Finally an update....We are safe in Sayulita and loving life!

Where to begin????

 I intended on updating you all prior to our move down to Sayulita....The last week prior to our move was one of comedy, laughter, tears, stress, sleep deprived, storage unit size challenges, random house issues going wrong and just plain the craziest week that I can ever remember in my life... I will spare you the details, but suffice to say that almost nothing went as planned at the time it was suppose to, but in the end, it all worked out and we made it safely to Sayulita on time on November 1, 2012....(anyone that comes down to visit us will most likely get the crazy details of the week before we moved)....

Thank you a million times over to Kevin & Antonia for their generous offer to help us move our storage stuff (what little we kept and did not sell or give away to goodwill) in their 30ft snowmobile trailer (we moved it all into a 10 x 15 storage unit...now that was a challenge)...

Thank you to Jim, Barb and Leah Newhof for their wonderful generosity of letting us crash in their basement for 2 nights when we were completely homeless...and for feeding us the best fish tacos ever...

Thank you to Andy Anderson (Wendell) for allowing us to use his spare car & van to run around town with (after we had given back my leased car & sold Mark's truck)...much cheaper than Enterprise car rental and more fun to drive (loved the red rocket and Mark wants to adopt the Safari van as his work truck for next Summer)...and thank you for being our back up storage area (his basement is now full of our plastic storage containers) once our "real storage unit" was completely filled to the ceiling...and for being our mail box and our banker for the next 6 months...you are the BEST!

Thank you to so many other friends and family for their love, support, advice and prayers and for hanging in there with us on this incredible life journey...we could not have done this without you...THANK YOU!

Also, thanks to Alamo car rental (rented a Dodge Caravan  in Grand Rapids and dropped it off at Detroit Metro), to Frontier Airlines (Detroit to Denver to Puerto Vallarta), to Mary Dolinka (Mark's cousin who picked us up at the Puerto Vallarta airport and who owns a small bungalow hotel in Sayulita), to Santander Bank in Bucerias (which allowed us to change some of our U.S. dollars to pesos), for Mary's Ford Focus station wagon that accommodated all 9 suitcases (weighing approx 50lbs each) and Mark and I and drove us safely to Sayulita (approx 25 minutes from the Puerto Vallarta Airport), only to get stuck in the river while trying to cross it where there was no bridge (a long story...)...we were stuck in the river for about 30 minutes while a backhoe tried to pull us out with a questionable chain...(like I said its a long story)...finally we were on dry land again and were on our way driving through our tiny village of Sayulita to our Casa (our Villa "home away from home" for the next 6 months)...Casa Vista Del Pacifico...
However, we still had one more hurdle...the road to our Villa washes out every rainy season (which is from June - October) and the road becomes a river (complete with ruts, large boulders and the occasional tree trunk)...since this is the end of rainy season, the river wasn't flowing much, but the road was in rough shape...however, the ford focus station wagon was determined to make it through (kind of like it was determined to make it across the river that we got stuck in the middle of)...it was quite the challenge and a lot of spinning tires and mud flying later, we managed to make it through the ruts in the road and to the bottom of our driveway...now the driveway is a whole different animal...it is extremely steep, is pretty much all cement (stamped where the tires drive for traction)...however there are just a couple of areas where a section has washed out...once again the ford focus was determined to get up that hill...(keeping in mind that we had a ton of weight in the car, 3 humans, 9 suitcases, 2 backpacks)...Oh yeah, did I say that the ford focus is a stick shift car with only a 4 cylinder engine...ugh!
The villa property manager was following us up the driveway in his Toyota off road truck (think Hummer!)...no issues with him making it up the driveway....half way up the driveway, the ford focus did not want to go any further and started to slip backwards...in the process one of the tires jumped the curb and it (or should I say we) were hanging off the edge (looking straight down a small valley)...carefully we all got out of the car, took all of the luggage out and proceeded to lift the car back over the curb and push it up the hill...(unfortunately it burned out the clutch and the emergency brake in the process)...welcome to Mexico!...After dropping us off, she coasted back down our driveway (which was much easier than going up it)...and was able to limp along the ruts in the road back to the main road in the village and the 8 blocks back to her hotel/home...now the Ford Focus sits on the side of the street waiting for a car repair man to come and fix it...(it could take days or weeks, everything is on Mexico time)....

Sorry for the long story, many more crazy things happened that day..those were just some of the highlights...Patience and laughter were required that arrival day (and probably will be required each and every day...and we both LOVE it!)...

Our Casa (villa) is beautiful -   http://www.sayulitalife.com/vistadelpacifico ...the view of the Pacific Ocean, palm trees, and village is amazing, and even the critters are tolerable...(they had just fumigated the villa prior to our arrival...so the fact that we found 5 half dead scorpions (baby ones), 6 mostly dead, very large black spiders and several other bugs/critters dead on the floors in the first 2 days, was only a little alarming...in the days since our arrival, the dead critters are getting less and less...now I am just finding the occasional live critter...mostly cute little gecko's...although, every time you put on your shoes, it a good idea to to check for critters...don't want to accidentally step on anything that might bite or sting...(ouch!).

