Our Beach

Deserted beach as far as you can see

 Our friend Jeff is a world-class fisherman, we are not.  With the slightest flick of his wrist, Jeff sent the hook flying halfway to Australia!  Instantly there was a tug on the line.  He handed the pole to Steve and let him play with the fish.  He is standing on our little piece of the Costa Alegra (Gold Coast).  Not bad, eh?

Caught a large Jack Cravelle

 We let the fish go as he isn't very good to eat. In the meantime, we watched a Green Sea Turtle surf in on a wave, check us out, then disappear. Shortly after that we watched three Grey Whales breaching and playing in the surf. That's when we decided to buy the stretch of beach we were standing on.

The surf was really high

 The surf was really high and you wouldn't want to try to swim in it, but it was so beautiful to watch the waves crashing on the shore.

Strange Happenings

I can't really classify this as a "Bad Thing" on our road to Mexico retirement, it's just rather amusing and confusing.  That term pertains to a lot of life in Mexico, at least to outsiders - Amusing and Confusing!

Our beach is on the Pacific Ocean and a straight shot to New Guinea.  If you travel south just a few miles, the shoreline curves in and forms a small bay or large lagoon known as Tenacatita Bay.  Warm water, soft sand and a protected shallow area for swimming makes for a near perfect destination. The lagoon is surrounded by small outdoor cafes and a couple small locally owned hotels.  This is a popular vacation spot for local Mexican middle-class families.  There are very few gringo tourists here.

A few months ago a local bully known as (I am not making this up, I swear) Villalobos, convinced the local police that he actually owned all of the land around the lagoon.  He convinced (read that; probably paid off) the police to evict all of the local people living there, he ran them off the property, removed all of their hotel guests, and it was rumored he had dismantled the restaurants and shops on the beach. He claimed he had legally purchased the land from the widow of the owner over 30 years prior.  Much of the land around the bay is owned by the Ejido, or native cooperative.  Unfortunately for him, he got a little over-reaching and had the police remove some landowners who were outside of the Ejido area and were legal deed holders to the property they were forced out of.

Needless to say, it all went to court and as of last month, everyone had returned to their rightful place on the lagoon and the businesses were re-building (putting up new palm frond palapas and setting out plastic chairs).  Contrary to rumors spreading through the nearby villages that everything had been leveled, most of what was there when everyone left was still there when they returned.

It appears this gentleman, a throwback to the Mexico of 30 years ago, has tried this tactic before and lost his claim that time as well.  Hopefully, this will shed the light of justice on this beleaguered community and get this bozo out of their hair for good.  We shall see.  He really wants their land so he can build a mega-resort.

Our beach area was not in jeopardy, but it was sad to see the best Coconut Shrimp and Pina Colada shop in town closed up!  For now, all is back to normal.  We are planning a quick trip down in February to see for ourselves.

Catching up

I had good intentions that no matter what pitfalls or roadblocks we encountered on our road to retirement in Mexico, I would post it here.  But when bad stuff started happening, I found I didn't want to write about it.  But I'm making myself do it.

Our Plan A for financing the dream (ie, pay off the land and start building) was to sell our cabin.  No buyers.  So Plan B was to refinance the cabin. The appraisal came back so low, it didn't even generate enough money to pay off the land.  Fortunately, we are buying the land from friends who are letting us pay off the balance in installments. Not just good friends - GREAT friends!

Building a house will take a while and a little more creative financing.  Not sure how we are going to do that, but at least we will have the land.  We are planning a trip down to OUR BEACH this winter.  We will sit on the sand with a cooler and a sunbrella!

The Italy Foible

We interrupt this program about retiring to Mexico to bring you a short tale on one of the OTHER FOIBLES mentioned above.  For a little while you will have to hear about our two-week trek through Italy to find my grandparents' villages, oh, and see some art, old buildings, eat lots of great food, and drink wonderful wine.

It's getting off to a rough start between the Icelandic volcano spewing ash all over Europe, and the British Air flight attendant strike.  We are supposed to fly into London Heathrow (on BA), transfer to Gatwick and fly to Venice (on BA). The volcano has shut down the airport for a few hours for the last two days.  Our flight is now at least 2 hours late leaving Seattle, but since it appears the plane coming to get us is now in the air, our chances of at least making it to London are improving.  Once there, who knows, but eventually we'll get there.

Check this site over the next few weeks for our brief sidetrip to Italy, then we will resume our normal Mexico programming!!  Ciao, Bella!

Produce

Fresh fruits and veggies are everywhere and so fun to shop for. Open air markets called Tiengas, I think I spelled that right, set up in every village at least once per week.  You can buy everything at these traveling markets.  On the other days you can shop for produce in small stores without doors! Loved the colors and the choices. This one made me laugh, it was the Hawaii produce market in Mexico - complete with paintings of Washington Red and Yellow Delicious apples.

This lady walked around town with mangoes cut into flowers, pineapple wedges and coconut meat for sale. The cups of cut-up fruit are splashed with lime juice and sometimes sprinkled with spicy salt. A really interesting mix of sweet, heat, and salt.

