Mexico – Driving me crazy – You’re crazy

Well it’s been four (4) full years of living here at Roberto’s Bungalows in San Pancho and driving full time here in Mexico.

Let me tell you a story that I can’t get out of my mind. A friend and I decided to drive with the wives to San Sebastian which is up in the mountains a few hours away. My friend is a school bus driver and he asked if he could drive, so I thought it would be cool and let him drive.

We take off all happy and excited about our road trip and he tells us that a local Gringo friend from our village let him know some good tips on driving in the area. He tells us that she said if we come upon federal police and Military at road blocks to just drive through and wave and smile and don’t make too much eye contact. He says his friend informed him that they are looking for Cartel members and drugs and not grey haired old American tourist folks.

I get real scared thinking maybe he got his information from the wrong Wacky Gringo. We are having a nice drive when I see up in front of us a road block stop in both directions. There are about 20 military men with machine guns on both sides of the road all looking at our car and there is a big Military truck with a dude with a huge gun mounted on the back of a pickup pointed at the cars going by. My friend Dan says “ok everyone smile and wave and I’ll just drive through.”

Thoughts of Bonnie and Clyde and millions of bullets piercing my body race through my head and I think I passed out, but the next thing I know is we are past the stop. I do remember that I was waving and smiling like I was a little insane thinking it might help. I told Dan that maybe if there was another road stop that we should probably stop. He said NO we’re good.

In about 20 minutes we approach another one and this time there is a cop with a machine gun standing in the middle of the lane with a red flag signaling us to pull over along with the huge truck with the massive gun pointing at us and about 20 military police and there is nobody smiling.
Dan says again “ok we are not going to stop, so smile big and wave.” I know from the look on the guys face with the flag trying to get us to pull over that we are probably going to die in a flury of machine gun bullets. Dan goes around the guy and pulls into the oncoming lane and is waving and smiling and telling us to do the same and quick. The machine gun cop is waving his flag and looking pissed and we go right on by. Dan says as he speeds up don’t look back they are watching us, but they aren’t following us.

I must have not eaten any breakfast, because I didn’t crap my pants, but I did express my thoughts about how dumb I thought that last non stop was to Dan. He just smiled and said hey they probably thought we were just a car full of old stupid Americans that didn’t understand what was going on.

Well the rest of the ride I was terrified that the next road check was probably going to be the end of our lives. I knew they had probably called ahead and said “when you see the black Izuzu SUV with the four crazy waving Americans just start shooting, as they have gone through two stops without stopping.”

Well I’m here to tell you there were no more stops and we got to San Sebastián unharmed physically, but damaged mentally for life.
Do not do what we did! Stop and say hi! They are there to help fight crime!

I have since been through a few stops and have never been pulled over. They just smile and wave you through!

The Royal Family headed to San Pancho?

La Patrona Polo Club open soon!
I never really knew how awesome polo was until one evening a group of our guests at Roberto’s Bungalows were heading to a match at the field in town and asked us to join them. I was hooked the first game at La Patrona Polo Club
I have been taking folks from Roberto’s Bungalows out to the huge new project since it began two seasons ago on tours in the Roberto’s custom golf cart about three days a week and have seen the most beautiful transformation of land one could lay eyes on.
I thought polo was a game where the rich Prince rode around on horses and waved at the Royal family in their pretty hats. I couldn’t have been any further from the truth about the very exciting game of Polo.
The new fields are almost done and we are talking International games. There is a regulation field which if you don’t know is 3 football fields long and a football field and a half wide. The game is kinda like NHL and NFL combined with horses running at top speeds and men and women swinging big long clubs and aggressively going for the ball (and I believe the other players heads) and the goal posts with one thought… WINNING!
I am hooked on the game and wish I was 40 years younger and out there riding and playing this high stress game.
I was invited to watch a few games yesterday on the new field. I was so excited and humbled by the excitement of the huge new field and the hospitality of the people who are putting this whole thing together.
The horses are far beyond beautiful and everyone from the spectators to the riders seems so happy to be involved in this sport.
The people in charge beam with excitement and you can see by the smiles on their faces how proud they feel about this new project. I will be one of the very regular visitors with a big smile on my face during most of the International Games! I even plan on turning my Hawaiian shirts in during the games and wearing the Polo attire. Might even buy me a pair of the awesome players leather boots.
Yup I’m hooked and you will be too.
There is also a huge 4 star restaurant for your dining and drinking pleasures. The restaurant decks overlook the three different fields. The International field, the smaller field for games right at the restaurant and a beautiful night field with stadium lighting on the one side of the restaurant. There is one more field for the jumping horse shows.
This is a huge Eco project and I as a San Pancho resident and a member in our family business I couldn’t be more proud of this wonderful project.

if smil

Cock-A-Doo-El-Do——–Cock-A-Doo-El-Do

Ok it’s time I tell a story about living here in Mexico.

There is something I miss now and then about the United States and that would be Peace and quiet! Yes peace and quiet.

Living in the United States I can’t recall having roosters wake me up in the last 69 years.
Here in Mexico in our little village it just isn’t the same. A few seasons ago my next door neighbor bought a rooster and it happened to be one without a sense of time of the day or night it was. The rooster would Cock-A-Dude-El-Do day and night as LOUD as loud can go. Starting at midnight and 3 in the morning 5 in the morning, 7 in the morning as he wanted to beat all the other roosters in the village to be the first to crow.

