Wed 20 Dec Mazatlan
Well, it started out a very nice day in Maz and then went downhill. Daniele can only get a 30 day supply of her pain meds from Pain Management and there are a ton of DEA rules concerning her meds about not post dating prescriptions, calling then in to pharmacy, yada yada. It seems that every trip we are on we have to go through a goat rope to get meds. Well, being in Mexico adds to that drama. I check we a pharmacy and they said they carried what she needed. We then saw a clinic and went in. No problem…just be a minute. She saw a Dr and he said he could only give 20 pills at a time but could write several more scrips that could be filled later. The clinic also switched between dollars and pesos in prices. They said $65US for the office visit plus the cost of the meds that the pharmacy would deliver. Okay, it’s a tourist area so $65 is high but not unexpected. Then the Visa card rejected…hmmm…Oh, he was trying to charges us $800US not $800 Pesos (rate is about 10 pesos to the US dollar)! We then found he was trying to charge us $65 for EACH of the scrips that he was writing! We raised hell and told them to stuff it and they then said charge for only one office visit and 2 boxes of the meds for a total of about $130 US. We didn’t like it but at least she had some Meds until we could get out of a tourist area. Back at Destino we found he was lying when he said her Med wasn’t available in Mexico and what he provided was a substitute. A simple Google search proved that. So we're out $130 for meds that won't work.
After that exercise we did nothing else but develop a plan for how to get meds in Lo e Marcus. Friends on an RV forum gave us some leads.
Thur 21 Dec Leave Mazatlan for Lo de Marcos
We did a 1030 start for the 5 hour drive to Lo de Marcus (50 miles North of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Nayarit). The roads here were not as good as we have seen but not too bad either. There was a lot of traffic with people rushing home for Christmas. The landscape is BEAUTIFUL! Reminds us of Thailand with palm, mango, and coconut trees growing everywhere. We took a shortcut which wound through the jungle and through some very nice towns with the usual villagers waving at us. Made us forget the tourist trap quack in Maz. We made one wrong turn and ended up on really small and rough dirt streets in a village. No problem though. With the traffic, the trip ended up being about 7 hours but at least it was enjoyable.
The town is quaint. Cobblestone (and rough) street with nice little shops throughout. They still have Topes on the street but they are hardly noticeable with the cobble stones! The Town Plaza is very neat and had villagers sitting around it chatting when we passed through. We arrived at our RV Park and love it. It is small and family operated. The beach here is out of a post card. Fantastic!!!
Fri 22 December 2006 Lo de Marcos
The mission is to get meds! Went to an internet café and found that a lead provided by a member of the RV forum paid off and a Dr had sent us an email setting everything up. They have many of the same restrictions here so the bad news is that the meds won’t be here until Tue or Wed. This means Daniele will be having to cut her dosage in half to make it until then….will not be fun for her. That solved we didn’t do much. Did get a pay as you go cell phone especially so that we can be contacted for an emergency and in case Claire and family have a problem on a connection on their flight here Sunday. Steve will have to drive about 5 hours, one way, to Guadalajara to meet them and would not be reachable without a phone. The phone and $10 of air time was only $35US so that wasn’t bad. We called Claire for a quick hello and 1 minute ate up $3!!!!. Within Mexico it won’t be too bad.
Sat 23 Dec 2006
Daniele decided that the pain was there rather she sat around or did something and doing something might make her forget it a little. So, we took off for Puerto Vallarta (aka PV) and shopping. Before we got out of Lo de Marcos we saw a shop where several ladies were making Piñatas…they were creative and gorgeous!!! Not sure it was a shop or a group of ladies making some money but their work was amazing.
PV is about an hour away over a very good road. We mumbled something about having to drive an hour for a big shop and remembered that is what we have to do on Cedar Island! Soon we were entering a Sam’s Club along with a million other people on this the last Saturday before Christmas. If you did not know better, you’d never know this Sam’s was in Mexico. Same stuff, laid out the same way. Exception that Sam’s (and Wal-Mart) sell booze of all kinds! We got what we wanted and hit a line that wasn’t too long and then went next door to Wal-Mart. Again, same things for the most part although this one had a huge fish market and deli. We finished that off and headed home. Nothing exciting.
