Save the Sea Turtles!

Today, we were ambitious and headed about 10 kms up the coast to the little village of San Francisco, aka San Pancho. San Pancho is a low-key, non-surf-focused version of Sayulita. It has an absolutely stunning palm-lined beach and very, very few people out enjoying it. We ate lunch at a strange beach resort to get pool privileges and A. found a playmate for the day (and we enjoyed the company of her family, who are from the Bay Area).

Highlight of the day had to be the discovery of newly hatched sea turtles, who were feebly waddling down the beach, out to the breakers. A. offered assistance to see them on their way. Too cool...

Sea Snake!

As we collected shells on the beach today, we happened upon a washed up sea snake which looked exactly like this:

Thinking that the snake was dead, I gave it a tentative lift, only to find that it was alive and well. He was quite docile, mainly because he was trying to swallow some horrendously large meal. He is also quite poisonous. When we left him to wash back out to sea, A. said that she "will have a lot to tell Ruby about when we get back home."

bienvenidos gringos

Well, the stress and exhaustion has just about worn off, washed away by soft tropical air, good food, sand, sun, surf. We're in Sayulita, Nayarit. All is well. I just fell asleep in the hammock and woke up thinking of the beginning of Apocalypse Now, for some reason (Sayulita. Sh-t, I'm still in Sayulita...).

We left Reno on New Years Day and drove to Las Vegas for a few days and then on to Tucson. Along the way we had vanagon headaches, days of preparations (play for Ava), and a million little details to attend to. Daddy and I headed across the border at Nogales on Thursday. The customs check on the US side was so encouraging. After we explained ourselves sufficiently, the guy says, "Be real careful. They're killing people down there every night." Seriously. Other than having a hard time explaining to Mexican customs why two grown men were traveling with boxes and boxes of women's and childrens clothes, we had very few hassles on the way down. We've mostly been in Gringolandia the whole way. Though some have told us otherwise, swine flu, cartel violence, and the economy don't seem to have deterred the tourist masses.

After picking up D. and A. at the airport in Puerto Vallarta, we've spent a couple of days poking around the coast. Tonight, we are in a great little bungalow hotel in an ex-fishing-village-turned-international-laid-back-surf-town. This part of Mexico is so beautiful. There really is no way to describe the strangeness of driving from the snow to the tropics over the course of a week. Jungle, flowers, humidity, warm ocean, iguanas in the palms, geckos on the ceiling.

I was telling A. that it has only been ten days since she was at home in her bed, but of course it feels like a lot longer. It was hard leaving home. We had so many great goodbyes and so-longs. Thanks to all of you who helped see us off. Anyhow, I'm not sure how diligent I'll be updating the blog, but it seems like a much easier way to keep everyone up on the wayward Boehm Jackson conjunto. So, check back and see what we're up to...