Canusamex Travels

Boat "Camping"

2011-06-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

It had to come. Our days on Vancouver Island are quickly drawing to a close. While the weather has been uncooperative here, I am somewhat comforted to know that most places across the country are experiencing similar inclement weather. Please God, we'll be good. Let us have a summer ...

When we arrived on the island we had hoped to take the boat for an extended tour up island. With the weather being so miserable at the start of our stay, this kept getting pushed further and further down the road. The crunch soon came, and we realized we had better take what little time we had and take the boat out for a couple of days. The weather was even going to cooperate for us.

So, we dropped the three cats off at my sister's house for safekeeping, packed up the boat and headed out on Thursday afternoon.

Here's a couple of shots of the marina where the boat is housed. There are a few spectacular boats kept here amongst the more modest.

And our boat, the River.

We putted out in search of adventure and to take in the amazing West Coast scenery. Spot the eagle?

How about the ubiquitous seals on the rocks?

The houses along the waterfront in Sidney are stunning. The sad truth is that we couldn't even afford this little "fixer-upper" situated on the water!

Our destination for the night was Pender Island. Along the way we passed the aptly-named Piers Island.

As we neared Salt Spring Island, we noticed a cluster of whale watching tour boats nearby. Bonus! We spied the killer whales and moved in closer. As we approached, a small craft met us. It turned out to be a Sound Watch boat. Their role is to monitor the whale watching (both formal and informal) boats, and to educate them on protocol around this marine life.

He informed us that we had come upon three transient killer whales; an adult female and two young whales. The transient whales do not feed on salmon, which is the food of choice for the whale pods indigenous to that area, but instead prefer to snack on seals. We were advised on how close we could get to the whales.

It was a rare treat to see whales. We spent a bit of time watching them and snapping many pictures before both we and the whales left the area and went our separate ways.

We arrived at Bedwell Harbour around 4:00 that afternoon, and checked into our boat slip at the Poet's Cove Resort & Spa Marina. What a fabulous spot! World class facility with a great restaurant, pub, pool, hot tub, spa, hotel and guest cottages.

We tied up and promptly wandered the resort taking in the view. Feeling peckish, we enjoyed a pitcher of beer on the sunny patio and ordered an early supper.

Noting that the pool and hot tub were amazingly free of any guests, we took advantage of the momentary lull and enjoyed a hot tub and beverage.

This was followed by a spectacular sunset.

We raised our wine glasses and saluted the day.

Day two - off to Victoria Harbour. After a picture-perfect cruise the day before, we were quite surprised to find that the swells were much rougher than what we were used to. Items on the counter and stored on the bed were rapidly and unceremoniously making their way to the floor. Panic on my part, and much scrambling to get everything secured while Terry captained the boat. I did not particularly care for this part of the journey.

As we neared Victoria Harbour, we came upon the Van Isle 360 International Yacht Race participants. This is a sailboat race around Vancouver Island. Quite an impressive sight.

We docked at the Coast Victoria Hotel. Nice dock, and we had access to all of their amenities, including the pool and hot tub.

We hosted a happy hour for Tammy and Tom, who drove in from Sooke, and then strolled down to downtown Victoria for supper at the Bard and Banker.

Up the next morning for a quick hot tub, and then a relaxing trip back to Sidney. What a great trip! Next year we'll plan on a longer excursion.

Just Another Glamorous Day ......

2011-04-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

Strange thing. I've noticed that, after posting any references to the weather we experienced in Arizona this winter on my Facebook page, I typically received a number of very negative comments from folks back home. You might even construe some of them as thinly veiled death threats ........ Weird.

This post should make you feel a little bit better. Here's how the last couple of days have gone for us .....

The day finally comes, and we have to go back to Canada. We begin to experience the roller coaster of emotions associated with dealing with this. And so begins the grieving process ...

Stage One: Shock and Denial
How could the time fly so quickly!! As we have been actively following the weather back home - both in Alberta and Vancouver Island - we are quite aghast that we have to tear ourselves away from the glorious weather that seems to be getting even better day-by-day here in Arizona, and make a trek back to what appears to be a continuous downpour, gloomy skies and a wardrobe of rubber boots and rain gear. And that's on Vancouver Island! We'd literally die if we had to travel back to the endless winter wonderland that Alberta has experienced!

And how the hell am I going to fit all of my stuff into that damn motorhome!???

Stage Two: Pain and Guilt
The process of moving out of the house and into the motor home is extremely painful for me. Terry, ever the martyr, is actually looking forward to it Sick bastard.

We experience some guilt in feeling so sorry for ourselves - after all, we've had six months away from the horror of a Canadian winter, haven't we? We're not bad people for enjoying this lifestyle, are we? We put in our time, didn't we?

Stage Three: Anger and Bargaining
Anger - how can the U.S. government be so mean and force us from our home?? We're good people! We're contributing to the local economy for God's sake!!

Stage Four: Depression, Reflection
As we make what seems like 5 millions steps between the house and the motor home with our arms loaded to the point of straining, and as the packing up process takes three days instead of the two we had planned, I reflect on all of the things I wanted to do this winter that I didn't. All those hikes I meant to take. Those malls I wanted to check out. The last trip to Mesa Market that I needed to do. Sigh.

Stage Five: Acceptance
The house is finally emptied of our belongings and cleaned. We've reached the point of the inevitable - we're really going to leave here and start the drive home.

So hand in hand we turn the lock on the front door, walk away from the house, and enter the motorhome. Then the real fun starts ...

PROBLEMS WITH THE MOTORHOME ...... Crap!

Problem #1 - during the pack up process, for no reason half of the interior lights in the motorhome quit working. Great. Terry spends hours and hours troubleshooting the problem. And of course the wiring in a motorhome is a complete guessing game. Without access to a wiring diagram it is nearly impossible to pinpoint the problem.

The Lord must have taken pity on us as, just as mysteriously as they quit working, the lights began working again. Guess they'll save the next round of malfunctioning for another really inappropriate time. The only good thing is that Terry did ultimately identify the problem, and assures me it can solve this problem should it arise again.

Problem #2 - The pop-out in the bedroom breaks down. The pop-out is pulled in and out by two timing belts that operate by gears. One of the timing belts break. Luckily, Terry is able to manually assist the sole timing belt and pull the slide in. This will require a few stops to locate a replacement belt and the time to install it. Crap.

Problem #3 - Our Motosat satellite dish is having major issues. As a result, we were forced to travel to the delightful town of Quartzite, AZ (where the dishes were installed two years ago) to have it checked out. And of course, within 5 minutes they deliver the wonderful news that we will have to drive to Salt Lake City, Utah, to have the Motosat people work on it. Nice.

Now that we are travelling under a deadline, it became imperative that we schedule an appointment with the Motosat technicians right away. It's an 8-hour drive from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City. Terry calls Motosat and they advise him that "it is supposed to rain on Wednesday, and due to safety concerns, they are unable to go up on the roof of our motorhome to take down the satellite dish". To which Terry responded that he would be more than happy to take on that task himself if that would work!

In order to identify the dish model etc., Terry had to put the dish up. Once up, it decided to give up the ghost and would not stow itself away. This prompted (and sped up) the inevitable removal of the dish from the roof of the motorhome.

Now, what goes up must also come down ..... The damn satellite dish weighs about 100-150 lbs. In order to get it down from the roof Terry had to fashion a harness of sorts using a nylon ratchet strap and slowly lower it to the ground via a ladder. My role in this fiasco was to stabilize it and assist it to the ground while Terry held the bulk of the weight from the top of the motorhome.

I tried to help - I really did. However, it ended up with a lot of screaming and yelling - something along the lines of being afraid of getting killed or crushed or something. A park resident, hearing the commotion, came running over to assist - fully believing that I was indeed being killed by Terry. Embarrassing.

With the satellite dish finely safely stowed in the back of the car, I turned my attention to the chore of getting ready to leave the park.

As you all know, we have three cats joining us on this magical journey. All three are of the same mindset when it comes to the drive - they hate it, but no choice in the matter. Molly, however, fares the worst of the bunch as she experiences motion sickness, and inevitably throws up within 20 minutes into the trip. ALWAYS a treat for all of us.

After experiencing that special treat yet again yesterday, we vowed to stop at the first pharmacy in Las Vegas and purchase some Dramamine for her. No more motion sickness for Molly!

Sounded so good .....

I split one of the pills in half, and went about the process of shoving that pill down her throat. No sir. She is fighting, I am losing the battle. Terry joins in. Molly bites Terry. Still no pill. Finally, it wasn't pretty, but we got it down her.

Next thing we know - we observe Molly drooling and foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog! Foam was pouring out of her mouth! I chase her around the motorhome, and spend the next 15 minutes wiping the never ending stream of drool and foam from her mouth. Worse than the exorcist!

We left the park at 12:30 en route to Salt Lake City. Pray for us.

Day 7 – Wednesday, June 9, 2010 Silva Bay, Galiano Island to Ganges Harbour, Salt Spring Island

2010-10-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

The whole boat was woken up by an alarm that was first unidentifiable. Terry had promised to set his alarm for 7:00 a.m. so us girls could shower early and so we could travel through the narrows while the tide was favorable. However, the unidentifiable alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. Terry and I scrambled around thinking it was his alarm. Turns out that it was the boat radio which we had not turned off the night before.

One last check of the crab trap, only to yield a starfish. We set off around 8:00 a.m.

Not long into the day’s travel we experienced our first water disaster. The sink stopper was in place, and shortly after we left the dock, the cutting board must have fallen off the counter and hit the sink tap, turning it on. Water filled the sink and over flowed for some time before Carol went down to the galley and discovered it. All of the lower cupboards were filled with water, so each of them had to be emptied and the water drained out. Fun.

The wind was finally decent, so we had our first real taste of sailing, with much tacking back and forth and the boat leaning sharply. This was great fun but didn’t make for good standing, walking or keeping anything on the counters in the galley!

In addition to the wind, the weather was decidedly cooler. We could actually see our breath early in our travels that day. It was dark, dreary and we experienced some rain.

Our planned stop for the night was at the government docks in Ganges Harbour, Salt Spring Island. This was the most inexpensive docking fees we had experienced on the trip – only $0.80/foot vs. $1.30/foot at Silva Bay.

Plans included watching the hockey game, so it was another night off for the galley wenches. Ever the optimist, Terry again set the crab trap in hopes of catching an elusive crab.

We met friends of our crewmates, John & Monica, who were also spending the night at the dock in their sailboat. Carol and I hit the stores, but as it was near closing time were only able to wander into a few.

John and Monica had us all over to their lovely Catalina sailboat for happy hour. We then met at the Oyster Market Pub for supper and to watch the hockey game. After the game, John took us on a hike through the “gut” of downtown Ganges to show us the route to the washroom/shower facilities for those of us staying on the government dock. Very strange that we would have to traipse through the middle of downtown in our “jammies” in pursuit of a shower in the morning!

On the way back to the boat we were lured into a little restaurant by the dock, where we imbibed in après dinner drinks and listened to live music. Then back to the boat for a last game of dice and bed.

Day 6 – Tuesday, June 8, 2010 Pender Harbour, Sunshine Coast to Silva Bay, Galiano Island

2010-09-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

Up to a beautiful morning. Checked the crab trap and no luck yet again.

We left by 10 a.m. and headed down Malaspina Strait and into the long, wide and lonely Strait of Georgia. There was very little in the way of boat traffic, and the wind gods were once again not favoring us. We spent the better part of the day motoring.

Time was catching up to us, and we knew that we had to get as close to home as possible. We discussed travelling to Nanaimo or Chemainus, but decided instead to head back to Silva Bay on Galiano Island and spend the night there.

Once settled, Terry and Brian set the crab trap in hopes of catching an elusive crab.

The boys wanted to watch the hockey game that night, so we picked a marina with a pub. Turns out the game wasn’t scheduled until the following night, so we endured the good food but terrible music played at the pub.

After dinner, Terry and Brian checked the crab trap and found it contained only a sea cucumber which was returned to the ocean.

We all called it a night as everyone was tired after the long day on the water.

Day 5 – Monday, June 7, 2010 Egmont to Pender Harbour, Sunshine Coast

2010-09-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

Up by 6 a.m., we braved the drizzle and hiked the lovely West Coast rainforest trail through the Skookumchuk Narrows Provincial Park to the Sechelt Rapids. ‘Skookum’ means strong or powerful, and ‘chuck’ means water, which is exactly what you see at the rapids.

The rapids occur on ebb and floods of the tide change of three inlets - the Sechelt, Narrows and Salmon Inlets. At best conditions you can see spectacular rapids up to 16 feet occurring at the entrance of Sechelt Inlet. This has rightfully earned much respect from boaters, and much delight from kayakers. Unfortunately, it was a little early for the kayakers.

While we were watching the rapids, Terry noticed a small red bundle tied to the branch of a tree overlooking the rapids. We thought it might possible be a geocache, which, according to www.geocache.com, is “a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online”.

Curious, he pulled it off and untied it. What he found inside was no geocache. The bundle contained some granular substances, foil wrap from what we assumed was candy, and a long black hair. It was really quite creepy.

Terry hesitantly tied it back together, and hung it back on a tree branch. We all had visions of some native curse being unleashed upon us as a result. Terry kept looking back behind him the entire duration of the hike back, fully expecting to see some hideous spectre following us.

I later Googled this, and believe that this was a native prayer tie, which usually contains tobacco and possibly cornmeal. So far no evidence of a curse, nor any ghostly visitations in the night.

Egmont is very close to the Princess Louise Inlet. This beautiful area is, apparently, a ‘must do’ sailing trip. The coastline is very unique with sharp peaks and various steep mountains creating a number of waterfalls that cascade into Princess Louisa Inlet, and is home to the impressive Chatterbox Falls.

We found out that there was a tour boat that operated out of the Egmont Marina, and considered taking in the day trip tour, which would take us up and back much faster than in our sailboat. However, we quickly vetoed this when we found out the cost would be $120/person. We’ll save that for another sailing trip.

We started to make our way back for the return leg of our trip, making a sweep from Egmont to Jarvis Inlet and a brief stop up Hotham Sound to view the Freils Lake Falls, which ribbon down 450m of sheer cliff into the waters of the Sound. They are visible for a long time.

We carried on down Jarvis Inlet, into Malaspina Straight to Pender Harbour, where we docked in Hospital Bay at the Fisherman’s Resort & Marina. Pender Harbour was once known as the ‘Venice of the Sunshine Coast’. It was so named for its spectacular maze of islands, nooks and crannies that make up the harbor.

Once again, we decided to try setting our crab trap in the harbor to be checked in the morning.

We shared a happy hour drink and some stories with a couple from Seattle who were also on a sailing trip through these waters.

It was a beautiful evening, and we made a point of admiring (and taking closer peeks at) the beautiful sailboats around us in the marina.

