Adventures In Our Own Backyard - Monkey Mountain, Wibit And Star Wars!

Yes, a bit dated but here it goes.

It was Christmas school vacation time and the kids had a break for about three weeks.  Seriously?  Three weeks?  Yep, that is how the school calendar is set up for this time of year so we had to have some things to do since the house was not in any condition to move into just yet.

Mom was home for Christmas(yea!) so for once she had some chill time during the holidays.  While she was here she motivated us to head off to a local hike that I have been wanting to do for a long time.  Monkey Mountain.

Literally beginning just 5 minutes up the road the trail summits at a prominent peak between Sayulita and Higuera Blanca.  It was great to be in the woods and on a trail again.  So much of our outdoor lives back in Park City was spent in places like this during the summer and winter.  Not so much here since the water and beach is our preferred destination for getting out and getting after it.

"Monkey" profile?

The peak provides views of Sayulita to the north and Higuera Blanca and Punta Mita to the south.  Provided one does not take a wrong turn(which we did), a round trip is less than half a day so it is perfect for a late afternoon or early morning adventure with not a lot of time.  Sayulita based "Mexitreks" takes guided trips as well and is how Ashley knew the route for our hike.

Trace is king of the world..his world at least

The kids have never known "hiking" here.  They have essentially grown up ocean people and "flatlanders" but took to the adventure of a hike with not one single complaint.  They were always driven to see what was around the next corner or get to our goal, the summit.  Super fun!

At the summit

Wibit, yes Wibit, is in Bucerias and is a inflatable floating island attraction just off the beach.  If you have ever seen the TV show "Wipeout" then you know essentially what Wibit is.  Trampolines, rope swings, slides, climbing walls and floating walkways sit just a little ways into the ocean.

Photo from Wibit's website

We arrived with a couple other families just as the place opened for the day and we had the place to ourselves.  With the floating obstacles moving underneath you with incoming waves, the slippery inflated amusement park was a challenge for everyone.  The kids of course found the biggest challenges and happily splashed down into the water.  The adults quickly faded as muscles that have not been used in years suddenly were asked to perform climbing, swinging and just plain falling down into exhausted heaps.  An hour was totally enough for pretty much everyone as late morning Cielo Rojos waited on the beach.

Wibit Island

What would Christmas break be without some movie time.  We ventured into Puerto Vallarta to go see the latest Star Wars installment, The Last Jedi.  A new "VIP" theater has been built into a large pedestrian shopping plaza complete with recliners, waiters, food and liquor selections.  Sushi, a Modelo Negro and a Don Julio tequila was delivered to my recliner without me having to move or miss a single scene from the movie.  Considering our whole family went to the movies, had dinner and drinks the cost was ridiculously reasonable compared to the US.  Movies in Mexico have been an excellent value provided you can find the English movies with Spanish subtitles.

Ozzy, Ashley, Trace, Alex and Ava

We are just beginning the next school vacation during Semana Santa as I write this but wanted to catch up on some old post writing.  We will be looking for new adventures this vacation as well.

A New Casa - Casa Pono Sayulita - Mid March Update

It is mid March and we have been in the new house apartment for just over a month.  Staying in touch has been tough since we do not have internet and the communication limitations of our growing pueblo have no way to accommodate our internet needs at this time.

We stumbled from our rented house after weeks of packing and moving into our new place with no running water, gas or functioning toilet.  Ashley headed north to Atlanta a few days before we moved in. We got the toilet part all sorted out quickly but it proved to be a rocky start to what we hoped to be some kind of amazing experience for our family.  Not really how it turned out since we arrived in a construction zone and lived for weeks among the concrete dust, piles of boxes, containers, surfboards, tools, archery equipment and items that will eventually be installed in the upstairs family spaces.

Immediately we started to really enjoy our new location in town.  Our neighbors have been extremely nice.  Some of them have grown up on the street and others have been here for 30+ years.  This is our 3rd location in town in 7 years.  One house was great but well removed from everything.  One house closer to town but still in it's own little isolated cul-de-sac.  Now we are on a busy street in a very local part of town.  We think at least half the town walks or drives by our house each day.  The crazy part is that it is actually quieter and calmer than the last place we lived.  Our new 5 minute walking distance to town has been fantastic!  Trace comes home from school, grabs his surfboard and goes to the beach.  We may not even see him until dinner most afternoons.  Alex goes to the beach some days too and other days attends art classes at a local gallery or heads off to a friend's house or her orthodontist appointment.  Both kids walk to school each day or even go into town to find dinner for us occasionally.

