House or pool? Bedrooms or hammocks?

TENACATITA, Jalisco, Mexico - The problem with all the beautiful homes here is, well, the problem is all the beautiful homes.

My feet are sore from walking to look at this adobe house and then this steel frame place and the latest - though I wimped out and let the Admiral do the walk - is a house with a pool right at the edge of the seawall.


Poolside palapa on Tenacatita Bay

It doesn't help that we have hooked up with a local fellow who is a construction whiz who knows everyone who builds everything and already has built homes - and pools - that are soooo gorgeous.

So, you are thinking (as I was at first) why a pool when the ocean is so near?

Answer: Fresh water & no critters.


Slow-moving sting ray

As I was kayaking yesterday I cruised through a small patch of jellyfish that would have made me quite uncomfortable, had I been swimming. They don't come in to the beach that often, but they probably know when it is hotter than hell and you are dying for a cool dip.


Admiral Fox scans for more houses to view

Today's excursion is likely to be unrelated to getting more sunshine. The kayaking, compounded with a slight overcast, led me to believe I didn't need that much sunscreen yesterday.

I believe I was quite wrong about that, though this morning the red has faded appreciably and perhaps a short kayak trip could be in order. Or at least a walk on the beach to shoot some scenic photos.


Citizens of the beach

Sleepy Sunday in La Manzanilla for everyone

LA MANZANILLA, Jalisco, Mexico - If one stereotype persists in most peoples minds about Mexico it's that these small pueblos are sleepy - as in very slow moving.

This burg was anything but sleepy last night, as Palapa Joes rocked until past 2 a.m. with amateurs showing off at open mic night. We probably should have stayed up. It sounded like we were trying to sleep inside the bar anyway.

But today at noon, the town was largely shuttered, even the Catholic Church was all but deserted.


Catholic Church on the square

Just like the lyrics from the Mamas and Papas' song California Dreamin, as I went by the square, 'I stopped into the church, I found along the way,' to light candles for my late father and mother. But this church doesn't have the usual setup with candles, and though I searched around, no fount of holy water, either. The only person in the church was a woman bent over her Rosary intently so I decided not to interrupt her moment with questions. Perhaps I'll catch the priest tonight when he says an evening Mass and ask him, "Donde esta las velas?"

The day was spent mostly on the beach - and I have the sunburn to prove it (sorry Dr. Silva), though except for kayaking, I hid under the umbrellas most of the time, chatting with the Admiral about plans for construction of Casa Admirale on Admiralty Beach in Tenacatita. Friends are all asking: How many guest rooms? Well, as we look at construction costs we ask: How many 'hammocks?'

But before you cancel those plans to visit next season, we will make sure you can get una hamaca with your name embroidered on it and your very own bolts in the wall, at just the right height for you to climb in.


Getting ready for a beach day

Sanders and Pat Lamont got totally into the spirit of the day, too, resting up so we can all go out to the town square tonight where vendors set up their booths selling homemade foods and families gather for a very social evening. It's a very traditional town in that way and the vendors get a kick out of selling some of their local (and sometimes very hot) foods.


Pat recharges for an evening out


Sanders lives the life

And what about those Seven Dirty Words of George Carlin's that Jane Gorby used as part of her act last night? (Someone emailed me and wanted both the Spanish and English versions.) Well, you will have to ask privately for those. This is only a PG-rated blog (with occasional excursions into R, depending on the swimsuits displayed on the beach.)

Scott and David's excellent fishing adventure

LA MANZANILLA, Jalisco, Mexico - After a day of snorkeling, eating at beachside restaurants and taking a Joe Santana Wild Jungle Ride, our friends Scott from Sacramento and David from Oakland were ready to take on the fish of Tenacatita Bay today.

Scott Noble, aka Scotty, is the Chief Engineer on Sabbatical, on leave here to check out the mechanical specs of our lot on the ocean at Tenacatita township and maybe buy his own piece of paradise.

After much brave talk of getting up with the roosters this morning - and there seem to be as many roosters in La Manzanilla as there are transplanted gringos - it turns out that both guys are still sound asleep as this blog is being written.

Still, the fish are waiting all day to play their favorite game: Fool the Gringos in Small Boats.

Not commonly found in Tenacatita Bay

After much consultation, we opted to delay our musical debut at the Palapa Joe's open mic last night, though we did see a few of the acts and listened to Jane Gorby do a monologue that included George Carlin's 7 dirty words you can say on the radio.

But Jane did them in English, followed by the seven dirty words in Spanish. (Now I know what that cab driver was saying in Puerto Vallarta last week.)

But we may also have a name for the band. While we were trying to play a little music under the palapa outside in the dark, Scotty lent us his headlamp, the kind that straps on your forehead so your hands can be free.

And Voila! We might be called the Four Headlights, or something like that.

On the beach for the first real day of vacation

TENACATITA, Jalisco, Mexico - We spent the first full day in La Manzanilla and Tenacatita today, doing all the usual (flipping kayaks in the surf, downing seemingly endless bottles of Pacifico beer, shaking sand out of the digital camera).

But this morning's tea and coffee in the palapa facing the beach was interrupted by one of our neighbors - who knows I am a journalist - yelling to me that there was a topless girl on the beach next door. She was, in fact, not just topless, she was also sans bathing suit bottom, he said. He knew such a shot was a sure winner to land in this blog, somewhere.

But I am sooooo glad I didn't stub my toe running to get the camera (I only banged one knee, and slightly at that) to get this shot:


Topless babe dragging her floatie to the surf

So the day started out well and it was nice to check out the beachside residents, some of whom seemed somewhat confused about whether they were supposed to be relaxing, working, or in the case of this photo, a little of both.


Multi-tasking in the sunshine

At Tenacatita, where we spent most of the afternoon snorkeling, drinking even more Pacifico beer and eating the area's signature lunch, a Rollo de Mar (seafood roll) it was obvious that spring break had arrived big time.

We've been warned by local residents, including Jane Gorby, (the rentalor here at Santana's), that the placid days we see now are about to be shattered when hordes of tourists will descend on La Manzanilla and Tenacatita as spring break vacationers and Mexican tourists coming for Easter Week, creating kind of a perfect storm of tourism, jamming restaurants, wreaking havoc on traffic on La Manzanilla's streets and generally driving local residents to madness.

We're braced and stocked up on all the necessary supplies to protect ourselves from interloper tourists (even though, technically, that's exactly what we are).

But more on that tomorrow.


A tourist at Tenacatita Beach