Another home cooked meal, a game of dice, and off to bed.

Day 4 – Sunday, June 6, 2010 Secret Cove to Egmont, Sunshine Coast

2010-09-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

Terry and I woke to the sound of the raccoon checking out the deck of our boat in the wee hours of the night.

Up and into the pay showers ($1 for 4-minutes) above the terrific Secret Cove store, which included a government liquor store with a great selection of beer and wine.

Back to the boat, we watched in amazement as the fishermen docked right across from us began the process of hauling in crates and crates stuffed completely full of live crabs that they had caught and were storing in the waters below us on the dock. They informed us that each container held 80 lbs of crab – times probably a dozen or more crates. They were hauling them out for transport to Vancouver.

Had we have known there was a bounty of crab right beside us ….

Terry ended up purchasing a ‘real’ crab trap, and very smelly bait. We’re determined to get a crab feast in yet.

We set out under motor for Agamemnon Narrows (between the Sechelt Peninsula and the eastern shoreline of Nelson Island), at the mouth of Jarvis Inlet. We planned on mooring at the small resort community of Egmont.

Once docked, Carol and Jeannie immediately sniffed out a fishing boat and made a purchase of some fresh spot prawns – 3 lbs. @ $10/lb.

With the girls vehemently swearing that, in prior years the men had dispatched the prawns by ‘deheading them whilst they was still a wriggling’, Terry took on the horrific task. This story was later denied by the men, who remembered performing the more humane method of boiling the little critters. The prawns were set aside for later consumption.

Egmont is home to the Sechelt Rapids, rated as one of the largest salt water rapids in the world. Accessing the rapids requires a 2-1/2 mile hike through a trail located in the Skookumchuk Narrows Provincial Park. Al and Jeannie located the trail head for us, and after researching the tide table, we determined that the best time to view the rapids would be in the early morning around 7-7:30 a.m. This would require us to be up and on the hike around 6 a.m.

With the hockey game being televised that night, we decided to forgo cooking, and instead have our supper and watch the game at the ‘Back Eddy Pub and Marina’, which is home to the famous “Skookum Burger’.

We noticed a caravan of RVers pull in to the small RV park there. It turned out to be a group of German tourists. The German flag flying from our mast enticed a few of these tourists to stroll by our boat, and to engage Terry in a ‘stilted German/minimal English’ attempted conversation.

We ended the evening with a game of dice and early to bed in anticipation of our morning hike.

Day 3 – Saturday, June 5, 2010 Silva Bay to Secret Cove, near Sechelt along the Sunshine Coast

2010-09-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

Up to a beautiful day. We headed out across the Georgia Strait to our destination of Secret Cove Marina, which is located near Sechelt, along the Sunshine Coast.

With the big open water came wind, so we were finally able to move under sail. As we were sailing through Welcome Passage, Al spotted a pod of killer whales. We all immediately scrambled to view them from the deck, madly snapping photos. There was an initial pod of 4 adults with 2 babies, followed by a large male. Just behind them and further across the Passage was another pair of adults. It was a rare privilege to see them, as neither of the two couples had ever seen whales on any of their numerous sailing trips in prior years.

We docked at the Government docks. Plans for the evening included a visit with some friends of Al & Jeanie, Carol and Brian who had moved from Alberta to Sechelt. Upon further discussion, the friends turned out to be our lawyer from Olds. Lois had purchased a practice in Sechelt. Happy coincidence.

Lois showed up at the dock, not knowing that the third couple in the sailing party included Terry and I. She was sufficiently set up to presume the worst of the ‘odd couple’ in the party, and was quite surprised (and I’m sure relieved) to see us, instead of the ‘drunken, fighting cousins of Jeannie’ that she had been led to believe were part of the group.

We sat out on the deck of the boat enjoying the beautiful afternoon sun and caught up over cocktails. As we were visiting, we noticed that a number of crows in the trees along the beach were raising quite a ruckus over something. On closer inspection, we spotted a young raccoon, which was the target of their attention.

The young raccoon cautiously made his way along the deck, climbing into the docked fishing boats to see if there was anything to scavenge.

We had a lovely dinner at Lois and Barry’s beautiful home overlooking the water.

Day 2 – Friday, June 4, 2010 Montague Harbour to Silva Bay, on Gabriola Island

2010-09-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

We woke to light rain.

Montague Bay Harbour is home to an old island ferry that had been converted to a floating bakery – how cool is that! Our sailing buddies were very familiar with the wonderful baked goods produced by this unique bakery.

Terry and I sputtered and puttered over to check out our crab trap. Success! Unfortunately, we’d bagged only one small female rock crab. She put up a terrific fight, but Terry pulled her out from the trap and dropped her back into the deep. Turns out it was a miracle we had even one crab venture into the trap, as it was actually a prawn trap. Thought it looked kind of funny for a crab trap.

Off to the bakery! We were under explicit instructions from the crew to pick up some fresh cinnamon buns. Everything looked and smelled wonderful. I couldn’t resist picking up a fresh pie for tonight’s desert.

Back on board, we headed out and sailed to Silva Bay, Gabriola Island, where we docked at the Government dock.

It was a beautiful evening – lovely soft light reflected against the boats moored nearby. We sat on the deck of the boat and enjoyed a scenic happy hour, watched over closely by an eagle perched on a tree across from us on a nearby island.

Later we strolled up to the store, and watched some miniature boat races from the dock. We also enjoyed our first hot shower for the paltry sum of $4.00. I learned a valuable sailing trip lesson – bring many loonies and toonies for the pay showers!

We watched as boat after boat began to pull in, some returning with catches of large salmon. Turns out there was a fishing regatta taking place that weekend. Drooling over the beautiful salmon, us ladies discussed ways of convincing one of the fishermen into sending a fish our way.

After a great bbq steak dinner, we all hunkered down to watch a movie (now that's sailing!) and called it a night.

FINALLY!!! The Story of Our West Coast Sailing Trip

2010-09-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

So ..... my last posting was some time ago. I had long ago promised to tell the story of our West Coast sailing trip, but life got a little busy for us. Summer has since passed us by, and we are now a mere week and a half away from leaving Alberta and heading south to our Arizona home.

If you don't mind reading a little "history", I did manage to pull together the time lines and pictures of our sailing trip, and will share the story over a number of postings. Stay tuned! Let's commence with "Day One":

Day 1 – Thursday, June 3, 2010
Sidney Harbour to Montague Harbour, Galiano Island

On Thursday morning Terry and I drove to Sidney Harbour and met up with our crew mates: Al and Jeannie Ladd, and new friends Carol and Brian Koole – all from Innisfail and area. The two couples had sailed together on a number of trips so were old sailing hands. Our boat was a 38-foot Bavaria mono-hull sailboat.

After loading all of our luggage into the boat, us women drove into Sidney so we could hit a grocery store and provision the boat for the bulk of our meals. The men went were charged with procuring the necessary alcoholic beverages for the trip.

We loaded all of the food and necessary alcohol into the boat, and waited for the boat rental representative who was supposed to be coming to provide the men with the obligatory boat orientation. Of course he was late, and during the course of the orientation, became aware that the boat’s GPS system was not operating. This resulted in us changing boats and a subsequent delay while they readied another for the exchange.

The good news was that we ended up with a larger boat – a 40’ Bavaria instead – the Wind Fall, which proudly flew the German Flag.

We ended up leaving the Sidney Harbour around 3:00 p.m.under motor, and made our way to Montague Harbour, a beautiful little bay that is located on the South end of Galiano Island. We located a mooring ball and set ourselves up for the night.

We barbequed out on the deck of the boat and enjoyed a fabulous feast, topped off with a ceremonial toast for our journey.

The boys worked at readying our tender boat so we could use it as our run-around. However, once the motor was lifted, it began to literally pour gasoline out all over the deck of the boat and all over the men. Much cursing and expletives. With the motor in place and started, it soon became apparent that it ran like a piece of crap.

On board the sailboat was a trap that we assumed was for crabbing. In anticipation of this, both Terry and I had purchased fishing licenses on-line, so we could legally ‘test the waters’ for crabs while on our journey. However, upon closer inspection, we began to wonder if the trap was indeed a crab trap. Undaunted, we baited it with the remains of our barbequed salmon dinner and Terry and Al set out in the tender to drop the trap.

Creepy Yet Delicious

2010-05-28T00:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the best food can be downright creepy.

This afternoon I was sitting at my computer desk, when I heard a knock on the door of the motorhome. Turns out it was our neighbour, who came bearing gifts.

The gift turned out to be a bag of freshly caught prawns. He proudly handed them to me, and made sure that I was aware that the prawns were 'still alive'.

Thanking him, I gingerly carried the wriggling, twisting bag inside, holding it out as far from my body as was humanly possible. When the writhing inside the bag became too much for me to bear, I screamed and dropped the bag into the sink.

Terry came running out, and we spent the next half hour freaking out over what we were to do with these things. Our shrimp normally comes 'sans head' and certainly not threatening to fight back! We Googled 'how to clean and cook live shrimp', and were rewarded with instructions to 'tear the heads off' while alive, then prepare. This was certainly something neither of us was prepared to do. Frantically, we phoned my sister to see if she could provide us with a solution. "Boil 'em", she advised, "then clean 'em".

We both had a computer class to attend that evening, so decided to let the little darlings sit in their bag of ice and, hopefully, 'go into the light' before we returned home. That might make the cooking and cleaning process a little less horrifying (for all of us!).

Well, of course that didn't happen.... We arrived home 3-hours later, only to find the prawns still alive and kicking (albeit a little less vigorously). Not for long. The pot of water was boiled and readied, and the gang was unceremoniously dumped in.

After a quick boil, Terry steeled himself and separated the little darlings' heads from their bodies, and before long, we had a delightful meal of 'peel and eat' prawns, drenched in garlic butter. Yummmmm.... Check it out.

The weather has taken a turn here on the island. We're having cooler weather, with periods of rain. It's not cold, but it is certainly not as nice as we had been experiencing.

Trying to make the best of it, we seize the moments and have managed to do a little touring. Last weekend we drove up island, and explored. We checked out view lots for sale high up the mountain in the Malahat area. Absolutely fantastic views, but clearly in the 'snow' area of the island.

We drove around Shawnigan Lake, and stopped to check out the beach at Maple Bay.

Maple Bay is very beautiful. We walked down to the beach and drooled over the waterfront and water view houses that graced the hillsides. A mere $950,000 will buy you a lovely rustic 900 sq. ft. cabin in this neck of the woods!

What's not to love about this?? This is a shot of the beautiful blooms growing along the fence on the walkway down to the beach at Maple Bay.

I've also managed to drag Terry out for some 'hikes'. One day we did a walk-about on the grounds and trails of Royal Roads University, which isn't too far from our RV Park. The grounds are lovely, and their gardens are apparently quite renowned (comprised of a Japanese, Italian and rose garden). Time was too short for us to walk the gardens, but we did managed to do close to 2-hours of walking their old-growth forest trails. We also learned that Hatley Park has its own 'micro-climate', giving it the warmest winter temperatures in Canada. Imagine that.

We also walked the path system of Elk/Beaver Lake Regional Park on the holiday Monday. It is obviously a very popular place - particularly on the long weekend! We shared the trail with many walkers, joggers, dog walkers, and even horses. The 10K trail circles the lake(s), and winds through the forest. We'll definitely be back to do the 10K run, but will do so mid-week to avoid the crowds.

Rob and Judy Turner kindly took us out for a boat ride today. The water was like a mirror. We stopped in Cowichan Bay for lunch, and sat outside on the patio of a waterfront restaurant enjoying the unexpected sunshine. How civilized.

Looks like we have ourselves a boat! Rob and Terry had recently discussed the possibility of us purchasing a half-share of their boat (a 27.8' Winns Vista), and today they sealed the deal. It is a lovely boat (pictures to follow on my next blog). We're looking forward to spending some time exploring the waters with it.

Here's a shot of a group of seals we saw basking on some rocks today while cruising.

We're crossing every finger and every toe right now - praying that we're blessed with warm weather and sunshine for our sailing trip next week!

Why We Stay in Victoria

2010-05-18T00:15:00.000-07:00

In my last post, we were spending the night in the parking lot of a casino in Toppenish, Washington. As far as casinos go, I would describe this as 'the bottom of the barrel'. Not nice at all. In fact, downright yucky. However, it was a convenient place for us to park the motorhome for the night.

We were up and on the road the next morning, but facing a howling wind. It was so bad that Terry was concerned that the wind gusts could actually flip us over. We debated pulling over and waiting till the wind subsided, but decided to keep going. It was white-knuckle driving (and passengering) for quite some time.

This was our first trip to Port Angeles, so we relied heavily on the GPS to guide us. This was especially true as we drove into the busy city of Seattle. We followed 'her' instructions blindly, trusting that she would not run us into trouble. Things were going fine until suddenly, and without warning, she was instructing us to 'board the Kingston ferry'.

What ferry???? We don't know 'nutt'n 'bout no Kingston ferry!!!

Panicking (of course), we wheeled the rig out of the path the GPS had us following, and drove into a nearby parking lot to regroup and determine exactly where she had taken us, and why.

Luckily, a good Samaritan happened by. A very nice gentleman, realizing that we probably weren't where we should be, stopped to see if we needed assistance. Turns out there was indeed a ferry that we needed to take to get us over to Kingston, Washington, where we would then continue on the road to Port Angeles and the ferry across to Victoria.

He reassured us that the ferry could accommodate a rig of our size, but suggested that we may want to wait until the next day, as the gale-force winds that travelled with us were resulting in large waves that could make the ferry ride rough. The rough seas might also result in a cancellation of the sailings.

Terry contacted the ferry office to see whether we could make the next sailing. After some reassurance that the trip would not be disastrous for the motorhome and its contents, we carried on and boarded the ferry. Turns out the ride was smooth and uneventful. Thank god!

Off we headed towards Port Angeles. Terry had tentatively booked an RV park where we could spend the night before boarding the ferry to Victoria the next day. However, we happened upon the 7-Cedars Casino just outside of Port Angeles. Owned by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, this casino was a sharp contrast to the casino we had spent the previous night at - obviously a very affluent tribe. We had a fabulous meal in their restaurant.

We boarded the Black Ball Ferry at 10:30 a.m. the next day. It was a smooth crossing.

We crossed customs at Victoria, just after we disembarked. We had to declare our over-limit U.S. purchases, and our liquor overages(part bottles). They also did a walk-through inspection of the motorhome. No problems, but we did have to pay some duty. All-in-all it was a very easy border crossing. The staff were extremely professional and very courteous.

We made our way to Fort Victoria RV Park, where we stayed last year. I was surprised to see how busy it was - there appeared to be many more RVs on site compared to last year. It soon became apparent that a significant number of these RVers are permanent residents. This makes for some very interesting characters, most of whom we prefer not to mingle with.