Window help give the house a more finished look.

Within a five minute walk we have a great coffee/breakfast place, pharmacy, wine shop, store, street tacos, high end dining, laundry, butcher shop, workout classes, pilates, hair salon, plaza, pub, organic food store and surfing beach.  But, at the same time, we feel we are still living in a residential area too not in a commercial zone.  I walk to the beach each morning to go get some exercise paddling and am back for the day around 9am ready to go.  No need to load up the car with surfboards any longer.

Looking at apartment bedroom from living room

Looking at kitchen and living area from bedroom.  Some details yet to complete.

Ashley came home for a quick stay and immediately put her skills to work and totally took charge of our small apartment sending lots of items downstairs into the bodega giving us lots more room to move around and enjoy the place.  She liked the results so much the king sized bed became her happy place even with construction happening upstairs and in front of the house each day.  She is even considering not want to even stay upstairs when it is finished she liked the apartment so much.

No, not a pool.  Grey water treatment.  Layered material will be installed and then accommodate plants.

So where does that leave the house currently?  Most of the work in mid February and early March has been in the front yard.  The garden walls have been finished as has most of the structure for the grey water treatment system that will be completed a bit later.  We are still without cooking gas, laundry dryer or hot water.  Something that will be remedied in the near future or else we may not see Ashley come home again anytime soon.

Pulido floors getting done by island and into dining area.

Kitchen and living areas

 Walls are being primed and painted, built in furniture/shelving is complete, some electrical/plumbing finishes are being installed and the concrete pulido accent walls and floors are getting done on the kitchen/master bath level.  After this weekend some of the crew will begin working on the second level(kids bedrooms) and the remainder of the crew will begin on the 4th level that will be a storage room/laundry/utility room and eventual terrace with ocean view.  At some point soon I will start completing the concrete work that I will contribute to the project but even finding a space to work in right now is a challenge with all the materials staged for the current parts of the project going on.

Pulido floors in dining area getting done.

Tough photo angle of master bedroom built in bed.

Central hallway.  Stairs to come.  Lower level is kid's bedrooms and main entrance.

The details that I have been pestering Ashley with for the last year and a half are finally coming together.  Hopefully she will like the upper levels as much as she enjoyed the apartment while she was here.  We cannot wait to give the kids their own individual spaces too.  The final design will still have a few rough transition spots that will have to be reworked, remedied or ignored but overall it is coming together!

Sayulita Scenes

Photo by Ed Dorsett

A New Casa - February Update

We wish we could report that we were settled in by now but we are just not there yet.  The lowest level of the house, the apartment, is being finished with paint, fixtures, plumbing etc and we have begun moving items over to the new place.

The crew has been working out front for what seems like months getting the bodegas done, gardens/grey water system in place and stairs assembled.  Lots to do.

Standing under the stairs outside the apartment front door.  Grey water system location in background.

New front door.

The stairs from the driveway are in and the spiral stairs to the main entrance are in as well.  Windows have been ordered for the top two levels and the crew has been really pushing to get things going on levels other than the one we will be on for the time being.

It has been nice to see some of our fixtures go in too.  Fans are going up and some lighting.  More to come.

Ashley has been home for a couple weeks and really just took control of the packing, organizing and moving of the things we have accumulated during our 6 years here.  Her skill set full throttle.  This also includes lots of items purchased for the new house, workshop equipment and archery gear.  It has been hard to come to terms with just how much we have had to move this last week considering we arrived with a few suitcases and one truck full of stuff.  Ashley went back to Atlanta and now it is up to me to get things wrapped up here in the next few days.

The stairs will have tread lights

Outside sitting area for the apartment takes shape

This Wednesday night will be our first night in the apartment.  We may be using candles, ordering take out and using a bucket as a bathroom but we will be in.  Things are picking up speed it feels like but I have said that before and we are still not moved in.  When will we be moving upstairs?  Who knows really but some painting has been going on already, prep for the kitchen floor is being done and the main entry is getting a finish texture coat to be ready for paint soon.

Entry looking up at the main living level.  Future stairs location.  Kids bath door behind bars.

Floor prep in dining room.

That is about it for now.  Once the crew gets off the front of the house they will move up to work on things out of sight again.

Sayulita Scenes - "The Swell" January 2018!

The waves have been really good out front here in Sayulita.  Out for more later today and tomorrow and...   Awesome photo by Curt Barter.

