Mark & Brenda living the "Sayulita Life": Brown Outs, Celebrations & Horses.....

Sorry for the delay in updating our blog...it seems like everyday I run out of time to get all of the things that I need to get done...(not so sure what all of the things are that I need to get done, I just know that I run out of time...maybe I should cut back on my daily siesta...)

Although our pace of life down here is much slower than it was in Caledonia, it seems like there is also less time to get things done...the sun rises about 7:00am and the sun sets about 6:30pm right now...so you would think that 11.5 hours would be enough daylight time to get everything done?....However, I still run out of time each day...

Yes, we do have electricity...however, there are weekly electrical surprises called "Brown Outs"...not so much a surprise anymore...they seem to be well timed to happen on Friday evenings and last until sometime on Saturday...and they almost always happen in the middle of the night...so when we hear our ceiling fan slow down to a crawl and the alarm clock goes from dark green numbers to a faint green, we know we are in the middle of a "brown out"....the hope is that it does not turn into a black out and then we have to worry about the food in the fridge going bad....
The true test for us to know if the electricity is back to its full potential of close to 100 volts (we rarely ever get close to 110v or 115v)...is if the microwave works...if we can see the number dial on the microwave, then we know we have enough power to melt cheese in the microwave...(most of the locals have given up and just purchased a voltage reader, so that they can constantly monitor the volts and take out the surprise aspect)...Not a big deal, just a way of life...

There have been plenty of celebrations, holidays and parades in Sayulita since we arrived (at least one a week)...starting with the day of the dead celebration & parade...this event happened on our 2nd day in Sayulita...it is a day to celebrate those that have passed...the whole plaza was set up as a memorial with flowers and candles...there was a parade, a band and dancing in the plaza...the party lasts all night...
Revolution day was last week (November 20th)...basically like our independence day...another parade, music, fireworks and the kids get two days off from school...
Every weekend there are plenty of weddings on the beach, followed by music, fireworks and parties...
We are finding out that the Mexican culture is one that loves lots of music, family and celebrating any and every event...it is so much fun to be a part of these celebrations, even if it is only to observe...

We seem to have gained a few new pets in the past couple of weeks...no, I am not talking about bugs or critters...we were eating dinner a couple of weeks ago and we heard some rustling at our back door...it was dark out and we have a wooden door with no windows...so we could not see who or what was out there...Mark yelled "Hola whose out there" and no one answered, but we continued to hear the noises...so we grabbed our flash lights, turned on the outside light and slowly opened up the door...there on our back stoop was a large grey horse trying to find something to eat in our garbage can (that was sitting right there with its lid off)...however, the only two things that were in the garbage can was an empty bottle of Clorox Bleach and a 2 Liter bottle of Coke (half empty)...both of these things had been left in our garbage can by the guys that power washed our terrace the day before)...anyways, the horse was not happy that we did not have any food and just stood there and looked at us...we finally got him to leave and we wondered why he would have walked up our crazy steep hill in the first place? The next day we found many deposits on our driveway all the way to the bottom...I guess he was not happy with us... :(
Almost on a daily basis since, we have one to three horses that are munching on the grasses that grow along our driveway...not sure why they would climb our hill, when there is plenty of grass to eat at the bottom of the hill and along the road leading to our driveway...they seem to like us and have adopted us as their new home away from home (where ever their home is?)
Since many of the locals still ride horses through out town as their main mode of transportation, we are sure that these horses belong to someone that lives close by....

Mark rented a SUP board the other day for an hour and gave it a try again...the waves were a little choppy and it was a little bit of challenge to get out beyond the break...however, he prevailed and did a great job...He said it took him a while to find his balance while standing up and he decided that it was best, when he just didn't think about what he was doing...he just enjoyed the view looking back to shore and went with the flow of the ocean....

My work is keeping me busy, lots of researching vacations, answering emails and talking with clients on the phone...(many of which do not even know that they are talking to me in Mexico)....so far the fast internet has been very reliable and both of my phone numbers have worked with no problem (except for my brand new At & T cordless phone that I brought with me for our Vonage phone number, it was fried in one of the brown outs...so I borrowed an old Telmex cord phone from a friend...all of the buttons are in Spanish and it looks like it might be 20 years old...but it still works and does the job)... :)

We are still amazed on a daily basis at how simple our life is here...and how healthy you can eat for very little money...we shop at the local Tienda's and fruit & vegetable markets on a daily basis and you only get what you need for that day or two...all very fresh...
The fruit & yogurt smoothies for breakfast and vegetable's, rice and shrimp for dinner have become our favorites....of course we still go out for dinner as well and are trying new taco stands when ever we can...

We are never in a hurry to go anywhere or do anything, we basically do not where a watch or need to know what time it is...and we always seem to run into someone we know in town that wants to chat...(which sometimes can turn into an hour or so)...It is a very stress free life...which we love!

We missed you all at Thanksgiving time...and we were thankful that we could Skype with Mark's family and talk on the phone with mine...it sounds like the family celebrations back home were wonderful and that the weather even cooperated that day as well...sorry to hear that Winter has started to take hold and that you have even had snow (although the boys up at Michigan Tech are use to snow in early October)....we hope the Winter is a mild one for you all (except for the boys in the old hood, we know you really want to play hockey this Winter, so we will wish for some cold weather for awhile so that the hockey rink freezes)...

Please keep in touch and call or email anytime...we would love to hear from you all...

I'll try to update more often...
Until next time....here are some more photos of Sayulita and our life here... :)