Donna & John Part 3 2022: 3/26 - 3/28 | |
Yet another great mural in Bucerias. | |
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San Pancho 2022: Saturday, March 26
To mix things up, we decided to take Donna and John to the small, quaint, quiet, slow-paced town of San Pancho. There is a taxi stand at the entry of our gated subdivision. Yesterday, Wanda asked a taxi driver at the stand how much he charges to drive to San Pancho. He quoted us 450 pesos each way. That was reasonable for the 20 mile trip down the highway-to-hell that Hwy 200 is (the traffic is bumper-to-bumper the whole way). That, and the fact that his name was Omar, sealed the deal. (Omar is the name of John’s son from his first marriage and adopted by Donna - that seemed like a good omen.)
At precisely 10 am, Omar picked us up. The traffic was especially bad this morning with several long stoppages along the way. It didn’t get moving until a couple of military pickup trucks with soldiers manning big mounted machine guns drove up to the front of the line. Although the tangle of cars didn’t move very fast, it did move. I gave Omar a hefty tip for all the time he lost on our trip to San Pancho.
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Omar, our dependable and affordable taxi driver. | |
San Pancho’s streets are much smoother than Bucerias making walking for Donna possible. After taking a short quick walk around downtown we parked ourselves on the beach under umbrellas. San Pancho’s beach is spectacular. The waves were crashing, the pelicans were dive-bombing for fish, and the surfers entertained us with stellar rides. | |
Donna was able to slowly walk around the two blocks of downtown San Pancho. | |
We turned Donna onto paletas. She picked a rasberry cream paleta. | |
After our tour around downtown, it was beach time. | |
Most of the time, surfers at these beaches struggle. However, this afternoon the surfers put on a good show. | |
The beach bars and beach restaurants are very laid-back and inviting. They also deliver to the umbrellas on the beach. We got Pacificos and strawberry margaritas delivered to our umbrellas. | |
As we were leaving the beach area, we found these two little chicks just wandering alone. No momma was in sight. | |
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John’s eyes widened when he spotted Zenizas Restaurant’s wood-fired grill sizzling up racks of ribs. We immediately knew that it was Zenizas for our early supper after our relaxing stint on the beach.
Zenizas it was. We ordered the large rack of ribs, a skillet of charred veggies, and a mountain of guacamole and chips. It was enough to feed all four of us up to the brim. The ribs were terrific as expected since this was their specialty. Being Mexico, we knew the guacamole would be wonderful, and it was. It was the fire-charred veggies that surprised us. They were outstanding. I have to try to recreate that at home.
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The head grill chef is grilling chicken. He also grills copious amounts of ribs and veggies. | |
Ribs and fire-charred veggies. It was all scrumptious. Not shown in this photo is the mountain of guacamole. | |
The San Fransico Golden Gate Bridge is next door to Zenizas. | |
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After supper, Omar picked us up for our return trip to Bucerias. When he dropped us off, we made arrangements with him for Donna and John’s trip to the airport on Monday morning.
As soon as we entered the house, the sun and our full tummies put us all to sleep for an hour-long nap. I know that I dreamt of all sorts of twisted nonsense. When we woke up, we needed to get the golf cart going. We had to get our money's worth. As the evening descended upon us, we toured downtown and the beach. Later, we toured the northern hotel and condo section of Bucerias.
Bucerias has two major condo sections. One area is south of the dry riverbed. This is the nicest part of town. The main street is smooth. All the homes, condos, resorts, and hotels are top-notch and meticulously maintained. The gardening is beautiful throughout.
The other section is north of downtown Bucerias. There are some very nice buildings, however, the streets are in terrible shape, some empty lots are trashy, and a few of the hotels are showing early signs of neglect. There is a lot of new construction in this area so I suspect the infrastructure will improve as the new money flows in.
Well after sundown we finally settled in for the evening.
