Adios Amigos

Well after several months on the road and bumping ourselves over way too many topes - I'm happy to report we've made it home safe and sound. What an amazing journey we've had. We saw so many beautiful things, had a ton of fun and met lots of great people.

Thanks to everyone who followed our blog faithfully and sent us messages hoping we were ok when we didn't post anything for a few days (or weeks in some cases if we had no internet for a while). There was no need to worry, thankfully we never ran into any of the problems everyone was fretfully warning us about.

We had fun with this blog and we hope we've inspired you to take a trip like ours in the near future. Life is short - enjoy it!

Thank you Ronald for taking me on this trip and thanks for all the memories.

Adina

Hasta la vista Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta was a fun place to hang out. The beaches were beautiful. I ate at beachfront restaurants with my feet in the sand. I watched fishermen and fed pelicans from the pier. Some local boys asked me to take pictures of them jumping off the pier. It was cute, after they'd jump in they'd run back over to me to look at the pictures I'd taken of them. Gotta love digital.





I loved strolling along the busy malecon (boardwalk) at night. We watched street performers and dancers in the main square near the cathedral. Things really come alive at night. Bars and clubs don't get going until about 11pm. We went to a bar called Club Roxy, the house band was excellent.





We ride the scooter everywhere we go. For us cobblestone streets are brutal and so are the topes (speed bumps). I have to get off the scooter every time we need to go over a speed bump. Mexican scooters all have bigger tires, the locals always have a good laugh when they see us trying to maneuver over the topes. We're ok with being a source of entertainment. Have a look at the video of Ron singing along with the mariachi band in the restaurant. Maybe he's found his calling as a mariachi man?



Or maybe a Mexican shoe salesman? Hey sinor, wanna buy a pair of shoes?



After leaving Puerto Vallarta we spent a night in San Blas on our way Mazatlan. We parked right next to the beach for the night. The sand in San Blas was fine white sand, the nicest we've seen so far. Here are a few pictures I took of the view from our windows.





We're now in Mazatlan for a week. This will be our final Mexican city before we cross over the boarder at Nogales. I can't believe our trip is almost over and we'll be back to reality soon.



I've gotten pretty comfortable with traveling, exploring and living in the RV full time, along with not having to wake up to the sound of an alarm clock!

Adina

Got eaten alive at the zoo

At the zoo in Puerto Vallarta you have the opportunity to feed almost all the animals they have there. With my trusty bag of zoo food in hand, I knew there was a risk of being bitten while I was reaching into a cage and feeding a variety of wild animals, including leopards and black bears. But my main concern should have been the fleas! A picture is worth a thousand words and this one says - Ouch, someone should have used some bug spray!



I went online and checked out Trip Advisor to read the reviews of the Puerto Vallarta zoo before we went there. I do agree with other visitors who said some of the animals looked stressed and sick. The ostriches barely had any feathers left on them, one ostrich was bleeding on its back, that was sad to see. Also most of the cages looked too small for the animals they housed. Watching some of the animals pace back and forth in circles was hard to watch as well.





It was amazing to be so close to the animals. There weren't high walls or moats between us and them, including the big cats. We could feed most of the animals either over a low wall or through a chain link fence. What an experience that was. It was funny how the hippo and the zebra opened their mouths before we even got out the food.





Putting my hand through the fence and feeding a big black bear was very cool. He ate a peanut right out of my hand. Also a highlight of our zoo day was for an extra $10.00 you can go in the cage with a young tiger or jaguar. I chose the tiger. I was too chicken to wrestle around and play with him like you see lion tamers do, (since he was 3 months old and already had really big teeth!) but I did manage to pet him on the head once lol. I should have chosen the jaguar, he was only a month old and I could have sat with him on my lap, oh well next time.



Aside from the buffet lunch I provided for the fleas, we had a great time at the zoo. :)

Adina

I'm baaack! In Puerto Vallarta & loving it :)

After a few weeks away I'm glad to be back in Mexico.



My beautiful family




I had a nice visit with my mom who flew in from Toronto. We took the ferry over to Vancouver for the day to experience some of the Olympic festivities. I couldn't believe how many people were in the streets, singing and waving Canadian flags. It was an amazing atmosphere. Way to go Canada!!

Adina

Back to Victoria for a party

I'm flying home to Victoria tomorrow for a few weeks.

I'll be back in sunny Mexico on February 28th. I'm not sure if Ron will keep up the blog while I'm away. I'm sure he'll have lots of adventures of his own while I'm gone, they just may not make it to the blog. ;)

Adina

Thanks for a 1000 hits

Wow our blog has made it to a 1000 hits. I didn't know we were that interesting. Its gotta be the Speedo!

Thanks to our loyal followers for taking the time to follow our Mexican adventures. I'm not sure who you are (but I would if you signed our Guestbook and left comments under the posts - hint hint). ;)

Adina

Boys will be boys

No matter how old they are, boys will always be boys. That pretty much sums up all the events of the past few days.



Only a Canadian could invent a 'sand Zamboni' using a quad, a board, a few chains and some nails. Ron and the Bocce boys have been busy manicuring their Bocce course to perfection using their new invention. It was pretty funny watching them driving it up and down the course, one guy driving, another on the back weighing it down and the other 5 guys watching from the sidelines drinking beer.




After doing a superb job on the Bocce course Ron and Dave decided to play in the ocean for a while. When Ron showed up in his French Canadian swim attire Dave thought twice about hanging out with a dude in a Speedo, but he eventually got over it and in they went. Good on ya Dave. ;)






Last night we went to the rodeo. We listened to live music, danced, drank cheap beer and watched Mexican cowboys ride raging bulls. Ok not all the bulls were raging, one smart bull decided laying down would be easier than trying to throw the rider off. The crowd had a good laugh over it.





We got there around 9pm and stayed until after 1am, it was still going strong when we left. Mexican's sure know how to have a good time. The arena was full. Everyone was up dancing in the stands and in the ring in front of the stage. The girls were dressed to the nines, and the guys were all decked out in their plaid shirts and white cowboy hats. No need to worry if you left your hat at home because they had lots for sale.



We enjoyed watching some young future cowboys fooling around pretending they were bulls. One boy had a lasso and was running around the ring catching his friends (the bulls). I didn't take any video because my camcorder wasn't working properly, but I did manage to snap a photo of the boy with the lasso as he was waiting to get into the ring.

I had so much fun, I'd love to go again.




Oops I almost forgot about Jarro's. My brain needs a siesta. I've had a fun busy weekend without much sleep. Saturday night we went to Jarro's, the nightclub in Barra De Navidad. We hung out with our friend Roke and danced the night away until 4am. Have I mentioned that I barely slept this weekend?



The last time we were at Jarro's they had three Mexican senorita's do a dance competition, well this time it was the boys turn, except they had to do a little strip show. Ay, caramba!



As you can see, life in Mexico is never boring. :)

Adina