Welcome to OnVallartaTime! Today’s post is about our return to the beach, to our favorite spot, the Swell Beach Club. But first, I’ll catch you up on some of our activities.

In the last post I told you about the rain and the resulting change in the weather for the better. I also shared that we had both gotten colds, and that we were recovering. Well, we may have recovered from the colds, but we both progressed to bronchitis! They say that’s common here, because of the humidity. We went to the doctor, and got prescribed a slew of drugs, including antibiotics which seem to be doing the trick. Peggy is almost completely recovered, and I’m finally on the mend, and feeling much better. The doctor also assures us that we are no longer contagious.

We’ve still been walking all over the place, such a joy now that it’s cooler and we’re not dripping wet just a few steps from our door. We browse all the interesting shops, and buy food and necessary items. We often go out in the mornings.

When we are out, we like to have lunch at one of the fantastic neighborhood restaurants. We have breakfast at home, then head out. Lunch is usually the big meal of the day, in the early afternoon, and then we have a relaxing happy hour and a light dinner at home. Sometimes we’ll cook, or maybe call to order a pizza (which I pick up a couple of blocks away to bring home), or maybe have sandwiches or something easy. All pretty low key.

But most days we go to the beach and hang out. Swell has a great restaurant, fairly inexpensive, and we’ve never had a bad meal there. We spend most of the time under an umbrella in the shade. Peggy really is a shade-lover, but I’ll often go out to soak up some sun, swim in the ocean or take a quick walk. We read a lot, banter with our friends the waiters, and talk with our beachside neighbors. The people-watching is endlessly fascinating, and I’m not just talking about the bikinis, either!

So here are some pictures of our beach days.

 

Swell Beach Club, looking out towards the ocean. Our regular table is out at the water’s edge.

Swell again, this time looking back to the palapa and bar area.

This is our regular spot, Mesa de Goyo (Greg’s table), always reserved for us unless we let them know we’re not coming the next day. Note the kayaks in the water sports vending area next to us. Peggy’s in the shade as usual…

These are some of the water sports guys. We have gotten to know them since we share their “office space”. They have kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, boogie boards and parasailing .

A parasailor coming in for a landing.

Looking south along the beach…

…and north towards the pier.

Our friend Gisel, former Swell Manager, moved down the beach to a better-paying manager job at a new fancy place, Mantamar.

Some of the Swell staff: David, Jorge (the new boss, back again) and Carlos.

Our friend Bruce from Edmonton, back again this year. He sits next to us.

The new water sport this year, flyboarding.

A few weeks ago was a fishing tournament, a big deal with $22,000 (dollars!) in prizes. Here you see some of the crowd gathered to watch the big fish being brought in.

If you zoom in and look between the two guys without shirts you will see a big sailfish being weighed. After the contest, the fish were cut up, cooked and fed to the crowd.

An ice cream vendor.

Click on the link below to watch a short video of strolling musicians and the general atmosphere. Turn on your speakers!

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On weekends, the local Mexican families come to the beach, This is a dad playing in the sand with his kids.

Just another day at the beach playing ukuleles! We play every Tuesday from 1-3:00 at Fidencios, a couple of doors down the beach from Swell. Yes, that’s me on the right in the backwards-facing cap, a gift from Vic from Canada, on the left.

A beautiful sunset on the beach.

Here’s Peggy in her “Queen of the Beach” chair, set up by the waiters and ready when we arrive.

That’s it for the beach tour, hope you liked it!

This is being posted on Thanksgiving morning. Later today we will be heading by bus up into the mountains to the little town of El Tuito, where we are invited to our friend Kai’s house for the festivities. There will be 17 of us! We will be taking wine, pumpkin pies, and homemade cranberry-orange sauce, along with the rest of a bottle of brandy, a little bit of which went into the sauce.

Happy Thanksgiving! We sure do have lots to be thankful for this year. Here we are in this beautiful place, living the life we dreamed about all those working years. We are thankful for each other and very thankful for all of you, our wonderful friends and family! Plus, we have our great little beach house waiting for us for when we get back. What could be better?

Finally, here’s a shot of us in front of a fantastic rubber tree alongside the Cuale River on the Isla Cuale. Thank you for following OnVallartaTime. See you next post!