Feb 13

Happy birthday to my sister Nancy !  It was great talking to you this morning. Congratulations on the sale of your house too.
Today we spent time at a nearby B and B run by Tom and Paul. It is just up the hill from us, actually at the summit. The view from there is spectacular from the roof. To the front , you see the Pacific. To the back is a valley with farms and the mountains in the distance. Helene , Mimi and Deb were painting. We had a great time.

                                                                The pool is on the roof .

You can see the whole town of La Penita.

On the other side was farms in the valley and the mountains in the distance. From the roof we had a 360 degree panoramic view !

The girls were painting their impressions of the valley view. Good choice too, because they were in the shade. It was close to 90 F again today! As they painted , I was taking pictures or reading. Birds were soaring overhead in the warm Pacific breezes, horses were grazing in the valley, a worker was hacking down a palm tree with a machete, and the occational vendor drove by with his loudspeakers blaring that he had propane gas for sale. It was quite a good time for me and I know the girls enjoyed their painting experience.

Feb 12

Nice rainbow over the ocean this morning.

Feb 11

Can you believe that it is raining today? A nice steady downpour that is much needed here by everyone except restaurants, vendors and tourists that are here for a short stay. We went back to San Pancho again today with Ray and Deb to visit Earle and Jan Smith who have a beautiful home with a casita for rent. Jan and Earle are from the Seattle area. They have a nice view of the ocean and are 2 blocks from the beach. Very temping !
We went for lunch at Cafe Arts on the pueblo and were treated to some entertainment from Earle on the accordian and some cool old dude in sunglasses on the uekulele and bass. We had planned on going to Sayulita, but the rain put a damper on that. So we came back to La Penita and are finally relaxing. Have a great weekend !

breakfast on our patio. See the ocean in the background? This is our last week in La Penita as Eric and Bruce come on saturday. We will be moving over to Guayabitos .

The surf was pounding in the rain at San Pancho.

Some of the beautiful (I use that word a lot) vegetation at Earle and Jan's home.

Feb 10

An interesting day in San Pancho ! After spending the morning and early afternoon at Ray and Deb`s, where I had my first ever pedi (do I have to turn in my man-card ), we travelled to San Pancho for their Artwalk. The galleries, stores and restaurants re-open from 6-10 , there is live music, and the community comes down to the avenida for it. We met some interesting people, it particular Helmut, who runs his own gallery. He is probably one of the most knowledgeable people in the world about Mexican pottery. He told us incredible stories about artists like Frida. He is a very interesting man! He also served us some wonderful rare tequila. It was definitely sipping quality !

We also spent some time on the San Pancho Playa watching some surfing . The waves were amazing.
Today we`re back to San Pancho to look at a casita to rent, and also see Sayulita, another surfing town.

I took some video too but can`t download it to this blog.

Feb 9

Helene was off with Mimi and Deb at Thomas  Bartlett's estate to paint with Margrit Mondavi again. I stopped by later in the day and met Tom and Margrit. Tom is very tall and is a very talented designer. It was a pleasure meeting him and seeing his beautiful estate. We will be going there again in 2 weeks for a fundraiser that we have tickets for. Margrit is a wonderful lady. She had some very nice things to say about Helene and her work. We had a nice chat before she got back to her painting. She is very talented, as I mentioned in a previous post. She was flying back to Napa on her private jet later in the day. We hope to meet her again.
The rest of the day, we spent walking the beach. It has been a truly remarkable week ! Tomorrow, off to San Pancho again !

Deb, Helene and Mimi in Thomas's garden.

At the end off La Penita beach, there is a volcanic rock formation that is part of a crater. The sea was actually fairly calm as it was low tide. When its high tide, it is very viscious and dangerous. there were people fishing from the rocks behind Helene.

For a prairie boy from Saskatchewan, this is pretty amazing. I took a bit of time to sit down and take this all in. The surf was pounding on the black rocks, locals were tossing their lines out and catching fish. Just around the corner to the  right some surfers and boogie boarders were riding at La Colonia beach. I was looking back towards La Penita and the miles of beach there was. It was a pretty cool moment.

Feb 8

Helene's New Friend

Helene was invited , along with Mimi and Deb, to the estate owned by Napa designer Thomas Bartlett to paint along with one of his guests, Margrit Mondavi. Ms. Mondavi is an accomplished painter, and is Vice President of Cultural Affairs at Robert Mondavi Winery. A pioneering woman of the modern-day California wine industry, she joined the winery in 1967, pursuing a life-long interest in uniting wine with fine arts, music and culinary artistry. Under her direction, Robert Mondavi Winery developed original cultural and culinary arts programs that are now benchmarks for the wine world."She created a showplace for painters, sculptors, photographers, jazz and classical musicians and the great chefs and winemakers of the world," said Robert G. Mondavi. This is according to Wikipedia.
Ms. Mondavi took a liking to Helene's work in fibre arts and they had a great visit together. She even invited Helene to visit her in Napa. She is a beautiful woman who is a wonderful artist.

This is Margrit painting a watercolor on the patio. The grounds of the estate are behind her and it is just beautiful ! Helene spent a lot of her time sketching around in the gardens. You hear the sound of the waves as tthe beach is just beside the property. Helene found it was very inspiring !

