Life's A Beach!

Hi Family & Friends! How's life going for you guys? I hate telling you this but Man Life is Good! Bob & I are continuing to have a fabulous time. If you guys don't have Puerto Escondido on a list of destinations to visit; add it. Nothing fancy about this place; no "resorts"; no restaurant chains just a small town that has miles and miles of large beaches. We really like how this town has protected their beach. They only allow wooden structure restaurants on the beach & no hotels. Hotels are across the street & hillside w/magnificent views of the ocean. No obstructions or "private" beach area reserved for monster resorts. All the hotels are Mom & Pop places; they are nice hotels just small and nothing over 3 stories. Surfing tops the list for most travelers here but there's areas to snorkel, swim, relax and great restaurants. Yesterday, we took a cab over to Playa Manzanillo. By the way we have our own Cabbie. His name is Joaquin. We have his cell number and is always ready to pick us up at a moments notice. Very nice guy and doesn't rip us off. Taxis here are very cheap anyway $2 - $3 to go across town but the door to door service is nice otherwise its a short walk up to the main road to grab a cab. Anyway back to Playa Manzanillo; it's about 15 mins from our apartment. The green-blue water was calm and the white soft sand was warm. There has to be 15 small restaurants on this cove, all calling out we have the best food, coldest beer and lounge chairs for your convenience (along w/umbrella). Bob picked out a place for us to spend the day. It was fabulous. Finally, I was able to enjoy the ocean and swim with minimal waves. I think I mentioned the beach we are living on called Zicatela is for the surfers. The waves are huge and the currents are strong. So we don't swim in it; we just get wet and cool off. On Tuesday there was a small parade in honor of Fat Tuesday. There may have been 15 floats and not much crowd. Most of the people were "local" Mexican folks and not many tourist or expats. We had a good time though. We were able to follow the floats that were handing out the free libations without being trampled. I'm curious to hear about the Mardi Gras in Mazatlan. They have the 3rd largest party in the world. (Rio de Janiero first followed by New Orleans.) I'll have to send some emails out to our friends in Mazatlan. Other than that...we watch the sunset every evening and never get bored. We're lazy, read a lot in the hammocks, hang at the beach in the afternoons, watch movies and play backgammon daily. We're both competitive so it's best not to keep track on paper but I think I'm ahead....shhhh! I keep track mentally. We heard from several of you with concerns of the news back home & drug cartel. We haven't seen anything to that nature and everyone we've met has been so nice. I'm not saying the news is incorrect but maybe just a little stretched. We do stay alert but all has been wonderful. With the peso continuing to get stronger (its now $15 pesos to our $1.00) I would love to hang in Mexico a little longer. We heard of new places we "need" to check out and they sound so cool but we do have to leave the country at least for a day or two before re-entering. Who knows what are plans are. We are looking into Belize as our next country but man, are apartments high. We're not giving up. We keep looking and hopefully we'll find a place. I know a few of you say you'd like to visit us in Belize so we're trying to make it work. We miss everyone dearly and hope you guys too are living a good life. Love - Bonnie & Bob

Dancing Waters

Hi! How's it going? It's a nice warm but a cool breezy day here in Puerto Escondido. Bob & I just eat our breakfast on the patio and watched a few surfers. Yesterday afternoon we spent several hours on the beach and watched the sunset. It was beautiful. But what was really spectacular was the ocean. The water here is beautiful but they have "red flags" all up & down the beach. This means its dangerous for swimming; use extra precautions. There are lots of undertows. But the waves here are large and attracts tons of surfers which is great fun to watch. Anyway, Bob & I did get in the water but only knee deep. You could definitely feel the undertows and the power from the ocean. We are both pretty strong swimmers (but we were still careful, Mom) The ocean is much calmer in the midday hours. It's the early morning and dusk when the waves are huge and have that thunderous sound as it crashes the beach. Love that! Anyway, while we were hanging out on the beach waiting for the sun to set we notice the change in the waves. They were coming from all directions. It was wild. Not only were the waves coming from the wide open ocean to the beach but the wave action was coming from the beach out to ocean. It was hitting a sand bar and sending the wave back out. Plus waves came across the ocean left to right and right to left if you can imagine that. If so, then imagine this....as the waves came across they would run into one another as a head on collision...O'man, this so cool. The splash would send the water up 10+ feet in the air. It reminded me of Vegas...the hotel that has the dancing water out front and they play music to for a show. We were watching up & down the beach and you see the collisions happening everywhere. It was so cool and very entertaining. After the sun had set...which is always spectacular. We packed our stuff up and headed back to the apartment for some grub. Salad, pasta w/garlic shrimp, and bread were on the menu. Yummy! Hope everyone has a wonderful day. Love - b&b