Negative 2022: Sunday, March 27
Two days ago, we scheduled a Sunday COVID antigen test for Donna and John’s flight back on Monday at the little travel clinic about 5 blocks away in the Playfulness strip mall. The earliest opening the clinic had was at 10:30 am. Banderas Bay Carts (BBC) is picking up the cart this morning. We emailed them and asked if they can wait until after the COVID test to pick it up. They graciously said yes and scheduled the pick-up for 11:15 am.
So, we went to Panino’s for breakfast at 9 am. Panino's is in the same strip mall as the clinic. Unlike most scheduled events in Mexico, the clinic was ready to administer the test on time, right at 10:30. We were back home by 11 am, in time to sweep the cart floor and wipe down the seats. BBC showed up exactly at 11:15 am.
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Back to Paninos for our last hurrah. | |
Huevo ranchero at Paninos. | |
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Grant, the owner of BBC, gave me a little history of his cart business. He bought a junker cart which he refurbished for personal use. So many people asked him about his cart that he began to formulate the idea of starting a rental business in Bucerias. Many of the little nearby towns have cart rentals, but Bucerias didn’t. It was a niche begging to be filled and he was just the guy to fill it. He started with a half dozen carts and expanded from there.
With Donna’s bum knees, the cart was a marvelous solution to getting her around town. BBC’s service was terrific. The cart performed admirably. It was a good experience all around.
With the cart gone, it was back to visiting in the lush garden patio next to the house. A week ago, Wanda got a pedicure. She wanted to share her experience with Donna. They contacted Omar, our taxi driver from yesterday, to take them to the nearest pedicurist.
Omar is turning out to be our “go-to” taxi guy. I can’t quite figure out how he fits into the people-moving business. He isn’t Uber or any car service like that. He doesn’t appear to be part of the “official” taxi fleet - his car has no taxi markings. He does get a ton of phone calls lining up rides, and he hangs out at a taxi stand near the Terralta 2 gate. At least there is a sign that says “Taxi” nailed to a nice shade tree. Maybe he is just some guy with a nice car freelancing.
This is, of course, just pure empty speculation on my part. For our purposes, Omar is a reliable friendly guy that arrives as promised and charges a reasonable price. Omar’s phone number is +54-322-272-5664. He responses to text messages.
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Omar’s car is plain vanilla. Just what kind of driver is he? He knew just enough English to ascertain where and when we want to go somewhere, but not enough to explain how he fits into the general fabric of the taxi business. | |
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The rest of the day was spent helping Donna and John navigate the complications of listing on the American Airlines phone app; organizing and packing their bags; and making homemade burritos for supper.
Listing for their flight tomorrow took up the bulk of the time. At first, they didn’t have any asigned seats, then they got seats completely separated from each other, and finally got side-by-side seats. Wanda, being a former American Airlines flight attendant for 20 years, cut through a lot of the complications for them.
They assembled their passports, Mexican exit cards, COVID test results, COVID vaccination verifications, electronic boarding passes, etc. Except for toiletries, they brought all their bags downstairs. Oh yeah, their COVID tests did come back NEGATIVE.
Suddenly, the day had slipped by, as the whole week did. It was bed time.
Bon Voyage 2022: Monday, March 28
At 7 am, I got up and made huevo rancheros for everyone. If I may say so, I out did myself. Again, I love the farm fresh eggs down here. They are so full of color and flavor.
Omar arrived at 9:10 am. Just like that, we were swept off to the airport. When we picked up Donna and John when they first arrived, the cheapest taxi we could find charged us 650 pesos ($32.50 US). Some taxi drivers wanted as much as 1200 pesos. Omar only asked for 350 pesos for this airport run. I thought, “shut-the-front-door!” We gave him 500 and told him to keep the change. “Are you sure” he asked, as he brought out his wallet to give us change? We smiled our approval to keep the 500.
After getting Donna and John through the AA ticket counter and then through security, we rode the bus home. We were both sad, but proud that we gave Donna and John a marvelously relaxing vacation.
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Donna was given a wheelchair to help her get through the airport. This was a huge help as it would have taken her about three days to walk to the gate. It was tough saying our goodbyes, however, Wanda and I will also be leaving for home in just a few days. | | | | |
