Suites San Blas

Why have I spent the last week plus crossing the country at great cost to end up at a remote beach on the coast of Nayarit?<br><br>I've always wanted to volunteer on a turtle conservation project but those I have seen previously have been ridiculously price prohibitive - how can it cost that much to work for free?!! Anyway, this place was only $5 bucks a day including accommodation in a rustic leaking jejene(sandfly)/mosquito infested palapa. The upside, of ...

I discovered something important about myself this week... I could NEVER, EVER, EVER be Popeye!!! I will never be a sailor because I do not have "sea legs." What a ROUGH week!!! I really didn`t think the whole, "I want to sail from Colombia to Panama" idea through! I was just thinking about how cool it would be to sail the oceans blue... I wasn`t thinking about storms, rocking boats, falling out of ...

Santiago Ixc ths closest town to the island of Mexicalitlan, reputedly the original home of the Aztecs, which formed the blueprint for the selection/layout of Tenochtitlan in Mexico City. Few combis go & little else to do in town, so left at 7am hoping to get back to hotel in time to check out at 1pm. Pleasant boat ride there - saw my first roseate ...

... by river(sandflies - jejenes!) The beach was disappointing - fine dark sand meant water not clear & too shallow for swimming. Surf beaches out of town but wrong season, so dead. Should no longer be surprised about room prices in surfer towns being high - guess they all camp on the beach!

... most of the time swimming and talking english! The last week was spent at another beachside town about an hour north of San Pancho called Chacala. The hotel was right on the beachfront and had a nice restaurant on the sand. The beach was much more kid friendly than San Pancho as there was a gentle incline and no dumping waves. We really enjoyed it here as there were only one or two beach vendors and they left us alone after the first day ...

Today we were taken by boat to Diablo island, the sea was quite choppy today and we were soaking wet but the time we arrived at the island, it was no problem because the sun is shining and its really hot! During the boat journey we passed many other islands, they are dotted around everywhere, there are at least 365 islands so one for each day of the year. We could see an island from Diablo that was tiny and ...

... I had him insert a gel seat that was around $80 to insure my skinny butt was in good company. On the short trips I took before leaving on the trip it seemed not all that comfy but I thought I could break it in. It hasn¨t´t happened yet! I was very uncomfortable to put it mildly. Gregg was sporting a air seat on his normally comfy BMW seat and was smiling much more that me. He realized my plight (probably from my constant whining ...

... local treat known as banana pudding which old ladies carry round on baskets on top of their heads and charge you 3 pesos for a huge hunk. And I don't even like bananas. The town beach was lovely and tranquil but again with huge mega waves, the type that can pull you under and have your bikini off before you can shout "avert your eyes"! (huh, and "wave" is a femenine noun in Spanish too. Most inapt.) Thank god for the aforementioned tranquility ...

... harmful than this stuff! Anyhow, I was a little too late with the DEET...I got eaten alive...so did Malin. We decided then and there that if our first born was a boy, we were going to name him Skeeter. Later that night, more geckos (Bleep's cousin's from Baja) kept us company in our little hotel...we were the only guests! Tomorrow...we fire up the Jungle Jammer (the bike, which is running like a charm by the way) and aim our way to Puerto Vallarta!

... Mexican roadside restaurant across the street and we have a really nice fresh fried fish supper organized by Carlos a young Mexican we meet who helps us with the translation of the menu. Cool ! All's well and we are now in the "Real" Mexico and soon off to sleep on the wharf. The morning arrives a with another clear blue sky and sounds of birds chirping everywhere. The wharf is quiet as our ferry was the last one for a month as it's going off for routine service. Soon the sounds of ...