Giving up for now!

Hola, How is everyone doing? My Morelia post went out way before I was ready...SORRY! But, I've been working on it for the past 3 days and not getting anywhere. Not sure if I have too many pictures posted or what the problem is but I keep getting locked out. So, I'm giving up. Plus, I think I'm confusing you guys by posting places we've already been to and trying to catch you guys up. We are in Puerto Escondido and loving it. Now that I'm giving up on my Morelia post; I'll have more time to spend out on the beach. Woo Hoo! I can tell you though, Morelia was worth the trip. We didn't have it on our original path but glad we added it. If you've been reading our blog along the way you know we've spent a lot of time touring Churches. It my thing; I'm Catholic and Bob is a great sport. He doesn't seem to mind tagging along with me into them. Morelia by far has the best Cathedral we've seen. And yes, we have been to the one in Mexico City. That too was something to see but hands down...Morelia was beautiful. Plus they have a "Lighting of the Church" every Saturday that was breathtaking. It's starts @ 9:00 p.m. when they light the lower portion of the church which is then followed by a series of fireworks. Then they lit the middle part of the church and once again fireworks. Once the whole church is lit up the fireworks display is fabulous. The whole ceremony took 30 mins. We loved it. I thought that was worth the trip in itself. I am disappointed that I'm not able to explain the pictures that already went out but hopefully you enjoyed anyway. Other than that...We went to a Blues Fest last night. Get this..one of the bands was from Austin. They were called the Flying A's. They were good. The headline guy was Matt Schofield. He's no Mark May but not bad. It was a nice evening. We're off to the beach. Hope everyone is doing well. We'll be in touch later. Love to all - Bonnie

La Gruta Hot Springs

I can't believe I forgot to put this on my San Miguel page. Hot spring or Thermal Baths surround San Miguel. There are several to place to go but Bob did his research like he always does and chose La Gruta for us to hang out for the day. La Gruta wasn't but 15 mins out of San Miguel. We took the local bus which cost us a whole ($.05/pp). Taxi would have been roughly $14.00 roundtrip. Park entrance was $7.00 per person. This place was fabulous. La Gruta has 3 Thermal pools ranging from warm water to hot. So take your pick. There's also what they call a Dome Top Thermal which is the hottest. You get there by walking in a cave about waist deep warm water. We were able to see the light at the end of the tunnel or Dome Top so it wasn't too dark in the cave. Now this water was steaming hot. I enjoyed it for a short time then I started getting claustrophobic. Bob loved it. He returned to the cave several times throughout the day. I went back a 2nd time only to turn around and head out. Way too many people now. Not my thing. The other bodies of water worked perfect from me. Here's the largest of the pools. The water was Luke warm. I used it as my pool. This is the entrance to yet another pool. Much warmer water than the large pool. Same pool as above entrance This is the entrance to the Top Dome Thermal. As you can see the tunnel is a little narrow but it wasn't a bad walk in We couldn't take our camera in for obvious reason but I'm glad I went in. Lots of folks hang in here before heading to their massage. The property offer massage therapy of facials and wraps. Wraps are not my thing either. I do not like to be confined in any form or fashion. Heck I have to sleep with my feet out of the covers. I'm weird I know. Bob reminds me all the time. This is the outdoor restaurant. Very good food and inexpensive. Salads to Fajitas and cold beverages. We had a really good time here and a must if ever traveling to San Miguel.

