Westjet's Holiday Gift to Fort McMurray

Let me sneak in here something from back home in western Canada: You may recall that this place was Canada's news focus earlier this year when they had the huge fire that lead to evacuation of the whole region, where the fire eventually ended up covering an area as big as the entire Rhein-Main-region of southern Hessia. And where the weather situation today and a few days down the line is this:

The regional airline (the one that took me to Mazatlan recently) WestJet gave the community a bit of a Christmas surprise, raining not ashes and tinders but presents from the sky. See the video of this event by clicking on this link!

Wild Animals

In Mexico, when you live close to nature and not in an aseptic hotel suite, you have to worry about some "wild animals" .

So what do we have here: say, scorpions and snakes! I have not seem either so far, but when hiked the bush trail across the hill behind the park the other day I always looked where I was stepping and avoid a snake encounter.

Randy saw two boas (small ones,  about 1 m), one outside among the bushes and one insside the trailer - would you believe it? he thinks it came inside via a tree branch that touched the outside wall near a window... The one outside he tried to catch, and it bit him.that made him mad and he killed it. Otherwise, a boa is not a problem - to the contrary, it nicely controls rodents. The small islands of bushes and plantings around the motor homes may well attract snakes, including poisonous ones, and I cannt wait to find some...but please not around or inside of my tent  which keep studiously zippered closed. the other nitght i made a mistake when I pulled in a bunched up blanket: I suddenly realized that in this blanket a snake or scorpion might well have sought some comfy refuge. I quickly made a thorough search and found nothing...

Scorpions have been seen quite often. Randy saw three over the last seasons, and they of course may seek refuge in shoes or containers at night. But I use only sandals, so far, so I do not worry.

And then there are crocodiles: next to the Riu Hotel is a long lagoon, an crocodiles have been seen there. There are even reports of crocodile sightings in the sea. The lagoon connects to both the sea during high tides and, via a culvert, to the extended lagoon network across the highway. But I doubt that we need to worry much about crocs - certainly we have no lagoon next to the park. Searching for "mazatlan crocodiles" I found this video:

This place is a small distance south of here, now of course all built up.

Ok, cannot think of any other threats or dangers today...

Swimming

The Park is right by the beach, but I have not yet, during this first week, gone into the sea.

But a major addition here is a swimming pool. One might think that most people here would make this the major daytime meeting place and engage in Marco Polo games - but, no, it is deserted. Might this have to do with the fact that the water temperature is immeasurably low, say, ice cold?

It did not deter me, as a matter of principle (just so I have something to add to this blog), and I have been swimming in the pool each day...bravely. actually. While one might suffer from cold shock initially, it feels ok after a once back and forth.

Right in front of the pool is public access to the sea via two not so exciting sand beaches and to wave breaking rocks.

Local people have access down there with their families and enjoy their weekends:

What to do...

What do the gringos do here in the winter?

Apart from thinking what else they could build around their motor homes and palapas, there are several activities they seem to engage in: drinking (not my thing), going out to eat (mostly to expensive places, while I prefer local and cheap), hiking in circles (my knees hurt and going in circles makes me dizzy), playing golf (green fees too high for me), fishing (great - but once you go out in a boat, gas cost becomes substantial; and fishing from shore has not been very yielding recently), biking (my regular thing - on Sundays a group goes together: target being a breakfast place within some 10 k or so), playing cards (not my thing), reading (that's what i was doing much of the day today until i became tired of it and decided to add something to this blog. What I am missing is an active, diversified sports program. But for me that would be kind of limiting these days because of knee problems, and so it probably goes with most others. Oh, there is also swimming. See next.

Does all this sound a bit boring? True - but lets not forget that the temperature today is about 26 Celsius, while in Calgary it is minus 26, and in Vancouver people have trouble with snow!

Palapas, palapas

As I said, much has changed since my visit 8 years ago. then there was only one site where the occupant had built a palapa. and there was little greenery around the sites.

Whet you get when you rent a site for your trailer or motorhome is parkingvspace on gravel, a concete platform next to it, water and electricity connection and the waste water dumping connection. now you can add your own improvements, such as tiling on the platform, plants, a solid vanity with a sink and electrial outlets. now you can cook (electric or gas stove) and dish-wash outside. Movable outdoor furniture of course can be set up on the platform, and now you can spend much of your day outdoors. BUT, the sun is hot, the wind by the seaside may be strong, and the shading via the awnings which most motor homes have may not be enough. Rarely, it also may rain. So, you can set up a collapsible roofing on the platform or, if you have the cash, have some local workers build you a palapa, Mexican style, with palm leave thatch roofing. It seems that most guests have the cash. Actually, a palapa did not cost all that much.
But, the more people wanted one, the more the locals smelled an opportunity and jacked up the price...

Now just about each site has a palapa, and not only to cover the outdoor area but also over the entire motor home: keeps the entire setup cooler and extends the lifetime of the roofing.

Look at the earlier views I posted in 2008 and look at them now:

Most actually enclosed the entire sie with walls, brick or glass, and thus created fully enclosed living areas, using the original motor homes only for sleeping and bathroom access...

The owners of the park of course may limit or control some aspects of the extended sites, and if you leave the place for good, all these improvements remain as an asset of the park owners. you might find a buyer (= new renter) for your site, and the cost might be a few ten thousands of dollars. But you may not! 

Joand and Randy took over the site of someone whonoeft his improvements behind - in that case these did not include a palapa structure, but outdoor sink and cooking sites....

Who has the biggest motor home?

Here is our trailer:

It says "Trailer Supreme", and it would require a dual rear wheel truck to pull it on the road. We don't have such a truck - so it will remain where it is...

But right next door, there is this monster:

And the trailer this machine is pulling is the largest in this park, as the owner proudly told me. The couple used to travel around in a 60 foot motor yacht before they went back on land and switched to motor homing. They used to be farmers from the Nicola valley north of Princeton...wow!

The end

Finito!

In the beginning of March I returned to Canada, to get ready for a visit back to St. Vincent - for some teaching at the new Trinity University School of Medicine.

In Canada, there was still wintertime - a long winter this year and a cold one, even in Vancouver - where I almost froze my rear end off while watching Rick and his soccer team smother the competition and win yet another big city-wide tournament. And in Kaslo it was -15 at night and all covered under snow. What a contrast to the warm days in Mexico....