Sayulita Mini-vacation

How beautiful it is to do nothing and then rest afterward ~ Spanish proverb

We first came to Sayulita, Mexico, for a wedding in 2008. The marriage didn't last, but our fond memories of this place did. So we decided to come back for a mini-vacation over Thanksgiving. This chronicles our all-too-brief stay in Sayulita between November 24 and 29, 2011.

The Anderson family has had a tradition of "Thanksgiving anywhere but here" for some years. It started when my parents were both around the bend and the big family gathering no longer made any sense. We always run to the sun, because the endless November drizzle on the Upper Left Coast is just starting to get us down about Thanksgiving. Tucson, New Orleans, and San Diego all fit the bill. This year Patty decided we ought to go back to Sayulita, a small fishing village about 20 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. We used to take all the kids and their spouses or boyfriends / girlfriends, but this year, we only brought Austin and girlfriend Kristi, since Barrett and Laurie now live in Barcelona and Lydia, Conor and granddaughter Harper live in Omak and it was the Hamiltons' year for Thanksgiving.

We had a 9 a.m. non-stop from SeaTac to Puerto Vallarta Thanksgiving morning - the airport was like a ghost town. Four and a half hours later we landed at Puerto Vallarta Aeropuerto, changed some dollars to pesos, walked across the street and caught the bus for Sayulita. It is about a one hour ride to Sayulita. By 6 p.m. Central Time (we lost two hours traveling east, which we will gain back going home), we were settled into our apartment at Xocotla, Mariposa Calle No. 2, a short distance up Gringo Hill.

Xocotla is a private house on a steep hillside in which the owners have the top floor and there are three guest apartments on the two floors below. All the guest apartments have a fully furnished kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, and the kitchens all are open and daylight on the downhill side, above a pool, patio and jungle-like grounds.

Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful - street tacos and beer! The street taco stand was not a complicated thing - a big pan on concrete blocks with some kind of flame under it, beef, pork or tripe in the pan, and a cutting board for chopping onions and cilantro.







Time really runs together when you have nothing to do and then get to rest afterward! I could not tell you what we did on one day or another! We divided our time between reading and relaxing at Xocotla and being out and about, with the edge to relaxing! Patty read a couple of novels. I am obsessed, as Patty will tell you, with boating the Great Loop, a 5,000 mile circumnavigation of the Eastern US and Canada, so I spent a lot of time buried in some Skipper Bob Guides and entering routes into the Navionics iPad navigation app - which is absolutely awesome, by the way.

Sayulita is a very colorful little town, so we did the usual sightseeing and shopping.

Sayulita is a bona fide fishing village. The fishing boats come in early in the morning and you can buy fresh fish right off the boats. I soon discovered the chances of being up early enough for that were slim to none! We also thought we might rent some ocean kayaks, but being down on the beach, with the surf pounding, it suddenly did not seem like such a great idea.

Back at Xocotla, we had a bit of pool time too! The first two days were really hot and we needed the pool to cool our core temperature down (not really, but that is how it felt). The next couple of days it was a little cooler, and since the pool was not heated, it was actually a bit of a challenge to get in it! Once in the water, however, we quickly got used to it and enjoyed it a lot. We probably would have used the pool more, though, if the last three days had been as hot as the first two!

We bought eggs, bacon, chorizo, hot sauces, bread, butter, jam and tortillas at the grocery store, fruit and vegetables at the fruit stand, meat at the butcher shop, and wonderful cheese and fresh salsa the the Farmer's Market, and cooked breakfast and supper in our kitchen most days. We bought a case of Pacifico Clara at the deposito, tequila and gin at the liquor store, and margarita mix at the grocery store.

We had most lunches out, mostly tacos and burritos. Burrito Revolucion seemed quite expensive, but was really quite good, and so big that we all brought the second half home and had it for lunch the following day.