Okay, maybe there are a few exceptions ....

This could be me in a few years. However, I'll be toting along three cats .....

Terry has once again set up our portable hot tub in the trailer. This is strictly 'verboten', so we are forced to sneak down the road to the trailer (it's parked in the storage area) with our towels and drinks hidden. The 'full-timers' here appear to be unusually curious, so we have to make sure no one gets too suspicious.

It's worth the risk, however. Terry has even set up a portable DVD player, so we watch movies while we enjoy our soak in the tub!

We've been in Victoria for two weeks now, and really enjoying it. We're spending lots of time with sister Tammy and her hubby Tom, and have linked up again with Rob and Judy Turner. We celebrated Mother's Day with my lovely stepmom Lois and stepsisters Melita and Mara-Lee at Lois' place on the shores of Lake Cowichan.

Life is good on the island. Here's a few of the reasons why we spend time here before returning to Alberta .....

It's unbelievably green. And the golfing is excellent! Today we golfed 9-holes at the Pacific Highlands Golf Course, and then another 9-holes at Prospect Lake Golf Course. Very different courses.

Prospect Lake looks really nice. Where is that boat when you need it!!

The flowers!! It is unbelievable how many varieties and colors you see in full bloom.

Even the rocks support flowering bushes.

The beaches! Tammy, Tom, Terry and I went for dim sum in Chinatown on Sunday, and took a leisurely stroll along the waterfront in Victoria.

It was a beautiful day, and we took advantage of the great weather and the scenic beaches that we came upon.

Look - palm trees!!! Makes me feel like home ....

This is a picture of a very, very large otter that we came across while on our walk. He was sunning himself on the rocks, but hit the water as soon as Terry got too close with the camera.

New water sport! Terry and I borrowed Rob and Judy's kayaks, and paddled around the Sidney Harbour. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time paddling by the unbelievable homes along the waterfront. We even had a seal pop up right beside us.

And my personal favorite thing about Vancouver Island? The Pubs!!! They have the best English-style pubs ever, and there is an abundance of them. In fact, there are two great pubs (the Four Mile Pub and the Six Mile Pub - the oldest pub in B.C.) within walking distance of us. How convenient...

These pubs have interesting histories. Their original purpose was to serve as a dropping point for the mail, which was delivered via coach. A number of the pubs are reputed to be haunted. Even more fun ...

We are scheduled for a 7-day sailing trip through the Gulf Islands June 2-8th. We'll be sailing in a traditional monohull sailboat with two other couples. It should be a very different experience from the BVIs - there will be no jumping into the water (intentionally at least). I'm sure it will be amazing, and the scenery wonderful.

Now if we can manage to avoid the 'liquid sunshine' they keep forecasting for the next few days ....

Trip of a Lifetime - Sailing the British Virgin Islands

2010-05-11T20:02:00.001-07:00

Bit of a Background

Why a sailing trip in the British Virgin Islands? With our running buddy’s (Roberta and her husband Mark Hammer) 25^th wedding anniversary approaching, ideas began to be tossed out for ways to acknowledge this special occasion. Mutual friends, Steve and Mary Turner (Mary also a running buddy), had suggested the idea of a sailing trip, and were kind enough to include us in the big adventure. Of course we said “yes”!

The planning for the trip began back in the fall, and before we knew it, we were on our way to the BVIs.

The Boat

With Steve’s training and sailing experience (west coast sailing), we all felt comfortable with the concept of a ‘bareboat’ charter (no hired crew). The boat was a Lavezzi 40 cruising catamaran. With two dining areas (inside and out) that accommodated eight, we were quite comfortable.

There were three cabins and two heads. We allocated the ‘owner’s cabin’ to Mark and Roberta, so the anniversary couple had the larger cabin and private head. Terry and I shared the other head with Mary and Steve.

The name of this majestic cruiser? The Bordello ……. Hmmm …

Life on the Boat

Being seasoned Rvers, all of us were very cognizant of the need to conserve water. The boat’s tank held 80 gallons, and we easily lived with that. Rather than indulging in long showers on the boat, we all opted for ‘communal baths’ in the warm, bath-like waters surrounding us. No problem!

Almost instinctively we assumed our roles on the boat. Leadership was quickly assumed. Here's the Captain:

No, wait, here's the Captain:

Wait a minute, wrong again:

Seriously, Steve - with his background of West Coast sailing, served as our able bodied Captain.

Mark and Terry were appointed as crewmates, with Mark also taking on the critical role of "Dinghy Boat Captain" to our tender boat, the "Santa Maria" (so how was it that our tender boat had a more dignified name than our catamaran??).

Terry's expertise with the mop earned him the title of “Kemo Swabbie”.

Mary, by virtue of her position as ‘Captain’s wench’, was readily promoted to step in as assistant captain when required.

Roberta and I, on the other hand, were promptly demoted to the position of ‘Galley wenches’. And there we remained.

The following is a day-by-day log of our sailing trip:

Saturday, April 3rd - TravelDay

Phoenix, Arizona – Miami, Florida – San Juan, Puerto Rico – Tortolla, Beef Island, BVI

After a whirlwind visit with sister and brother-in-law Tammy & Tom, who nicely agreed to stay at our Arizona home and babysit ‘the kids’ for us, we flew out of Phoenix at 7:45 a.m. on route to Tortolla, BVI.

Our stops were Miami and then San Juan, Puerto Rico. From there we were to meet up with the rest of our group and travel to Tortolla, Beef Island, BVI. The flight itinerary was pretty tight between stops, so we were a little concerned about making all of our connections on time. One delayed flight could be disasterous.

We packed accordingly, making sure that we both had carry-on bags containing all of our clothing and essentials. Our only checked bag contained ‘non-essentials’ (scuba/snorkelling gear, water shoes, etc.). No problem if this bag didn’t make a connecting flight.

The flight gods must have been smiling on us, as things went smoothly and we were soon sitting in the airport at San Juan, Puerto Rico, waiting to meet up with the rest of our sailing mates who would be coming from their connecting flight at Houston, Texas.

We checked their flight status, only to see that the flight was delayed. Their new arrival time was estimated for 8:05 p.m. This posed a bit of a problem, as the flight to Tortolla was scheduled to depart at 8:25 p.m. This was also the last flight out to Tortolla. If they missed this, they wouldn’t have an opportunity to connect with another flight until the following day.

We pondered our options, realizing that we did not even know the name of the hotel we were supposed to be staying in on Tortolla that evening, nor who was supposed to be meeting us at the airport. Not good planning on our part!

Thankfully, as we were standing in line to board the plane, Steve and Mary, Mark and Roberta raced down the airport and made their way into the line. What a relief for all of us! Everyone’s mood lifted dramatically. The sailing crew was all present and accounted for. Let the holiday begin!

After checking into the Village Cay Marina Hotel, we had a late supper and called it a night.

Sunday, April 4^th

Tortolla to Norma Island

We awoke to the sound of roosters crowing, a sound we would soon get accustomed to. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny, tropical day. Just as one would imagine it should be. After breakfast, we were picked up by cab and delivered to the nearby Road Town marina, where our catamaran was waiting for us to board.

Steve was required to go through a brief orientation before taking over the boat. We also had to wait until the food provisions that Mary and Roberta had pre-ordered were delivered. It turned out to be a surprising amount of food, with some unusual selections thrown in (who eats canned corned beef??) by the grocery store. Enough food was ordered to cover every breakfast, lunch, and the majority of our suppers, allowing for a few suppers off the boat.

Our biggest issue was finding space to store all of this food. Boat fridges are small, with freezer space being virtually miniscule. We had steak, chicken, hamburger and two kinds of fish that needed to be kept cold. The meat was relegated to the ice chest, with the rest of perishables stored in the fridge. Ice management soon became a daily ritual for us. Throw in the need to have readily available cold bottled water, pop and beer, and space and ice issues could have been difficult.

Luckily, Terry put a little pre-thought into this, and brought along a collapsible, lined garbage can. Perfect! It soon became a permanent fixture at the back of the boat.

We left the harbour under ‘iron jib’ (motor), allowing Steve the opportunity to get the feel of the boat, and to provide some critical sailing instructions to key members of the crew, Terry and Mark.

We set sail for Norman Island, which is an easy sail from Road Town Harbour and a good choice for the first evening’s moorage because of this.

Norma Island is better known as Treasure Island, and is, according to the literature, “resplendent with stories of buried treasure from the 1700’s”.

We pulled into the main anchorage – the Bight – and found ourselves sharing the harbour with 50-100 boats of varying sizes. There was everything from 40’ catamarans like ours, to 100+ foot floating palaces.

We parked close to the “William Thornton”, a floating restaurant/bar named for the architect of the U.S. capital building. It is a replica of a topsail lumber schooner (93’) and serves lunch and dinner. Nicknamed the “Willy T”, it is a famous party spot, and is said to be “often riotously fun”.

We moored at 4:00 and promptly poured ourselves our first happy hour drink – a “Painkiller” – which is a lovely, rum-based drink. Yummmmm.

The Galley wenches soon kicked in gear, whipping up our first on-board supper of barbequed swordfish, which we toasted with champagne.

Wanting to check out the ‘riotous fun’ for ourselves, we boarded the trusty Santa Maria (our tender boat – strange how our tender had a more dignified name than our 40’ catamaran ……) and motored over to the bar, where we joined the lively crowd of party-going yachters.

It was a beautiful evening – more stars in the sky than I had seen in a long, long time. The night was warm, the waves were lapping gently, and the bartender was free-pouring the rum punch. We moved upstairs to get away from the loud crowd below, and appreciated the number of boats in the harbour, lit only by the single mast light.

After a few drinks, we motored back to the boat, serenaded by the happy crowd singing from the bar. What a great first day.

Then to bed … and what a HORRIBLE bed it was (at least for me). Our bed consisted of a pie-shaped board covered by a thin mattress. Our bedding was a set of sheets and one flat pillow each. No extra pillows, no extra bedding. I felt like I was sleeping on a kitchen table. It was not a restful first night.

Our berth had a portal window that popped open to the portside (left) deck, and a side window at our feet that opened inside and faced the outside of the left pontoon. I was awoken in the night to the feeling of rain on my face and water splashing on my feet. I quickly elbowed Terry, and had him jump up and close the overhead portal window. However, the heavy rain coming in the side window soaked the foot of the bed before we were able to close it. Nice.

Monday, April 5^th

Norman Island to Cooper Island

We were up and about by 7:30 a.m. After brewing some coffee we quickly set sail for “The Indians”, a nearby outcropping of rocks with a reef that has excellent snorkelling. This is a protected reef, with limited moorage. Stopping there is on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis only.

We soon found that we were out of luck for stopping there, so made the decision to carry on to Manchaniel Bay at Cooper Island. It was a good sail across, which tested the ability of our able crew.

I was surprised at the number of boats out on the water, which was spotted with white sails.

We reached Manchaniel Bay early afternoon. The Galley wenches rustled up lunch, while Terry and Mark tendered off in search off ice. They stopped at the nearby Cooper Island Beach Club and came back with four bags of ice, to the tune of $10/bag! Ouch!!

Water sports took up the remainder of the afternoon. It was extremely wonderful to jump off the boat and into that warm, gorgeous blue water and swim like a bunch of kids. We donned our snorkel gear and made our way over to some nearby rocks, where we saw a turtle, a rather large barracuda and a number of beautiful fish and coral.

Happy Hour was spent offshore at the Cooper Island Beach Club, a lovely, laidback resort. We partook of 2-for-1 Painkillers and accessed their free WIFI so everyone could check e-mail and make Skype calls to home.

The sunset was marvellous, and a perfect compliment to the lovely setting.

Back to the boat, we enjoyed another barbeque supper, followed by a lively game of cards. Mark and Roberta introduced us to the game “Wizard”, and following their artfully doled out rules for the game, came in a surprising 1^st and 2^nd. Hmmmmm … wait a minute … we’ll have to try that again.

Terry and Steve had planned to scuba dive, so they made arrangements for a dive boat to pick them up the next day.

Tuesday, April 6^th

Cooper Island to Marina Cay

Up by 7:30 a.m. to inclement weather. We experienced rain in the evening again, and the waves were high all night. We left the swim ladder down, so it banged on the boat for some time, keeping some of the crew awake. No damage done, however.

After an earlier breakfast, Terry and Steve were picked up by their dive boat, and set off for their wreck dive. This area is known for having the best wreck diving in the Caribbean, and site of the world renowned wreck the RMS Rhone. Terry and Steve were both extremely impressed with the dive.

Mark, Roberta, Mary and I whiled away the hours suntanning on the boat (we soon learned that evening or early morning rain was common and short lived), swimming, and tendering over to the Cooper Island Beach Resort to check out their gift shop and pick up more ice.

Following Terry and Steve’s return, we left Manchaniel Bay and sailed to Marina Cay, which lies between Camanoe (private) and Scrub Island.

The island is surrounded by reef, and has a lovely resort and restaurants.

There were no moorage spots available, so we had our first experience putting down anchor. After setting up and having a swim, we cleaned up and tendered over to the Marina for Happy Hour.

There was a definite “pirate” theme to the resort, which was obvious from the sign for the “Happy Arrrrrrr Bar”. The bar was located at the peak of the Cay, and had a lovely view overlooking the bay.

The resort catered to families, as there were children of all ages present at the bar. Quite a different crowd from that of the “Willy T’s”!

We were treated to a performance by Michael Beans (a.k.a. “Harry Buffet”)l. Dressed in full pirate regalia, he entertained us with a one-man show of (primarily) Harry Belafonte and Jimmy Buffet (thus the “Harry Buffet” handle) songs, including many sing-alongs to famous pirate songs. All with an emphasis on audience participation of various shapes and forms.

Included in that package were a number of games, pirate toasts, a conch blowing contest, and pirate trivia (name that pirate).

Barrels of fun (really!).

We especially enjoyed the “Toast to the Dinghy Captains”. Upon hearing the call, Mark happily jumped to the stage, waiting for his long overdue recognition (and obligatory shot of rum). The only downside was the reality that the rest of the dinghy captains consisted of 10-year old kids! He towered over his “peers”.

Mary raised her glass for a toast to Mark and Roberta in recognition of their 25^th wedding anniversary. More rum!

Both Mary and Terry participated in the conch blowing contest but, alas, were unable to challenge the particularly large “lungs” of a young woman and left with only a shot of rum.

After a few painkillers, rum punches and Pusser rum shots, we made our way back to the Santa Maria.

Unfortunately, it was dark by then – and I mean really dark. We quickly came to the stark realization that we couldn’t identify our boat. They literally all look the same in the dark! Without a distinguishing identifier, we were forced to tender back and forth in search of the boat.

