Week 5 February 23rd Fundraiser at Philo’s

I’m truly amazed how involved Philo is with the La Cruz community -- hosting Christmas gift-giving to the community and many other fundraising events throughout the year. Philo is also a seasoned and gifted musician, who also brings in other Mexican entertainers to his bar to perform, and he often performs to a sold out crowd. And many thanks to Leslie and Kosta for introducing us to Philo’s.

 

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Week 5 February 21st He shoots he scores!

McGonagalls Pub beats Philo Bar 3-2 at their annual futbol tournament

 

The game at 1-0 for Philo Bar…Pekino taking the ball from his goalie and quickly passes the ball to Mario, who sends the ball down the right wing to David who takes the ball down to the Philo goal line and back to Mario at the top of the box. Mario tees up the ball and fires a low shot that the goalie was not expecting…goooooooooooooooooooal! The crowd was frantic as McGonalls Pub responds quickly to tie the game and went on to beat Philo Bar 3-2. Unfortunately Philo Bar, winners of last year’s tournament forgot to bring the trophy as they had expected to win over the McGonagalls Pub aging team members. The young Philo team under estimated the abilities of the much improved McGonagalls team.

Weeks 3-5 February 3 - February 23 Happy Hour!

There have been studies done to measure the happiness index of major cities and the results were most interesting, and can be compared to our own happiness. Would you ever think that the width of the sidewalk would be a factor? It has been reported that happy cities have a sense of community, have fun, have an environment to enjoy, and are peaceful and safe. The reality is that human interaction is fundamental to achieving happiness, and life in Bucerias has maximized our happiness index. We have met some wonderful people and have enjoyed many evenings together sharing life experiences. Therefore when hearing “happy hour” it’s not about having cheap drinks, but about engaging in conversation and enjoying the company of friends.

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Week 2 January 27 - February 2 Towns close to Bucerias – PuertoVallarta, Nuevo Vallarta and La Cruz

The beauty of Bucerias is its small town atmosphere and of course its proximity to a big centre like Puerto Vallarta with it's many restaurants and shops, a resort destination like Nuevo Vallarta and a much smaller Mexican town like La Cruz that is frozen in time and has resisted the development of resorts.

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Week 2 January 27 - February 2 Animals of Banderas Bay

It was not our objective to discover wildlife (no, not the girls-gone-wild type), but there are animals and insects are all around us as we walk the Banderas Bay area. It is truly amazing, the variety and the bright colored birds, and the sea-life on the shoreline – puff fish, rays, eels, turtles and sea snakes. The most amazing discovery on our walk to Nuevo Vallarta was turtle eggs that were hatching. From the shore we followed the tracks and discovered a nest. The majority of little turtles were gone, but remaining were the late hatchlings which were having difficulty leaving the nest. We dug them out and carried them to the water's edge. It was so cool to watch them swim away.

Note to self – don't try to pull an iguana by its tail from a hole. I gave this some thought before trying, but obviously not enough. There was meter long bright green iguana at our condo. I ran down to get its picture but it ducked into a hole when I came too close. I noticed that about 12 inches of its tail was exposed and I decided to pull it out so I could take its picture. The iguana's skin felt very rough, and I was surprised how strong the iguana was. I gave up pulling because I was scared that I would pull off its tail, which is a normal reaction of many lizard species as a last resort to avoid capture. I'm glad the iguana out-powered me. I had forgotten about the iguana's long and sharp claws that were being used to resist my pull. Had I been successful pulling the iguana from the hole, I might not have been prepared to deal with its sharp claws and the potential damage it could do to my body.  Mario that was dumb, just like the time when you chased the black bear to take its picture.

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