The owners have thoughtfully left a brief guide they have written, including information about the local doctor, emergency services, things to do in Sauyulita, and some restaurant recommendations. Two of their recommendations particularly deserve mention. Sunday night we dined out at Antonia's, a very authentic and inexpensive restaurant. The food was just excellent! I had chicken mole and Patty had chile rellenos. The other recommendation we tried this morning was Rollie's for breakfast. What a kick! Rollie's is run by - what a surprise - an ex-pat American named Rollie. Rollie and Jeanne are wonderful hosts, and Rollie is always "on." Right from when we walked in and said "We heard this place is good" and Rollie hollers back to the kitchen "Oh, oh, these people heard we were good - we better step it up back there!" The food is American with a distinctly Mexican touch, the portions are huge, and Rollie will NOT let you go away hungry. Both these places are highly recommended if you ever visit Sayulita! m

Thus ends this chronicle, we need to be out of our apartment by 1 p.m., and there is not a whole lot more to tell anyway. Sayulita is a great place, Xocotla is a wonderful place to stay, and we are pretty sure we will return again some time! You can find out more about Xocolta here.

OUT

The Vacation from Hell - Days 11 - 15 and Postscript

Day 11. Monday, September 12. We pull out today. Rimrock Lake is a reservoir in the Yakima River system, and the water level has been dropping a couple of feet a day while we have been here, just like somebody pulled the plug out of the bathtub! So prudence dictates we retrieve while we still can! We spend the night on the hard at Rimrock Lake Resort.

Day 12. Tuesday, September 13. Jim and Laurie tow us back to Valley Nissan today, I buy Jim one more tank of gas, and then they head home. Naturally, we have a flat tire on our boat trailer on the way home, so we put Jim's spare on our trailer and buy him a new spare at Les Schwab. Then they call to say they had had a flat on their way home, too. So that's how things are rolling!

Daydream is now sitting on the hard at Valley Ford, which is next to Valley Nissan. At least we have electricity. For sure, not in any of our vacation plans though.

Due to colossal incompetence, maybe the dealer's, maybe the freight company's, maybe the Nissan parts warehouse's, the parts have still not even arrived at Valley Nissan yet. Now Michelle is telling us the parts will not be here until this Thursday and the truck will not be ready until Friday! Well, at least we can still have a good breakfast!

Breakfast at the Ford Dealership Aboard Daydream

We spend a bit of the day looking at new Ford F350 diesel trucks. We are sorely tempted but reason prevails - it would not be prudent! But damn that truck is nice!

Day 13. Wednesday, September 14. We have internet and lots of reading material. We have beer, wine and gin. And we have an ice-maker (OK, talk about want versus need NOW), so we are toughing it out. We are spending the last part of our 2011 vacation on the hard in a dang car dealership!

Day 14. Thursday, September 15. The end is in sight! The parts arrived today, and they are working valiantly to get them installed so we can go home! Here is our view from Daydream's cockpit for the last three days:

View of Ford Dealership from Daydream's Cockpit

But then the horror story continues...about 4 p.m. Michelle calls me in, they have found a second wiring harness under the first one that also has been sliced and diced or mouse eaten or whatever, and it will now be another week before they can get THAT part. Michelle says we might as well rent a car and head home. She takes pity on us and has her boyfriend tow Daydream to her own house so it will not be sitting unattended in the car lot.

We go to Enterprise, and all they have that they can rent one-way is a Ford F150, but we get the dealer rate on the rental and a big discount on the one-way drop charge. I-90 is a parking lot at Easton. But we finally get home, only to discover that we had both left our keys on the boat! So late at night, in the dark, I have to do a second-story job on my own house. Fortunately, Patty had left the upstairs bathroom window cracked. It is actually three floors up due to the daylight basement, and I hate heights, but I sucked it up, scaled two ladders, and somehow managed to get in the bathroom window. We slept the sleep of the beaten that night, wondering how we were going to get our Hyundai going so we could return the rental truck.

Day 15. Friday, September 16. Technically, the last day of the Vacation from Hell. We spend the morning going to Kirkland Hyundai to get the key code, then to Bona Fide Lock and Safe a few blocks away to get two keys made, all of this adding up to $48. Then we head back to Fall City, only to discover the keys do not work. We head back to Bona Fide's Issaquah store, where certified locksmith Michael Wick puzzled it out for about an hour, and finally was able to make us keys that worked. We get the rental truck returned, but we are still without the Titan, and really do not know when we are getting it back.

