Beach Bound Bengals: March 2023 Recap

As March arrives the conversation in the park turns to the topic of departure. When are you leaving, what route are you taking, are you stopping along the way or just heading to the border? Many of the snowbirds leave between the middle and end of March, avoiding the busy crowds during semana santa - the week leading up to the easter long weekend. In fact, some RV parks even require their guests to leave by March 31 so to allow them to open the park to Mexican families who flock to the beaches for the holy days. Not in our park though, we could stay year round if we wanted. Or more like, if we could stand the temperatures and humidity 😊.

A picture of the beaches in Mazatlan during Semana Santa 2023 😳

March also starts to see warmer days and increasing humidity and that too gets people thinking about heading north. Of course, there are also some Canadian snowbirds who’s provinces only allow them to be gone for a maximum of six months or else they’ll have to re-qualify for their provincial health benefits. Although many people assume you have to be in your province for a minimum of six months to retain coverage, it is wise to call your local provincial health care contact line to confirm. I’ve read articles in Snowbird Advisor recently that incorrectly say in BC you have to be in the province at least six months. This is not correct. I confirmed with Health BC that we must be in the province 153 days of the calendar year to maintain coverage (approx 5 months).

This year by Sunday March 26th our park was 75% empty. Only a few snowbirds choose to store their RV’s either here in the park or in a covered storage facility 20 minutes away. The majority choose to travel back and forth, returning home whether it’s in the US or Canada. Last year we decided to stay through Semana Santa. We left Lo de Marcos on April 21, 2022. This year we decided to head north sooner, leaving the park on Thursday March 30 just before the traffic starts to get busy as Mexicans head to the beaches. Most are off work and out of school as of Friday March 31st.

With the thinning of the snowbird crowds RV parks also start to see the waning of conveniences like the vegetable, fish and bakery trucks that frequent the RV parks. In LDM we were lucky to have Enrique come to us daily during the peak season, selling his wonderful produce, eggs, cheese and assorted snacks. By early April his visits reduce and then peter off completely until the next season.

Enrique’s veggie truck

Enrique is on the far right.
Such a friendly man, always with a smile on his face and sometimes signing a tune music 🎶

This month we accomplished a few things, perhaps the most significant was having our recliners and our dinette booth recovered. We never really liked the mud brown colour of the dinette and when we got the recliners last year we settled on a dark grey colour because there were no lighter colours in stock.

This year we found a wonderful upholsterer in Los Ayala, a small town about 20 minutes from LDM. The business definitely has a different “curbside appeal” than what we’re used to in Canada or the US. But, the woman and her daughters do wonderful work!

The upholsterer’s shop/home is on the right.
You can see our recliners sitting out front ready for us to pick up

We chose a light cream colour faux leather fabric and WOW, what a difference! It is so much brighter! Of course we’ll have to keep them covered mostly to protect them from the cats claws and the dirty dog who likes to sneak up on the recliner to sleep. I purchased a couple Mexican blankets from the market this year with the intention of making some head/arm rest covers for the recliners and some back covers for the kitchen bench. I’ll work on those once home where I have my sewing machine. She had them finished in two weeks. Total cost $14k pesos (about $1000 Cdn)

Before and After
From dark and drab to bright and light

Not surprisingly, we had to get a tire repaired this month too. It was losing air and the culprit was a small nail. The tire repair we went to is just outside the town on the main highway. Total cost $180 pesos or about $13 Cdn

After the tire was repaired I ventured into the La Cruz market with my neighbour May. In March another new stretch of the Toll/Cuota highway was finished allowing a much faster drive into La Cruz, Bucerias and Puerto Vallarta. The road is beautiful with three tunnels cut through mountains. It is pricey though at $223 pesos each way for a car (about $17 Cdn). Well worth it for the infrequent amount of times we go into the big city. It cuts the drive from a minimum 45 minutes on a good day (as in no traffic or accidents on hwy 200) down to 19 minutes! Plus, there are no small villages you need to slow down for and the topes/speed bumps that come with those small villages.

The La Cruz market was unbelievable! At first it seemed like just another normal market like the ones here in LDM or in La Peñita or San Francisco with the same kinds of vendors set up in the town square. But then you walk toward the marina and there are at least 2 miles of additional vendors with all kinds of different and unique wares for sale. At the end of the long stretch of vendors is a circle of various food vendors. What a gorgeous setting for a market.

