Mexican Sunset

Mexican Sunset

Monday, December 20, 2010

Takes A Village

I am sitting here in Sayulita. The Bungalos Jacqueline have internet which is really nice. Their pool is freezing cold, so I haven't been in it at all. As a matter of fact I haven't been in the water much this trip at all. It hasn't been very alluring for some reason. It has been much colder than in October for sure. That is one reason. It is also part to do with my skin getting so dry. I hate how that feels. Mostly I love being by the ocean, hearing it's pounding surf. Sometimes when I put Eva down with her favorite toy - the little lamb with different white noises, I put on the sound of the ocean, because it is the one I love the best.

Today we had a bit of a rough day. It started bad with the shirt I wore. It is a really cute silk tank top. Problem is it is just a bit too low cut and my bra shows a little and I feel like I look llike I am falling out of it. And I was, all day. Made worse of course, any time I was holding Eva. Oh well, Mama's privledges I guess. We wanted to get out of Sayulita "early" so we ate breakfast again at Rollie's. We really like him and the food there is quite good. I am not sure how we missed it last time we were here since it it just steps from our front door. So, "early" was about noon. We took a detour out of town to look for our friendly Canadian chaps who had a restaurant we went to last year. It seems that it is either no longer here, it was washed away when the river flooded, or we were actually dreaming that we had dinner there last year. In any case, we couldn't find again. We also saw a little bit more of Sayulita on the other side of the river. It is very nice over there and probably much more quiet than this side... that is my guess any way. So, off we went to find another stretch of beautiful beach and palm trees. We hit San Francisco first. It is also known as San Pancho and is about 15 minutes north of Sayulita. It is much quieter, but also has a fair number of travelers, tourists, etc. I wanted to find the turtle hatchery and find out what time they release the turtles in the evening, which they do from August through Decemeber. This is the time the mama turtles lay their eggs. Apparently they are an aphrodesiac and sold at bars with a shot of tequila. Gross. So, we found a map and eventually made our way through town and up a little hill to a place where there are volunteers who man the hatchery. Jocelyn greeted us and was extremely friendly. She went into a small black shack filled with stryofoam coolers and brought out a little white box of baby sea turtles.. They are dark grey and black and very cute. Jocelyn took a lot of time telling us about sea turtles, their demise, and how "Frank" makes it his business to make sure they don't go extinct. At night mama turtles come and lay their eggs on the beach and the volunteers that work with Frank have to be out all night long collecting the eggs so the poachers don't get them. She told me that one night she was out and she watched a mama lay her eggs and finish up. According to Jocelyn, the mama goes into a sort of trance when they are laying eggs, so not much bothers them, they are going to lay their eggs come hell or high water, poachers or no. So Jocelyn waited for mama to move on from her nest and when Jocelyn went to get the eggs, of which one mama usually lays at least 100 at a time, there was only one! The poachers had been there before her and stolen the eggs right as she was laying them! So disgusting.
After I got my fill of turtles we decided to get in the car and drive to Chacala. I was hoping to show Ken the town we had stayed in the year before with Caroline and Curry before he arrived to join us. Somehow in the back of my head part of me was thinking, maybe we should just stay in San Pancho, enjoy the beach and then at 6pm see the turtles being released. I didn't listen to that intuitive sense.. I should have... The road is very pretty, lots of jungle, palm trees, and green everywhere. But there is the traffic to contend with: cars passing over double yellow lines and under crazy circumstances like oncoming traffic for example. Unfortunately we passed Chacala and the last town for miles. But I didn't see the sign, so before we knew it we were in the mountains and climbing. I didn't see anything recognizeable and I was fairly certain we had passed it. Ken didn't think so, but as we continued to climb and there were fewer and fewer places to turn around, he figured I was probably right. So having driven for an hour and a half or so, we headed back. Just as we got back on the road going south again, who should come up behind us but Policia. That had me a little nervous. I told Ken he might want to go the speed limit. He was certain it wasn't necessary. He was probably right. In a few minutes we had huge pile of cars behind us. But we did notice none of them were passing the policia. In that situation, in Mexico, you are a bit screwed. You don't want to break the law, but you also want to be sure that you don't want to piss anyone off. Luckily they eventually passed us, as did the rest of the cars piling up behind us. Still none of them passed the policia. I was much relieved when they were gone.

Sure enough, we had passed the turn off to Chacala and we saw it on the way back south. We kept going because it was getting late and I was still hoping to see some turtles released.

When we arrived back in San Pancho, we all (Eva, Ken, and I) had to pee, and were extremely hungry and tired. This is not a good combination for me under any circumstances. Especially not when I am traveling in a foreign place, don't know where to get decent and not too expensive food, don't know where there's a decent toilet, etc. We ended up having an ok, very expensive meal on the beach. A mistake I won't make again. After eating we went down closer to the water and let Eva play in the sand. She absolutely LOVED it. She really didn't want to leave. It seems she would have been content there the rest of the evening. But unfortunately Ken and I realized at that point we had been out for over 5 hours and by the time 6 came we might have a bit of a wait for the turtles... Mexican time and all... then we would be driving home on a road we don't know, in the dark with crazy Mexican drivers. We decided to head back to Sayulita. We can come back when Eva is older and can appreciate it and then we can stay in San Pancho and not have to worry about driving crazy roads with crazy drivers.

I think am ready to be home. It is amazing how much we rely on other people to help with Eva. I never realized it, not really, until this trip. We spend a lot of time with family and friends and it makes a huge difference in terms of having some down time. We have literally had only the time when she is asleep to ourselves. And then it is in the confines of our room or wherever we are staying. Here in Sayulita the room has a very nice outdoor space... if you aren't too worried about the bugs eating you alive. Why didn't I bring bug spray? I keep asking myself! I really appreciate my friends and family even more than ever now. I see how important it is to have people to share, even if it was just one evening or an hour during the day occasionally. It really does take a village.

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