The fact that our boat was named the “Bordelo” further hindered us. We were somewhat reluctant to call out into the dark that “we are looking for a bordelo” in case it was interpreted incorrectly by our fellow sailers.

At long last we found it. Lesson learned – try to confine our Happy Hours to within the dwindling daylight hours, or at least be very aware of how to locate the boat easily in the dark.

Finished the night by a later barbeque supper, and made plans to be up at the crack of dawn so we could be over to our next stop – Virgin Gorda and the Baths – early.

Wednesday, April 7^th

Marina Cay to Virgin Gorda

Keen sailers that we were, we were all up and ready to sail by 6 a.m. The morning was particularly lovely, with a soft light on the islands and the promise of a hot, hot day.

While underway, Captain Steve noticed that a large cruiseship was following the same course. Realizing that we would be faced with sharing the Baths with hundreds of cruise ship daytrippers, he suggested we change plans and head instead for Gorda Sound. We could visit the Baths the following day when the crowds would be down.

We pulled into Gorda Sound around 8:30 a.m., quickly found moorage and set up for the day.

It was a lovely spot, with long white-sand beaches and turquoise waters. Again, as in other bays, there were a number of incredible boats of varying size and magnitude scattered across the harbour. There was much affluence evident.

After a quick breakfast, the men set off in the Santa Maria to explore the area, while the Galley wenches swam ashore and walked the lovely beach.

Later that afternoon we spotted a lone pink Flamingo (a real one), walking the beach. It soon took flight, and flew across the bay.

We were also paid a visit by a ‘travelling conch shell salesman’, who motored up in his boat. Both Terry and I and Mark and Roberta made a purchase from him.

We tendered over to Saba Rock to tour the Resort.

From there, you can take a water taxi over to “Bitter End Resort”, where we walked the resort paths and snooped through their shops. Back to Saba Rock for 2-for-1 Happy Hour.

Seeing a crowd of people, Terry went over to investigate. He soon motioned us over for ‘the show’. Each evening, the crowd is entertained by the feeding of the fish residing near the dock at Saba Rock. A young man was in the water feeding pieces of fish to huge (3-5’) tarpins and a large stingray. While I was tempted to try taking some underwater shots with my camera, I didn’t have the nerve to stick my hand in the water in case one of the hungry fish mistook it for a piece of fish!

Safely back on the boat before dark, we barbequed a great steak dinner, and ended the evening with another game of Wizards.

Thursday, April 8^th

Virgin Gorda to The Baths

We were awoken by the sound of the bleating goats on nearby Prickly Pear Island. Off we headed towards Spanish Town, with the goal of touring the Baths and mooring at Spanish Town for the evening.

We found moorage at the Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour at Spanish Town, and tendered over to do some general shopping and touring. We quickly discovered that there wasn’t much in the way of shopping, nor much of a town per se.

When we set off on a walk to explore the ‘town’, we were stopped by a gentleman in a taxi who claimed he was the Mayor of Spanish Town. He seemed quite surprised to see us walking down the road, and immediately asked us where we were going. When we explained that we were looking for the town, he pointed back to the small set of shops that we had just walked through. Back we went, to spend a little more time in the shops and to stop for lunch.

Following that, we arranged for a cab ride to the Baths. The Baths are a unique outcropping of rocks that are presumed to be the result of a volcanic eruption. They are probably the most recognizable and most visited spot in the British Virgin Islands.

We arrived at the Baths to a large crowd of tourists. Turns out that more than one cruise ship was in the area.

It was an extremely hot day. Preferring to avoid the bulk of the crowd, we decided to take the 20-minute walk to Devil’s Bay. People were reporting that jellyfish were in the water at the Baths, but that there were less present at the beach in Devil’s Bay.

The path takes you through the rocks, up ladders, over wooden walkways and through caves and crevasses. Once at Devil’s Bay, we donned our snorkelling gear, took the underwater camera and explored the area close to the large rocks.

It certainly wasn’t amazing snorkelling, but we did see some fish and Terry took a number of good underwater shots.

Unfortunately, he also managed to get stung by a jellyfish as he was emerging the stirred up water near shore. He still bears a scar from this encounter.

We cabbed back, stopped to pick up a few groceries, and made our way back to the boat for our own Happy Hour. Bed by 10:00 p.m. Those early mornings and long days spent in the hot sun were taking their toll.

Friday, April 9^th

Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda to Cane Garden Bay, Tortolla

Up again at 6:00 a.m., but an early morning heavy rain stalled our departure. It was a brief squall that was over quickly, so Terry took advantage of the moisture and “swabbed the decks”.

Our course was set for Cane Garden Bay on Tortolla. According to the literature, it is regarded by many as “one of the most beautiful anchorages in the BVI. Picture postcard material, having a white palm fringed beach encompassing the entire length of the bay”.

It was going to be a 3-5 hour travel day, makng it one of the longest sails we had experienced. The sailing was very picturesque, with many little stretches of white sandy beaches and secluded bays scattered along the way. Parts were quite similar to what you would see along the west coast, particularly as we passed between two islands.

There are some fabulous villas on Tortolla, all perched high up along the hillsides. There doesn’t appear to be any beachfront properties here. The hillsides were very green. Tortolla receives more rainfall than Virgin Gorda, which was home to many, many cactus.

We arrived at Cane Garden Bay at 10:30 a.m. The reports of its beauty were not embellished – it was by far and away the loveliest spot we had encountered. The long white stretch of beach was home to many colourful little beachside restaurants and bars. Breathtaking homes and villas dot the surrounding green hillsides and look down on the bay below.

It was a very calm moorage, and surprisingly, the least busy of all the spots we had visited to date. After setting up, Terry and Steve headed out to pick up some essentials and pay for moorage, while Mark and the women folk swam in the warm, blue waters off the boat, then suntanned and read.

We decided to go to shore and do some sightseeing.

This included a tour of the famous Callwood Rum Distillery. This distillery is over 100 years old, and still manufactures rum in the traditional manner. Owned by the Callwood family since 1899, they produce a rum known as “Arundel” rum.

After paying a $2/head entrance fee, we were led on a short tour of the grounds, where our 16-year old tour guide Matthew explained the process of old-style rum production.

Following this, we stopped for a little rum sampling. We tried a white rum (very reminiscent of moon shine), a dark aged rum (not bad), and finally a secret recipe referred to as “Panty Remover”. Guess which one we bought?

It actually tastes pretty darn good. I cannot attest to the panty removing claims.

Back to the beach, we wandered through a few gift shops, and stopped for Happy Hour at a beachside bar. The sign advertised $6.00 drinks – 2-for-one. Can’t argue that!

We all had one drink and debated having another. Fortunately, we decided instead to have one back on the boat. We were surprised to see that our bill came to double of what we expected. When we questioned the price, we were informed by our waitress that the drinks we had were ‘doubles’. Good thing we decided against that second drink!

Terry stumbled upon this interesting sign when he paid a trip to the men's room of one of the local establishments. Would love to know the background to this ....

Back to the boat for our final on-board dinner of red snapper. Our ice management practice turned out to be a little too effective, so the fish was still frozen when we started cooking it. It took forever on the barbeque, and a little while longer in the oven before we could finally eat.

Turns out that a notable reggae musician (Quito) was playing at the beachside bar (Quito’s Gazebo) located across from where we were moored that evening. We debated tendering across to take in the music, but opted instead to make it an early night. After another early morning and full day in the sun, none of us were up to making an evening of it.

Turns out we didn’t need to tender over to take in the music. Sound carries extremely well across the water, so we had front row seats to the show. We were all lulled to sleep (well, at least some managed to sleep through it) by the magical reggae sounds of Quito, whose performance went well into the wee hours of the night.

Saturday, April 10^th

Cane Garden Bay to Soper’s Hole, to Road Town Harbour, Tortolla

With no need to rush anywhere on our final day, we were up by 7:00 a.m. We had planned to visit Soper’s Hole, which was only five nautical miles from Cane Garden Bay.

Soper’s Hole was very different from Cane Garden Bay. It is a lovely little marina with some quaint shops, a Pusser’s Restaurant, market and more. Definitely more commercial. It looks west towards the U.S. Virgin Islands, and is in view of the islands of St. Thomas and St. John.

After our final breakfast on the boat, we tendered over so we could do a little shopping for trinkets. They had some great shops and some interesting jewellery. Well worth the stop.

Back to the boat by noon, we started our final sail towards Road Town Harbour, our last destination. Once out of the harbour, we hit some pretty wild winds – gusts to 30 knotts. Steve had intended to take advantage of the wind and sail in, but we experienced mechanical issues with the mainsail, so instead had to iron jib in. It was a wild ride. We crashed through 7’ waves.

Being the last out of our berth in the morning, I was responsible for ensuring that all of our windows were closed before we hit the water. Three times Terry asked whether I had made sure the windows were closed. Each time I replied to the affirmative. On his final posing of the question, I decided to have a quick peek to ensure that nothing had been shaken loose with all of the bouncing we were going through.

Imagine my surprise (and horror) to find water literally pouring through the side window. Frantically, I called for Terry to help me close the window. If looks could kill …..

So, we spent the next little while mopping up water and wringing out our bedding. Crap. I could have sworn the window was latched ….

What’s worse than a hard, hard bed? A soaking wet hard, hard bed. Double crap.

We motored into Road Town Harbour around 3:00 that afternoon. After fuelling up and settling our account with the boat rental company, we treated ourselves to a decadent shower at the rental company’s facilities.

Steve had arranged for us to spend our last night on the boat. Fortunately for Terry and I, we were able to dry out our mattress and get some clean, dry bedding from their supplies.

After cleaning up, we made arrangements for a taxi to take us into Road Town for supper. Turns out it was a mere 20-minute walk, but we were charged $60 ($20/person) for the ride. Bad.

Unfortunately, all the stores were closed, so we could only window shop, with the exception of the Pusser’s Rum Official Store.

Dinner was at a neat restaurant called “Dove”, where we all enjoyed a terrific meal. While we were dining, there was an impressive downpour outside. Fortunately, the rain cleared and we were able to take a leisurely stroll back to the dock and our boat.

We packed up and readied ourselves for tomorrow’s departure. Our last night was extremely hot and humid, and bereft of the cooling breeze we had experienced every other evening.

Sunday, April 11^th

Tortolla, Beef Island, BVI to San Juan Puerto Rico to Charlotte, North Carolina to Phoenix, Arizona

Off to the airport by 7:30 a.m. Our flight was scheduled for 11:05 a.m., while the Turner’s and Hammer’s itinerary reported 10:30 a.m. Turns out our schedule was correct.

While we were waiting, we were entertained by the sight of both chickens AND goats at the airport. If there was one constant about the BVIs, it was the ubiquitous presence of both. We woke to the sounds of either roosters crowing or goats bleating or both, and virtually everywhere we went, they were there.

Trellis Bay is located right next to the airport, so we took a stroll over to the market while we were waiting for our flight. Many artisans shops, including Aragorn studio, which produces interesting copper and steel sculptures.

Unfortunately, our plane was late departing. We arrived at San Juan at 12:10, and our connecting flight to Miami was supposed to be leaving at 12:30 p.m. We had to pick up our checked bag, re-check it and go through customs. There was no way we were going to make it. Grrrrrrrr…..

Turner’s and Hammer’s were not leaving San Juan until the next day. They had planned on staying for some sightseeing in Puerto Rico. Terry and I were ushered off to make alternate travel arrangements back home. We said our farewell to the gang.

It was a terrific, terrific trip – one that I would recommend to anyone, and would do again in a heartbeat. There is so much to see and do. We barely scratched the surface.

We did make it home that day, but were re-routed through another airline, and through Charlotte, North Carolina to Phoenix.

Farewell warm azure waters, and hello cactus and desert hills!

Leaving Arizona

2010-05-02T23:48:00.000-07:00

We left Arizona on Friday, April 30th with heavy hearts. After dropping the last of our company (Rod and Wendy Wiebe) off at the airport on Wednesday night, we began the ever-enjoyable packing up process, and readying the house for the summer months. There was much whining, a little cursing, and a lot of dragging of the feet (at least on my part), but by late Thursday night, we had everything we needed packed into the motorhome, and the house cleaned.

Next - break it to the cats …. Needless to say, they were even less thrilled with the idea of leaving the house and moving back into the motorhome than I was.

Saying goodbye to the desert and its lovely heat, blooming cactus and emerging summer creatures, we again embraced the nomad lifestyle and pointed the motorhome north.

First night – Vegas. After setting up at the Oasis RV Park and pulling together a quick supper, we headed down to the strip for our obligatory attempt at cracking the one-armed bandits. I managed to double my meagre grub stake at Planet Hollywood, but promptly lost it all when we moved on to Aria – a lovely new hotel/casino. Terry’s luck was virtually non-existent. After losing his allotted fun money at Planet Hollywood, he wisely spent his time at Aria touring the new resort rather than participating in the gaming.

Vegas was busier than we had experienced on our trip down, and consisted of a very different crowd. Younger, with a large number of ‘gangsta’ type folks.

Chalk it up to the time of year? Younger, gangsta types more likely to travel to Vegas to put money down on the Derby? Don’t know, but it made for interesting people-watching.

We had a late start out of Vegas, and were on the road by 1:00 p.m. the next day. Terry had plotted out a new route for us along Highway 93 N. Virtually zero traffic, but the most desolate route I’ve seen. The road stretched out visibly at least 10 miles ahead of us in one long, straight line as we travelled a high desert plateau between mountain ranges.

At one point we travelled along the ‘Alien Highway’, as identified by the highway signage. Trust me, if ever there was a chance of alien abductions taking place – this would be the perfect spot for it. No one around to help you in this lonely, virtually devoid of life forms strip of road. Travelling at night became less and less desirable to us.

We had targeted Wells, Nevada as our stop for the night. When planning the route, Terry located an RV Park where we could stay for the night. However, after one brief phone call to the RV Park and dealing with an extremely rude staff member, we opted instead to spend the evening in the parking lot of a Flying J truck stop. Nice to have choices.

The weather is hideous. As we move further and further away from our Arizona home, we watch in horror as the thermometer plummets. Snow is visible along the hillsides surrounding the highway, and we experienced periods of wet snow as we neared Wells. Yuck. Back to reality.

The wind is howling. At one point yesterday, we met a transport truck and the wind tunnel that formed ripped the passenger door awning out, where it began flapping wildly outside the door. There was much screaming and cats flying off of laps. We needed to pull over and secure the awning, but the highway we were driving on had zero in the way of shoulders, and a sharp drop along the sides of the highway. Great.

