2/23/26 San Pancho

We stayed hunkered down in the house last night. The town was eerily quiet as everyone was staying safe inside even though there was no trouble with the cartels in this sleepy little town.  The four of us felt like we had been actors in an apocalyptic movie.  We tried to catch up on the news.  It seemed like the most disturbances were in the medium to larger cities.  We did finally settle down to play a game of cards and Team Cathie and Sandie won!  We are now tied 2 to 2.  

We were going to go to the beach today, but decided to stay home and use the pool and also catch up on laundry.  Dave and Russ went out front to the street the feed the local stray dogs (see pic of the dog whisperer below).  We bumped into a neighbor who was going to walk downtown to get breakfast as he had only fruit left after sheltering in place yesterday.  We shared some of our bounty from the fridge with him so he wouldn't go hungry if the restaurants were still closed.  We also gave him a tour of the house and he loved it!  He is renting a small studio apartment next door.  He has been traveling around Mexico for a month and is from Crested Butte, Colorado.  It was nice to pay forward what we recieved yesterday from the folks in La Cruz.  About mid-morning Russ, Cathie, and Dave took the golf cart downtown to see what was happening.  They said it was quiet and about 60 percent of the shops were open.  We did some pool side reading and took a dip to cool off.  We have been watching the news from home and are very happy to have missed the blizzard.  We are thinking of all our friends and family who are having to deal with the clean up.  Stay safe and warm!  85 and sunny here.  We may go down for dinner tonight, but if the restaurants aren't open, we have plenty of leftovers to get us through.  The bird pics are from the backyard - chcchalaca and pale billed woodpecker.

 

2/22/26 La Cruz

 We had a lovely dinner last night in town at Dolce Jardin (an Italian restaurant whose chef trained in Italy).  We had guacamole to start (of course) and then shared lasagna (not for Dave) and penne bolognese.  The plates were huge so we brought the leftovers home.  We stopped at the music festival again and listened for a couple of sets.  Once home we had a very exciting game of cards.  The guys won, but only by 95 points - we both had scores in the 12000's.  

We had breakfast this morning and then did some bird watching from the balcony while waiting for our driver to arrive to take us to the Sunday market in La Cruz.  We saw golden cheeked woodpecker, male and female chachalaca, black throated magpie jay, yellow winged cacique, and the russet crowned motmot.  We were driven about a half hour to La Cruz and spent about 2 hours walking around and checking out the variety of wares.  There were at least 100 tents and the venue was lovely - a pier at the marina.  One of the pics is of Dave and his dream boat!  I also included a pic of a woman doing yoga on her paddle board.  Also note the ingenious method of keep grilled meat warm by placing it in a grocery cart with a tray of hot coal in the bottom!  While at the market we saw osprey and the magnificent frigate bird.

One of the vendors said something about the airport being shut down in Puerto Vallarta (planes scheduled to land were told to turn around) and some police activity involving a cartel.  When we got back to the car, our driver said that his boss called and we were to shelter in place as the cartel leader had been killed and the other members were threatening retribution,  Russ called Tristan and it was suggested that we find a hotel as the roads were closed and we didn't know how long it would be until they opened again.  Russ found a hotel online, but it turned out to be condos.  As we were sitting there trying to find a real hotel, the boss of the car company called and said to take shelter immediately,  One of the condo renters invited us up to shelter with he and his wife and a couple of friends who were also stranded.  He also opened the garage door so our driver could get the car off the street as we had heard that people were being pulled out their cars (unharmed) and their cars set on fire.  The couple were from Vancouver and their friends were from Wisconsin.  They gave us shelter for about an hour.  Tristan called and said his house manager who lives in La Cruz was coming to pick us up and take us to his house. We decided to leave the car in the garage and drove a short distance to his house where he and his wife and two children warmly welcomed us.  Russ did some card tricks with the kids and they loved the magic.  The dad entertained us by playing a few selections from his massive record collection and the wife made us a dinner of tacos and rice (delish!).  The wife, who runs the market in La Cruz, was in contact with some of the vendors and we heard that one of the vendors stopped for gas and his truck with all of his merchandise was torched.  We were finally given the all clear to get on the road to drive back to San Pancho - 5 hours after we left the market.  On the way out of town we passed 3 cars that had been burnt out (see the photo of the smoke taken from the condo).  Partway to San Pancho we also passed a group of 5 cars that had been burnt out.  We were very happy to get back to San Pancho.  All of the businesses were shuttered, but there was no damage there that we saw.  We were very happy to get back to the house and safety.  

2/21/26 San Pancho

On the way into town last night we stopped partway down the hill to take pictures of a beautiful painted on a wall.  We decided to eat at Miralo as we had heard good things.  We actually go there a few minutes before opening time and chatted with a man who turned out to be the father of the owner.  He is from British Columbia and spends half the year there and the other half in San Pancho.  We had a lovely meal.  We ordered guacamole, salad, and roasted brussel sprouts with lemon/honey viniagrette dressing.  The sprouts were out of this world,  Everyone ordered fish (mahi mahi) and chips for the main coarse.  They were very good, but even though Cathie and I shared a plate, we had plenty of leftovers to bring home.  We then went to the plaza to check out the music festival which is running all weekend,  We stayed for a short time and then headed back to the house to play a game of cards.  This time the girls won!!

