Mexican Riviera, Old Friends & Pink Dresses

The view north of Marina

Day 2 in Mexico involved driving north from Puerto Vallarta to check out the towns along the coast. After a large Mexican breakfast made by Rosario at our friend's penthouse, (papaya, refrieds, eggs and banana) we took off in our rental Hyundai and joined the long line of traffic heading north, cutting through the mountains to get north quickly. Our plan was to work our way south.

We are big fans of the HGTV show Mexico Life and hope one day to own a place in one of these towns so this was research. Guayabitos was our first stop where we drove around the town and stopped at a beach side cafe for some fish. The beach sand is so hard there that trucks and jeeps drive on it. No regulations there! Someone backed down to the water to trailer their boat. The beach was full of colorful umbrellas and people and the water was full of fishing boats. It's a small town but with lots of flavor and hotels.

Guayabitos Beach

Next was Los Ayala, just around the corner. The beach there is very similar and the town is much smaller. We met some nice Canadians who've lived there in the hills in a gorgeous house for 9 years and over those years have rescued 6 dogs and 8 cats!

Downtown Sayulita

On to Lo Marcos which was a cute town with a deep sandy beach. San Pancho too. We liked the charming town of San Pancho! Very colorful and clean and lots of fun restaurants and attractions. It was late by this time but I insisted my hubby head the car into Sayulita. I LOVED this town. Very touristy, which for some reason I am drawn to. Cute little shops, strings of flags over the streets, a lovely open ocean beach, perfect for surfing and pretty little colorful buildings lining the clean downtown streets. My favorite so far.

Sayulita Beach

After a quick stop at the grocery store we arrived back at the penthouse for a glass of vino, some work on our respective laptops and when our benevolent friend Ramon came home from a huge search for a missing escaped from rehab young man we took him out to dinner at a fun streetside restaurant nearby. La Barra, I think it was called. Great atmosphere and food in the Vallarta Marina. I walked home from the restaurant and left two friends reminiscing about the old days when they were single men in P.V.. I leashed the chihuahuas and took them for a lovely stroll outside, something they only do every few days because they have a plot of turf on the balcony for their "business." The female, Cici, has a pink dress in her bed that she dragged from a bag of clothes to be donated to less fortunate children and claimed it as her own. When Ramon tried to take it from her bed, she growled, knowing that little girls sometimes need a pink frilly dress when living with two men.

Cici on the left, Mancha on the right

Last night a chihuahua slept with me, like a little stuffed toy all curled up by my shoulder, his tiny pink tongue sticking out of his mouth. So sweet.

Chihuahuas, Vultures and Corona!

Our friend's balcony

I'm in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and feeling like I won the lottery.
I know I just got back from Maui and if I could have spaced out these amazing vacations with a few months, I would have gone to Maui in November or early January but...

My husband has business here and I decided to tag along. I think my exact words were "You're not going to Puerto Vallarta without me."

There's my plane out there

His buddy of 30 years has a penthouse on the beach overlooking the ocean with Puerto Vallarta in the distance. We are blessed to have run of the house. And it comes with two Chihuahua dogs who are cute as a button. Tiny Mexican buttons.

I flew from cold SeaTac yesterday on a flight with lots of families headed out of the unusually cold Seattle winter and had a window seat. My seat mates were two boys who'd never been on a plane and were enjoying every minute of it. Free apple juice and movies! I watched The Wife, with Glenn Close and found it extremely interesting, as a writer!!!! Wow. I had no idea what it was about so everything was a big surprise, just the way it should be when watching a movie.

Can you find me swimming?

After customs, I found Roland in the waiting group of people beyond baggage claim. We jumped in our rental car, drove around the P.V. Marina where we first met in 1990. (I talked about putting this marina in The Dream Jumper's Pursuit) and then off we drove to this exclusive high rise on the beach where my husband has spent many a night with his buddy over the last decade without me. I usually go to Maui, where I once lived and have many friends, Roland goes to P.V. . But this year it worked out that we can both get away at the same time and our timing couldn't be better. Apparently it's snowing again in Seattle!
Our friend wasn't home yet and after a swim in the pool, we watched pelicans and frigate birds fly by the balcony, soaring on the coastal breeze. A few vultures even flew by and my husband joked about putting one of the coveted stuffed crabs in the fridge on a stick to get a shot of a vulture.
The beloved housekeeper had left beef stew that was to die for, along with a salad full of veggies and spinach. I had a few Coronas with dinner on the balcony and we talked late into the night with our friend when he arrived home.