We're settled for the month!

Hi Everyone! I'm so happy to let you guys know that we found an apartment! WooHoo! We can unpack and relax for a month. We have cute apartment hillside but only 3 blocks off the beach. We have a balcony that overlooks the ocean and where we can check out the surfers in action or just take a nap on our hammock. Now that's what I'm talking about. The only thing that I'm bummed about is that this place doesn't have a pool. O'well, we'll make the most of it. Bob & I plan to buy some boogie boards and hang in the ocean. Bob had mentioned that he wanted to take surfing lessons but thought better of the idea and opted out. Boogie boards may be a better alternated since we are a LITTLE older now. I don't have any pictures of our place just yet but I'll get some taken and posted as soon as possible. We do hope someone will come visit us. Bob did a little research on the internet and it looks like it's costing $490/rt/pp. I know...it's high dollar but at least you will have a free place to stay. And I'll cook for you guys. Think about OK? We'll be here till March 15th and then we'll be making our way over to Belize from here. Since we are "busing it" the trip from here to there is approx 24 hours. So, we plan to do some night stays along the way but we have to be out of Mexico by March 19th. Our tourist visa will expire. As you know I've been without internet for a few weeks. I'm planning to back track and post pictures of the places we've been. Hope you guys enjoy! Love to all - B&B

MIA

Did you miss us? We missed you guys. My friend, Trechell was ready to send a search party. Personally, I think she was looking for a reason to vacation.... Didn't mean to worry anyone. I guess it had been a long time since we'd kept you guys updated; sorry about that. Unfortunately the places we've been to since we left San Miguel had no internet access or the access we did have was sporadic. We are now in Puerto Escondido. We arrived here on Saturday and are searching for an apartment / condo. We plan to stay here for a month...So you know what that means? Get your plane ticket and come see us. We'll be here till March 15th. We are very close in making a decision on our apartment so don't let that slow your plans for booking a flight here. The easiest way to get here.... use http://www.kayak.com/ I believe you would have to fly into Mexico City and then on to Puerto Escondido. We'll be waiting for you. This is a personal note to Pete from Bob, but the probability that he will read this is not very good. The odds are better that Nancy will read this posting. If so, you Nancy have been assigned the responsibility to pass this message on to him. Bob would really love to see the old man once again display those fantastic surfing skills one more time as he did in Costa Rica. What a treat that would be! Puerto Escondido is a small surfing village. We've read that it's one of the top destinations in the world for surfing. Do we surf? Hell no, not yet anyway. Bob is thinking about taking lessons. I will be sidelined. I tell ya...having a neck injury bites. Or does it? We're continuing to have a great time. We are looking forward to staying put for a month in one place. Our journey here had been quick stops at the following cities.... San Miguel de Allende, Morelia, Mexico City, Taxco, and Acapulco. So, I have lots of pictures to post. As soon as we get settled in our apartment; time will be on my side. We do have to be out of Mexico by March 19th. Our tourist visa of 180 days will expire. I can't believe we've been here that long. From Mexico we will spend a month in Belize (Ambergris Caye or Palencia) for anyone interested in future travels with us. Bob is ready to get some dives in. We hope everyone is doing well. As always we miss you guys! Lots of love - B&B

Touching base

Hola...how has everyone been? We´ve been busy traveling around. Looks like my last blog took place while in Guadalajara. Well since then we´ve been to San Miguel de Allende, Morelia and Mexico City. We leave MC tomorrow and off to Taxco from here. But we only plan to spend one night there before heading down to Acapulco for a week. I have so many pictures to post. Unfortunately, here in Mexico City we don´t have internet access in our hotel so pictures will have to wait till we get to Acapulco. We debated on coming to Mexico City but we´re so glad we did. This place rocks! Can´t wait to share the pics with you. We just wanted to let everyone know we are doing well. We´ll be in touch as soon as we settle down in Acapulco. Take care...Hope everyone is doing well. Lots of love B&B