We slowed down to a crawl and searched frantically ahead for a pullout. None to be seen (and trust me, you could see MILES ahead on this highway). Seeing no vehicles behind us (surprise), Terry put on the emergency flashers and stopped. He quickly jumped out and fought with the awning until it was back in place
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As we travelled down the highway towards Wells, we passed through the small centre of Ely, Nevada. We began to notice signs at various spots along the road and through the town site urging people “NOT to vote for Harry Reid’, ‘Vote for anyone BUT Harry Reid’, and even to ‘Give Harry Reid Hell’.

What up with that??

Not being familiar with that Harry Reid fellow, we fully intended to Google this interesting little story. Turns out we didn’t have to Google the story, but instead received our answer via ‘Saturday Night Live’. Their opening skit clued us in to the fact that Harry Reid is the Governor of Nevada and Senate Majority Leader, and is very much in the bad books with his constituents for his heavy involvement with the unpopular health care reform, along with some unsavoury business dealings.

You gotta love American politics.

We were up earlier Sunday morning and on the road by 9 a.m. The wind continues to howl, which, according to Terry, takes the fun out of driving the motorhome. We crossed into Idaho, and are finally into more civilization, and evidence of green grass.

We drove through Nevada to Idaho, into Oregon and finally Washington. Wind howled the entire time. We pulled into the parking lot of the Legends Casino in Toppenish, Washington around 8:30 p.m. Ate supper in the stinky and surprisingly busy casino. Promptly lost $20.00 each and called it a night.

Tomorrow we head to Port Angeles, where we’ll take the ferry across to Victoria on Tuesday a.m.

For those of you wondering about our trip to the BVIs, I am busily preparing the blog posting and pictures. If all goes well I should be able to post the story tomorrow or the next day.

Off On Our BIG Adventure - Sailing in the British Virgin Islands

2010-04-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning we leave for Tortolla, in the British Virgin Islands. We fly from Phoenix to Miami, Miami to San Juan Puerto Rico, and then to Tortolla. The flight schedule is a little hairy - minimal time between flights (one hour from when we land in Miami to when we board the next flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico). Being quite concerned that luggage would not make the transfers with such tight schedules, we're packing light and praying that we will only require bathing suits, shorts and t-shirts for the duration of the trip.

The next morning we board our chartered Lavezzi 40 Catamaran, and embarch on a 7-day sailing excursion around the British Virgin Islands.

We're sailing with our buddies from Olds, Mark & Roberta Hammer, and Mary and Steven Turner. This is a 'bareboat charter', so we will be operating as our own crew, with Steve at the helm as our able captain.

I plan on taking a TON of pictures, and hopefully some decent video. We return on the evening of April 11th. Stay tuned - the story will follow.

Catching Our Breath in Queen Creek, AZ and a Recap of our Last Days in Bucerias

2010-03-21T16:51:00.000-07:00

We're back home in Queen Creek, Arizona. The weather is absolutely beautiful - bright blue sky, sunny and warm, with just a breath of wind. The desert is incredibly green. I'm at my computer desk, looking out my window and observing a little gecko as it scurries along our cinder block fence. This has not escaped the attention of Champie the cat, who is clearly fascinated by this strange little creature. Terry is watching the Flames hockey game while floating in the pool, beer in hand. It's nice to be home.

We left Bucerias on March 8th. Unfortunately, my blog postings were a little sparse near the end of our time in Bucerias. Here's a brief recap of some of our travels/adventures before our departure:

Lyle and his buddy Allan enjoyed the beach most days, and tried to convince us to play a game of 'beer darts' with them. Never heard of beer darts before? For good reason. Here's how it was explained to us:

You sit in a circle. Full can of beer in front of you. Someone throws a DART at your beer can. If the can is pierced, you have to 'shotgun' the beer. If the dart bounces off, hits you and pierces your skin anywhere, you get a free dart toss - at that person's butt!!

Excellent .... Picture how things progress as people get a little 'deeper in their cups'...

Wisely, we chose not to participate.

So, the boys had to amuse themselves by just simply drinking on the beach.

Let me rephrase that .... a lot of drinking on the beach ....

We did manage to fit in a visit to Sayulita to see our buddies the Crawfords and Clarks. We spent a lovely afternoon visiting on the beach.

We made friends with a couple that were staying at our RV park for a week. Turns out they own a fabulous house in Sayulita, which they rent out during the season. They invited us to stop by for a visit and a tour. Here's a shot of their (literal) outdoor kitchen.

Their home is perched high on the hills in the jungle, overlooking the ocean. Stunning. Would be an interesting experience to rent there, as you are well off the beaten track, with access to an (almost) private beach. Some of the nearby homes were absolutely incredible.

Since we were in Sayulita, Lyle and Allan attempted a little surfing.

We've been doing a little looking for places to rent for next year. Judy and Joel will for sure need accommodation for a month, and we are seriously thinking of not taking the RV down, but instead renting a place (the economics make more sense depending on how long we stay - the jury is still out on that one). Terry, Judy and I took a road trip to Lo De Marcos to check out a house on the beach that was available for a very reasonable price.

The house (or at least the original idea for the house) was a joint project of two American couples. One couple bought the property, and the other couple was going to look after the building of the house itself. Things went off the rails, and the couple that purchased the property ended up with the entire package. Not having a lot of money left after their initial investment, they built the house to a little lower standards than they probably originally envisioned.

It is large - 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms - more like a hotel. Lots of potential, but literally minimal in the way of furnishings, and the furnishings that are there are well below the standards of what most North Americans would accept. Thus the great deal on rent. Too bad. Lovely setting.

On one of our runs last year, Terry and I came across what we described as the "Mexican Spruce Meadows" - an impressive riding facility located just east of Bucerias. Of course we wanted Lyle to see it while he was here. We thought it would be interesting for him to tour their facility and check out the calibre of their horses, and compare their riding programs.

We stopped by one afternoon and met the young owners and principal trainer, and toured the facility.

For our last excursion, Terry thought it would be a great idea to charter a boat for a day. This would give us the flexibility to tour the coastline, do a little snorkelling and whale watching, and possibly some fishing. Something for everyone. So, he met this friendly little Mexican on the beach and lined things up for us.

Mistake Number One: Don't book with guys that you meet on the beach.

He promised us the moon. A beautiful boat was described for us, with a good crew who would do whatever we asked of them. Promises of snorkelling. Promises of whale watching. Promises of fishing. A down payment was made.

That same nice man met us in Nuevo Vallarta to meet the boat. Of course the boat was late (sign of things to come). Terry paid the balance of the money for the day's journey.

Mistake Number Two: Don't pay in full for the trip until the end of the day. There may be some incentive to make it a more memorable day if they know the money is coming at the completion of the day.

Here's the boat.

Old boat. Beat up seating. Toilet was disgusting. In fact, it was a miraculous toilet. You would flush it, and miraculously it would fill itself up with urine again. Ewww.

Crew consisted of two older Mexican dudes who had the itinerary planned out completely ... THEIR itinerary. No input from the gringos. Off we roared from Nuevo Vallarta and towards Los Arcos for snorkelling. The diesel smell kept most of our group away from the back of the boat in order to avoid becoming nauseous.

We get to Los Arcos around noon, and there are many, many snorkel tour boats there. We make the decision to move on and come back later when there are fewer boats and snorkellers in the water. Off we roar to a little beach side resort area. The boat is anchored, and we are picked up by a panga for a (literal) 2-second escort onto the beach. We are met by a waiter from one of the restaurants. Bad sign. The expectation is that we are there for lunch. We had not planned on this.

Our captain and crew immediately make themselves comfortable at another table full of their amigos, and start drinking beer. We peruse the overpriced menu and order a plate of nachos and guacamole to share and splurge on margaritas. Not what we had intended.

After about an hour, we decide that we should wrap things up and make our way back to Los Arcos to get some snorkelling time in. Lyle goes over and tells the Captain this. He responds by urging him to 'stay a little longer - it is so nice here'. Getting a little ticked off now. We press the issue, so they have the panga taxi pick us up for our 2-second return to the boat. As we get off the panga and into our boat, we are informed that there is a $100 peso charge for the shuttle service!! Now we are really feeling like they are taking advantage of us. Grrrrr.....

Off we roar towards Los Arcos. The water is a little rougher, so the Captain informs Terry that snorkelling is a bad idea - 'too rough'. Angry, Terry informs him that 'we're going snorkelling'. They provide snorkel masks, but no fins. When Terry asks them about fins, they appear confused. Angrier, Terry rifles through the back of the boat, finds the fins, and throws them out to us. Grrrrr.......

The crew starts throwing bread out on the water - and the fish appear. Many, many fish. We are immediately mesmerized, and eagerly jump in the water.

It is terrific. We snorkel for quite a while. This (almost) makes up for the day so far.

Back into the boat. We head back towards Nuevo Vallarta. Off in the distance, I spy a couple of whales spouting and surfacing. We immediately yell to the Captain that we see whales. He promptly informs us that 'those aren't whales, they are boats'. Grrrrr......

Allan had wanted to fish, so as we were promised, we asked the captain if he could set that up. Out come two fishing rods, with hooks but no bait. Hmmm.... Then, he puts the boat into warp speed and off we roar. Don't anticipate being able to catch anything travelling at those speeds and sans bait. Grrrr.......

Finally, we arrive at the Nuevo Vallarta marina. As the crewman is helping me exit the boat, he advises me 'Don't forget the tip'. Grrrr.... I point at Terry, and leave, heading for the nearest clean washroom.

Realizing I had the wallet in my bag, Terry has to follow me and wait outside the washroom. The crew, not wanting to miss out on their tip, follow closely behind - not letting any of us out of their sights. We leave a pittance of a tip to reflect the GREAT day, and they leave, grumbling.

Lesson Number Three: Confirm the Tip Ahead of Time and Be Clear of What They Must Do To Earn It.

Sometimes it pays to sign up for the 'touristy tours'. At least you know what you're getting into.

So we said farewell to Bucerias on March 8th. Judy decided that she would join us for the drive back to Arizona so she could experience the 'driving Mexico' scene. We left bright and early that morning. Things went very smoothly, despite my (and Judy's) concerns.

Our first evening was spent in Cuiliacan, a large city north of Mazatlan. We stayed in an RV Park (more like a parking lot) attached to a nice hotel. We had hoped to make our first night's camp at Celestino Gasca, but found that our big rig could not make the rough road and hills leading to the RV Park there, so we carried on instead to Cuiliacan.

Our next day took us to Guaymas, where we stayed at the beautiful Hotel Playa de Cortez RV Park.

Besides its lovely architecture and stunning setting, this historic hotel has an interesting story behind it. My buddy Brenda penned an excellent article describing it: http://www.rvtimes.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=125:-134-march--april-2010&id=831:falling-in-love-in-mexico

After we set up camp in the RV Park, we unloaded the SUV and did a whirlwind tour of nearby San Carlos so Judy could see how lovely it is there. We stopped for a margarita and to watch the sunset at the 'Soggy Peso' beach bar. Magnificent sunset and lovely ambiance, but we almost froze to death! You are definitely out of the tropics and back into the cooler desert air that far north.

Brenda and Adrian happened to be staying at the Hotel Playa de Cortes RV Park as well, so we enjoyed a visit that evening and breakfast in the hotel with them the next morning. We then carried on with our plan to be home to Queen Creek that evening.

All in all the trip home through Mexico was uneventful (meaning: no mishaps, no wrong ways on one-way streets - you know the drill by now). We had a couple of agricultural check stops that required inspections, and one military check point, but we found in all cases we were treated with respect. In fact, Judy even managed to sleep right through the first agricultural inspection!

So adios Mexico, and we'll be back next year. We have a few things under consideration for next year, including the possibility of purchasing a property there. Much to think about.

Being back home in Arizona is nice. As I mentioned, the weather has been great. We are enjoying the pool, and the cats in particular are enjoying being free to wander the backyard at their leisure. No more house on wheels for a while!

We arrived home on the 10th, and Lowell, Nancy and Jocelyn arrived on the evening of the 12th. They were here to watch Joel play in a NCAA baseball tournament. So the past week has been split between visiting, watching ball, shopping, and hanging around the pool, whipping up margaritas and barbequing suppers.

We managed to squeeze a few excellent hikes in for good measure (San Tan Regional Park and The Lost Dutchman Goldmine Park).

Jocelyn experienced her first motorcycle ride up to Tortilla Flat with Uncle Terry.

Judy left on th 17th. Lowell, Nancy and Jocelyn left this morning. So we're all alone now, with the exception of the cats. It's awfully quiet around here, and we're feeling a little lonely already. Time to get the paperwork caught up and shift our focus to our upcoming sailing trip in the BVIs. Hard to believe it is less than two weeks away!

Another Boring Day at the Beach? I Think Not ....

2010-03-05T22:31:00.001-08:00

Do we ever get tired of 'hanging out' at the beach? No way! There's just too much happening here to get bored. In case you wondered what we do when we 'while away the hours' at the beach, here's a brief look/see:

We frolic in the waves ....

We take romantic strolls on the beach .....

We mix up batches of frosty margaritas ....

When we're hungry, we shop for nuts and candy - right out of the wheelbarrow ...

We boogie board ...

We get tattoos ....

We fish ...

We brave the big tsunami wave ....

We are entertained by the beach buskers .....

Some of us experience 'Dukoral' moments ....

Other brave souls tackle surfing! Terry, Jeff and Kim don brave faces just before their surfing lessons at Punta de Mita beach.

This is the picture of a twisted spine that washed up on the beach - obviously the remnant of some poor tourist who attempted surfing ....

Here are the kids taking their first surfing lesson. The instructor is giving them a valuable lesson on what their life as a paraplegic will be should they hit their head with the surfboard!!

Angered, Kim, Jeff and Terry muster their 'Karate Kid' skills to challenge the surfing instructor.

And out to sea they go ....

Who could get bored with all this action!

Where Were YOU When Canada Won the Gold Medal?

2010-03-04T22:46:00.001-08:00

Yes, that's us holding an Olympic torch! This picture was taken minutes after Team Canada won the gold medal in Olympic Men's hockey.

We all gathered at Yo Yo Mo's Sports Bar to watch big event. You had to be there hours before the game in order to get seats. The place was packed. The crowd was primarily Canadians, with a few Americans peppered throughout. Canadian flags, banners and t-shirts adorned the bar.

And the win was especially sweet.

Needless to say, the Canadians went wild. A woman staying in a high rise condo near Bucerias centro later reported that, when Canada scored the winning goal, the cheers coming from all of the bars in the downtown area was incredible.

As everyone was screaming, yelling, hugging, kissing, and giving out the high fives, a congo line of people came running through with one of the Olympic torches. We heard that one of the owners of Bucerias Gardens had been a torch bearer, and brought the torch down with them to Bucerias. Of course everyone wanted to pose with it.

It was never so obvious that the majority of tourists staying in Bucerias are Canadians - and very proud ones.