Swimming in the complex pool

So far this morning I've had 2 cups of coffee, have watched whales jumping in the ocean off the balcony and have contemplated what to do on our adventure up north to Sayulita today.
No work today unless you call adventuring around the Riviera Nayarit research!

KIM HORNSBY is the bestselling Amazon Author of The Dream Jumper's Promise, Book    1 in a Supernatural Suspense series. She lives in the Seattle area and writes stories for       women about overcoming tragedy, adversity and coming out the other end.

Find her on Amazon Books.

www.twitter.com/kimhornsby
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Kona Winds and The SuperBlueBlood Moon!

Maui!
We are just thrilled to be here and walk outside and look over to Molokai and eat fresh pineapple.
We don't care that bad weather is blowing in.
Except.
The Scuba Dive.
Yesterday, I attempted to initiate Cresty to scuba, amid a deck stacked against us. The Kona winds had begun blowing from the south and that is never good for dive conditions. There was surf, choppy surface and wind, although the last one doesn't matter to divers. Poor Cresty was a trooper and got the good sportsmanship award.
Here's our dive in point form because that is all it deserves:

Found a relatively quiet beach with small surf.
Walking in, the waves hit us
Cresty panicked a bit
I lost a fin
Found it
My regulator malfunctioned and leaked air like nobody's business
Got tossed around on the surface practicing breathing in the regulator
Went down to 8 feet
Went back up to calm down
I ran low on leaking air
On the way in to the beach, we got pummeled by surf
Cresty lost a fin
We were tossed on all fours onto the beach
Made it out to stand on the beach
So now, what we're saying is that I called it because I ran out of air but truthfully, it was terrible conditions for an entry and my poor student was freaked out, understandably.
The rest of the day was hanging around Lynn's, talking, then out to dinner at The SeaHouse Restaurant for fresh Opakapaka!

I woke up to see the moon at 1 a.m. and when it was just an eclipsed sliver, woke the others to see the blood moon. We got lots of views of it over the deck in the Maui sky, then the wind started up again, clouds rolled in and we went to bed. Cool!!!!!!
Getting ready to head off to Hana now....

Just before the eclipse. This doesn't do it justice.

Waking Up on Maui!

I love Maui!
Who doesn't?

Today I woke on Maui without a care in the world except what time to go diving.
It looks like it's going to be a gorgeous day as the sun creeps over the West Maui mountains behind the house to show its face.


Here's Day 1 of my Adventure:

Checked in by 4:45 a.m. with my friend Cresty, at SeaTac airport in Seattle. It was raining. We didn't get a coffee before the flight, hoping to sleep on the plane. The airport was empty and we sailed through security after Cresty had an early morning pat-down. Two flights later, (In which I slept a total of five hours!) we landed on the Valley Isle. I usually get a bit choked up when I see Maui out the plane window and yesterday was no different. I love this place and have so many happy memories of living here in the 80's and some of the 90's.

Lynn was waiting at the curb with her little rescue dog, JoJo, who did not want us getting in the car and tried to escape if we were getting in. Six months ago, I had found him at a petfinder event and forced him on Lynn who'd just lost her beloved Spaniel, Spencer, so having JoJo terrified of me was a bit disheartening. I jumped in the driver side so Lynn could hold her devoted buddy who kept looking at me and Cresty like we were airport carjackers.
We drove Lynn to work, then had a quick swim off Kaanapali Beach to reflect on the beauty of Black Rock against a cerulean sky and turquoise ocean. Ahhhh.
We then checked out the Lahaina Tennis Ranch for Cresty to play there this week and then went grocery shopping. Safeway Lahaina has things like fresh ahi poke, coconuts, and taro chips but other than everyone wearing their beach clothes (including some guys in only board shorts and flip flops) it looks a lot like my neighborhood Safeway.
I have parking Karma. I'm sorry but I'm that car that gets the spot right near the door of anything and my parkarma was working everywhere we went yesterday.