I went to my neighbor and asked if he would move the rooster somewhere and I would pay him, because I owned a hotel next door and my guests were getting a bit annoyed and he just looked at me and smiled. He couldn’t speak English and with the little Spanish I know it was a dead end talking to my neighbor.

At one point It started to get real crazy with the roosters never stopping. I went back over to the neighbors house and this time he was a little more understanding, as he nodded much more this time with a much bigger smile.

Well nothing changed and this went on for months and it got more irritating as the season went on. I had had it at one point and I decided to go over and up the amount of money I would pay or ask him if there was anything he wanted me to buy for him.

On my way over I stopped and told one of my guests what I was doing and she was smiling and I told her I was going to offer them $150.00 and she said make it $1500.00 and I will pay and maybe I can get some sleep. I told her if I was to offer $1500.00 for the rooster everyone in the village would buy one hoping their neighbor was getting annoyed.

Well I left for my vacation in August and September and to my surprise when we got home the rooster was gone. I thought about asking, but I left well enough alone.

Something I did notice was my neighbors across the street had bought a few more roosters while we were gone. I didn’t think much of it until the noise level had reached an all time high along with their dogs and chickens. They were now making noise 24 hours a day. Kind of like living in the middle of a Rooster zoo. Well I noticed many chickens running around and even started catching them in my courtyard. Before I could complain to the owners about the roosters I noticed that there were now about 15 to 20 birds.
Now it was time to go have a talk with my neighbors who I got along with very well.

I sat with the son and asked why they needed 18 roosters and he seemed to act like it was no big deal, but at the same time he was telling me about the roosters and he said that his daughter had a real hard time sleeping, because of them. Than he was telling me that his daughter was having a hard time in school, because of not being able to sleep. Then he said that his grandma who is about 90 likes to hear the roosters sing in the morning, so she keeps buying more.

SING? I didn’t know they were singing. I really never thought of it as singing. I just thought it was just a bunch of noise all night and day. Everyday I see the grandma out front of her house sweeping her leaves and listening to her roosters sing.

Well I am not someone to take away another persons joy, so I am just going to let it go and know that I am a very lucky to be a visitor in another country.

Oh Oh Mexico.
What can I say except…….Cock a doodle do!

San Pancho , Mexico – number one – Next hot spot in the world!

This story just in about the beautiful Nayarit Coast. We have been here now for almost 10 years on and off. Roberto’s Bungalows was built in 2005 and we have seen such awesome changes in this village. It is such a wonderful paradise with the future looking very bright! We suggest you travel down soon and experience what we know to be one of the best places to live and vacation. Go online to www.robertosbungalows.com and come stay with us and see for yourself. Go to tripadvisor and look us up and see what others have experienced!
This is a story I read today in the Huffington post by
Nicholas Kontis 02/13/14 07:20 PM ET

Riviera Nayarit Named Top Destination
in “Where to Travel in 2014”
by Arthur Frommer

I first met Arthur Frommer when he invited me to New York to be a guest on his television show. As a young travel entrepreneur, Mr. Frommer immediately made a lasting impression on me. Arthur Frommer treated me as an equal, as a colleague, asking me my opinions and even asked me what destinations I liked and why. It was that one day of filming at Grand Central Station in New York City that changed my life forever as a travel aficionado and propelled me into my life long profession as a travel entrepreneur.

Recently at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show at the L.A. Convention Center, travel enthusiasts had the opportunity to meet various authorities in the field of travel. The key note speaker was none other than travel extraordinaire, father of travel writing and creator of the first modern travel guide books, the incomparable, Arthur Frommer.

As anybody with a pulse on travel knows, “when Frommer speaks, travelers, industry insiders and the world listens.”

At the end of each year, travel experts, the likes of Lonely Planet, Travel & Leisure, and Arthur Frommer make their picks for hot travel destinations for the upcoming year. Mr. Frommer shared his picks for 2014 in a jam packed hall at the L.A. Times Travel Show, at Los Angeles Convention Center.

While Frommer mentioned the Indonesian island of Bali as a travel hot spot, going on the mention that one can live on $10.00 a day in Bali. Also mentioning India, but reminded travelers to watch out for their safety, and Japan made the list due to a plummeting yen, stretching the U.S. dollar, and providing good value. Frommer was clear on his number one, next hot spot in world.

The stretch of land north of Puerto Vallarta, the Mexican state of Riviera Nayarit, with miles of endless beaches, over 300 sun drenched days a year, in a safe part of the world. Not too surprising that the Mexican government is on a mission to build up this 200 mile stretch of land into the next tourist gateway for foreigners traveling to Mexico.

We would love to see you soon!
Some shots from in the Village of San Pancho

Sayulita Farmer’s Market

The Sayulita farmers market on Friday’s is not only a great place to get great organic produce, but everything you need to eat from week to week. The market attracts quite a few travelers and locals. The quality of the produce and the food products are top quality. We come over from Roberto’s Bungalows in San Pancho and see many friends from our town enjoying the market. The quality and the freshness of the products are fast becoming the highlight of many of us who live here full time. The coffee, the flowers, the art, the jewelry, the people and so much more are great reasons to visit Sayulita on Friday’s and bring home food for your week that will keep you smiling! We came home and had an awesome organic beet salad that was out of this world along with some fresh dorado.

Riviera Nayarit Gringo

Gringo thoughts from Mexico

#robertosbungalows