We had a quiet morning at the house, but the birds were a bit more active this morning.  The golden cheeked woodpecker graced us with his presence again.  We also saw a white winged dove and the great kiskadee.  And . . . the black throated magpie jay was finally spotted while in a static position.  Usually they fly past so quickly you can't get a picture.  This guy was quite far away, but sat posing for quite some time.  His tail is over half of its total length!  Russ went for a run in the neighborhood and saw a pale billed woodpecker which looks similar to the pileated woodpecker.  Dave and I went back with him to check it out, but no luck.  We ended up near the polo grounds and saw a young lady on a beautiful horse and then were lucky enough to catch the horses being put through their paces on the field.  We also stopped at a pond and spotted coots, blue winged teals, common egret, snowy egret, green egret, cinnamon teal, northern jacana, anhinga, and the neo tropic cormorant.

At 11, we all jumped in the golf cart and went to visit the observatory that is located at Luis's father's house.  The back yard is full of bird baths and a variety of species show up to drink or take a bath each day.  We saw the Inca dove, Nashville warbler, male and female painted buntings, a female summer tanager, golden cheeked woodpeckers, yellow breasted chat, blue-gray gnat catcher, and an iguana.  We came back for lunch and noticed that a cat that has been showing up each day was lounging on a chaise by the pool.  After lunch we went down to join him, but he didn't stick around too long.  We are now back in the house and reading for a bit until it is time for dinner.

 

2/20/26 San Pancho

 We had dinner at Zenizas restaurant last night.  They had the best guacamole we have ever tasted!  It is a good thing that Cathie and I split a meal as the plates were huge!  We came home and played one game of cards.  Cathie and I creamed the guys on the first round, but they smashed us on the second round so we conceded.  I hope we have better luck tonight!  There was a lovely sunset and a quarter moon last night.  We were also able to see two planets.

We had a rather lazy day today.  After breakfast Russ spotted the golden cheeked woodpecker on a tree right off the balcony.  We went down to the beach and caught a few birds.  We saw black and yellow crowned night herons, black vultures, grackles, northern jacana, brown pelican, elegant tern, spotted sand piper, blue winged teals, common egret, great blue egret, snowy egret, least grebe.  Dave found a coconut on the beach.  We came back for lunch and then Cathie, Russ and I went downtown to poke around.  We went into Entre Amigos, where Dee was a volunteer.  It is a community center for both kids and adults.  They have a library and do crafts with the kids.  They do a lots of recyling and try to do good for the environment.  We poked through a few shops and then came back to read at the pool.  There was  cinnamon hummingbird darting about, but of course I did not have my camera handy.  

 

2/19/26 Bird Tour

 We went to bed early last night as we were all pretty tired.  It took a bit to get used to the sounds of people soccer, barking dogs and crowing roosters. We got up early to shower and have a small breakfast before Luis picked us up for our birding tour.  We started at the end of town on the beach and saw a number of birds.  We saw blue winged teal, anhinga, neo-tropic cormorant, least grebe, brown pelican, blue-footed boobie, American coot, northern jacana, snowy and great egrets, yellow and black crowned night herons, black necked stilt, Heermann's gulls,  cinnamon teal, willet, spotted sandpiper, killdeer, laughing gulls, turkey vultures, common black hawk, great tailed grackle, Sinaloa crow, We drove over to the jungle path near the Polo club where we had a delicious brunch of waffles, fresh pastries, cut fruit, and eggs at the open air restaurant.  We saw on our walk orange fronted parakeet, Mexican parrotlet, black throated magpie jay, street backed orioles, yellow winged cacique, golden vireo, thick billed king bird, social fly catcher, great kiskadee, blue gray gnat catcher, ruffed winged swallow, squirrel cuckoo, masked tityra.  We took a side path and found a place called a Fairy Garden mostly small stone sculptures that are hidden in the glade.  Luis was a font of knowledge.  One of the most interesting stories was about the cycle of three birds:  the orange fronted parakeet carves out a hole in a termite nest to raise their young.  When the young fledge and leave the nest, it is taken over by the Citreoline trogon who raises a family.  When they leave the nest is is taken over by the elegant trogan.  It is a time share system in which each pair of birds raises their family in 3 months and then the next pair take over the nest.  Very cool!  We came back to the house after our 5 hour adventure and Dave went for his nap and the rest of us read by the pool.  I took a dip first as I was hot from the jungle walk.  While we were in the living room a golden cheeked woodpecker landed on the tree just off the balcony.  We will go for an early dinner tonight and hopefully be awake enough to play cards.