Sayulita Scenes - The Main Beach At Daybreak

New In 2018 - We Are On Instagram!

To keep in touch on a more regularly with friends and family, we started an Instagram account.  FOLLOW HERE!

I know.  What took us so long?

Sayulita JR SUP Team Classic

Just before Christmas break the kid's SUP Team had their first inter-team competition.  They have a few of these during the year so the kids can test their skills and get a taste of what it would be like to compete in a real race.  The coaches set things up just like an actual competition.  When the kids went to the Pacific Paddle Games last September not much was a surprise to them.  Lots of credit goes to our coaches for preparing them for events away from our own beach.

The morning of the comp the conditions were BIG and the waves were serious.  I was totally fine with the race being called off.  The coaches cancelled the race for all the kids EXCEPT Trace and Alex' group.  Their group has the most experience and the coaches felt they could handle the conditions.  Many of the kids in the program are new to SUP so it just wasn't a good idea to send them out.

Alex and Trace ready themselves for the start.

The race began and all the kids were off with mountains of water coming at them.  Some kids were immediately knocked of their boards by the waves and some were able to continue on and begin to navigate the course around the buoys set up in the bay.  Trace made it through the waves and was in the lead to begin the race but Alex had to recover and lost some time.

Waves are part of the challenge of an SUP race

A beautiful morning for a race.

Both Alex and Trace had goals for this race.  Alex has consistently finished just out of the top spot with the small group of girls she trains with so she really wanted to do well.  Alex' paddling and endurance has gotten much stronger in the last year but she is working on some other things that will help her save time and compete at a higher level.  She knows that once she makes mistakes, she will not do as well as she hopes.  Buoy turns, breaking waves and surfing waves to the beach are all part of a race and she knows she needs to develop her skills a bit to get better.  Once she cleans those things up a bit she will see more the success she is hoping for.

Alex paddling in open water towards a buoy

Alex smiling as she finishes

Alex finished first today in her small group after finishing behind each of these girls in previous races.   She was grinning ear to ear and after she caught her breath she was literally bouncing up and down saying "I am so happy"!  She did great!!

Trace is a bit of a different story.  This kid is addicted to the ocean and paddling.  Most kids go to practice twice a week for one hour each session.  Trace attends both practices offered each day for a total of 8 hours a week after school.  Then he will go to a SUP class on the weekend and surf with his old man.  Sometimes he will just go the beach with a board and paddle on his own and surf for a couple hours.

Trace and his buddy, Kolbi, lead the pack

Trace had clear goals for this race.  He wanted to finish ahead of one of his good friends, Kaden.  I feel he also wanted the Team as a group to see him as one of the top dogs in the program.  All I can say is that I am so impressed with what Trace accomplished.  He had a goal, dedicated himself, focused and put in the hours to achieve his goal and he was successful!  He finished ahead of his friend for the first time and finished second overall.  Plus, he was not far behind the fastest paddler in the program.

Trace riding the big surf to the beach.

Trace all smiles

Trace was not done yet.  There was a SUP surf competition yet to come.  He has seen several surf competitions but had yet to learn how it all worked and understand what the judges were looking for so it was a great experience.  He made some mistakes early on but passed through to the next and final round.  He learned from those mistakes and got some coaching from his dad having been in a couple competitions previously and was really happy about the way things turned out in his first comp.

Trace navigating some big surf paddling back out

Trace looking for space for his next trick

With dedication like this how can you not be proud.  We know that Trace has been surfing with less than optimal equipment but this has been totally fine for the last year or so as he learned.  Now it is time to get him some decent gear.  For Christmas he received an adjustable Quickblade Paddle that he can use for racing and surfing.  It is really nice and so much better than the "log" he has been using. Our next goal is a new SUP surfboard.  The board he is over a foot longer than he should be on and is a tank.  So much so it is hard to believe that he has done as well as he has.  Watching him from the beach during the comp you could just see that the gear he was using was big, heavy and slow compared to the other kids competing.  He managed the gear, the conditions and was super stoked to finish 4th and we are sure he is setting goals to do better than that next time.

Trace receives his award for a 4th place finish with Coach Bicho Jimenez

Sayulita is the epicenter of all things SUP in Mexico and the coaching, existing talent and up and coming talent is high.  The kids are literally a 5 minute walk to the beach.  Even closer than he would have been to the World Class resorts near our house in Park City and they can carry their own gear to the beach!  We cannot wait to see what kind of water people they become in the next few years.