Full Moon Weirdness and a Tsunami Warning!!!!

2010-02-27T18:18:00.003-08:00

There has to be something legitimate about that full moon thing. You know – where people ‘go off the rails’, or, where strange people crawl out from whatever rock they normally hide under and inflict their weirdness on the rest of us.

Well – that was last evening. The moon, while not officially full – was close enough to it that we suffered the oddities that come with it..

After gathering at our place to watch the hockey game, Terry wanted to take the boys (Lyle and Alan) down to Bucerias Gardens (a local watering hole/nightclub in Bucerias) to watch the great resident band. I convinced Judy to come down for one drink, so that I would have someone to walk home with in case the boys decided to stay later. Bless her little heart, she agreed.

The boys had ducked out during the 3^rd period of the hockey game and went on ahead so they could experience the jubilant Canadian crowd as they cheered on the winning Canadians. We were to meet up with them later.

As Terry and I made our way down, we met friends Pam, Doug and their daughter just returning home from watching the game at Bucerias Gardens. They proceeded to fill us in on Pam’s bizarre experience of being physically and verbally attacked by some strange girl while walking down the street. No real damage done, just very unsettling.

That is unheard of here. Normally you can walk the streets of Bucerias without fear at any time of day or night. Mark that as strange experience number one.

Off we go to the bar. The place is packed. The band is playing. Everyone seems to be in a great mood. The boys are dressed in full ‘Canadiana’, and manage to stir up the crowd with a rousing rendition of ‘Oh Canada’. All is good.

The night continues. People start dancing. Without any real warning, strange things start to happen. People begin to dance erratically. One girl is especially bizarre – treating us to her version of a semi pole dance. The atmosphere begins to get louder and rowdier. We notice that one table of older gentleman has what we believe to be a couple of ‘paid ladies’ sitting at their table. Stranger groups of people start streaming in. It was almost as if everyone had something slipped into their drinks. Eyes are glazed. Dancing is spastic. There was a weird ‘mob mentality’ taking place. The boys are up and dancing with the ‘cougar crowd’.

You have to remember that the Bucerias ‘club’ crowd is an older crowd – the average age is 50’ish and upwards. That makes it especially creepy.

Finally, the band finishes the last song. The once nice waitresses and bartenders are yelling at everyone to ‘get out’. Judy and I happily comply. The men, however, are not yet done with the evening. They spend some time chatting with the boys from the band.

As we wait outside the doors, conversing with the friendly little Mexican bouncer, we are accosted by a couple of creepy old men, who invite us to a little ‘after party’ event at their place. We note that these are the gentlemen who were sitting with the presumed hookers at the table behind us. They try to tempt us with offers of tequila that they have in their vehicle.

Ewwwww…..

Disgusted, we finally walk off and head back home, ever on the watch for crazed young women who might attack us. What a night. Strange experience number two.

The next morning began quite typically. We were up and out for a walk to check out a rental property for next year. We had planned to drive to Sayulita today to watch a surfing competition that was taking place.

That all changed, however, with news of the earthquake in Chile, and subsequent Tsunami warning. I had heard helicopters flying overhead in the morning, but didn’t think too much of it. Then Terry noticed groups of people lining our street, sitting and looking towards the ocean.

Turns out the Tsunami warning included Mexico. We hear reports that the military had been clearing people off of the beach. People were moving to higher ground as they heard the news.

We joined the groups on the street and watched for signs of the Tsunami. We decided that skipping the beach might be prudent. Fortunately, we saw nothing out of the ordinary as far as waves go, but this certainly gave us all pause.

Strange event number three. Let’s hope that’s it!!

Road Trip to Barra de Navidad

2010-02-27T16:08:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday, Terry, Gary, Judy and I went on a road trip to explore points south. We had heard that Barra de Navidad was a place worth visiting, and along the way we could make stops at Punta Perula and Melaque.

Barra de Navidad is approximately 175 miles south of us, which is a long day for a road trip. Keeping in mind the Mexican roads, we were up early and on the road by 6:30 a.m. to ensure that we would be home before dark.

Once we were through Puerto Vallarta, the roads became your typical Mexican nightmare; narrow and winding. As we weaved back and forth along the road, it was enough to nauseate Judy and send her from the back seat to the front. Fortunately, the roads straightened out past Mismoloyas, it was good driving conditions and we were able to make up the time lost.

First stop was Punta Perula (105 miles south of Bucerias). According to our Mexican camping book, Punta Perula is 'a very small sleepy village', and, 'amenities here include the beach and little else'. But what a beach .... lovely, long, flat and with virtually no one on it. There is a small RV Park located right along the beach which seemed quite nice. A number of the residents had small boats, so the fishing must be quite good.

Walking up the beach we came across a lagoon, and were treated to the sight of a rather large crocodile slowly making his way up the waterway.

This would be tranquil camping - quite a difference from the hustle and bustle of Bucerias! Amenities here are definitely limited, but available within reasonable driving distances. Just need to keep an eye on that crocodile ....

Back in the car, we carried on to Barra de Navidad. With a population of approximately 5,000, it is fairly similar in size to Bucerias. The town is set along a beautiful bay, that again, stretches for miles and miles. There is very much a laid back feeling to the town - not quite the same 'hustle and bustle' that you experience in Bucerias. It reminded me of a larger Sayulita.

We stopped for lunch at a beachside restaurant, strolled along the malecon, and admired the luxury Grand Bay resort, located just across the waterway.

On our way back to the car, we stopped and did a little shopping in the 'tourist' area, which had a decent share of boutique stores and restaurants. Terry was surprised to come across a full grown 'Amigo Lyle'!

They grow up so fast.... And isn't he the spitting image of his father!

We pointed the car north, and started making our way back. We made a stop to check out Melaque, which is only two miles north of Barre de Navidad and shares the same long stretch of beach. It seems to be much busier than Barra de Navidad, with many more people on the beach and on the streets.

We knew that there was an RV Park along the beach, and last year met people who stay there regularly, so made a point of stopping in to check it out. A basic RV park, but set back on a nice stretch of beach. We chatted with a couple of gentlemen staying there and compared notes on Melaque vs. Bucerias RV camping.

We had discussed our final stop as being the RV Park along Tenacatita Bay, but changed that when we realized that it was a five mile trip off the main highway. Instead, we stopped at Boca Beach.

Wow - what a fantastic place! This is probably the nicest stretch of beach we had experienced along the entire west coast of Mexico. The beach along Tenacatita Bay is wide, long and flat - perfect for walking. It is lined by a dense ring of palm trees. Absolutely gorgeous.

There is an RV Park along the beach that looks great. The residents there seemed somewhat protective of their little piece of heaven, which I can't blame them for.

While Gary and Terry checked out the waves, Judy and I toured the beach, and searched for information on rental properties in the area. There is a beautiful boutique hotel/resort there - Boca de Iguanas - as well as a new residential development. And like Punta Perula, there is also a resident crocodile!

I could see the attraction to staying here - stunning scenery, quiet and peaceful, amazing beach. The only drawback would be (besides the crocodile ...) the distance to any amenities. You are either driving to Puerto Vallarta to the north, or Manzanillo to the south. Might be worth it.

Having satisfied our wanderlust for the moment, we headed back to Bucerias after a long day of driving.

A Stunning Display of Celestial Bodies in Yo Yo Mo's Bar!

2010-02-21T22:24:00.000-08:00

Who would have thunk it?

Here we were this evening, a group of eager Canadians gathered at Yo Yo Mo's bar to cheer on our Canadian hockey team as they took on the Americans. To my surprise, I happened to glance over and was treated to an up close and personal view of a full moon - the likes of which I have never seen before ......

As the night wore on, I was beginning to believe we might even be treated to a rare glimpse of Uranus ....

Ewwww. So much for 'heavenly bodies'!

It was amazing to see all of the bars packed with Canadian (and just a few American) patriots, eager to cheer on their teams. There was not a seat to be had in the house. Too bad the outcome wasn't what we had hoped it to be.

Terry, Judy, Gary and I had the opportunity to golf again this year. We enjoyed a fabulous round at the Vista Vallarta Golf Course yesterday. It was a perfect day for golf, and the course was in great shape. It's set back in the Puerto Vallarta hillside, so very lush and green - particularly with the unusually rainy weather of late. You are treated to some incredible views of the ocean and resort areas at various points along the course.

A round of golf will set you back $198/person. Too rich for our blood, but fortunately a friend of Gary's had golf passes that he couldn't use, so he passed them on to us. Thanks Dwayne!!

Terry and I took the motorcycle out for a ride the other day. We headed east, up into the hillsides out of Bucerias. The road was under construction last year, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was in fantastic shape. We enjoyed a great ride, until we came to the literal 'end of the road'. Only in Mexico!

Part of the reason for our ride was to locate an RV Park that we had heard about. We weren't exactly sure of its whereabouts, so did a little 'back and forth'ing' at a site we guessed it to be. On our second pass, a man walked out and asked us if we were lost. Turns out he was the owner of the RV Park, and - small world - hailed from Innisfail! He and his wife sold their businesses four years ago, bought the property and now live there year round. He invited us in for a beer and we had a great visit.

Judy and Joel, Jeff and Kim, Terry and I enjoyed a lovely Valentine's day supper at an interesting restaurant by the name of 'Eva's Brickhouse'. We were a little apprehensive about the place, but ended up having a really great 4-course meal.

English language Valentine's cards are not to be found in Bucerias, so I received a spanish card from Terry. Curious, Terry translated the card using Google Translator. Here's the translation:

"All I need is your sweet hug to sleep, your smile upon awakening,

and the promise to take your love until it has exhausted my days on earth."

Those romantic little Mexicans!

The weather seems to have smartened up finally, so we're back to enjoying afternoons on the beach. Never one to rough it, Terry decided that it would be nice to enjoy a frosty margarita while sitting in the hot sun. So down to the beach he hauls a blender, tequila, margarita mix and ice. But how to blend it up? Why - with the generator he also carried down! Needless to say, we attracted a little attention from our fellow beach goers.

We're off to Punta de Mita tomorrow. Kim and Terry might attempt some surfing lessons, which should be entertaining for Judy, Jeff and I! We'll be cheering them on from the beach.

Proud Canadians in Bucerias

2010-02-13T10:19:00.001-08:00

Of course we couldn't let the Olympics pass us by!!

Every day on the beach, the henna tattoo vendors walk by, hoping to entice us into sporting one of their stereotypical tattoos. Proud Canadians that we are, we came up with the idea of creating our own design to acknowledge Canada's 2010 Olympic efforts. Terry whipped up the design on his computer - incorporating a well-known 'soft-drink' chant ....

Eight of us bought into the idea, so yesterday afternoon we had our little tattoo artist 'tat' us all up.

Here's the group shot:

And one of our vendor. We're hoping to start a trend and get his business booming.

A bunch of us gathered at our place last night to watch the opening ceremonies. Now - GO CANADA GO!!!!

A Little Shopping, a Little Socializing, A Little Touring

2010-02-11T11:20:00.000-08:00

The days are starting to run into each other now, so I'll try to capture what we've been up to these past few days before they get too fuzzy.

Every Sunday there is a market set up along the dry riverbed across the highway from Bucerias centro, so we strolled down to check it out. Like Bucerias Days, it consists of row upon row of tables and kiosks selling every kind of fruits and vegetables, used clothing, jewellery, small appliances and housewares, hardware items, prepared foods, make-up, DVDs, etc. Very popular with both the locals and the visiting gringos.

Our buddies from Saskatchewan - Grant and Inga, Nick and Connie - left the park a few days ago to head north back to Rincon de Guayabitos. As a thank you for watching things while they were away in Mexico City, they took us out for supper at Karen's, a lovely beach side restaurant. Afterwards, they taught us a great new card game, which we played until the wee hours.

It was great to reunite with those folks. The park certainly seems quiet without them. With Dell and Angel leaving Saturday, we'll be back to being all by our little lonesome's. Time to drag out the 'Rock Band' and do some serious 'wail'n' .....

Tuesday was Herb's birthday (Gary's brother-in-law), so a group of us joined him for a celebratory dinner at Fumar's, a great restaurant just across the highway from us. The waiters even sang the Mexican version of 'Happy Birthday' (and they sang WAY better than we did with our version). Lots of fun.

Yesterday Judy, Joel, Terry and I took another road trip up the north coast. We first stopped to tour the very posh marina at La Cruz.

From there we drove to a quiet beach that we found last year just along the road towards Sayulita. The road into the beach takes you past some interesting houses. The beach itself is very beautiful - white sand, blue water and very minimal people. The only drawback is the wind. It's quite open to the ocean there, so the wind is strong and the surf is high.

From there, we travelled back to Punta de Mita. This little town is full of sharp contrasts. It is home to a VERY exclusive Four Seasons resort/golf course/housing development, so on one side of the street you find very high end galleries, shops and restaurants, while on the other you find Mexican shanties.

Punta de Mita is a popular port for fishing, whale watching, scuba and snorkeling excursions. This is where we arranged for our whale watching trip last year. Joel wanted to check out the cost/details of the available fishing excursions, as his son Jeff is planning an outing while he is down here. Jeff and his wife Kim arrive Friday.

The town is also a popular spot to learn how to surf, as the waves are perfect for the beginner. We stopped for a beer at a bar along the beach and watched the large crowd of surfer wanna-be's attempt to 'shoot the curl'.

On the drive back home, we stopped at Destiladeras beach, which is another beautiful spot. It appears that a new, big development is underway there, as the regular parking area for beach access is closed off. We stopped briefly, took some photos from the bluff, and wondered about the cross planted there.

We woke up to rain this morning, so it's a quiet day for everyone. This appears to be short-lived, as the forecast is for 31 degrees celsius tomorrow. Back to the beach!

Bad Amigos

2010-02-06T18:59:00.000-08:00

When we first arrived in Bucerias, the RV Park was empty. We were all by our little lonesomes. Now, the park is full, and we are surrounded by old friends (and one new set). Our buddies from the park last year - Del and Angel, Nick and Connie and Inga and Grant, are back in the park. It's great to see them all.

Del and Angel arrived yesterday, so we invited them to join us for pizza at 'Yo Yo Mo's' - the best pizza place in all the land (really). We were supposed to meet Ken and Joanne, our buddies from Camrose, at the Oasis Pub later that evening to say our farewells, as they were leaving the next day for home. The picture at the start of this blog post is Ken 'panhandling' on the street in Bucerias centro.

After pizza and a few drinks, the sound of live music lured us into Bucerias Gardens, the bar across the street from Yo Yo Mo's. And so it began - one innocent shot of tequila .... followed by another .....

Next thing you know, it's 9:20 a.m. and I am stumbling out of bed to feed the cats who have been staring intently at me for the past two hours. I am fully clothed. My contact lenses are in from the night before. My hair is completely askew - it looks like I have been in a wind tunnel.