Speaking of food vendors, by the time we got to them I was famished. The first sign I saw advertising burritos I was in, only to realize once I went to order that it was a vegan vendor. The “meat” in the burrito was actually seasoned and fried yucca fruit. As I hesitated before finalizing my order the woman asked me if I’d like to try the yucca. Well, why not. She gave me a small spoon off the grill and wow, I was impressed! It tasted like meat and had the same texture of meat. She also said that when you see the taco vendors on the side of the road with the big turning spit of meat that it too is yucca. Who knew? So, why not, I ordered the vegan burrito complete with cashew cheese.

Unfortunately, once I got the burrito I realized after a few bites that it wasn’t really all that good. A bite was ok, but a full burrito of it was too much for me. The flavour wasn’t as rich and the texture was ever so slightly off from the texture of meat. I was able to eat half of it though as I needed to get some food into me. I’m glad I tried it, but it wouldn’t be something I’d order again.

When I got home and told Dan the first thing out of his mouth when I said “I tried a vegan burrito” was “GET OUT!” LOL. I reassured him there was no risk of me turning into a vegan or forcing him into one. I knew he’d react that way 😝

Views from the La Cruz market - a small place to take a seat and rest looking out to the harbour

Vendor canopies as far as the eye can see. They go straight ahead in the pic then veer almost all the way to the left hand side of the shot

Cool textures against the ocean background

More cool textures and some sailboats in the distance

In March we also took advantage of the convenience in having a massage right at your RV site. Dan and I both had an hour long deep tissue massage. The masseuse was very friendly although there was still the language barrier. I think the highlight of the experience was when she saw Gizmo in his tent on the patio. She was enamored by him and wanted to see him. I opened the tent and let her pet him and then she just let him wander off, instead of putting him back inside the tent. I quickly scooped him up and put him inside. She then told us she thought it was really sad that we had our cats “in jail” and asked why we didn’t let them roam free. We had a good chuckle. Here we are thinking we are keeping them safe and out of mischief while allowing them time outside that they wouldn’t otherwise get and she thought it was “sad” to see them “locked up”. Definitely a difference in view points 😊. Two one hour massages at our RV site cost us $1550 pesos (approx $114 Cdn). She was quite a spiritual masseuse and at one point I think she was trying to tell me I had a green aura or green chakra. She kept tapping my heart and saying “verde/green”. I later learned that she also does Reiki, so perhaps it has something to do with that. That was a moment I wish I could have understood better.

As part of our trip to the upholsterer we took a quick trip into Guayabitos with HeyZeus. He loves truck rides, particularly by himself and the bonus of exploring new areas.

Town square Guayabitos

Look at that face! His focus was locked on a bird he later chased but missed.

Lots of work on the archways in the small towns over the last couple of years typically depicting local nature and peoples

I just love these bold 3D signs located throughout Mexico. Always so vibrant.
Each community puts their own spin on the design with specific detail added to each colourful letter.

We also saw some cool trees, one in Guayabitos and another in San Francisco (San Pancho)

Such a cool tree in Guayabitos.
It grew over the wall, reaching it’s roots into the water runoff channel on the other side

Reaching into the water runoff

View from the front, I love all the contrast and shadows.

This cool tree is in San Francisco (San Pancho) near the weekly market.
Beautiful!

In March we started to experience more frequent power issues, usually around 4-6 pm when voltage would drop causing the surge protector to cut off power to the RV. It was going on and off so frequently each day that we began to worry about the impact on our surge protector and also our transfer switch which identifies the source of power (post, generator, batteries) and switches between those. We were convinced the post was faulty as it would only take a small tap/jiggle of the external surge protector to cut out the power completely. Sure seemed like loose wires in the post to us. Although Juan Jose tried to fix it by replacing the receptacle that we plug into, the issues continued. We think we might invest in a new electrical auto former for next year which helps to boost power by 10% when it drops below the level it should be at. Power issues are notoriously known in Mexico, so no use in getting upset. It is just frustrating over time.

This late in the season we started to notice the weather changing. Temperatures and humidity levels were increasing creating a bit more discomfort in the day. Highs were 32 with humidity in the 70-90% range. The nights were also staying warmer, causing us to put the AC on overnight more than we had been leading up to the middle of March.

As we neared the end of the month, we talked about staying longer but decided that we didn’t want to stay through the busy days of Semana Santa this year, particularly because we expected it to be much busier than last year due to covid impacts being over, and because of the increasing temperatures.

