Twenty Nine, again??? December 13, 2007

December 13, 2007 by Rick and Tinka.

Once again it is time to celebrate Tinka’s annual 29th birthday.  We seem to stretch out our birthdays to span several days.

Monday we headed over to Distilleria Beach near Punta Mita. The beach is very flat with well packed sand.

Distilleria Beach is famous for waves that are excellent for body surfing and boogie boarding.

Monday, a group of us from the Sayulita RV Park headed over to enjoy the waves.  We all brought our umbrellas, but the restaurants along the beach provide little palapas, for a price, to those who need them for protection from the sun.  You can see these small palapas in the background of this picture.

Mexicans love their holidays.  They have 8 of them in December alone.  On the 12th is the “Our Lady of Guadalupe” and it is preceded by days of preparation.  Part of the preparation is igniting large, loud pyrotechnics at most hours of the day or night.  This starts of at about 4:00 AM and ends about midnight.  Guess how much sleep we get?

Sayulita is loaded with boutiques along its cobblestone streets.  New shops and restaurants are opening every week. It didn’t take long to load up on birthday gifts.

We decided to go out for a birthday dinner on the 12th so that we could witness the festivities.  We made reservations at the Calypso restaurant located under the palapa at the second floor of this building.

From this vantage point we could watch the parade to the church at the square.  They had entertainment and fireworks around 10:00 PM.  More information regarding this celebration can be found at:

 http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/guadalupe.html 

As luck would have it, we forgot to take the camera.  However, this shot shows the square earlier in the day.  (CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR A LARGER VIEW)

The evening was fun and the meal may have been the best since we arrived in Mexico.  I had rack of lamb and Tinka had chicken piccata.  Creme brule was the encore. (You’d have loved the photos.)

Today, the actual birthday, we headed north to the town of La Peñita to wander through their “Market”.  This is basically a large flea market that takes place every Thursday.  Thousands of merchants take part in this event.  Most of the residents and many tourists take advantage of the large assortment of merchandise. 

Here is a panoramic shot of the town square that acts as the center point of the Market.  (CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR A LARGER VIEW)

Each evening just before sunset, many of our RV park friends meet at the beach for cocktail hour and watch the sun go down behind the mountains, not the ocean as you would suspect. (Sayulita is in a bay and our beach faces to the north.)  Anyway, we shared a birthday cake with about twenty that were present. 

Here is Tinka picking up the cake donning one of her new and really comfortable birthday dresses.

For the most part, this 29th birthday was a success.

The only downside of the week so far was the death of our RV refrigerator.  The unit is still under warranty, but of course, there are no service centers in Mexico.  We’ll have to wait until we get back to Tucson, in April, to get it repaired or replaced.   So it’s off to Sam’s Club and Home Depot tomorrow to pick up a substitute for the short term.

Posted in Mexico - Punta de Mita, Mexico - Sayulita, Mexico | 2 Comments »