Sun 24 Dec 2006 Lo de Marcos
The Deane’s Arrive! Claire et al fly into Guadalajara (aka Guad) today about 1300. We’ve gotten different estimates on the drive time ranging from 3.5 to 5 hours. Plus there is a time change and we lose an hour. By the way the reason for Guad instead of PV is the flights were significantly cheaper and there were none to PV that did not require an overnight stay.
Steve launched out at 0530 because he wanted to be sure and be there. The road quality is very good except that about half of it winds up down and around several mountain chains so the going can be slow. Well, Steve made it to Guad in about 3.75 hours and had lots of time to spare. The airport was very nice and modern: dining option included Burger King and Starbucks. The Deane’s arrived almost on time and we were on our way back to Lo de Marcos and arrived just before sunset so they got to see the place in daylight. We had a sort of traditional Christmas Eve dinner while Eli ran himself crazy trying to burn off energy form almost 12 hours in a car seat!!
Christmas Day, Lo de Marcos
We had a Merry Christmas although it seemed strange not to be at least cool or to see some of the things we see back at home. We missed being In Dade City, for sure. They had a nice Mass in the little town church with one man playing guitar and about 6 villagers singing songs. After that the mission was to find Dinkus fishing opportunities. For that, we drove over to Sayulita. It is a very touristy town that was teeming with people swimming or just walking around. We signed up for 2 different charters on Thursday and Friday. Both were about $150 for the boat (not per person) for 4 hours. Since the deep water and big fish are close to shore, there is almost no travel time and it is all 4 hours of fishing! We asked one guide where we could buy a surf casting rod so that Dinkus could surf fish and the fellow went somewhere, came back with one and said bring it back before you go home! He doesn’t know us or where we are staying! Dinkus fished a bit…caught some Moray Eels and lost a lot of tackle because the fish dive into rocks when caught. Rest of us played with Eli including him splashing in the Pacific. We had a traditional, at least for Mexico, dinner and enjoyed watch that old favorite: A Christmas Story. We got a camera to use for SkyPE so now you can see us! A nice Mexico Christmas Day.
Tue, 26 Dec, Lo de Marcos
Dinkus and Steve found a ponga (sp?) fisherman down the beach from us and using sign language etc asked about taking Dinkus fishing. No problem so tomorrow Dinkus has a 0600 rendezvous with fish. Later Dinkus did some surf fishing in front of the park and impressed the natives by catching a very nice fish. Eli played in the ocean and had a ball.
Relief! The Dr from Puerto Vallarta called and said Daniele’s meds were in! We went there in heavy traffic in the afternoon…took an hour each way. Dr Suarez was fantastic!!! He took a very thorough history (entering it in his Palm P:ilot) and amazed us with several of his comments. He easily recognized some of the more obscure meds that Daniele takes and identified her esophagus problem which no other Dr, anywhere, has done except for the one at Bethesda who originally figured out what was wrong. He had some very interesting ideas on how to back off on some of the pain meds…ideas that we have sought but never got at home. Will be interesting to see what they say at home. This was medicine at its best! By the way an interesting comment he made. Daniele asked what Mexicans took for pain since it seemed like her meds were rare here. It turns out they use an med that we did not recognize…if a Caucasian takes it, it attacks bone marrow but it has no adverse impact on Hispanics!
After the Dr we went to Wal-Mart and did a quick shopping. Then we came back to Lo de Marcos for a very nice meal at a local restaurant. Remember the complaints about the cost of restaurants? The 4.25 of us at for $50 including margaritas and beers! Really good!