Two bottles of wine and a cart full of food later, we returned to Lynn's house to have dinner on the deck. But not before her fearful little doggie (who was still looking at us like we were trying to eat him for dinner) ran away! When I offered him a piece of chicken, he shot out of the house and down the street disappearing from view. I imagined telling Lynn that her sweet pet was lost, as I got in the car and started down the street to look for JoJo, knowing he wouldn't come for me even if I did find him. Apparently, when he saw me drive away, he returned and Cresty closed all access doors to the street. Phew!
After that we needed a drink and found ourselves at Kaanapali Beach Hotel (with a fearful JoJo) on his leash, which was a feat in itself, getting him in the car and leashed. But, he had a great time under the table at the Tiki Bar, especially to see his mom was our cocktail waitress. While he ate a hamburger by my feet, Cresty and I had a drink then we all drove back to Lynn's house for sleeps.

Today, is dive day. I plan to teach Cresty to scuba dive. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow when I check in!

Maui Garbage Trucks Take Over the House!

Day 2

I woke to the crashing and screeching of 17 garbage trucks in the bedroom, right by my head. Well, not quite but the noise was deafening at 6 AM in the dark, like some apocalyptic machine devouring everything in its path. Once the garbage truck moved on, I lay there in the dark, trying to get back to sleep. Then another horrifically noisy truck came and went. I was fully awake at 6:15 but that's okay. I didn't want to miss a minute of being on Maui!
I made a pot of coffee and watched the sun rise behind the West Maui Airport out the house's back windows. Two cups of coffee later, Eliza and I got our lily-white butts out the door to go rent dive gear. Kapalua Bay was our plan and by the time I parked the car 10 minutes away and we got to the water with full scuba gear on, we were sweating like Maui boars, eager to hit that crystal-clear water.

Visibility was probably thirty feet which was ok by me, fish were everywhere, the coral was thriving once we got into deeper water and we saw lots of fun stuff including a Hawaiian sea turtle the size of a small dog bed, resting under a ledge. Seeing us, she launched herself into the water and slowly ambled away into the blue water over the sandy field beyond the rocks. One crown of thorns starfish later, we crossed the bay at fifteen feet and headed in on the left side instead of doing that long snorkel. We had loads of air left because the dive was mostly 25-30 feet deep. I thought of Tina's dreams where she sees her dead husband's apparition underwater, his head bashed in on one side, while I was diving and wondered how that would feel during a dive. Her fear would have been enough to send her screaming to the surface, which is what she does in The Dream Jumper's Promise.
After the dive we ate lunch with Lynn out on the deck, talked politics and health and real estate and then headed off in the car, leaving Lynn and Spencer, the dog back at the house. Eliza went to Kaanapali Beach to get her lean on in the sunshine while I visited Barnes & Noble to say hello and scope out the store. I bought my next book club book BRAIN ON FIRE.

Back at Lynn's she'd gone to work and we rested our eyes for an hour while the bird next door squawked like a dying child but losing consciousness was not happening. I took Spence for his sunset walk at the Hawaiian Burial Grounds and then after primping a bit and putting on our Love and Mangoes jewelry, Eliza and I took off for a seaside dinner of fish and salad at Maala Tavern. Wonderful and lovely and met some interesting people who sat next to us. The food was marginal and the waiter forgot to put dressing on the salad, forgot my glass of wine and after checking to see we weren't wearing invisibility cloaks, concluded that it was a busy night for him. The ambiance was top-notch.
Bed at 11 after talking with Lynn when she arrived home from her cocktailing job. I'm reading Toby Neal's SCORCHED and loving it!!! Great read for Maui.
Today is my book signing deal at B &N and I'm wondering how it will all go down. Not the usual speaking engagement it seems but more of a meet & greet.

Kim Hornsby is the Author of Award-Winning The Dream Jumper's Promise available on Amazon Books. She is a Bestselling Supernatural Suspense Author who lives in the Seattle area where she writes during the rainy months.