I hear a knock at the door, and, thinking it is either Del or Angel, I open the door, only to give poor Mark Unger (a friend from Olds) the fright of his life. Terry remains in a coma until I prod him at 11:20 a.m. We slowly emerge from the motorhome at 1:30, blinking at the bright sunlight.

We can only blame it on 'bad friends' .... Problem is, I am sure they are saying the same of us.

Let's just blame it on the tequila.

Well - the weather finally snapped back to normal, so the sun is shining, the beach is alive with people, and everyone's spirits have lifted. Most of the damage has been cleared/repaired.

When we were on the beach yesterday, we were entertained by a Mexican and his mannequin singing (and very badly) a rendition of 'La Cucaracha'. I tried to capture it on video with my camera, but of course it didn't work. I'm sure he'll be back (we saw him last year as well).

Terry attempted his own variation of the performance. Here's a link to the video clip I posted on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5Y9tSGznKk

I also uploaded the video of the dolphins at the beach in Teacapan - watch it closely to see them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8YdfI8sEVw

Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, and we're hosting a party at our 'casa'. No tequila allowed!!!

Rainy Days and One VERY Stormy Night in Bucerias

2010-02-04T12:18:00.000-08:00

I started writing this blog entry on Tuesday night. This is how it originally began:

“We’ve had drizzly evenings the last couple of nights, but the rain started in earnest last night and has been off and on all day. Right now it is absolutely pouring outside”.

I completed writing my blog, but could not post it as the power started to blip, so I had to shut down my computer. What happened next took us completely by surprise (and obviously was an add-on to the original posting).

The rain, which had been coming down fairly steadily, began to fall in sheets. Suddenly, the motorhome was hit by strong gusts of wind, shaking it violently from side to side. A loud ‘bang’ on the roof of the motorhome had all of us, including the cats, almost jumping out of our skin. We assumed that we’d been struck by a falling coconut coming from the large, loaded palm tree directly behind us.

Our neighbours, Nick/Connie and Grant/Inga were away touring Mexico City, and had left their awnings down, so Terry immediately headed towards the door to get over to their sites to retract them.

Looking outside, we could see the steady flash of lightning across the sky. Terry started to open the door when he discovered that our caravan canopy, which we had set up as a privacy area around our door entrance, was gone. We presumed that the awnings would likely not have fared well, if the wind was violent enough to tear away the canopy tent with such force.

Terry ran across to their motorhomes, and began closing vents and windows, and mopping up the water that had come in. As suspected, he found that Grant’s awning had been damaged from the wind, and he was unable to retract it. Fortunately, the terrible wind subsided, and we were left with the rainy remnants of the tropical storm.

The next day, everyone was out on the streets surveying the damage the storm had inflicted on the town. Many, many trees were down completely or damaged. Power lines were down and parts of the town were without power. Glass windows had been shattered. It was quite incredible. We heard various versions of the wind speed that night, reaching anywhere from 100 to 107 m.p.h.

Fortunately, we suffered no terrible damage, other than our caravan canopy tent being tossed across the RV park, slammed up against the fence and destroyed. Many palm fronds were torn down and the ‘jungle’ beside us was flattened somewhat; enough to now provide us with a view into the backyard of neighbour’s home to the east of us. Grant’s awning was damaged, but not irreparably.

It was impressive how quickly the locals jumped into action to clean things up. They immediately began the work of chopping down felled trees and removing debris. A block-long stretch of brick fencing had been knocked down completely by a fallen tree, and before too long the local owners were reclaiming the bricks for its restoration.

Our friends at the Royal Decameron reported that one of the outdoor bars had been destroyed completely, but work started right away on the construction of a replacement.

Pretty exciting stuff. Joel ‘Googled’ the Bucerias storm, and the forums were abuzz with talk of the atmospheric disturbance, which stretched for quite a distance along the coastline. Many fingers were pointing at global warming as the reason for such a strange weather front. Hmmmm….

You want to know what the real tragedy in all this is? My hair. If the ‘normal’ humidity isn’t enough to throw it into ‘super curl’ mode, add the three straight days of rain into the mix. What you are left with is a head of long hair rapidly approaching an Afro-look. Not pretty. Not pretty at all.

So, the weather has been a tad bit less than perfect for the last little bit. All reports point to a return to normal soon, which we’re looking forward to. It is getting a little tiresome.

We have made the best of it, however, as it affords one with an opportunity to partake in the road trip experience!

On Tuesday, Judy, Joel, Gary, Terry and I hopped in the car for a road trip to Rincon de Guayabitos. Judy and Joel had vacationed there way back in 1988, and wanted to check out how much the place had changed since then. Apparently the town of Rincon was nothing more than a small Mexican fishing village at that time, with minimal services and little in the way of ‘touristy’ offerings.

We drove north to La Penita for a brief look-see, and then stopped and strolled on the beach at Rincon. Judy and Joel were able to identify the hotel they stayed at in ’88.

Feeling a bit peckish, we decided to have an early dinner at a little restaurant on the beach. We ordered the house special – ‘seafood for five’, and enjoyed a terrific meal of grilled red snapper, battered dorada (mahi mahi), and four different varieties of fresh shrimp. Check out the lovely presentation:

YUMMMM!!!
On the way back home we stopped for a brief tour of Lo di Marcos and San Pancho. Interestingly enough, San Pancho (which is a very small Mexican town), is home to quite a nice polo club, complete with restaurant/bar. Saturday evenings you can reserve a table for dinner and watch a polo match, so we’ll likely put that on our list of things to do.

What else have we been up to since my last post? It was Bucerias Days when we first arrived, so the town was ‘a-buzz’n with activities. Centro was wall-to-wall with booths selling everything from candy to batteries to jeans, along with arcade-like games of chance. There was also a miniature (and I do mean miniature!) midway. Fireworks went off at all hours of the night.

One of the more colorful activities is the ‘Blessing of the Boats’. On that day, the fisherman gather in the bay, and one-by-one drive their boats into the shore, where they are blessed by the local priest. Here’s a picture of one of the boats departing, and the crowd that gathered to observe the event.

We met up with our friends from Camrose (Jo and Ken), and one day Jo and I took a LONG walk up the beach. Along the way, we came across a turtle sanctuary, where they gather turtle eggs, and bury them individually in fenced, protected areas so they can hatch undisturbed. None were hatching that day (darn).

We walked to the farthest point south on the beach, where a rocky point leads to a wedding chapel at the end of the pier. We had to laugh at the entrance sign:

Yesterday (Wednesday), Judy, Joel, Terry and I drove to Puerto Vallarta, as we wanted to shop at the Costco there. Now we are waiting out the rain, which is supposed to clear by Friday. Then it’s back to sunshine we hope!

Back in Bucerias - After the 'Drive From Hell'

2010-01-23T12:33:00.001-08:00

As I sit typing this blog post, I am treated to the sound of highway traffic; a steady parade of cars and heavy trucks, sirens, and the general comings and goings of foot traffic walking past our park – quite a sharp contrast to Teacapan, which was so quiet it was almost eerie (but in a good way).

The Hideaway RV Park is located a stone’s throw from the main thoroughfare south (Mex 200), however, we are nestled in our own private oasis. The gated park is quite private, and the trees and vegetation have grown up considerably since last year. And we’re all by ourselves at the moment.

We arrived in Bucerias last night around 5:00, after probably the absolute worst driving day we have experienced in our travels to date. The RV Park was empty, and Carl, the caretaker, was nowhere to be found. Great …

Here’s a recap of our last day at Teacapan (Thursday), and how yesterday’s travel day ‘went down’.

Terry and I were up and in the car early Thursday morning. We popped into the nearby town of Escuinapa to pick up a few essential groceries and visit an ATM. Once back at camp, we headed out for a long overdue stroll up the beach, where we didn’t run into another soul the entire walk. What a little chunk of paradise.

Adrian and Brenda promised us an outing to a local seaside eatery that served up great pina coladas and coconut shrimp. Of course we tried them, and they lived up to their reputation admirably. Another sunset on the beach, and a great supper with our buddies topped off our last night in Teacapan.

We left Teacapan Friday morning just after 9:00 a.m. Here’s a shot of the ‘long, country road’ that you travel on out of the Onac RV Park. We managed to sustain a little damage (strictly cosmetic) going in, so were a lot more cautious on our exit. Our departure was a lot less stressful than our arrival three days earlier.

This positive driving experience was short lived, however.

When we reached Escuinapa, ‘Numpty’ (our GPS), had us turn at the wrong intersection, which of course turned out to be a one-way street. Before we left the U.S., we purchased the Mexican mapping chip and loaded it into the GPS, which had been spot-on in directions the two days prior to this. Turns out ‘Numpty’ was complete oblivious to the one-way street systems in Escuinapa, and a few other towns in our travels. Disaster!

So, we missed a turn and ended up going the wrong way down a one-way street. Trying to get off the street and back on track proved to be more difficult than either of us could imagine. We frantically drove down the streets of Escuinapa, looking desperately for a street that might safely get us facing the right direction, all the while with Mexicans in cars, scooters and on foot pointing out the error of our direction.

We managed to get back on a street facing the right direction, but somehow missed the highway sign and subsequent turn at a key intersection. This is when the GPS went nuts. ‘Numpty’ began ‘recalculating’ frantically, and was feeding us a steady stream of orders of where to turn left, right, or make a u-turn.

Now, the streets in Escuinapa have LONG names, and it sounded almost insane having her firing off a barrage of instructions to ‘turn left at Francisca Manora Guissepe Anne Maria Vallarta Street’, or ‘make a u-turn at Hannah Montana Jallisco Veneto Benedicto Boulevard’, or ‘make a right turn at Mary Magdenana Burrito Jalapeno Velencia Avenue’, all of which were either (wrong) one-way streets or pothole filled, narrow disasters that we’d never get our rig down.

Things finally deteriorated to the point that we ended up driving back towards Mazatlan. Realizing this, Terry wheeled over, backed up the rig and made the turn around that got us back on the correct road heading south to Tepic.

We were flustered, but more embarrassed that we could miss the obvious signage. So, off we headed down the highway towards Bucerias. The GPS indicated that it would be a 4-1/2 hour drive, so we felt quite confident that we’d be in Bucerias in plenty of time to set up camp before dark, despite the mishap.

On our trip down last year, we took the mountain road to Tepic and connected with Mex 200. This was an extremely narrow, steep, route. We later learned that there was a Tepic bypass route that took you inland to San Blas and along the coastline to Bucerias, eliminating the steep climbing/descent. We elected to try that route this trip.

Turned out to be a bit of a horror for us. The road is narrow, winding and takes you through an incredible number of small towns, with their inevitable ‘topes’ (large speed bumps), ‘vibradores’ (rumble strips) and, worse yet – the dreaded angle speed bump.

Hitting an angle speed bump with a motor home is an experience that can’t quite be described. The rig jumps and wrenches wildly from left to right, and it feels like every possible item in the unit has been shaken loose, thrown around and smashed. Each one we went over elicited genuine screams of horror, followed by long strings of profanity that can never be recreated, nor should ever be repeated.

Add to that the narrow roads, so densely tree-lined that they would rake the sides of the motor home and trailer as we moved over to accommodate oncoming traffic, and the overhead canopy of trees that formed a ‘tunnel’ which threatened to tear our satellite dishes off the top of the unit.

But of course it doesn’t end there. After we drove through San Blas, there was another key ‘T’ intersection that required a left turn. I mistakenly advised Terry to turn right. Immediate disaster. We drove into the little town of Matanchen, on a tight, narrow street in our massive rig, and promptly drove to the – literal – end of a road. But that was not before we encountered a low-lying overhead wire that a Mexican had to pull down for us before we could continue. We turned up another street trying to get back towards the main road, only to find that we couldn’t make the turn as there was a parked pickup truck blocking us.

I hopped out of the motor home so I could guide Terry as he backed up, thinking we could just get back to the street we came down on and then out, only to realize that it was a one-way street. Frazzled, Terry drove ahead, taking another attempt at the turn on the other road, but no go.

I noticed a woman looking out of her house, watching our efforts, and asked if the truck was her vehicle. Fortunately, she spoke well enough English that she was able to point me in the direction of the owner’s house, and again, fortunately, it turned out they were home. After the truck was moved, we made the turn and drove on.

On to Bucerias we drove, blood pressures high and the cats in a catatonic state. We reached Bucerias around 5:00 p.m., with daylight left.

Foolishly, we thought things would go relatively smoothly here, as we had, what we believed to be, a good plan of how/where we would maneuver the motor home and trailer through the tight, cobblestone streets and into the RV Park.

What were we thinking??

Of course, no one was there to meet us, so we couldn’t get into the park. Then, the corner we planned (and needed) to turn on was blocked by a parked vehicle with a flat tire, so Terry once again couldn’t get the turning radius he needed. So off we drove down the street, thinking we could travel a little further down, back up, and come at the corner from another direction.

The trailer sunk into a hole, and we ended up dragging and scraping the hitch and trailer, unable to get it out of the rut and back onto the street to attempt that route. We of course gathered quite a crowd of onlookers at that point, as the noise of the trailer sliding and scraping along the cobblestones was very loud. After a few attempts, we gave up, parked the motor home, unhooked the trailer, took out the SUV and went in search of Carl the caretaker at his place of business just up the road. Of course he was not there, and there were no instructions for us.

Turns out Terry had keys to the RV Park pedestrian gate that he kept from last year, so we went in and searched for keys to the padlocked vehicle entry gates. No such luck.

Not wanting to leave the RV and trailer parked too far away, we moved the motor home and trailer closer to the RV park, walked to a nearby store and asked them if they wouldn’t mind trying to contact Carl on their telephone as we knew it would be insanely expensive to use our blackberry phones down here. Success!

Within a short time Carl was there, we drove in and set up for the night. Hallelujah! The only glitch we had was a problem with our internet connection. We gave up, called it a night, planning to start anew this morning.

Things are all good now. The internet is up and functioning, we’ve linked up with our buddies Joanne and Ken from Camrose, and the weather is perfect. Terry is happy because he was able to wash the motor home. The cats are happy because they can come outdoors and wander amongst the vegetation.

We’re looking forward to no stress for 6-weeks, and visiting with the long list of friends and family coming down on vacation. Bring on the cervesa, pina coladas, sun and surf!

Laying Low in Teacapan

2010-01-20T18:03:00.000-08:00

It's the end of the day, and as I sit at my computer desk typing up this blog post, I can hear the sound of the waves hitting the shoreline. Very tranquil. That pretty much sums up where we are staying in Teacapan.

The Onac RV park is located at the end of a long, bumpy, winding country road and sits along an amazing stretch of beach - you can walk miles in either direction. It is very quiet - no street traffic here. There are no vendors - you are left alone on the beach. Beautiful. I can see the attraction to wintering here.