Postscript. Michelle called to tell us they got the second wiring harness in, the truck was running, but they had found a third wiring harness for the ABS system and taillights that got fried when the tailpipe fell off. This harness is in, the tailpipe is fixed, and all is good. The bill is $5,100. I had a conference in Coeur d'Alene October 5th through 7th, so we told Michelle we would retrieve the truck on our way home on the 7th, which we did. So we headed out for Lake Powell, and never got east of Yakima. Our truck broke down on September 2nd and we didn't get it back until October 7th. We are out $5,100 for the repair. We are still kind of dazed by it all. I think we need a vacation...

The Vacation from Hell - Days 6 - 10

Day 6. Wednesday, September 7. We play leapfrog boats yet again, and I am buying Jim a lot of gas! But we are grateful Jim and Laurie are willing to hang with us. We get to Rimrock Lake, drop Laurna Jo, go back to Toppenish for Daydream, and then finally head back to Rimrock Lake with Daydream in tow. We get launched and are on the water at last! We launched and parked at Rimrock Lake Resort, which has a primitive but serviceable and very protected launch ramp, as it is tucked in behind a little peninsula and well-sheltered from the wind. A little surprise, while we were launching, my cousin Abel, who lives in Yakima, came strolling up from the Rimrock Lake Resort dock, and we had a nice little visit, Abel says the fishing is horrible, it has been the whole summer.

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On the Water at Last - Patty Enjoys Her Sundowner on Daydream's Cockpit

Rimrock Lake, we learn, is less than a mile wide and about seven miles long. The lake is calm, like glass, except for the little bit of wind that was blowing while we were launching. We get anchored up behind the big peninsula at the east end of the lake, where there is a nice sandy beach, very convenient for dog duty in the kayak! Jim and Laurie raft up on Laurna Jo, and we are on vacation at last! The weather here is great, and the scenery is very nice as well!

Day 7. Thursday, September 8. We do a little fishing today, casting off the bow, but no catching. Then we take a long kayak paddle and finish up with a swim. Patty bought a new float, and is getting to break it in here instead of at Powell, but what the heck!

The water is surprisingly warm for a Cascade mountain lake, it is a little bracing when you first dive in but it only takes short while to get used to it. Jim and Laurie try trolling, also without success. The parts for the Titan should be in tomorrow, and hopefully we will have some good news on Monday!

Patty Enjoys Her New Float

Baxter is Not So Sure About This Whole Float Thingee!

Day 8. Friday, September 9. We decide to try trolling a bit and exploring the other end of the lake today, so we pull anchor. We have been anchored here since Wednesday, spinning on the hook. The windlass groans but comes up - with our anchor rode completely, and we think possibly hopelessly, tangled in this stump:

Anchor Rode Wound Around Stump

About an hour of patiently working on it from water level in a kayak, and amazingly, we are able to free the rode and save our anchor!

We try trolling for several hours without much luck. Pat snags a little Kokanee but decides it is too small and throws it back. We find a great spot to anchor at the west end of the lake right off a small island. The island is a Forest Service island, and Baxter loves the trails - lots of great smells to sniff! Baxter decides not to come when I call, so I just paddle off and leave him, he kind of watches with a puzzled look as I paddle away, then when I paddle back, he comes running down and jumps in the kayak.

We call Valley Nissan, the parts have not arrived yet.

Day 9. Saturday, September 10. This is just really a great place for our little Pelican Pursuit kayaks! We paddle down to the west end of the lake and discover it is only about two feet deep! Glad we did not decide to try exploring in the C-Dorys!

Patty Anderson, Ace Paddler

Day 10, Sunday, September 11. No notes from today, just a picture, very pretty and calming. Not the way we intended to spend our vacation but Rimrock Lake has been a pleasant surprise, we might come here again for a three or four day long weekend!

Moon Over Rimrock Lake

The Vacation from Hell - Days 1 - 5.

"No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had one" ~ Elbert Hubbard

The past three years we have taken a two week vacation to Lake Powell, UT, on Daydream, our C-Dory 25 Cruiser, and we were looking forward to another relaxing vacation of fun in the sun with our friends Jim and Laurie on Laurna Jo. This is the chronicle of how in 2011 darn near everything went wrong. Each day is written looking forward, just the way I chronicled it on the C-Brat website.

