on the edge

Casa Linda

Casa Linda was one of the first places we stayed in the town of Bucerias which is a hour north of Puerto Vallarta. We eventually bought a lot and built our first house there in 1999. Linda became our friend and we attended many of her wonderful parties there. She was the consummate hostess. She has since passed away and our friend Lori, her daughter is now managing the place. We had the opportunity to revisit Casa Linda in April and it still is the perfect taste of life as it was on the coast of Mexico. 

Little Camarino's 5th Birthday

My friend Camarino who runs a building crew in the local area building houses, invited my wife, my son and I to attend his youngest son's fifth birthday party. His name is Camarino just like his dad so we all call him little Camarino. The age five is not a special year so it's just the normal five year old kid party. Some years are special like the 3rd year, a year of much celebration. The 15th year for girls is also very important.

A visit to Chacala

Chacala is a little beach town about an hour and a half north of Puerto Vallarta. Four years ago it took a half an hour to get from the main highway to Chacala because there was only a dirt road that was all but impassable to anything but a 4 x 4. Now with a new paved road Chacala is 5 minutes from the highway.

Lobo

Meet Lobo, one of the more memorable citizens of Bucerias. Lobo passed away over a year ago now, but his spirit lives on. The newly reorganized dog protection group has taken the name "the Lobo Society". Lobo was really a human in dog form. He was completely independent and would stay for a while if you fed him properly and didn't try to place too many restrictions on him. We first met him at Mark's Restaurant (which BTW has the best food not only in Bucerias but in the whole area) where he would wait outside until someone who looked friendly came out and he would follow them home and hopefully they would take pity on him and feed him well with some of the left-overs. Not that he was one of those eager beggars, he had a very non-chalant laid back attitude as if to say, "It's alright if you feed me, I might eat if I feel like it". In the morning he would say good-bye and head off for his daily activities. Lobo was never thin so his strategy seemed to work. Everyone in Bucerias knew him and had stories to tell about his exploits. He even had several names. We knew him as Dolce (which we mis-pronounced as dul-che meaning sweet) for several years until we were told his real name was Lobo.

His favorite activity was playing in the water and he would adopt any family with young children who would play with him in the surf. But his favorite sport was body surfing. He would spend hours in the surf, swimming out to where the waves broke and body surfing a wave into shore. He would then turn around and swim back out to catch another wave. He would do this for hours. Somewhere in dog heaven there is an independent little dog teaching all the other dogs how to surf and really enjoy heaven.

Mexico Photos

I have just put up on my photo web site a number of photos of this area of Mexico. There are some there from one of my neighbors that were taken over 30 years ago and for those who know the area will be very interesting. Other are just my attempt to capture the feeling of the Bay of Banderas area and what life is like here. enjoy! Here is the link:

Mexico photos

The link is now on the sidebar under "Bahia Banderas web sites".

The Sunset Last Night

The picture pretty much speaks for itself. In the summer there are days with large numbers of high cumulus clouds that look like giant brilliant white cauliflower shaped heads. When the evening sunlight hits them, they create an impressive show in the evening.

The Bug with Head Lights

Last night I found my small kitten out by the pool playing with a strange bug that had two luminescent "eyes", at least from a distance they looked like eyes. I think most people who grew up in the states are familiar with lightning bugs which have a luminescent tail area that flashes on and off as they fly. The light from this bug looked much the same, having that blue-greenish color (it doesn't show well in the picture). A few nights previously, I had seen one in the tall grass in a dark area but I couldn't see what it looked like because it was too dark and I didn't have a flash light with me. This time I caught it and it jumped out of my hand a few times because it has some good jumping legs like a grasshopper or a cricket. I eventually calmed it down enough to get it to sit still for some photos. The problem was that when it calmed down the lights would slowly dim until they couldn't be seen so I had to nudge him a few times to get him to light up for me. After taking a number of photos I set him on his way in some tall bushes where he wouldn't encounter my kitten again.

If anyone reading this has any information on this creature e-mail me or put in a comment on this page.