A few random pictures of Lo de Marcos

A new mural added to the mural wall

Beautiful mural wall

Peaceful

The local mini-super grocery store

Pretty restaurant table looking toward the square

Cool bench that was added our first winter in LDM in 2021/22
Check out the sculptures, notice anything odd? 😊

Another cool tree, this one on the main street in LDM

As we got ready to pack up we also made decisions to sell some things rather than pack them up and bring them home. Among them were our electric bikes which we hadn’t used once this year and only used 2-3 times last year. We also sold our Camp Chef outdoor propane oven. We had just bought it when we got home from last winter. The idea was to bake bread in it outside. But sadly we couldn’t ever get the temperature to hold at steady and so the bread never turned out. No sense hauling that huge bulky thing back and forth. Plus, I mastered how to use the convection oven for baking bread and cakes so we were covered. Lastly, the day before we left we were trying to figure out where to put the washer/spinner we had just bought while down there this year. It was SO handy to be able to do our own laundry, to have it back the same day AND to get ALL of it back. But, did we really need to haul it back and forth? We could just as easily buy another one next year (and sell it upon leaving). We definitely made our money back from what we would have spent on laundry costs. So, sell it we did! Problem solved, no need now to try and figure out where to put it in the RV for the drive home. All those sales made a difference allowing us to pay for the re-upholstering of the furniture as well as giving us enough pesos to pay the tolls to get out of MX. I estimated we’d need close to $6000 pesos for tolls to exit or approx $445 Cdn.

Another first this month, Dan went to see a doctor in the town of La Peñita 20 minutes or so north of LDM. He’d been having some pain in his elbow/forearm and thought he might have injured it moving around the heavy kayak. It was just like a modern walk in clinic at home. Very clean but no wait. The consult itself was $600 pesos ($45 Cdn) then a shot of cortizone in backside and some additional meds followed by another cortizone shot 10 days later and a recommendation to come back the following week for an ultrasound and x-ray. Unfortunately, we were leaving and wouldn’t have time to get back for the ultrasound and x-ray but we were able to fill the prescriptions. As mentioned in my prior blog, medications are very expensive. They cost us $2500 pesos or $185 Cdn. The best part was that the pain disappeared almost instantly, hopefully allowing it to heal. A follow up in Canada will be required, but at least Dan can drive home and not be in pain.

And our drama with HoseHey and Gizmo continues. HoseHey just will NOT accept Gizmo, poor little guy. We have to keep a close eye on HoseHey whenever he is near Gizmo and we continue to need to keep Gizmo closed in the bedroom with us overnight. HeyZeus is great and he too spends the night with us in the bedroom while HoseHey has to hang out with Heffay. We had a particularly bad incident where HoseHey got to Gizmo and put a bad beating on him. He nicked his ear which was dripping blood and he also scratched his eye which was weeping like crazy. That’s ALL I needed, another freaking eye injury!!! Thankfully we had eye drops left so I proactively put some in Gizmo’s eye and within a couple days it was back to normal. It’s really disappointing HoseHey is such a bully. I’m not sure he’ll ever come around. As we got closer to leaving I started to feel the stress of wondering how in the heck they’d all travel together. The bed is Gizmo’s safe space but while driving HoseHey and HeyZeus always settle into their cat beds on the bed. I guess only time will tell how it all works out. Hopefully I don’t have to put HoseHey in a carrier to keep Gizmo safe!

As we round out our second snowbird trip to LDM I tallied up the costs of our rent and electric.

Rent = $12,000 pesos/month. Five months from November to end March = $60k pesos. Dollar fluctuations ranged from $868 to $940 Cdn. Total $4,400 Cdn (Average $880/mo)

Electrical = paid $3.5 pesos/kWh. Total used 6703 kWh over five months. Paid on departure equated to $503 Cdn (Average $100/mo)

Average monthly cost Rent + Hydro = $980 Cdn

It’s always bittersweet leaving. Although on one hand after five months we’re ready for a change, all it takes is a quick walk to the beach and you start asking yourself “why do we have to leave”? 😊 Then the sweat drips off our brow and we remember it’s getting too hot to be comfortable. I look forward to returning home to family, having the house and the yard for the animals to run around and play, soaking in the hot tub and starting all over again with our snowbird stocking up.

Before the blogs turn to our journey home, here are a few last shots of the beach in LDM. It was another wonderful snowbird winter in Mexico. As much as we don’t necessarily look forward to the long drive, we definitely look forward to returning to Mexico next winter.