10-24 through 10-31-09: Trip to Guayabitos

10-24-09: We took a 1 week vacation (from Spanish school for Mike and the kids) and headed to hot weather, beaches, jungles, and the warm Pacific Ocean! It was a 9 hour road trip from Zacatecas with our dog Sasha in tow. We dropped her off at a dog kennel (Beach Dog in Mexico) run by an American lady named Melanie. It was located in a little town called Lo de Marcos about an hour N of Puerto Vallarta. We decided to avoid the touristy Puerto Vallarta in favor of a small town (also an hour N of PV) called Rincon de Guayabitos. It wasn't high season yet so we had our pick of hotels. We decided on the Casablanca Resort which was reasonable; $85 U.S. per night for a suite/kitchenette. The best thing about the hotel was that it was on the beach and all the rooms had a private balcony with awesome views of the ocean! It reminded Mike of the original Casablanca from the movie with Bogart and Bacall. It was built in the Mediterranean style; all white with an open lobby. You could see and walk all the way through the lobby out to the ocean from the street side of the hotel without encountering a door! We saw lots of pelicans in the water and on the beach. They would hang out near the food vendors waiting for scraps as the vendors prepared fish for sale. We frequently would eat delicious, grilled Mahi-Mahi on skewers for lunch on the beach. Lunch for four cost about 6 or 7 dollars. There were vendors traveling up and down the beach selling their wares but they weren't an incessant stream.

10-26-09: The family was on the beach at dusk when Mike ran into a man from a local conservation group called Grupo Ecologista de Nayarit who wanted volunteers to help release baby sea turtles that hatched that morning. The group digs up turtle eggs and put them in incubators to prevent raccoons and other land animals from making tasty snacks of them. He said that the release was planned for dusk to prevent birds from snatching turtles as they head toward the ocean; they have enough predators and mishaps ahead of them that the vast majority don't make it to adulthood. He also educated the group on the dangers of plastic debris that makes its way into the ocean; turtles can eat it accidentally and die because they are unable to digest it and it occludes their intestines. The volunteers were asked to take turtles out of a large tin and place them on the beach and to wait until the waves lapped near the turtles which would cause them to walk forward them swim into the ocean. Mike and Luke were in heaven because they love sea turtles! The baby turtles were too cute!!!

10-27-09: The family took a boat ride to search for dolphins and sea turtles in the open water. We missed seeing dolphins but Mike did spot a large sea turtle swimming by. We were then dropped off at Coral Island for a couple hours of snorkeling. Unfortunately, all our masks kept leaking (Wal-mart specials it looked like) despite adjusting but Mike and the kids still managed to see some neat fish since the water visibilty was good.

10-28-09: We took a combination tour of La Tovera Park and San Blas, Nayarit. The La Tovera Park trip consisted of a guided boat ride through an estuary and mangrove swamps which ended at a natural springs pool. The diverse fauna located in the park includes crocodiles, turtles, jaguars, ocelots, coatimundi, spider monkeys, iguanas, boa constrictors, and a great variety of birds (e.g. ibis, egrets, herons, ...) and fish. The amazing thing that surprised us was watching an iguana jump into the water and swim quickly to safety (We didn't know they could swim!).

Next we toured the ruins of the Fort of the Conteduria and Temple of the Virgin of the Rosary located in San Blas. The fort is located on the steep-sided Hill of St. Basilio. Luke was impressed with the cannons located along the fort walls. There was also a statue of Father Juniper Serra in recogniton of his role in the 1st missions to evangelize the peninsula of Baja California; the port of San Blas was the permanent base for these expeditions). While Mexico fought Spain for its independence (early 1800s), the port of San Blas was witness to the heroic defense realized against Spanish dominion by the insurgent Father Jose Maria Mercado who captured the fort without a single shot fired.

To ensure safe passage for sailors, a church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary was built between 1769-1788 on the Hill of St. Basilio. The bells of the church were referred to in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (The Bells of San Blas). Longfellow never visited San Blas but an article in Harper's Magazine about the bells sparked his poetic imagination; it was the last poem he wrote before his death.

10-29-09: Mike and the kids took advantage of the big waves that appeared on the ocean in the morning. Equipped with a boogie board, they took a pounding from the waves as they attempted to catch waves. We left the hotel the morning of the 31st which was great timing on our part since the hotel was suddenly teeming with tourists overnight. There were mostly Mexican nationals vacationing in Guayabitos during our stay; we were told that an influx of mostly Canadian tourists would begin in December (the American tourists mostly prefer Puerto Vallarta).