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.