Day 1. Friday, September 2. We left Friday afternoon bound for Lake Powell, planning to make our first stop the Hermiston, OR, Wallyworld. We had plotted out the 1,100 mile trip from Walmart parking lot to Walmart parking lot! Unfortunately, the Titan broke down just west of Cle Elum. First the dash lights started acting weird, and the sucker just rolled to a stop, deader than a doornail, less than 60 miles from home. When we got out, we also saw the tailpipe had fallen off, pretty sure that was just a coincidence. Fortunately, there was a wide shoulder on I-90 where we broke down. So we called AAA, and upgraded our membership so the boat could get towed as well. Then we started looking for Nissan dealers. As it turned out, the closest one was Valley Nissan in Yakima. The service writer, Michelle, thought it sounded like an alternator. My guess is a computer control module. I hope Michelle is right and I am wrong!

After about an hour, a 1940s vintage tow truck from Cle Elum Towing showed up. The driver, Leo, was a fair match for the truck, but he was friendly enough. Leo towed the boat to their Cle Elum storage yard, and towed the Titan to Yakima to the Nissan dealer. Leo was all excited about the trip to Yakima, since it meant he could go to Walmart for some new shoes. Since it was now after 5:30 p.m. and Monday will be Labor Day, the dealer can't look at it until Tuesday. Jim and Laurie were waiting for us in Yakima with Laurna Jo, but Daydream is back in Cle Eum. So we start looking for an RV park near Cle Elum, and are pleased to find that Eagle Valley RV Park in South Cle Elum has lots of spaces available. So we ride with Jim and Laurie in their Tundra back to Cle Elum, where Jim drops Laurna Jo at Eagle Valley, and we go retrieve Daydream from the storage yard and get her into Eagle Valley as well.

In the morning we found out why there were so many spaces at Eagle Valley on Labor Day weekend - it is a campground supposedly just for members of the Eagles Club. The manager said not to worry, it was for Eagles and their guests, and we were their guests! In reality, they are open to the general public if they have space. We spent Friday night at Eagle Valley, and were glad to have any place at all.

Day 2. Saturday, September 3. Saturday morning after breakfast at Eagle Valley RV Park in Cle Elum, we had to figure out what we were doing next. Since we would be stuck in Yakima at least until Tuesday, we started looking for an RV park there, and once again, are pleasantly surprised to find that Yakama Nation RV Park in Toppenish has space available. A big thanks to Jim Martinson for playing musical boats! He towed Laurna Jo to the Yakama Nation RV Park, then went back to Cle Elum for Daydream. The Yakama Nation RV Park is really pretty nice,



Daydream on the Hard at Yakama Nation RV Park

Day 3. Sunday, September 4. What do you in Yakima? You do winery tours! Today we toured Massett, Windy Point, Piety Flats, Claar and Two Mountains wineries. We had a great lunch at a Mexican restaurant near Toppenish, and finished off the evening with a swim in the RV park swimming pool, dinner and then bed. The pool is supposed to be adults only at certain hours, but it is overrun with kids! OK, we got lemons so we are making lemonade! Powell is out, so we are thinking of diverting to Lake Roosevelt, it is close enough to reach in one day, and we have boated there before and really enjoyed it. Actually boaterhoming in Yakima is a LOT more pleasant than the long drive to Powell anyway! The $64K question is, how long it will take the dealer to get us back on the road?

Day 4. Monday, September 5. Today we went into Wapato for the Harvest Festival, where we saw the Filipino Youth Activities Drill Team from Seattle. It was just hotter than blazes! Back at the RV Park we took two dips in the pool, really refreshing. And the dang kids are finally gone! Tomorrow we will find out about the Titan.







Baxter Barrett Anderson, Dog of the Desert - er, RV Park

Day 5. Tuesday, September 6. In the morning, we head off to Yakima to Valley Nissan, where we get the bad news from Michelle - I was right, she was wrong, the main computer is fried. Not only that, the main wiring harness had either been sliced and diced by the prior owner, or had perhaps been mouse eaten, and had simply been taped up and covered with goo. The wiring harness finally shorted out, and that is what took the computer down. So now, we need the computer and the main wiring harness, estimate of $1,900. The parts have to come out of Sacramento, so they won't arrive until Friday and the truck won't be ready until Monday. Michelle suggests we go to Rimrock Lake on the White Pass Highway while we are waiting. We decide to spend one more night at the RV Park and head for Rimrock Lake in the morning. So now it looks like even Lake Roosevelt is out. This is definitely not going well.