What happened…

Andrew writes: Camping is slowly losing it’s appeal for me here in Mexico. Apart from the noise from the wedding on our first night, there was a giant spotlight on our tent from some security lights at the campground. Then, a few days later, my air mattress blew another baffle, which led to another night of discomfort. Fortunately, we had friends come to the rescue.

First it was Flavio, who we hooked up with over Couchsurfing. He opened up his palapa to us, and we spent two nights with him. Flavio teaches a course on biology/genetics at a local college three days a week. The other days he loves to surf, and do yoga, and play african percussion. So Flavio gave us free surf lessons, and took us to acro-yoga, and we would chill out at his house and listen to music. It was great!

Over Facebook, we learned that some of our friends from Vancouver were coming to Sayulita, and they offered us a place to pitch our tent at their rented casa. We’ve known Jeff, Leanne and Larry for about 5 years, and we’re all on the “B-Team” together. The B-Team is a group of drinkers, with a mountain biking problem. Mostly, it’s just a big family. Everyone is really great! We spent 3 nights with this crew, and we probably could have hung out in Sayulita for another few weeks either with them, or with other people from Vancouver, who kept telling us of their vacation plans in the coming while.

Sayulita would have been more of a paradise for us I think if we both hadn’t gotten so sick. I’ll point the finger at the ocean water as being the culprit for our upset stomaches. For instance, we spent most of our first day in the ocean surf, playing on our boogie boards. The next day Amanda was down for the count with intestinal and stomach problems. She was pretty ill. On day three, I went surfing with Flavio, and ended up being in the water for about 4 hours. Amanda came out for awhile too. I spent day 4 feeling weak, and ill and pooping uncontrollably. We stayed pretty low-key after that, and kept out of the water.

We celebrated a birthday with our friend Lee-Ane, I got my bike rack fixed, and it was nice to be around fellow Canadians, and friends. It felt like home.

Amanda writes:Everything happens for a reason. When we first began our travels about 19 months ago our plan was to ride from the Arctic in Northern Canada to Argentina in a pretty straight line. We knew we’d be eager for a break and had planned for our break to be in Sayulita. A friend of mine I used to work with lived in Sayulita for many years and spoke highly of it. Our plan was to live here for a couple of months and learn to surf. As we all know our plans changed drastically and it was different to be here when we thought we’d only be here for a day … maybe two.

After our first night of expensive camping we were ready to leave. We initially had a hard time getting a hold of Flavio and were actually on our way out of town when he called to say he could put us up. Timing is everything. Meeting Flavio was great. He was so relaxed and opened up his palapa to us. After our first night with him I woke up early as he was getting ready for work and I knew I was in trouble. Sleeping in a palapa may sound sexy but when you’re sleeping in the loft of a two story palapa and are trying to get to the bathroom on the main floor, it’s not sexy. I can’t remember the last time I was this sick. I could barely move, couldn’t eat anything and I was so grateful Andrew stayed by my side to listen to my moaning and stumbling to the bathroom. He even helped me try and eat a few things. Little did we know at the time I’d be returning the favour the next day. The next day we went down to the beach to meet our friend Larry from the Sunshine Coast in Vancouver. Our plan was to head out of town after saying hi to him.

We learned that Larry was in Sayulita with two of our other friends. I was so excited to see everyone and they were so gracious to allow us pitch a tent in their yard. They had rented a beautiful home with a lap pool and big yard and were awesome about opening it up to us. We got to see our friends and meet another new friend; Colleen. Such a great time to sit back and chat and here what’s been going on with them for the last year. Colleen is Lee-ann’s sister and seeing them together reminded me how much I miss my sisters. The simple conversations and company of a sister is something to be cherished and Lee-ann and Colleen are lucky to have each other. They also reminded me of how much sun damage I have! Both Lee-ann and Colleen are very youthful looking with their skin and complexion. While they have a couple of years on me, they look about 10 years younger than me. It was amazing to see how wonderful they both look and a good reminder that Andrew and I need to be diligent with protecting ourselves from the sun as much as possible. Good peeps; all of them. I miss my B-Team buddies and am so grateful that they opened their vacation home to us with open arms. We could have stayed a lot longer, however we were really an unplanned addition to their vacation and we wanted to be sure we weren’t over staying our welcome. We left with big hugs and smiles and are so happy to have seen them.

Today’s Photographs