Wasting away in Margaritaville

We are often asked “what do you do for an entire month in the same location”.   For the most part the same things you do at home when you aren’t working.  Each day we try to get in some exercise maybe walking, yoga, running, or swimming.  There are always meals to plan and prepare, grocery shopping, laundry and maybe a little housework.  Most of our stays include maid service once a week and of course we have no yard or house maintenance so actual house chores are minimal. 

Click here for the video

Kelly enjoys working on art almost daily, we both like to read, and I spend time working on our budget, writing blog posts, researching travel and pretending not to worry about the stock market.  If we are in a place we have never been we will see more tourist sites but we usually limit those excursions to once or twice a week at most.   Slow travel is not like your typical vacation where you are trying to see and do everything in a limited amount of time.  Additionally, when you have been traveling the better part of a year you really have less desire to see every museum or cathedral.  Slow travel is more about living in a foreign culture and seeing how other people live.   If you want a visual of our life click on the picture to the right and watch Genevieve’s week with the Turners video.

An evening with Media Luna for $15

Having spent a month in Puerto Vallarta last year there were few sites or activities we needed to see this time.   We enjoyed Sayulita last year and returned twice on this stay.  It was an easy 30-minute bus ride from our condo and it is always fun to wander the streets of this surfer town.  We found a great French bakery where Daq and I felt obligated to sample the goods, an excellent almond croissant.  I could be snobby and say it rivaled some we tried in Paris but will just say it rivaled Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle which is honestly better than most in Paris.  Later we had lunch on the beach….. in a lounge chair… under an umbrella.  Life really doesn’t get much better than that.

Beach food

But wait, it does get better,  as it was Kelly’s birthday our waiter brought a round of Tequila shots on the house.  Do you still say on the house when you are on the beach?  Anyway, they were free.  Genevieve found that tequila went well with her donut and thus the donut shot was invented.  Remember to give her credit when this trend sweeps around the world.

The donut shot is born

Our home was about 15 miles north of Peurto Vallarta and we made the trip into PV twice.  First, to meet up with the rock stars of nomadic retirement Debbie and Michael Campbell aka the Senior Nomads.  Follow the link to their blog and you will find this Seattle couple is in their seventh year of full time travel.  We enjoyed drinks at their Airbnb followed by dinner at a local taco restaurant and ice cream on the PV Malecon (boardwalk). 

Nomads

You are probably not surprised the conversation tended toward travel, packing, blogging and favorite travel websites.  A wonderful evening and as luck would have it our paths will cross again in San Migeul de Allende.

Beer, Pizza, Salad $4.25 US

Our second trip into PV was more spontaneous.  What do you want to do today?   Let’s go for a long walk on the Malecon and lunch at the Los Muertos Brewery, home of the 80 peso lunch special.  When you are just hanging out in Mexico you can spend your entire day making your way into PV for a long walk followed by pizza and beer.  PV is only 15 miles away but the bus will take an hour to an hour and a half each way. (lots of stops on the bumpy cobblestone streets).  Luckily we made it back for happy hour at the pool.  Not necessarily a glamorous life we lead but not bad either.

For a slightly more adventurous outing we rented a boat and crew with new friends Dave and Rayeanne to take us out to the Marieta Islands just off the coast.  We always like a chance to get out on the water and this 3-4 hour trip was the perfect amount of time.  At $105 per person this was the most expensive adventure of our stay.

The Hidden Beach

  It was worth the price as we had the boat to ourselves.  The Marieta’s are a marine park known for their sea birds, marine life and the hidden beach. The beach is completely surrounded by rock walls and can only be reached by swimming about 100 yards through a tunnel the size of which depends upon the tide.  The clearance with wave action is so low they require you to wear a helmet for the swim.  They do a great job of limiting access and we had the beach to ourselves.  A fun adventure worth the cost of admission.  Following the beach we went to a snorkel spot which could have been great, but the wave action made snorkeling a bit tumultuous and visibility fairly poor.  On our return to La Cruz we had close encounters with humpback whales and dolphins.

Yes, we swam through that tunnel

Kelly’s perfect empanada

The last week of our stay Kelly and I attended a cooking class at My Mexican Kitchen in Bucerias. The class was a Christmas present from niece Bree Kahn. (or is it niece-in-law?)  Anyway, Bree bought Kelly the class for Christmas and we had a great time learning about chiles, salsa, scallop coctel (Mexican soup), shrimp empanadas and grilled marinated Mahi. This proved to be one our best cooking classes, we learned a lot, ate fantastic food and took home some great recipes.  The best part, it was free because Bree paid the $150 fee for the two of us.  Free is always good for the budget. 

That’s a wrap from the beach, now we are off to a new destination CDMX short hand for Ciudad de Mexico, known to us as Mexico City.

Remember smaller equals hotter