We do not have a car or golf cart as of yet...(we have not decided if we will buy or rent one either)...so we walk everywhere...up and down the steep driveway, through the crazy, torn up river road to town (which will soon dry up and be a normal road again), to the beach, to the fruit and veggie markets...the village of Sayulita sits in a large bay (approx 2 mile beach from end to end)...and it is easy to walk everywhere...It takes approx 7 minutes for us to walk to the ocean for a swim, and 10 -15 minutes to walk to town (depending on where we are going)...there are at least 50 different restaurants in Sayulita (most of them very small (only one or two tables) ...and run by the locals...called Taqueria's...a great place to get local tacos very cheap....) We have every kind of food here....from Pizza to Sushi to a Jewish Deli to an authentic German Restaurant complete with sauerkraut...We have taco stands in the street where you sit on red plastic chairs and we have gourmet restaurants with white linen table cloths and fine dishes...as well as the coolest beach/bar restaurants up and down the beach....Some restaurants are pretty expensive (and cater to the tourists) and other's are so cheap, you wonder how they can make a profit...so far, all of the one's we have tried have been delicious and worth going back to...

I have found a wonderful running route (between 2-3 miles) and have been running each morning...lots of hills and cobblestone streets, so I am not breaking any time records...just making sure that I don't sprain an ankle...and I love the sights, the sounds, the smells and the friendly local faces each morning....

We get a lot of exercise going up and down the hill to the local markets for fresh fruit and veggies...and there are also many small "Tienda's" where you can buy various other grocery items...all owned by local's and each one seems to have different items...so shopping can take a while, depending on how many Tienda's that you have to visit to get what you need...
Every Friday they have a true "Farmer's Market" in town with lots of very interesting, homemade foods and items, and organic ingredients that you can not get anywhere else in Sayulita...it is also a wonderful social time, to meet up with all of your new friends in the village and meet other gringos (as we are called)...and spend some time comparing notes on various concerns, challenges, updates and ways of life in Sayulita...

Mark is staying busy, he loves to go for a swim in the ocean (at least once a day)...the rest of the time he stays busy with checking online stocks/financial stuff and with cleaning our pool, sweeping the tile floors, picking up any dead critters, making most of the meals, doing the dishes, the laundry and fixing any little issues that come up in the villa (lights, water, window locks, doors, washer, dryer, grill etc...) those things alone will guarantee him job security for a long time...he brought some small tools down here in his suitcase and has also had to improvise a few times...it is amazing what they use duct tape for and there is no such thing as a real building code...
As soon as he can, he will be out there surfing and stand up paddle boarding (SUP)...we just have to check into some board rentals or purchase a used one...all in good time!

I am working full time selling vacations...and most of my clients don't even know that I am sitting in Mexico when they are speaking to me...(I have the same phone number (616) 558-5201 and email address bnewhof@sbcglobal.net as before and Mark's email is mnewhof@sbcglobal.net)...we also have a new Vonage phone number that anyone can call us (it is a local call and will not cost you anything)...
(616) 855-1611...
I have my office set up, so that I can sit on my terrace, overlooking the pool, ocean and valley (I try to stay focused and not too distracted) and we have very fast internet...so it all works well....(I like it a lot better than sitting in my basement at our old house in Caledonia)...

We had our first visitors yesterday (Nov 8), George & Joanie Snyder from East Grand Rapids...they happen to be staying with some friends of theirs in Puerto Vallarta for a week and decided to come North to Sayulita to visit us and the town...they took a taxi from the Marina District in Puerto Vallarta (which took approx 45 minutes) and spent several hours with us...lunch on the beach, a walk through town, several hours of getting caught up on life, lots of photo opts...and then they decide to be adventurous and take the city bus back to Puerto Vallarta...(it only costs 25 pesos per person one way...approx $2.00usd)...riding the local bus is always an adventure...you never know when you might have a live chicken sitting next to you or a traveling musician ...we are both looking forward to taking the bus to some of the local villages in the area and to some very local adventures...

We were given some fresh fish (Dorado - Mahi-Mahi) today by a friend in town and are looking forward to grilling tonight...however, we have to go to town to get some foil and a few other things (so we grab our backpacks, our flash lights and shoes with traction and off we go)...so I will sign off for now, I have lots of pictures to post soon...and I will try my best to update the blog as often as possible...

We wish that all of our friends and family could fly down to visit us and share in our new life...we love it so far and are so very thankful for this amazing opportunity to share with each other...

We love you and hope to hear from you all soon...(call or email anytime)...

Brenda & Mark