Dollars to Pesos

Yesterday we ordered a whole bunch of pesos for our annual adventure down south of the border in MEH-he-ko.

We're behind the coconut palms between the orange and white buildings at the right.

For the past half dozen years we have spent several weeks each winter in a little fishing village near Puerto Vallarta. This is near where the classic movie "Night of the Iguana" was filmed.

(Last year I was mouth agape watching a bunch of these four foot lizards climbing from branch to branch in a tree a mile up the river from the cove at the left of the picture above.)

We stay in a penthouse apartment atop several other concrete and rebar additions to the home of a well-connected family in the village.

This is one of your hard-to-find getaways. The only way for people and commerce to get here is by water taxi.  Our balcony patio looks down on the muelle [MWAY-yay], or pier, where the water taxis come and go a dozen times a day.

From here we can watch trabajadores trotting their high and precariously stacked wheelbarrows from the pier up the narrow, winding cobblestoned alleys to tiendas and construction sites throughout the village.

In the morning, if we arise just before the sun comes over the jungled hill on the opposite side of our cove, we can see the unhurried activity of fishermen, and service workers at the many tiny beachside restaurants, as they slowly begin their day.

We usually do little more than just watch the daily round of people, small boats and birds from dawn to night time. Our portion of this activity may (but not necessarily) consist of strolling, drinking, exploring, smoking, visiting, eating, shopping at Hortencia's (mostly aguacates, papayas, limons y tequila), plus various forms of artistic noodling, and canoodling.

We're leaving for our idyl on New Year's Day. This year we'll be there for an entire month.