A few minutes later. We see Margarit's work in progress. It is a scene from San Miquel. It was very colorful as she is very expressive.

Here we see Helene's work , a still life that she created there with her watercolour in the background and her fibre art in the foreground. The hybiscus is a flower that is found all over in Tom's garden.

These pots were individually hand-painted in the special tone of blue that Tom requested.

This beautiful fountain sits in the yard amongst huge palm trees with the house in the background. The house is decorated in blue, white and cream colours.

Helene used one of my bowls for a still life to sketch there. She has been invited back to the estate again tomorrow to paint with Margrit again. She is very grateful to Mimi, Deb and Sarah for this wonderful opportunity.

Feb 6

We got very  ambitious and walked over to the Guayabitos Market in the heat. It was a bit further than we anticipated , but it was still a good walk. This market is under the trees where we saw the concert Saturday. Many of the same vendors as in La Penita, so we saw some familiar faces . We also met a couple from Kelowna, the Johnsons. He taught at KSS and remembered my team when we played there.
After lunch on the beach, we caught a cab back at 2.  Helene has been invited to join a group artists painting tomorrow at one of the estates here. An 80 year old lady who owns a huge vineyard in California ( the name escapes me) has asked for some local artists to join her as they paint. I'm very excited for Helene. I'm going to try to visit the studio of Jose , the stone carver. He lives 3 blocks from us.

Feb 5

Mexican Culture and Football
Last night we went to a concert in Guayabitos. It was sponsored in part by the federal gov't to showcase Mexican Culture . The first part was a string orchestra which played some classics and Mexican music. They started off with  Hungarian Gypsy Music ! They were very good and played for about an hour. The plaza held over 400 people under the stars. It was very enjoyable.
Then a semi-famous singer in a red outfit sang. He was ok , but stayed too long.

After he got the hook, a dance troupe came on  with traditional dances and outfits. They were very good. But it made for a late night.
http://jaltembabaylife.com/7th-annual-rincon-de-guayabitos-festival

Today we hung out at home , then made the trek down the hill to see the Super Bowl. An American bar, Hindy y Jaime , had the game on but they had been sold out for weeks. We could have watched from the street,  but that would have sucked big time. So we went for a short walk on the beach, then stopped at a new restaurant downtown, Tonita III. There were only a few people there , so we planned on staying for a few cold ones and the half-time show. The game was so good, that we stayed till the end and had a great meal as well.  Congratulations to the Giants. I was one of the few cheering for them , so it was a happy ending.

Feb 3

A quiet day in the studios and around the pool today. Tonite we're going out for a special birthday (belated, but not forgotten) at Xaltemba Restaurant. We've had 3 birthdays in the family and 1 anniversary in the last month or so and tonite the 2 of us will celebrate.
Tomorrow is a concert in Guayabitos. Hopefully we'll be celebrating the sale of Nancy's house in Calgary. Bon chance !

We had a wonderful supper at Xaltemba. Margaritas and calamari fritis to start , an incredible Thai seafood bowl along with a bottle of Conchi Toro Reservo . We finished with a creme brule from our host Roberto because of Helene's birthday. A wonderful time !

Feb 2

Market day
At the market today we made a few purchases. Helene found some original jewelry and bought a beautiful carved stone mask for me from a local artist. We will try to see his studio next week.

                                       This is Jose. He is signing the original work for me.

                                                       Stone carving has always intriged me.
 It was a slow day, lots of lookie-loos. The people were there, it was + 90 degrees but many were not buying. This is very disappointing for the vendors and artisans. Since the crash of 2008, Americans and their money haven't come to Mexico as much. There are plenty of Canadians , but they are a bit more careful with their money, according to some of the vendors we talked with.

Feb 1

Carlos
Mimi and Yves planned a "Glenn" day for us . She wouldn't tell Helene and I what it was , but picked us up at 10:30 and we drove to Los Ayala to a woodcarvers's studio. His name is Carlos, and he is very talented. His work is very much in demand . He is currently doing all the woodwork for a new hotel, Akan, that he took us too. All his work is done by hand.

His studio is ,of course, outside. On the table is a panel with an extra-terrestial theme that he is doing for the hotel . Carlos is in the centre with the beard, to the right is his associate who is doing the drawing work on the wood in preparation for the carving. Then Carlos uses his chisels and gouges to create the masterpiece.

Here is relief carving, along with some of Carlos's tools. His hands are calloused from years of using the tools. He's a young man, but has been carving for 18 years.We thought this work was impressive, but then he took us the the hotel he was working at . He also makes furniture, but his wall hangings and totems were incredible.

This was under the front desk in the lobby.

Here is one of a pair of huge faces Carlos did for the front lobby. Carlos has some of his work in the National Gallery in Guadalahara.

This traditional horse and rider is about 2 m high. All the wood is termite resistant .  The hotel is showcasing his work. It is a beautiful hotel right on the beach. Very modern , incredible views.

This totem is also about 2 m high. He told me that he has also created totems from a palm tree that are 10 m high too.

These figures adorn the front of the hotel above the front entrance.

A view from one of the rooms. The hotel just opened last January.