Worker's Compensation nightmare!

Have a look at this - I took these pictures at the coconut grove next to our park.

Some more news from us . . . .

Christmas Eve with our friends!!

December 26th, 2008
Well, we made it through the Christmas relatively easy. At the RV Park, some of the “long timers” cooked turkeys, and everyone else brought potluck for a really nice Christmas dinner. On Christmas Eve, our neighbors lit up the park with luminaries – bags with candles in them. This is apparently a custom in the SW United States, and they carry it on here. It was really nice.

Some of the people in the park went to church, others had a Christmas Eve meal in one of the restaurants, and then others just stayed at the park and turned in early – that was us. On Christmas morning, the owner of the park greeted us all and gave us little gifts.

I was up early to see the Christmas sunrise . . . .

and then Arturo and I decided to take a sleigh ride in the rocket. The ocean was so calm, and getting the Rocket in was not a problem. We rode around to the bay further to the south, and took some pictures of the Blue Bay Resort and some other places. At the end of the bay, is a passage that takes you through a mangrove (jungle) and back to our park – so we decided, what the heck lets see what it’s like. Here are a few pictures. I am just learning to use the movie feature of my camera, so the movies aren’t that great, but you’ll get the idea. It was a bit tight in that mangrove – I only took movies at the beginning but it got quite narrow and over grown. It was fabulous – and now we know where the mosquitos that eat us alive at night come from!

On Boxing Day we got up early and went for a bike ride with another couple we have met, Bob and Ardelle. (yes, this is Bev going for bike rides – it’s just what the doctor ordered! – as I feel better than I have for a long, long time). We headed off the main road, and followed a gravel/sand road through to another beach. It was really beautiful there – and of course, I didn’t have the camera, so we have to go back to take some pictures. We carried on through the “back road” to El Rebalsito where we usually bike to, and then home. While we were at the beach, we noticed some young guys with their fancy truck driving on the beach. Wouldn’t you know it, they got stuck in the sand, and Arturo had to help push them out. I wish I had my camera as it was just a little too much like pushing out of a snow drift – except of course, sand, and t-shirts and sandals instead of boots and parkas! PRICELESS!

After our bike ride, we had a little beach time, and then entered the Park triathlon (don’t worry, it’s not what you think!). We played a game of “golf” which is nothing like golf, and I am in the semi-finals tomorrow. After that part is over, we move on to Bocci and Horseshoes. It’s a tough life here!

It is starting to get very busy at Tenacatita – as this is a major holiday break for Mexicans, so the beach is the place to be! It will get back to a quiet, laid back place after New Years. . . . will post more soon - miss you all

Arturo y de Beeb

main street of Tenacatita - east

..... west

Beachfront - the rv park is behind the yellow building

Tenacatita Beach

The Rocket is launched!

Here's some pictures of the rocket.

Chance to catch up

Chance to catch up . . .

We crossed the border from the U.S. to Mexico on Wednesday, November 26th. The border crossing was really uneventful – then you travel into Mexico until kilometer 21 – that’s where all the paper work is processed. We were there by about 0900 hrs and while our paper work seemed pretty strait forward, it took one and a half hours to get through it all . . . and this was a slow day. As luck would have it, the young girl at the bancerito (cashier) had never done a Canadian vehicle before, so it seemed to take a very long time - welcome to Mexico! We were waived through at all the checkpoints that we came across and decided on stopping at San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico for a few days.

San Carlos is the Gringo area – Guaymas (10 minutes to the South) is the original Mexican port town Now, when we read it was a port town, we assumed it would be a small Mexican town – but, no . . . so wrong . . . it’s a bigger Mexican city – probably over 100,000 people , and they don’t cater to tourists so English is not spoken. We drove around Guaymas, found a “mall” and got a few groceries . . . then headed back to Gringoville (San Carlos). We found a really nice bar across from the RV park where we could have a cerveza and some chips. This bar – Charly’s Rock, overlooked the ocean and we were able to see the dolphins playing in the bay.

The next morning, we packed up and headed for points south. The roads around Guaymas are not the best – no shoulders, and lots of Topes (speed bumps) at every little town along the way. This area seems very impoverished. Lots of people selling food on the roadsides, and when we did go through cities, we were swarmed with squeegee kids looking to make a quick peso. We politely said No Gracias, and they left us alone. Some of the areas were so poor looking . . . we found it difficult to say No, but if you gave pesos at every stop, we’d have none left! The small towns had lots of big topes, so every time you had to slow down to get over the tope, people were trying to sell you something - bread, tortillas, oranges (naranjo), peanuts . The City of Obergon seemed especially poor (in the area that we needed to go through) and then, of course, the farming communities in Sonora were poor – seems live a very hard life for the average person.

We crossed the state border into Sinaloa