food, shopping surfing, etc) rather than driving up and down the wrong roads looking.
We spend the afternoon surfing at LaLancha and then all tired and hungry (where did the day go again?) we hit a roadside stand for cocos frios and piña. Maybe the world's perfect snack. We chase down the shrimp truck, but in our exhausted state cleaning the shrimp seems a bit too much work and we return home to shower and nap, then sit down to a simple, delicious meal based upon whatever Yumiko found in the pantry.
Next morning another surf session at a different beach and then jen and i head out to try our luck talking to the locals in hopes of scoring a place to rent for a month. The waves here seem perfect for beginners such as ourselves and the idea of having a cheap place to sleep and make sure we are in the water every day for that period of time is too strong. We look at places from nice hotel rooms outside the budget to unfinished apartment buildings for locals that are a bit too far off the betaken path and unleased office space with barely running water… but really we are just looking for the best/cheapest offer that puts a roof over our head.
Tomorrow we hit Puerto Vallarta for some pressing errands and then back north to continue the search for housing.