A New Casa 2017 - Bio-Cell Construction

Early on in the construction design process we knew we had to make an effort to reduce the impact our new home would have on the town's infrastructure.  The lot is essentially north facing so the idea of solar to help offset our electrical use was not something we considered.  Off street parking to help traffic flow?  Yes, we have that covered.  Recycle?  Of course.  Water/sewer?  High efficiency toilets etc are a no brainer but what else can we do?  Perhaps we can help there.

A facebook page dedicated to Ecological sustainability solutions for Sayulita had been started about the time we began construction.  It had been discussing how even in a downtown setting there are things we can do to help wastewater contributions.  As ridiculous as it sounds, our new house will have 2 kitchens, 2 laundry rooms with utility sinks, a bar and 4 bathrooms. Granted the amount of water we will use and waste water we will generate won't be much more than we do currently, the potential contributions and usage are much higher with a full house and occasional renters/family/ friends in the apartment.  So, we decided to look up the folks who seemed to be in charge of designing a grey and black treatment system for our property.  What could we do on the lot in the space we had that would help reduce the impact we would have on an already overloaded water/sewer infrastructure.

Design by Budd Adams

Essentially, the house's plumbing needed to separate "grey water" from "black water".  Liquid waste water which comes from sinks and showers from solid waste which comes from toilets.  The solid waste, "black water", would be distributed into what is called a Bio-Digester.  This is essentially a large plastic tank(see the small round circle in white on plan above) that would be buried in the driveway.  In the bio-digester, solid waste would be broken down anaerobically as micro-organisms naturally took care of the decomposition of solids.  It would have to be emptied once in a while but it would prevent "black water" waste from most of the house from having to be treated by the facility in town.

The liquid waste, "grey water", would be filtered and sent to a garden in the front yard.  The light blue area of the diagram above shows the location.  Once filtered the grey water would slowly be treated by micro organisms, used by select garden plants and then recirculated again within the garden by a pump.

To pull this off we had to essentially plan three separate plumbing systems.  1.  The totally separate apartment system which will be tied into the the town's main sewer.  Why separate?  Honestly, we really wouldn't have any control over what occupants sent down the drain.  The concern was that some products occupants used may be damaging to the system rendering the treatment process less effective.  Something we could control in our living space upstairs  2. A system separating of all the main house(our house) toilets to distribute to the "black water" bio digester in the driveway.  3.  A system separating of all the "main house" showers, sinks and drains to distribute to a filter and then to the garden for treatment.

Design by Budd Adams

This all going on in the front yard of the small 330 square meter lot with a house on it.  Here is a photo of the front yard showing some of the formed up walls for the system.  The green section is the concrete slab to the right.  The blue section begins at what looks like a open box in the photo and the area by the plastic sheeting will actually be one more garden area that will act as a overflow should we see a big rain or something goes wrong with the system for some reason.  Excess water should infect be pumped up to the green section of the diagram to filter through the system again.  We are told the system does not smell and we are counting on that.  Our old neighbor used to water his garden with "grey water" from his house by hose and it did stink. If it does smell the system's designer has a few tricks to help with that but the system is mostly underground.  A similar system to this was actually supposed to go into a small hotel kitchen here in Sayulita to take care of grey water .  If it would work in the tight location with people eating and lodging then we hope we won't have a problem either.

The front yard Bio Cell taking shape.  The large wall to the right is just a separation wall from the neighbors's property.

So the question remains about what happens with the apartment waste water since we cannot hook into the main sewer system just yet.  Since the apartment has a single discharge line and does not mix with the Bio-cell, the only option is to collect it and have the collection container pumped out every few weeks as needed.  The collection container will be stored in a bodega(the smaller of the two green sections on the map) and hidden then removed when it is time to hook the apartment into the town system.

 Well, that is our solution for now anyway.

A Conversation Between Mother And Daughter Living In The Jungle

Alex:  Mom, can I borrow your hairdryer?
Ashley:  Sure honey, but don't you have one?
Alex:  Yes, but I don't want to use it.
Ashley:  Why not?
Alex:  Well, a long time ago a cockroach crawled inside my hairdryer and died.  Now, when I turn it on pieces of the cockroach come flying out and hit me in the head.

Conversations like this barely get a second thought anymore.

Sayulita Scenes - Adios 2017!

Hola 2018!!  It's looking like 2018 will be just as eventful as 2017.  Feliz Año Nuevo!!!

Photo by Derrick Lundy