These "baby bananas" are about 4" long and aren't babies at all, just a different variety of banana than what you find in your US supermarket.

Costalegra Real Estate

 Looking to find your own piece of tropical paradise? You can't get better help doing that than talking to my friends at the Coldwell Banker Tropicana office in Barra de Navidad.

Houses, condos or buildable land, they have it all. They are US expats themselves and understand the confusing rules about buying land in Mexico.
http://www.mexicocb.com/

Grocery Shopping

My friend Karen was managing a local restaurant and we did the shopping one afternoon.  First the meat store, then the chicken store, then the fish store. Every stop was an adventure. The chickens are fed Marigolds to get that highly prized bright yellow color. I'll take mine without feet, please! All of these venues were open-air, no doors. It made me sad to come home to Safeway with its florescent lights and linoleum floors. It was so much more fun to shop Mexican Style.

Tomorrow, pictures of the produce market.

Colors of Mexico

The colors of Mexico are so warm and exciting. No such thing as pastel, no living quietly. So much of the pottery, and the color pallet in general, reminds me of Italy.  That will be high on my "Observations" list when we are in Italy next month. The Mexican Talavera pottery designs seem so similar to the Majolica and Amalfi designs.

Watch this blogsite for pictures from Italy.  I'm hoping to bring home a shallow spaghetti bowl with a rooster on it to match the one of my grandmother's that one of my kids broke when they were little.  I'm not naming names, but it was my oldest!

Why We Love Seattle

Living in Mexico part-time sounds exciting, but we could never leave Seattle completely. There is just too many wonderful things here.
Last night we had a great opportunity to be guests onboard the Argosy Cruise Lines shake-down cruise for their new Tillicum Indian Village cruise.  Yes, Argosy purchased the Tillicum Village and has done some MAJOR renovations, upgrades and improvements.  Gone are the styrofoam plates, replaced with stoneware dishes, cloth napkins and an elegant table setting. Food was greatly improved as well, even though it's hard to improve on cedar roasted salmon. The trip over was fun with the best bartenders ever - great wine and fabulous cocktails.  Clams and nectar served steaming in heavy mugs (no styro cups!) when we landed on the beach - then drop the shells onto the trail and crush them with your foot to add to the path cover! Staff was friendly and helpful. The grounds were gorgeous and even the gift shop was new and interesting.  The Seattle skyline in the fading evening light and again fully lit in the dark, was gorgeous.
I will never be able to choose which I love best!

Water and Electricity

Know what these are called?  Margarita eggs!!  Yup, soon as you break one open, you have Margaritas!!

Very good news from Tenacatita, the test wells found a good spot for fresh water, enough to service a couple dozen homes along the beach.  Bids requests are out to put in underground electrical lines.  Still waiting to hear what the bids are. It looks like the first house will be starting soon.  Wish it was ours, but we have a ways to go yet.

Our beach

This is our first visit to our little beach.  Within minutes Steve caught this 25# Jack in the surf.  While he was holding it, a huge green sea turtle surfed in on a wave, poked her head up and looked us over, then dove out of sight. A few minutes after we let the fish go, we saw two gray whales offshore breaching, splashing and playing in the surf.  Now, two cool things can be considered a coincidence, but THREE cool things is an omen, a good omen, we hope.  We bought the lot Steve is standing on.

The First Step is the hardest

We have placed our cute little cabin for sale to finance the purchase of the land and get us started on the house itself.  Three years ago it would have sold the first day.  We had an Open House yesterday, but the realtor reports that the neighbors were the only visitors.  Funny, none of them visited us when we lived there, why would they flock to see the house after we've gone?

In the Beginning

From original diary-
Jan. 22nd - 2010
Left dreary rainy Seattle for a quick trip to Manzanillo to visit old friend Karen and her significant other, Jeff. We had free tickets about to expire and were looking for a fast getaway. We flew from Seattle through Los Angeles into Manzanillo expecting to sip a few Margaritas, get sunburned and head back home, de-stressed.

Rented a car at the airport and drove the only highway headed north for Barra de Navidad. Our first Mexican surprise is unannounced road bumps. They come out of nowhere, are rarely announced and serve to rattle your teeth and test the suspension. As a traffic monitoring device, they are extremely effective.

There are coconut palm trees lining the roads with banana trees tucked in between the towering palms. A light breeze rustles the fronds. We start peeling off layers of Seattle as the sun quickly penetrates our fleece, down, wool and heavy denim.

We wander around Barra driving right past the Coldwell Banker sign Karen said we couldn't miss! The roads are twisty alleys crowded with families, scooters, and trucks much too big for this small village.

Karen's house is gorgeous, the pool cool and inviting and we are quickly changed into linen and ready for dinner at Isadora's, the restaurant they manage. Swordfish sushi that is heavenly, large lime margarita with fresh lime, nothing better.

Sleeping in a tile lined room with the windows open, a light breeze ruffling the curtains and the moon tickling my eyelids. It feels like magic.