Wed, 27 December 2006 Lo de Marcos
Dinkus joined the fishermen at 0600 and did a launch through surf. They trolled for awhile for Dorado but no luck. They did see a lot of porpoises and, even better, had a close up encounter with hump backed whales!!! They were right next to the huge mother and a baby. Dinkus says the blow hole on the adult was as big as a basketball and the geyser of mist went up in the air 50’ or more. Again, this was in a 16’ workboat with zero life jackets etc. One of the crew turned to Dinkus and said “Dios Mio”! They later caught a couple of very nice trigger fish but the whale sightings made the day. On the return they did the high speed run to shore and beached the boat about 30 yards from the water’s edge with the prop spinning! The stopped exactly where Steve had been standing seconds earlier!!! Total cost for about 4+ hours of fishing (and whale sightings) was $70US…Dinkus tipped generously because the guys had been so very nice and a whale sighting tourist boat would have been 2 or 3 times that much.
In the afternoon, Daniele and Claire went to Sayulita for shopping and whatever and had a blast. They did the town and walked everywhere so Daniele’s meds are really helping. For dinner we had the fish that Dinkus caught.
Thur, 28 December 2006 Lo de Marcos
Steve was going fishing with Dinkus this morning but after the whale story gave up his seat to Claire so she could have a chance of seeing the whales too (Steve and Dinkus will go out Fri AM.) They’re back! Dinkus got a nice Dorado (Mahi Mahi) and they got to see a whale. They’re delighted.
Fri, 29 Dec 2006 Lo de Marcos
Dinkus and Steve did the fishing trip today. We went Fidel, a Captain who was born and raised here. He has a great reputation and is all business. Great anticipation because yesterday he caught a lot of big Mahi. The Ponga is about 18’ long with a high bow and broad beam. It is powered by a 70HP Yamaha…no electric start and no power tilt. He keeps the boat very nice and it rides very dry in spite of a through the surf launch and fairly good swells. We rode for about 20 minutes and saw whales off to one side…not real close but you could see a lot of them. Out of no where we see a few coke bottles tied to a cord that goes WAY down to the bottom. This is a substitute for an artificial reef since marine life grows on the rope and attracts bait fish which attract the mahi. The amazing thing is that there are several of these way out and Fidel and the others find them without GPS or ANY electronics of any kind on the boat. Well, long story short: no mahi anywhere. Fidel was getting agitated so he decided we’d go for Rooster Fish (called that because their spines look like a rooster. They are his ace in the hole when Mahi are gone. His way of fishing for them is to troll just behind the wave before it breaks into surf. So here we are coasting down the back sides of waves hoping that the Yamaha would keep running because the shore was a beautiful rocky hillside. For about an hour all that was caught was a big pin fish and a pelican (he was freed). Then Dinkus got caught on a rock because his huge rod and huge reel bent double and line paid out like crazy. Fidel knew it wasn’t a rock. 3 or 4 times Dinkus got the fish near the boat and then it took off again and was unstoppable. Finally he got him at the boat and it was a HUGE Rooster Fish…at least 50 pounds. Just as Fidel tried to gaff him the leader broke at the swivel and the fish was gone. Dinkus was still happy because he said he had never caught a fish that fought like that one.
The rest of the day we just began packing and some final beach time.
Sat 30 Dec 2006 Lo de Marcos to Guadalajara.
At 0930 we left Lo de Marcos and headed across some huge mountains to Guadalajara. Beautiful scenery but a good portion of the road was 2 lane and wound all around the mountains…slow going but Destino handled it fine. US interstates are limited to a 6% grade…we can tell you that Mexican highways are not! Went by Tequila, the town, and many many agave fields….gorgeous. Got into the RV park at about 1430. Nice park and hardly anyone here. It is on the outskirts of Guadalajara and convenient to the airport. Had a quiet evening letting Eli run and burn off energy. Chilly compared to Lo de Marcos: got down to 45 deg.
171 miles today but we think all of that was uphill!!
Sun 31 Dec 2006, Guadalajara
Steve took the Deane gang to the airport and got there ate 0710. Small airport he said and small plane so 2 hours is more than enough. It was a zoo and was packed. They ended up barely making the flight!
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