We arrived here last night after a very long day of driving. We left San Carlos around 6:30 a.m. It was pre-dawn and the road was foggy. The drive itself was fairly uneventful. We had hoped to make Teacapan before dark, but left Mazatlan as our backup destination in the event we ran out of travel time.

In our haste to get to Teacapan before we lost the daylight, we missed the opportunity to stop at a grocery store, and as we had crossed the border with an almost empty fridge and liquor cabinet, we were hurting for supplies. Bless our buddies' Brenda and Adrian's hearts - after we set up our camp, they fed and 'watered' us (awesome margaritas and some pretty incredible black sambucca), and stocked up our depleted supply of a few essentials.

After a late night of catching up with our friends, we had an equally late morning catching up on sleep. We strolled down to the beach early afternoon, and enjoyed a leisurely day soaking up the sun. We were even treated to a dolphin show - about a dozen dolphins went swimming by our stretch of beach. Terry shot some video of their 'swim-by', but I can't seem to get it to load on this site. Will try again tomorrow.

Later, Adrian drove us into the little town of Teacapan so we could stock up on beer and ice. The town has minimal shopping, so tomorrow we'll drive back to Escuinapa, a larger centre about 30 minutes out of Teacapan, and hit the grocery store.

We caught the beautiful sunset, had our supper, and are calling it an early night. Tomorrow, after our brief shopping excursion, we must do a beach walk, and then Brenda and Adrian are taking us to a local beachside restaurant for giant pina coladas and coconut shrimp. Yum ...

Alive and Well in San Carlos, Mexico

2010-01-18T18:14:00.000-08:00

Here we are in beautiful San Carlos, Mexico. This is the sunset view from the patio of the restaurant next to our RV Park.

It is warm and humid. The views and sunset are incredible. The beer and 'vino blanco' are icy cold, and the shrimp is as fresh as if you just caught it yourself.

It doesn't get any better than this.

After MUCH effort yesterday (all day long packing, organizing and cleaning - in bed by 1:30 a.m. and up by 4:15 a.m.), we hit the road for Mexico at approximately 6:30 a.m. I'll admit, there was some grumbling about leaving our new home, but we both knew this would pass as soon as we hit Mexico.

We crossed the border at Nogales, and it was a surprisingly easy border crossing. We were a bit concerned, as last year we failed to turn in our tourist cards and heard after the fact that there could be some expensive repercussions. Luckily, this was not an issue at all for us.

Also, we had quite a few vehicles to secure VIP registration for (vehicle import permits) - the motor home, trailer, SUV and motorcycle - and were afraid that we might be pushing the envelope in terms of numbers. Again, no issue.

So off we drove, without a hitch. Having travelled this route last year, the stress levels were fairly non-existent. We knew this road, and could relax - knowing our route and our stops. The only raised stress levels were experienced by the cats, who could not understand why they were torn from their new home and tossed into the evil moving motor home again.

We are staying at the Totonaka RV Park, where we stayed on both our trip down and return trip last year.

After a leisurely walk along the malecon, we are calling it an early night, and are planning to be up and on the road again early, so we can make Teacapan before nightfall. We plan on spending a few days there.

In September, San Carlos experienced a flash flood during the hurricane that struck the area. It washed out a good portion of the road coming into the town. They are now rebuilding the road, and putting in a bridge just in front of the RV Park. Here's a shot of the work in progress.

Will keep you posted.

We Just Get the Backyard Oasis Finished – And Off We Head For Mexico!

2010-01-17T09:49:00.000-08:00

Life has been hectic since my last post. As a little update for everyone:

Our New Year’s Eve was spent at Casino Arizona. Terry and I decided to do something different and ‘dress up’, so I bought myself a new dress, Terry donned his finest suit, and to the Casino we went, intending to treat ourselves to a little gambling, a lovely meal and perhaps take in some live entertainment.

Turned out the Casino was PACKED, the line-up for the entertainment didn’t appear to be moving at all, and the one-armed bandits were completely occupied. It was the busiest I have ever seen any casino. The crowd was an odd mixture of designer suit wearing high rollers to folks wearing their best sweatpants, and everything in between. Not the most memorable New Years.

Terry’s mom and dad (Lyle and Agnes) came to stay with us from January 1st-13th, so much time was spent visiting, touring, shopping, and card playing.

Daytrips included a drive out to Casa Grande to visit Lloyd and Karen Knox, and a road trip to Tortilla Flats. The drive out to Tortilla Flats is lovely, taking you past Superstition Mountain and Canyon Lake, and through the beautiful green and gold desert hillside.

The work on our backyard continued for the duration of their trip, so Lyle spent a great deal of time supervising the ‘boys’ and watching over the project as it unfolded.

The transformation was incredible to watch. Each segment of the project brought out its own ‘experts’, who were responsible for a very specific skill or task.

The construction of the spa was particularly interesting, and we watched as things progressed from a hole in the ground to framing and plumbing, shotcrete, rock work and water feature addition, tiling, pebble tec application, etc. We added a boiler to heat the pool and hot tub, so a trench for the gas line had to be dug along the entire length of the house. The pool was drained, acid washed and refilled.

Landscaping included the planting of three palm trees (Queen Palm, Pineapple and Mexican Fan Palms), and 10 other shrubs/grasses indigenous to the area, plus the corresponding installation of an automatic watering system, and finishing with the addition of landscape lighting. Final touches included the addition of our barbeque and outdoor fridge, setting up our gas firepit, and paint.

We had hoped to have everything wrapped up before Lyle and Aggie left so they could enjoy some time in the pool and hot tub, but they missed it by 8-hours. They’ll have to come back next year to see in person how it turned out! It's even nicer than we hoped, and can only imagine how beautiful it will be when we return next year and the plants have come into their own. Many, many thanks to Chris Melby from A2Z Construction & Landscaping - great job!!

While Agnes and I were shopping at the local Wal-Mart early into their visit, we ran into Rob and Judy Turner, good friends of ours from B.C. Turns out they were on a house-hunting mission as well. As they had brought their Harley with them, we planned a motorcycle trip to Tortilla Flats that Sunday. Beautiful ride, and obviously a popular one with the motorcycles, as there were many out that day.

The yard work was completed on Thursday, so we’ve had just a couple of days to enjoy it before we start getting ready to leave for Mexico. We’re planning on heading out Monday, January 18th, and will be travelling again to Bucerias. Along the way we will stop for a quick visit with friends Brenda and Adrian Thompson, who are staying at Teacapan, which is just 100 km south of Mazatlan.

While we are sad to be leaving our new home, we are also looking forward to Mexico. The beaches … the tropical heat …. the warm ocean …. lots of friends and family to visit … the seafood … the beer …whale watching … bike rides to the quaint interior towns - can’t wait! It may, however, be a little tough breaking it to the cats that they have to move back into their 'house on wheels'.

Once again, it is ‘farewell USA’ and hola Mexico!

Hiking on Christmas Day, and Jesus Works on Sunday

2009-12-27T15:21:00.001-08:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Terry and I decided to go hiking on Christmas Day.

We had originally thought of hiking Camelback Mountain, but decided instead to check out the San Tan Regional Park, which is very close to us.

The park area has a visitor centre and a number of different trails, including one that passes by the graves of two gold miners.

We opted for the San Tan Trail hike, which was approximately 6-miles in distance.

It was a beautiful day, and for the first half of the hike we were by ourselves, with the exception of a few horseback riders.

We had to take a picture of one couple, as they fit so well into the landscape and western flavor of the desert.

The trail was well marked, and a relatively easy hike.

We saw many interesting examples of saguaro cactus along the way.

Check out the mutated cactus and the 'gnarly' cactus!

This afternoon Jesus and friend returned to finish off the putting and chipping green.

They did a great job, and of course Terry and I had to try it out.

The challenge was on to see who could chip the most balls onto the green and stick (more difficult than either of us anticipated), and who could sink the most putts.

A few managed to find their way into the pool, but none over the wall so far!

Jesus and His Landscaping

2009-12-24T06:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a few pictures showing the work that Jesus and the gang did the other day.

In this first picture, you can see the putting green and 'lawn'. Unlike home, that white stuff is sand on top of the putting green at the moment. Jesus and the boys will be spreading it into the grass.

They were just working on that the other day when the wind/rain started, so had to quit. I guess the sand has to be dry before they can work it into the grass.

Here, you can see the little 'chipping' area, where we will skillfully chip our balls over to the putting green.

More realistically, we will be playing a new game of 'how many balls can we NOT launch over the fence onto the street, or NOT slice into the pool'.

The 'grass' for the chipping area will be added today I believe.

Here is the hole they dug for the hot tub/water feature.

If Terry had not caught Jesus' mishap yesterday, this would have been full of water in the picture today.

Here's a visual of the new hot tub in relation to the pool.

As you can see, they removed the bricks around the pool in front of it in anticipation of the work to be done.

To the left of the new hot tub (and behind), is the area where a lot of new 'greenery' will added.

I wanted a few palm trees, some grasses, and whatever Chris the landscaper recommends.

That part of the process won't happen till later in January.

Anyway, that's it so far - after really only a day. Jesus is truly a miracle worker!....

They are supposed to be back this morning, so I'll post any changes later.

Jesus Messed Up - BIG Time!

2009-12-23T21:03:00.000-08:00

And when I say 'Jesus', I mean 'Hay-Soos', the foreman for our backyard landscape job ..... (please, no lightning strikes to my head).

If you remember, in my last post I talked about the landscape work that we had planned for our backyard. Imagine my surprise when, 8:00 a.m. the very next morning, our doorbell rang and I was greeted by five eager Mexicans ready to start the job.

Lead by Jesus, the group immediately began the job of removing the brick surrounding the grassy area in the backyard, followed by digging up ALL of the grass and moving it to a large pile in our front yard.

In no time at all, the remaining soil was levelled, and a putting green and new 'pretend' grass was put in place. Plus, the hole for the hot tub was dug. WOW - talk about impressive! Back home, this would have been a week to 2-week job!

I had to go out for a while, and noted with dismay the large pile of unwanted grass/brick etc. that remained in our front yard. I began to envision nasty notes from our new neighbours, and warning calls from our HOA (Home Owner's Association). To my delight, everything was removed and the area swept clean before the day's end.

They had to cut the day short as a sudden wind/rain storm came in, so there still remains some work to do on the putting green, but I cannot believe the difference. It looks terrific already.

How did Jesus mess up? The underground sprinkler heads were cut off when they lifted the old grass, but not capped off as they should have been. Terry happened to look out later this morning to see water gushing and pooling in the yard. Lucky thing he caught it, as it would have filled the hole dug for the hot tub!

I have no pictures for this post, as we made the decision to golf today, and ran out of daylight. I will post pictures tomorrow so you can see the work accomplished and the transformation of the yard.

All I want for Christmas is ..... a putting green??

2009-12-21T10:45:00.000-08:00

Hello from our new 'digs'. We finally moved into the house last Wednesday. While all of the furniture is in place, we continue to gather the 'finishing touches' (pictures, nick knacks, plants, etc.). We are realizing it is a very slow, painful process to bring the 'house to home' project to completion. Very, very, very, very sick of shopping. We are constantly realizing we need to purchase yet another thing for the house.

Our office was a particular joy. We purchased two desks from Staples, and spent - I'm not kidding - 2-1/2 hours putting ONE of them together. And that was with the two of us working together; focused - a team. It took two days before we could brace ourselves to tackle the second desk, which, unfortunately, was even a more arduous experience than the first. Our 'teamwork' quickly unravelled with the second desk, and our communications became peppered with many, many expletives directed at each other and much finger-pointing when things went wrong. The fun never ends .....

The builders here don't seem to incorporate centro vac into their house design, which is unfortunate, so I was forced to go out and purchase a good 'ol vaccum cleaner. With three cats, I wanted to ensure the vacuum I purchased would be able to tackle the ensuing hair that comes with them. I researched, and purchased one that I found on sale during the cyber Monday internet sales. However, the thing weights a ton! It is like pushing a tank around the house. Expect some amazing upper body strength and definition when you next see me.

When all is said and done, we are very happy with the house. Not to leave well enough alone, however, we are having some landscaping done in the backyard. The desert cools down at night, so a hot tub is a necessity (we have our portable hot tub set up for now and are enjoying it nitely). Rather than purchase a stand-alone, we are having one built as an addition to the pool. The tub will include a rock/water feature that flows into the pool. Should be nice when it is completed.

The large 'grassy' area in the back is going (grass is a pain in the butt here - must overseed in the winter or it looks terrible as you can see from the pictures), and will be replaced with a putting green (guess that is what one does down here ... a little compromise on my part ...) and a raised bed(s). We're also adding some palm trees, grasses and indigenous plants near the hot tub, adding landscape lighting, fixing the built-in barbeque, adding a fridge to the outside bar, and matching the stucco on the bar and barbeque to the house. (Yee gads - again - didn't we sell a house and everything we own JUST LAST YEAR ...??)

Here are some pictures of the house. Remember that the yard pictures are 'before' shots, and I'll update you when the landscaping is completed. The landscaper was here yesterday and the pool is now emptied in preparation for the work to begin.

With all of the house hunting, furniture and household shopping, moving in, etc. etc. , Christmas has really fallen by the wayside for us this year. We have made our little attempt at decorating (as you can see by the miniature Christmas tree in our pictures and lighted bamboo plant). As Lyle will be staying in Alberta for Christmas, 'Amigo Lyle' has jumped right in to fill his spot, and has donned festive garb to acknowledge the season (as seen in the slide show).

Terry and I will have a quiet Christmas Eve - we are planning a 'Christmas crab' supper for two. Much to Terry's chagrin, I've conned him into a hike up Camelback Mountain on Christmas morning. This is a short, but steep hike up, with the reward of some amazing views of greater Phoenix.

The weather has been great this past week - not hot, but a very pleasant 20-22 degrees celsius during the day (and it's the first day of winter!). It does cool down in the evening, but nothing a little hot tub won't handle. No white stuff for Christmas!

Dreary Day in the Desert

2009-12-07T12:37:00.001-08:00

For those of you suffering through the recent horrible weather in Alberta/B.C. - this might cheer you up.

This is the view from our living room in the motorhome. It's raining and dreary and 13 degrees celsius.

We've been sitting here all day waiting for word from our banks regarding the loss of our wire transfer. Nothing to report yet.

Recently I placed online orders with Walmart, Best Buy and Amazon.com. I was easily able to track our orders - virtually every step that they took along the way - from order placement to shipping with Fedex/UPS, to either a local storefront or to our mailbox. On the other hand, something critical like a wire transfer appears to be 'untraceable', disappearing into a black hole, with no one able to say with any certainty where it was/is in the system. Very sad statement of the banking industry!